Tree Love

Tree Love

We lost a tree this weekend.  Last week we had high winds that blew everything that was not nailed down, far and wide.  Our tree was one of them, although, technically, it was “nailed down.”

The ornamental pear tree in our backyard was small in tree standards, but rather big for an ornamental tree. About a quarter of the tree broke off and landed neatly in our yard between the house and the fence. Thankfully, no damage was done to either structure.  After we cleaned up the downed part of our tree, it was obvious that the rest would have to be taken down as well.  I didn’t want to admit it. We planted that little tree ourselves. I so wanted to keep that tree, but even I could see that in the next big wind event we probably wouldn’t be so lucky.  The house and the fence were likely targets for airborne logs. So, this past weekend, my husband and his buddy (is that the right word? buddy?) took the rest of the tree out with the help of our son-in-law and his buddy (dude friend?).


Sad me looking out at our tree.

Nothing left but a sad stump and some saw dust.

Last week I could look right into the middle branches of that tree from my office window on the second story of our home.  For many, many years I looked out this window at the top of that tree.  Then, in just the blink of an eye, it seems, it suddenly towered over our house!

Today the space behind our house looks so naked.  It’s just stark.  A couple of summers ago we put a swing in that tree for our eldest granddaughter.  (Both granddaughters are waiting for Papa to fix the tree swing, however we don’t have another tree that could support it.) That tree provided great shade for our deck, a home for birds and, much to our dog’s indignation, a jungle gym for squirrels.
Funny how attached you can get to a tree. I don’t think there is any other plant that elicits people’s emotions quite like trees do.