Well, this is what some of them look like now!
Today some people came round and did a bit of "tree surgery" in the open area opposite our house. One of the Birch trees had suffered some damage in the bad weather round about Christmas time - it seemed to have snapped-off about three quarters of the way up - but I must say I was surprised to see the whole thing completely felled. And why was the other one removed too?
In our part of the country Birch trees are very common. They grow in profusion on all the heathland round here, and they self-seed very readily so they are inclined to take the place over a bit. I suppose the two across the road were deemed to be getting in the way of the "more desirable" conifers. My view is a bit different: we had a bad experience with conifers back in 1987, when there was a very severe storm (some of you may remember it - it was the one that was "not a hurricane", according to Michael Fish the weatherman). This was when we lived in our previous house. In August of that year we completed installing a conservatory. In October it was demolished by falling trees. You can see why I have no particular love of huge conifer trees looming over my garden!
However, I have to say that the tree surgeon people did actually do a pretty good job. They were very quick, and they cleaned up all their mess very efficiently. All the smaller branches were shredded in one of those tow-along shredder machines (don't you wish you had one of them?!), presumably destined for mulching some municipal flower-bed somewhere. The trunks and bigger branches were sawn up into convenient lengths and carted off in a truck. I wonder what happens to them.
This closer shot demonstrates how even something as mundane (and sad?) as a tree-stump can actually be an object of beauty. [Fellow photography enthusiasts please note how I have blurred the less-interesting grass around the edge, while keeping the main subject in focus. Woo-hoo!]
It always makes me sad when a big tree is cut down. It must have taken it a long time to grow to this size.
ReplyDeleteMark what you said about the conifers is a bit of a worry. I have around 30 of them lining the boundary of one side of our property. Right next to the house. The previous owner planted them for some privacy from the dodgy neighbours, while the neighbours are no longer dodgy, the privacy is quite fabulous.
ReplyDeleteYour blurry grass/tree stump photo is quite the work of art, and I'm glad the tree people did a good job. But sad because I liked the outline!
We used the have a row of conifers on our boundary which were fortunately removed - the difference was amazing!
ReplyDeleteWhat a shame if they have taken down an undamaged tree. I'd pretty much always take a deciduous native over a conifer, I don't even much like most of the ones at Westonbirt! So gloomy...
ReplyDelete