Tree of the week: ‘It looks a bit of a hippy so I named it after Neil from The Young Ones’ | The Guardian

In this weekly series, readers tell us about their favourite trees. This week: a bottle palm in JapanJason Murray took inspiration from the cult 80s sitcom The Young Ones when he named the bottle palm outside his study. The English teacher, who lives in Kanagawa, Japan, started calling it Neil after Nigel Planer’s pacifist student. It had got swamped by the climbing bushes surrounding it and started looking unruly after the rainy season. “As a result, it appeared the tree had hair extensions and looked like a bit of a hippy,” he says.Since moving to his house in 2018, Murray has enjoyed spending quiet afternoons in his study with a cup of tea, reading and drawing while listening to the birds chirping outside. “I find it inspirational. Drawing is therapeutic but when you have trees surrounding you, it’s even better.” Continue reading…

In this weekly series, readers tell us about their favourite trees. This week: a bottle palm in Japan

Jason Murray took inspiration from the cult 80s sitcom The Young Ones when he named the bottle palm outside his study. The English teacher, who lives in Kanagawa, Japan, started calling it Neil after Nigel Planer’s pacifist student. It had got swamped by the climbing bushes surrounding it and started looking unruly after the rainy season. “As a result, it appeared the tree had hair extensions and looked like a bit of a hippy,” he says.

Since moving to his house in 2018, Murray has enjoyed spending quiet afternoons in his study with a cup of tea, reading and drawing while listening to the birds chirping outside. “I find it inspirational. Drawing is therapeutic but when you have trees surrounding you, it’s even better.”

Continue reading…