When we bought the house, there was an enormous walnut tree in the garden, four massive trunks rising high into the sky and generally providing a good crop of nuts. That these were largely to the benefit of our red squirrels (it’s an annual fight, and they don’t seem to understand or respect the deal: “you take the high ones and leave the low ones for us”!) didn’t reduce our affection for the tree. But slowly over the last 3-4 years it has died back and this year the final trunk died and we had to cut it down. There are other walnut trees in the garden which also provide a good crop, but there was something special about this one ...