killer trees

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From: Judy Seigel (jseigel@panix.com)
Date: 04/14/02-11:53:24 PM Z


Here is wicked witch of the east again. I just made my neighbor cut down a
tree about 5 stories high. I think a swamp maple, anyway it grew a mile a
year, knocking down my back fence, & throwing a 40-foot blanket of
gloom over our yard (not his). We're to the south, so tree apparently
decided to do its branches over here.

I'd leave the house with an umbrella thinking it was raining because that
#(*&^%^&$#@_ +! spreading maple made everything dark, then I'd get out on
the street & find the sun shining. I don't mention the blanket of leaves
because they nourish the bugs that the birds like -- but what a RELIEF
that it's gone. We suddenly have LIGHT. And the hemlock is perking right
up again. (Said neighbor still has two tall killer birches, already, I can
tell, taking aim in this direction.)

On top of which, in an arborial version of "nature red in tooth and claw"
the maple was crushing our beloved hemlock planted by my daughter
in the 4th grade (Minnesota had a promotion : Keep Times Square Green --
sent little twigs of hemlock to the girlscouts. She planted hers in the
back yard and, against the odds, it rooted....)

Then there's the cherry tree in the yard to our right that sends a long
branch against my studio windows... this is, I admit, a thrill --
blossoms now bursting out all over -- but next week, pink rain, and the
week after that a brown carpet. Guess who gets to sweep it up? You country
folks don't have to worry about things like that... if my drains clog, I'm
in trouble. And like they say, rust never sleeps -- these trees never stop
growing.. I succumb to the week of glory & have declined neighbor's offer
to cut the branch -- but.... could we please not sentimentalize trees?

Judy


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