I stay with some friends in a part of Capetown called Penhill, which consists mostly of small holdings and is generally a rather peaceful neighborhood, this Saturday though the peaceful sounds of country life (Police sirens, people shouting, birds shouting, dogs barking, quad bikes and Toyota Hilux Bakkies racing around dirt roads.) was shattered by the warning beeps of trucks backing up and chainsaws.

The local municipality had decided to “trim” a few trees that might come down on power lines. I like trees, especially those that are taller than me but I do understand that they need to be trimmed to ensure that a branch doesn’t come down on a power line on a cold winters morning depriving the local inhabitants of a good hot cup of coffee in the morning.

So what did they mean by trimming a few trees? It was just take the few menacing branches off that were threatening the power lines. Of course what I neglected to mention was that the trees are 3-4 metres high, so trimming is a little challenging.