Wednesday’s tree was full of woe

I took this photo in July of 2022 to show the state of our grass after a summer drought. I’ve put a dotted line around the large tree that was about mid-point against the back fence so you can see how green and leafy it was last summer.

A second winter freeze and a second summer of drought left it looking like this.

And this, with a palm, also dead, in front of it.

Then the tree guys came, and the photos tell the story.

It always hurts to lose a tree (the dead palm is gone, too, but I’m not a big fan of palm trees as part of the Hall’s landscaping. We’ve actually had four removed, and another one died after one of our big freezes over the past few years). Several years ago, we let our next-door neighbor take down one of our trees because its roots were invading her water/sewage system. I remember that we did a major pruning of a tree at The Compound, and lost a tree there during a hurricane. But this Hall tree had been so healthy and weathered many storms, until two winter freezes and two summer droughts were more than it could take.

Losing it was sad. And it took so many tree guys and chain saws to cut it all up so it could be moved to the street and hauled away.

I’ll miss having it as part of the view. The birds will miss it, including the crows who I regularly try to engage in conversation. The dogs will miss the camouflage it provided when they explored the back fence area on the hunt for possums, squirrels, maybe a raccoon, and even the occasional cat.

More to come on the state of Houndstooth Hall’s grounds.