Mourning trees

[mirrorshard]

We had a tree in our back garden, an ash, tall and green, shading the deck at the end and making a lovely cool, comfortable nook to sit in on a hot day. There were magpies living in it, too, and I'd hear them outside my window.

A neighbour complained about a few branches overhanging his garden, and of course we could see his point. The landlady said she'd do something about it.

We've had workmen - painters and decorators - in recently, and apparently she'd instructed them also to deal with the tree.

They did that by chopping off all the branches, so now we have a bare trunk standing in the corner, no shade tree, and a huge unhappy-looking pile of branches in the middle of the garden, which they'll apparently come back to remove.

Since it's ash, there are quite a few good, straight lengths, and I may take a few for seasoning and perhaps making staves from. If anyone else in or near London wants to take some, it would be nice to see them go to a good home.

Comments

[vashti.livejournal.com]

Bastards. Couldn't you have shot your neighbour and kept the tree?

*condolences*

[mirrorshard.livejournal.com]

Didn't get the chance to do that, or even to comment or protest or apologise to it in advance. That's one of the more upsetting parts of it.

Of course, if not for other things, this wouldn't hit nearly so hard, but I react very badly to destructiveness at the best of times.

[yaqub.livejournal.com]

It's at times like these that I'm happy I'm not a violent person. Since I feel like violence for this butchery.

[pfy.livejournal.com]

I' sure 'lop ALL the branches off' can't have been the instructions the workmen were given. It certainly wasn't what our neighbour was asking for (he just seemed to be bothered by one or two overhanging bits, which was fair enough). My potted plants appear to be buried somewhere under the pile of branches, and I still haven't found my chives. And the tree that's actually causing a real problem, the 50-foot conifer in the next garden, is still there.

Bah. I will NOT be happy if any of my plants are damaged. On the bright side, though, the ash tree will probably recover surprisingly quickly. After all, just look at the pollarded trees in the road by our house.

[mirrorshard.livejournal.com]

Hm, that's a good point. It's a bit early for proper pollarding, but apparently ash is fairly resilient.

[shuripentu.livejournal.com]

If there's any longish, straightish, thinnish segments of branch (maybe 30cm long and 1.5cm in diameter), I could make a memorial wand out of it, and then use it to zap the bejeezus out of idiots. :)