The sound of chainsaws woke me after a particularly difficult night of sleep. If you can call it sleep. It wasn’t early, but I was trying to catch up on what I’d lost during the night. I have plans that involve Scrabble tonight and I’m going to be humiliated even with sleep!
This noise has been a long time coming. The mammoth tree that came down in last year’s record storm is finally leaving and along with it, the spider infested shed that was completely rotten. As you can see from the photos in the post below, it was Ivy and plain stubbornness keeping the thing standing. Besides being useless, it has also become the Black Widow Hotel for the neighborhood. Yikes! So, down it came.
Along with it came the top half the of Laurel hedge. IZ can now see Young’s River and the basin below from his office. He’s elated. One of the gardeners salvaged this nest from the Laurels. I do hope whatever bird it belonged to has moved on. What a pity if it should come back and find in its absence that its building went co-op! I’ve reluctantly allowed Luke (the owner of Arbor Care, can’t recommend these guys enough if you’re local!!) to take the nest to his girlfriend who is a photographer and artist.
And along with the Laurels came down a good portion of my Lilac bushes/tree. One of which was so top heavy that the weight of all those blossoms was causing its trunk to split. Luke was nice enough to not slaughter the tree completely, as it’s still blooming. It will be pruned back further in the fall and he promises me that it will return to bloom again next year. I’ll be hedging my bets, pardon the pun, just the same and planting a few others in the hole. Just because lilacs grow like weeds here in Astoria is no reason I shouldn’t plant more! (and do click on the Astoria link: Old Oregon finally updated their outdated site and in its place is a lovely site full of amazing photos of the area! Change, change, it’s everywhere!)
The majority of the blooms were tossed. However, I managed to do a little salvaging of my own. I cut down three, large, branch sections worth of lilac stems and then bundled them up and delivered them to neighbors. It seemed such a waste to let them all go into the chipper.
And now the real work begins: clean up! Rain is promised for tomorrow—but today, it is glorious outside. All this change is hard to absorb but I’m salvaging hope in the midst of destruction. It’s hard not to be hopeful when the sun is out and your world smells of lilacs.
Oh, what a beautiful nest! And blooms as well. The lilac will definitely come back. Our neighbor cut one down the ground two years ago (it was rotting in the middle) and now it’s 5 feet tall again. No reason not to plant more, though! Oh, the pictures and the sunshine are almost making me feel warm. I certainly hope sun for you means some sun for us inlanders in a while. I could use some!
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I hope you do get some sun. I’m feeling ever so ready for Spring to really arrive. We’ve had so many false starts! ~W
Wow, that nest is gorgeous… I can’t believe he talked you into letting him take it. Darn!
Our lilac bush split in two with those same winds, we bound the broken trunk together and salvaged what we could. It’s still alive and kicking… amazing.
Your neighbors are in for a treat with those bundles! 🙂
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Yeah, I think the wind did some damage last year, just because of the size of this thing. The gardener said he would bring it down beneath the hedge line in the fall, so that it’s buffered some from the winds to keep it from splitting even further! 😀 ~W
It is a whole new back yard! Of course, nowhere near complete – but it is indeed a hopeful sign. 🙂
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It’s a start, sweetie, it’s a start! ~W
Beautiful nest! I’ve been searching the trees on my walks but have yet to find an abandoned one. Think I’ll make my own!
My friend, James, is the magic behind the new Astoria site. He did well, didn’t he!
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Your friend did an amazing job! I’m so proud that we have such a wonderful site—I can now give it out to people who ask about where I live. It’s really stunning–does our little destination proud! ~W
What a talented bird who built that! Wow. I wish animals knew how cool we think they are….well, some animals. I know how you feel about certain little gray ones. 🙂 Have fun planting your new lilac bushes. 🙂
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Yeah! The gardener commented on how perfect it was, that it didn’t look real, but staged. It really is quite lovely–and as he left it for me after all, will make a lovely addition to our home. 😀 ~W
That is a gorgeous nest, and those lilacs are lovely too. There is so much beauty in the world–in small things as well as large.
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The nest is stunning. My photos, which were quickly snapped, hardly do it justice. ~W
What a sweet little nest, and all the clearing out? You are going to feel so wonderful now that it is all done…and smell wonderful too…all those delicious blooms!
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I’m taking a long term view of this yard–I can’t wait to see what we’ve done after 5 years! It’s already looking so much better. ~W