Sumer is icumen in

Lhude sing cuccu!

Last weekend, a cold wind was blowing snow. This weekend, we have this:




And yet, still this:

Surreal, what?

So... after some soul-searching, during which my brain conquered my heart, I decided to have some of my trees cut. There are two reasons. Firstly, some of them are quite old and liable to blow onto my cabin. Secondly, the firefighters are always telling us to create "defensible space" around our homes. If a fire comes through the area, they won't attempt to save homes that they don't feel can be saved (i.e., homes surrounded by dense woods). I don't know if my few trees close to the house were enough to put me in danger of the latter, but I had long been concerned about the former. A few months ago, my neighbor T offered to cut and buck up the trees to stove lengths for me, if I'd let him have half the wood. That was an offer I could hardly refuse, especially since most of the problem trees are aspens, which make lousy firewood anyway. Sure, I gladly accepted. So he told me to flag the trees that I wanted out.

When I started doing this, I started to feel very sad. Those trees were quite old, and I had come to view them as friends. Sure, from T's lot, which is almost entirely cleared of trees, he has a gorgeous view of the hills and mountains to the South, but I like my woodsy view and my privacy. BUT--safety first! When I confessed that I felt emotional about three trees in particular, T said, "Well, think about how emotional you'll feel if you find one crashed through your roof." So I cringingly flagged those three as well.

He took the first few aspens down within the following twenty minutes. I was shocked--I had not expected him to start immediately!--and wondered whether I should have done some hippie farewell ritual first.


The next day, I came outside and found that the downed trees had posthumously budded. It just put a little twist in my heart:


My driveway will not be the same:


Nor will my favorite evening view. For some reason, I'd grown particularly fond of the spruce and the aspen in the left foreground. I could probably justify leaving the spruce (it's healthy and well-rooted), but figured that once all of its nearby friends were gone, it would look sad standing there all alone, so I flagged it, too.

Do I sound crazy? Or just properly Berkeleyish?

More trees that will go:


This one is the absolute most heartbreaking for me:

but another neighbor had commented that it in particular had to go, since it Was Not Safe. He had offered his services as well, but he has health issues that mean he should be resting, and he wouldn't accept payment of any kind, so I declined.

Farewell old friend! I'll always remember you for hosting my bird feeder!


Anyway, it'll make a nice new stump for splitting wood. My old one's getting tired:

Funny, that tree was even bigger and older when I had it felled in 2009, but I didn't feel sad at all. Maybe because it was already dead (it had died standing).

Summer is here, and fuzzy little plants are popping up!