and another one's gone and another one's gone

I've hugged many a tree in my day, a 200 year old mammoth at Nymphenburg Palace in Munich, Banyans in India, ancient redwoods in Northern California and old oaks near the river.  Some trees just have to be hugged for their beauty and longevity and the images conjured of all that they have witnessed.

When I see an old diseased fellow with the impending doom sign tacked to it or when someone is casually remarking about taking down a tree in their yard, my heart sinks.  Trees scream you know.

So, when I stepped into my backyard a few days ago to find the lovely, young pecan in my neighbors yard gone and the son with chainsaw in hand taking down a beautiful pine (that finally got large enough to obscure the view of their house) I was aghast!  WHY! 

Apparently they were getting too big.  What?  I love my neighbor but Hatchet Hand likes her plants to be hacked and shaped and short and yielding to her authority. 

I am going to have to build a privacy screen covered in vines.  I don't want to look at the side of her house.  I want to see nature and continue to delude myself into thinking that we don't live in a neighborhood but out in the country.  What I really want is to have those trees back.