{"id":446,"date":"2019-06-18T06:29:02","date_gmt":"2019-06-18T06:29:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.peterlbarnes.com\/?p=446"},"modified":"2019-06-18T06:29:02","modified_gmt":"2019-06-18T06:29:02","slug":"wibbly-wobbly-oak-tree","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.peterlbarnes.com\/?p=446","title":{"rendered":"Wibbly Wobbly Oak Tree"},"content":{"rendered":"<ul class=\"wpsocialite social-buttons large\"><li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https:\/\/www.peterlbarnes.com\/?p=446&amp;locale=en_US&amp;t=\" class=\"socialite facebook-like\" data-lang=\"en_US\" data-href=\"https:\/\/www.peterlbarnes.com\/?p=446\" data-send=\"false\" data-layout=\"box_count\" data-width=\"60\" data-show-faces=\"false\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\"><span class=\"vhidden\">Share on Facebook.<\/span><\/a><\/li><li><a href=\"http:\/\/twitter.com\/share\" class=\"socialite twitter-share\" data-text=\"\" data-url=\"https:\/\/www.peterlbarnes.com\/?p=446\" data-count=\"vertical\" data-lang=\"en_US\" data-via=\"@birdstoowit\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\"><span class=\"vhidden\">Share on Twitter.<\/span><\/a><\/li><\/ul><h1>Wibbly Wobbly Oak Tree<\/h1>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>\u00a9 Peter L. Barnes 12<sup>th<\/sup> June 2019<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Victoria sat under the ancient oak, enjoying the warmth of the summer sunrise, marvelling at the twisted, turning boughs above her head. A gentle breeze rustled the bright green leaves, swinging the outstretched boughs about, like an upside-down octopus.<\/p>\n<p>Something dropped into her lap, and opening her eyes, expecting to find a fallen twig, she marvelled at the exquisite flower laying there. A pale pink flower lay on her dress, dotted with a pink pattern, drawing her eyes to the long bright stamen topped with a purple head.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOh, how lovely.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>A shadow loomed over her.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMorning princess,\u201d said an instantly familiar voice.<\/p>\n<p>Looking up, she recognised the expected figure of Thomas, son of the head gardener, the sun forming a halo around his head and twinkling in his unruly mop of golden hair.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cStep away from the sun or I shall freeze.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Thomas stood to the side.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThank you for my morning flower, Thomas,\u201d she said. \u201cYou know I love the rhododendrons.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThey are particularly beautiful this year,\u201d said Thomas. \u201cSadly, it will be the last I\u2019ll bring you.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhy, has the tree died?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cNo, my father has been transferred to your father\u2019s estate in Scotland.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThat\u2019s terrible,\u201d said Victoria. \u201cWho will I talk to each morning?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI think our little talks are part of the reason.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI don\u2019t understand.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cLord Stanstead feels that we have become too close over the years.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBut there\u2019s no-one else to talk to here,\u201d said Victoria. \u201cWe are so far away from everything.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAnd everyone,\u201d said Thomas.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI will be bereft without you,\u201d said Victoria, trying not to cry. \u201cI have learnt so much from you about the plants and animals.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBut I do think it\u2019s for the best,\u201d said Thomas.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cNo, it\u2019s not,\u201d said Victoria, standing up and brushing the grass off her dress. \u201cI\u2019m going to talk to father right now.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cPleased don\u2019t do that Victoria,\u201d said Thomas. \u201cOtherwise he might fire my father and then we\u2019ll become destitute.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOh, I hadn\u2019t thought of that,\u201d said Victoria. \u201cBut we\u2019ll still keep in touch, yes?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOf course, I\u2019ll send you letters when I can,\u201d said Thomas. \u201cYou\u2019re reading and writing lessons won\u2019t be wasted.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAre you leaving today?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019m afraid so. Bye.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cNo hugs then?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Thomas looked up at the window of the mansion on the hill to see two faces watching them closely. \u201cI don\u2019t think that\u2019s wise.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Victoria gazed after his disappearing form, as he slowly made his way down to the farmhouse and out of her life. If he did write then they were intercepted by her parents and she was worried that if she did bring the subject up, it would have repercussions for Thomas.<\/p>\n<p>You will have to wait for the short story book to read the rest, sorry but copywrite doesn&#8217;t seem to be honoured these days<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Wibbly Wobbly Oak Tree &nbsp; \u00a9 Peter L. Barnes 12th June 2019 &nbsp; Victoria sat under the ancient oak, enjoying the warmth of the summer sunrise, marvelling at the twisted, turning boughs above her head. A gentle breeze rustled the bright green leaves, swinging the outstretched boughs about, like an upside-down octopus. Something dropped into [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[4],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.peterlbarnes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/446"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.peterlbarnes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.peterlbarnes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.peterlbarnes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.peterlbarnes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=446"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.peterlbarnes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/446\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":447,"href":"https:\/\/www.peterlbarnes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/446\/revisions\/447"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.peterlbarnes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=446"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.peterlbarnes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=446"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.peterlbarnes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=446"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}