No ghosts remembered

No permission sought for death

No pardon asked

No oaks will grow in grace here

Profit sang a louder song

The hedgerows have been uprooted. The avenue of stately oaks felled and carted away, mud-caked and unmourned by those whose hands did the deed. For the birds and small creatures to whom these trees were home, though, their demise would have meant something different. The fields around where the avenue once stood are now a morass of winter mud, unsheltered, barren of food or hiding places and full of vehicles.

They are building a high-speed rail link that seems to have become obsolete before it was ever begun. Adaptations to the way business and meetings now work remotely leave so many of us wondering if the money for the much-contested project would not be better spent on helping those people and services suffering through the current crisis…