Summer days shaded by an old sycamore
I am 79 years old and was born in the house where I still live.
It is a traditional, two-storey house built in 1882.
For the first 40 or so years of my life, three large trees grew very close to the house.
One was a sycamore. Its branches spread out over the roof and in summer, if you went upstairs during the day, it would be almost dark in the bedroom nearest to it.
My father had great regard for the sycamore and would not allow the branches to be trimmed to allow more daylight in.
In my growing-up days I recall the long, bright summer evenings when the bats flew around between the trees close to the house in the long evenings, gobbling up the little insects.
One night about 60 years ago, my mother and sister were asleep in a front room with a window facing the sycamore.
It was a fine summer night. The top sash was open to let in air and, as it happened, a bat. It was in pre-electric times, so there was no question of turning on the light.
I recall both of them screaming with their heads under the blankets until the bat found its way back out through the open window.
Since those long off times, I have only rarely seen bats. At that time they were part of the summer landscape.
Finbarr O’Brien,
Glenview House,
Tower,
Blarney,
Co Cork
