Tree Drama

Well, the tree-trimming adventure is done, and from my perspective, it worked out pretty well. I explained to the guys what I wanted -- some greenery for wildlife and a natural barrier between us and the apartments, while trying to make the apartment caretaker happy by clearing the complex's precious brick wall. I also wanted them to assess the health of the elder trees and remove any dead material.

Here's a rather distorted (thanks to the pano setting on my iPhone) picture of what we started with:

And here's how it ended up, a couple of hours later:

As you can see, they removed a ton of ivy and quite a bit of old and dead wood from the interior of that thicket, but they left the ivy and climbing roses in the tops of the trees (without cutting the stalks running up the wall, thus hopefully preserving the greenery).

They got quite ambitious, ascending a ladder into the top of this old elder and pruning out dead branches. (Good Lord! I really need to clean that aluminum shed, don't I?!)

Olga, watching from inside, was very concerned.

On the plus side, I've seen birds flitting around in the trees since the work was completed, so they're obviously not put off. And the tree guys assured me that the elders are healthy and the weight of the remaining ivy shouldn't be a problem.

However, the story doesn't end there.

Even before this work began, I told Dave that no matter what we did, the caretaker wouldn't be satisfied. And sure enough, within an hour of the tree crew's departure, he was complaining that they didn't cut enough. I got a bit snippy and said I'd spent a lot of money to address his concerns and he was welcome to cut whatever overhangs the wall on his side. (Which is the law in Britain anyway.)

I think I've gone out of my way to achieve a good compromise, and I certainly am under no obligation to please this guy. (Who, frankly, won't be happy with anything short of scorched earth.) But I do feel some dread about what he may do if/when he starts cutting. He can't cut on our side but who knows what he'll dare to try. I'm not sure this is really over.

On the bright side, at the end of the day, these aren't my trees. None of this is really my problem. I wrote the landlords (with whom we're sharing this expense) and told them the caretaker is still grousing so they won't be surprised if he contacts them, but as far as I'm concerned, my duty here is done. 

This morning we're off to the hospital for Dave's hernia surgery. I'm sure it will go fine, but as I told a friend, I suspect a lot of my tree anxiety is really misplaced Dave anxiety.

Oh, and by the way, I put a stake in the ground next to the crocuses I mentioned yesterday so the tree guys wouldn't walk on them -- and they survived!