Can I have a moment of silence for a 200+ year old friend. Just under a diameter of three feet, this once stately maple met the chainsaw a week ago. When we moved in back in '77, three gigantic maple trees shrouded our front lawn. We were given an old black and white print, featuring our home with a horse and buggy and a woman in a babushka standing in the rutted driveway. To the right, one of the trees can be seen standing about 10 feet high. Before it hit the ground last week, it towered above the telephone lines that run our road. This past summer, with only half of it with leaves, we knew it was time. We rolled the dice, and it survived the strong winds of Hurricane Irene. It had to be taken down for the health and safety of the house. We're not happy, but it had to be done. "Dearly beloved, we are gathered here today..."
Tuesday, November 15, 2011
Requiem
Can I have a moment of silence for a 200+ year old friend. Just under a diameter of three feet, this once stately maple met the chainsaw a week ago. When we moved in back in '77, three gigantic maple trees shrouded our front lawn. We were given an old black and white print, featuring our home with a horse and buggy and a woman in a babushka standing in the rutted driveway. To the right, one of the trees can be seen standing about 10 feet high. Before it hit the ground last week, it towered above the telephone lines that run our road. This past summer, with only half of it with leaves, we knew it was time. We rolled the dice, and it survived the strong winds of Hurricane Irene. It had to be taken down for the health and safety of the house. We're not happy, but it had to be done. "Dearly beloved, we are gathered here today..."
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adieu, dear tree.
ReplyDeleteNecessary, but that doesn't make the cutting down of the tree any easier on the heart.
ReplyDeleteSo nice, your eulogy.
triste fin pour une partie de l'histoire de ta ville
ReplyDeleteI understand your loss. I will have to make a similiar decision in the next few weeks.
ReplyDeleteoh, this always makes me sad. i know you will miss it...
ReplyDeleteYou definitely did the right thing. In the past fifteen years, we had to remove the two stately old sugar maples that lined the walk to our house. They were both so frail that it was inevitable that they would come down on the house. I am pleased to report that their successors are now doing well, even though the recent storm gave both an unwanted pruning.
ReplyDelete'Tis hard to cut down such a lofty one, and, like you, I mourn their demise. Love that you have a photo of it in its youth. Perhaps you will plant a new one in/near its place?
ReplyDeleteP. S. From a distance, before I leaned in, the pic looked like a big fat pot roast.
ReplyDeleteAt least it had a long and shade-bearing life! After an ice storm in '93, we had to cut down our beautiful liveoak tree. Good thing we did, because a tornado came along in '96, and the tree would have destroyed our house had it still been standing. Still...my regrets for your tree!
ReplyDeleteIt's strange, I guess, how a tree can become an important "thing" to people. I remember a very old maple tree at my wife's childhood home in Minnesota ... it was a landmark and then, in a fashion similar to yours, had to be cut down. It always felt like something was missing when we went back to visit.
ReplyDeleteNo billboards in Maine? None? You are very, very fortunate!
Oh how sad.... Sorry about that tree, but like you said, it had to be done. You don't want an old tree to hit your house...
ReplyDeleteBetsy
Sad, Sad, Sad ...
ReplyDeleteIn memory, may we see that old picture of your house?
ReplyDeletepoignant...lovely capture!
ReplyDeleteA sad day. I hope the logs are keeping you warm. I sometimes think about the Oak trees I have planted here. How long will they go on?
ReplyDeleteNothing sadder than the death of a beloved tree!
ReplyDeletewhat a story....
ReplyDeletei sometimes wonder what it must be like to be a tree. standing at one place for soooo long.... with branches reaching out as far as you can..
I gave you a moment of silence. Understood.
ReplyDelete