The plan was to get up early yesterday morning and get out there with the trimmer and do the ditch. Best laid plans and all that. I didn’t wake up, deep in dreams, until my pill alarm went off at 8:30. So it was after 11 before I got out there and oh yay, I needed gas for the trimmer. One more delay but I finally got going about noon. Did the longest half and started on the other half when the second tank of gas ran out and I was done. Two full tanks of gas in a row is about all I’m good for. Today I got out there a little after 11 and finished the other side and then since there was still plenty of gas in the trimmer I went around the edges of the flower beds and around the trees in the big back yard and omg why won’t this thing run dry! Finally, hot and sweaty, I came in a little before noon. I figure it takes about 45 minutes to use up a full tank of gas. It took a good 25 minutes under the fan on high before I cooled off enough to take a shower before we went out for lunch.
We found out there is a Vietnamese restaurant in Eagle Lake, a very small town, less than 3500 residents about 26 miles away so we decided to try it as we both like Vietnamese food and haven’t been to one since we moved out here where barbecue and Mexican food are about your only choices. There is a new Italian restaurant (the previous one closed) but we haven’t been there as Italian food isn’t high on our list. Anyway, the Vietnamese place is primarily a pho and fried rice menu with some beef and chicken dishes and the typical appetizers. I’ve had pho - basically a big bowl of broth filled with asian noodles and meat or shrimp with a side plate of bean sprouts, cilantro, and other green herbs that you add to your taste - once before and wasn’t all that wowed but I thought I’d try it again. It was decent but still not wowed so I doubt I’ll ever order pho again.
Friday it appeared the people who bought the house across the street were having the live oak in the front yard taken down, a mature gorgeous maybe even 70 year old tree. The previous residents would have a crew come in every year and do good tree work, trimming back the branches that were growing over the roof but keeping the shape of the canopy. The crew that showed up yesterday were cutting off/out whole limbs. It’s a shame and a sin and just downright heartbreaking and I imagine their electric bill is going to double at the very least. Why would anyone cut down a glorious shade tree when our summers here are climbing to triple digits for months. This is what it looked like this morning after they cut on that tree all day yesterday.
OK, so I guess they aren’t cutting down the whole tree. The crew came back today to cut a little more out but mostly just cut up the stuff still on the ground from yesterday and hauled it all away. They seem to be gone for good but they butchered the fuck out of that tree, cutting any hope that even the tiniest branch had of maybe growing towards the roof, completely denuded bluntly cut limbs sticking out. Why they didn’t just take those naked limbs off completely I have no idea.
In the yard…the amaryllis are almost done but the byzantine gladioli are starting up.
I had three or four poppies come up this year, one of which was the multi frilly petaled one that looks like a pom-pom.
A shot of the back flower bed with tomatoes, squash, and potatoes in front; confederate rose, poppies, crinum lilies and banana trees getting bigger behind that; and behind that clasping leaved coneflowers coming into bloom and waning evening primrose.
A nice clump of love-in-a-mist over at the other house.
There was a queen butterfly on the german verbena but the camera wouldn’t focus on it but I did get this good pic of a fritillary.
Great colours in your flowers. Here we need a permit and a reason to cut down any tree with a stem circumference above 80 cm at waist height. It's rarely given unless there's a threat to life or similar. If a tree is cut it must be replaced by an approved species, I've nothing exotic but sturdy and heat resilient and if the cut down tree was very big, two replacements are mandatory. If there's no space on the property the city chooses a location. That said we are currently together with a few neighbours asking another resident on the street to get a permit for a massive maple that's destroying several underground water pipes with its roots due to changes in climate, hot and dry summers etc.
ReplyDeleteTrees - with respect to houses - are both a blessing and a curse. When we moved in twenty-six years ago it didn't take us long to decide that the miserable patch of lawn out front would never amount to anything decorative. At considerable expense the grass was removed, the area was was bricked over by experts (quite inventively) and a 1 m x 1 m bed contrived to accommodate a weedy, near-death sapling the original builders had casually planted. Close inspection of the sapling didn't allow for much hope; the trunk had been badly wounded with a scar 2 m long. Years passed and with the perversity of all living things (including myself at 88 with two types of cancer) the sapling flourished; being a prunus (I think) it is bedecked with blossom at this time of year.
ReplyDeleteFlourished is right! To the point where the roots started pushing up our expensively laid bricks. Clearly the tree would have to come down, but why not leave its demise to natural causes. All the roots (one of them substantial) were removed and if the tree died, it died. Instead it continues to flourish. Go figure. Me or the tree?
A few years ago, on a visit to Vietnam, we had noodle soup (effectively pho) most mornings for breakfast - 75 cents for a bowl as big as your head. It was mainly vegetarian but we always found it good.
ReplyDeleteI like pho. I like that sort of a meal.
ReplyDeleteYour yard is looking amazing, Ellen. Your flowers are just so pretty. Your hard work pays off.
I guess the people who cut that tree are worried about branches falling on the roof of their house. I'm glad they didn't cut it all down. No, it doesn't look great but it's still there.
I wonder if those people want to put solar panels on their roof and that is why they cut those branches. That is a popular thing in my neighborhood lately.
ReplyDeleteYour garden is lovely and I enjoy seeing all of those beautiful flowers!
The pho I've heard people rave about is usually home made, so maybe that's the trick. One of my Vietnamese friends has to make it for her college student sons as soon as they come home. Iconic comfort food.
ReplyDeletePoor tree. It's probably giving its neighbors an earful. "Can you believe what those people did to me?"
ReplyDeleteSome people are completely paranoid about limbs falling on their house. To me that's within the parameters of acceptable risk, as long as the tree is healthy. Ellen D's idea about solar panels is an interesting possibility.
ReplyDeleteGlad you got the ditch done! We are big fans of pho, but yeah, it is basically just a brothy soup. We order it all the time!
Oh, geez ... I love pho! When made right, it is delicious!
ReplyDeleteThat poor tree is a mess. I cannot understand the reasoning unless it's one and done.
ReplyDeleteThe first time I had pho was in Palacios, at a combined convenience store/bait shop that served Vietnamese and Mexican food. The owner came over and explained it all to me -- what the sides were, how to add them, and so on. It was delicious!
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