Amid Rum’s wild beauty, it’s the simple view from home — three trees and a shifting sky — that grounds Elle Duffy through every season.

There are three trees that I can see from my living room window.

I couldn’t tell you what kind they are, but they each carry a distinctive shape. The first is the tallest, its branches sprawled on each side like shoulder blades. I saw a buzzard perched in it once, but the hooded crows claim it as their own. The middle is my favourite - it is almost as tall, but slanted to one side, and its leaves look like a soft spatter of green that wouldn’t be out of place in a Bob Ross painting. And the third stands simple, filling out rather than reaching up.

They struck me when we first moved in. They felt special for some reason. Since arriving, we’ve weathered numerous storms, each one bringing down dozens upon dozens of tall trees across the island. Many still lie where they fell, roots torn from the earth, waiting patiently for chainsaws, axes, or simply time. And Storm Chandra earlier this week didn’t leave the village unscathed. A large tree on the seaside village road came crashing down, its root one of the biggest........

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