More Light, Less Shade

I have always loved the relative privacy of our property.

Though we are on a corner block, the number and variety of trees on our boundary allow us a feeling of being shielded from the street.

Today, we made a decision - bravely or foolishly - to have a number of those trees cut down so that the block looks tidier, and to remove the danger of a particularly tall cypress falling on our roof in a storm.

The blokes from Taylors Trees did a fine job. They were affable and polite. Arrived within the promised 12-2 timeframe, went through the written quote to make sure the instructions hadn't changed, then got straight to work: chopping down two unproductive fruit trees, two melaleucas, one small unidentified tree and a cypress, grinding down stumps, removing deadwood and debris.

Things to beware during a tree removal job:

• The noise - like a fleet of Harley Davidsons going non-stop for half an hour.

 

 

• Flying mulch and dust - get indoors asap, and stay there till there is complete silence, which means the job has been completed.
• Check that the trees you want cut down completely are on your property, not someone else's.

I am glad for the neater look of our block. At least we can now walk to the electrical box at night during a power outage, without worrying that we will stumble into low-hanging branches or trip over a rock. The path to the box, once obscured by the cypress, is now completely clear.

But I'm also sorry that we've had to trade in some of our privacy for it.

Now that our very daggy mission brown boundary fence has been exposed in all its holey glory and we can see our neighbour's front yard, the next action item is clear.

Fix the fence, and say hello to our neighbours.