Location matters...

This huge acacia has long been one of my favourite trees in the neighbourhood, particularly at this time of year when it first bursts into leaf.

I used to think that it was a pity that such beautiful specimen was stuck by a road in a suburb of London, but were it to have grown up on the savannah in southern Africa it might well have been uprooted by a frisky elephant, or nibbled into submission by browsing giraffes, or struck down in a wildfire. So on balance, there is something to be said for a safe, if slightly dull existence - doesn't mean we have to settle for it permanently, because unlike the tree we do have options