Personal Note: Barbarians!

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.