Well the weekend brought my daughter and granddaughter to stay, that is after they had negotiated strikes on the trains. Karen, my daughter, after some tests at the hospital seems to be clear from what she had experienced which was a great relief. Lillie arrived cold and shivering, heading for a cold, she went to bed to warm up and eventually ate a meal.
The great excitement arrived Sunday morning, when the tree surgeons turned up, John and Rachel (the owners of the land behind us) had reassured us that the whole operation near to our garage and garden would go smoothly, and it did. With Lillie thinking about becoming a tree surgeon when she grows up. She sat fascinated on the floor by the french doors, the tree man would occasionally wave to us as he performed great feats of surgical precision.
That was what was so fascinating. My approach to trees is to see them as something mystical, an alive force in the universe, cutting them down kills them. As we know they are part of a great ecosystem that takes the light and air through their leaves transferring them through the process of photosynthesis into living breathing trees. Their root systems spread underground communicating with the trees around them and the necessary fungus that clings to their roots keeps the soil alive.
But I had accepted the beech tree's fate, so sat with the others as the chain saw cut through with such precision, the skill comes from the lowering of the great branches by rope, so that they do not fall willy-nilly on to fences and the garage. They started at 9.30 but had to stop for the church service, Jo rang the bell at 10.50 and the men went off for breakfast in Kirkby, and came back and the job was finished by 1 o clock. Three men plus equipment cost £800, which was not expensive.
In fact when I talked to Rachel, they are having new fencing all round this field, with a stile into the copse being put in in January which will cost a great deal more. One of the fascinating things about cutting bushes and tree branches that overlap your boundaries is that the cut material still belongs to the owner of the land, so therefore you have to return it over the fence, very medieval.
Lovely photographs and I love the fascinated look on Lillie's face.
ReplyDeleteLillie is always into things, sewed another set of badges on her guide shirt, and she participates in anything the school has to offer..
ReplyDeleteIt is interesting watching these tree surgeons do their work and swinging through the branches by a rope. Unfortunately I have had to watch and pay for it too often with some of the trees on my property. The violent storms we have been having these past few years have broken and taken down a lot of my wooded area.
ReplyDeleteI am glad to read that your daughter is doing better. Lillie looks like she is enjoying the show in the trees.
That of course is the problem with having large trees in the garden, neighbours complain, trees get blown down by the wind and are expensive to look after. We have beautiful trees around us but luckily belonging to others ;)
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