Neighbours
When a tree tells a story of intentionality
Generally speaking, I take the first day relatively slowly whenever I cross multiple time zones. I focus on catching up on sleep, getting myself situated in whichever environment I find myself in, and trying to stay less active. Occasionally, however, life seems to think it’d be fun to throw a curveball in the mix, and such was my day yesterday.
On the farm, we have a mixture of trees: ash, maple, hazelnut, and a few others that I’m probably missing. Mixed into all are the mosses and ivy, which seem to be almost everywhere around here. While beautiful, they’re a proper menace when it comes to maintaining healthy tree stock and, on occasion, are influential in a tree’s untimely demise. Getting ahead of the problems before they occur is generally advised, so our Monday was taken up with preventative maintenance.
Our neighbour’s shed is a masonry and steel affair, nestled a scant meter behind the fence separating our properties. It’s relatively ancient, with rust having chipped away at its galvanized facade, but the contents it protects are still held intact. Sitting on their side of the fence is a three-trunked ash tree, held fast by English ivy winding around trunk and branch and posing a relatively outsized hazard to the shed behind. The problem is, there’s no place to fell said tree except into our…
