Tree Down

We built our house seven years ago and were the first people to take posession of a house in this development. Starting from scratch with a house has so many great merits, but it also has downfalls.

If trees could scream, would we be so cavalier about cutting them down? We might, if they screamed all the time, for no good reason.
- Jack Handey

The expense and the time it takes to landscape, to pave driveways, to erect fencing, etc. is quite daunting, but fully rewarding at the same time.

Two summers ago, we finally decided on the "perfect" tree for our front yard. Our house sits at the perpendicular end of two streets so when people drive along one of the streets, our house can be seen at the end. We are keenly aware that our house is the first impression of the neighborhood and we try to keep the front yard as pretty as we can.


The perfect tree meant one that provided shade to our southern facing home, one that had small leaves to allow some light through, and one that had beautiful flowers in spring. Our perfect tree was a Purple Robe Robinia.




We came home from lunch with friends today to see that our tree had suffered a massive split down its center branch (in essence, its trunk). We are unsure as to what could have caused this to happen, but we guessed that the weight of the branch, coupled with some strong gust of wind caused the split. Or, perhaps it is Karma kicking in after the slaughter of the wasps. In any case, and in an attempt to "heal" the tree, we affixed two of our kayak straps around the main branch as a sort of band aid to hold it up and attached to the rest of the tree. We know it won't work, but we are not yet ready to give in.

Tomorrow, I am off to find another perfect tree for our yard. This time, we are going for a hardy Canadian Red Maple - one that raises its middle branch when the Canadian wind blows and says, "Not me, wind! I aint going down without a fight!".