Personal Note: Barbarians!

[nebroadwe]

Nobody should walk out into the long light of a cheerful morning to discover that the mulberry tree she's been patiently pruning for shade and beauty these past five years has been hacked down to nothing (and spared, I judge, only because it's rooted in the neighboring property). As Tolkien said of the poplar that inspired Leaf by Niggle:

It was suddenly lopped and mutilated by its owner, I do not know why. It is cut down now, a less barbarous punishment for any crimes it may have been accused of, such as being large and alive. I do not think think it had any friends, or any mourners except myself and a pair of owls.

If I could figure out how to organize a protest with the cardinals, catbirds and squirrels, I'd be picketing outside the association office this minute. Sadly, I'm reduced to writing a letter of complaint that will probably go no further than the secretary's desk -- and it's hardly her fault.

Dagnabit.

Comments

[evil-little-dog.livejournal.com]

Awwww.

That being said, if the person that took down the mulberry tree would like to come do some lopping on my holly...expansion, I'd be eternally grateful.

[nebroadwe.livejournal.com]

I'd've been far less annoyed myself if they'd turned their attention to the omnivorous grapevines, though I admit they seem to have yorked out all the pokeweed. It's an ill wind ...

My dad planted a forsythia hedge in my childhood backyard that had erupted into a jungle by the time they sold the house; I noticed from Google-Earthing the property that the new owners had the whole thing removed. Some local landscaping firm must have made a pretty penny on that.

[evil-little-dog.livejournal.com]

I have a forsythia jungle, myself. It got trimmed back hard the spring before last - you cannot tell it. *headdesk* Also have some other hedge, not one I recognize, trimmed at the same time. It's gone wild again (and the fox grapes and pokeweed are enjoying it - however, on the plus side, my tomato plants used the branches as support).