The wishing tree
In late 2017, we saw 2 huge storms hit the South Coast. The wind gusted at over 80 miles an hour on the coast, and most of the Camber sands dunes ended up on the coast road, and in the front gardens of the local houses
Not one to avoid such drama and such a spectacle of nature, I decided my daily beach walk would go ahead, and wrapped up in lots of extra clothing including 2 pairs of trousers and 2 mens overcoats.
I set off, head-on to the wind, which sand-papered my face and blinded me. I found my largest pair of Jackie O’ sunglasses in my pocket, and put them on. I could just about see, though the skies were very dark….. Apparently there was a worse storm coming!
As I stumbled over a rock I had not seen, I caught sight of a huge weird man in a cafe, just staring at me, and I realised I must look ridiculous in all my clothes. Like a big Goretex Yeti. To my horror, it dawned on me that the huge man was my huge weird reflection. Luckily there was nobody else there to frighten but myself, so undeterred, I continued.
I could not believe the objects that the sea had washed along the shoreline, tons of shells, buoys, ropes, lots of driftwood, an old French flag, and an entire oak tree!
It had clearly been in the sea for a long time, it was bleached to almost white in places, and its trunk was smooth as silk to the touch.
Such a beautiful object could not just be allowed to wash back out to sea, so I went back to the building site where we had quite a few people working, and like an army into battle, we set off to see if we could move it, but not a chance! It weighed a ton!
Like a scene out of Back-draft, suddenly the lights of a JCB came shining through the dark skies and driving rain and wind, over the dunes onto the beach. We waved to the driver…. He waved back, dumped some sand, and set off for the road again.
We decided that looking like I did, it was unwise for me to run after him screaming, and so off Mac jogged toward him to go and ask him if he could help us get this monster tree off the beach, and into our front garden.
It was weird, but as the JCB arrived to hoist the tree in chains up the beach, the storm just suddenly stopped, for just enough time to place the tree in the garden, and the sun shone And I remembered as a child, that I had once hung a heart shaped, paper wish on a Wishing Tree …
