Sir PM didn’t look too thrilled that he had to lug his large patio umbrella along for their midnight stroll, all over again. “I thought we had seen the last of these messy showers,” he scowled, constantly checking if his off-white trousers had picked up mud stains along the way. “Tell me about it! It’s bad enough I’ve been under this veil for a while now; it’s suffocating, as you’d imagine, and then these unseasonal showers! It’s not even like British weather, where those little rainy spells cool the place down; it’s quite the opposite here,” she grumbled, as both friends decided it was best to halt within the Holy Name Cathedral complex on Wodehouse Road, where the tree cover and shaded seating by the entrance offered respite for the pitter-patter.

“Thank goodness for this foliage. What sanctuary it offers!” remarked Sir PM as he settled down, grateful that he wouldn’t have to pay extra to launder his new trousers. “Look around; it’s wonderful that these giant trees have been allowed to survive and thrive. Their vintage must be fairly old, going by their wrinkled barks,” he added, in his attempt to sound every bit the arborist. “I am glad that this section of SoBo was spared from being part of the route for the new Metro Line. What horror stories I’ve been hearing from my informers, particularly in the suburbs, of the vanishing green cover to make way for this grand infrastructure project. 
Our pal, Percy [the pigeon, for the uninitiated], has been crying hoarse because there’s no space to perch for a breather from the heat, while he’s on the rounds in those parts, he tells me,” Lady Flora added, as she pulled out a few newspaper clippings from her cloth bag. “Look at the number of news reports that I have collected from just these past few weeks, including from this newspaper, after proposed tree felling across infrastructure projects within the city and the suburbs themselves.”