Wednesday 20 May 2015

Bang Crash Wallop

The gardens here are overgrown.  Huge leylandii in the front and back garden.  The only one feature I was really hoping to keep was a lovely 9 foot high weeping willow tree in the back garden.  You can see it from the lounge window.

The builder arrived to do the garage roof on Monday, the delivery of all the materials had arrived, a bit of too-ing and fro-ing.  In the end the walnut tree was just too in the way and he left it at the top of the drive.  No probs, the builders were on it the second it came off the lorry.  Everything was going well.  

Then the grey/purple clouds came.  The wind whipped up, then the thunder and the hail came.  

Booooooom!

The builders sheltered in the van.

Booooooom!!!!!

Then there was and almightly crack, a ripping sound, a metallic clang.

The willow tree had blown over, hitting my brand new washing line.

I called the tree surgeon, who has been out to look at our trees to quote to cut them down.  "My willow tree has just blown down".

"Oh right love, has it brought all of its roots out with it?" he asked.

"No, it has hardly any on it it looks like it has snapped below the earth line".

"send me a picture to my email account", and he disconnected.

I emailed the picture and when he came back to me later that night, as he had been on an emergency call out where trees were down in the road.  The email just said.

Too damaged to save.  When we come to do the leylandii, we will take the brush off of it and chop it up for fire wood.

My poor tree.



Fallen over.


Broken off below the soil line.



I think this was a grafted tree.  Look at the knot where all the branches come out.

Such a shame.

16 comments:

Chickpea said...

Oh no, I would be upset as well, every tree is precious....well perhaps not leylandii

Sol said...

Hey Chickpea. I am a little sad about the tree.

northsider said...

You don't want willow near a building Sol. Their roots are mad for water, especially in a drought.

Sol said...

Hey Dave, its down now, nothing we can do about it. Starter fuel for the new stove when it goes in

Harry Flashman said...

Only the stones live forever. Sorry about your tree, Sol.

Sol said...

Hi ya Harry. Thanks. Yeah I know it is only a tree. Its just a pain. At least as he said we can burn it when it is dry. more fire wood

Mac n' Janet said...

I think willows are my favorite trees, sorry you've lost yours.

Sol said...

Hey Mac n Janet, it looked like one on the willow pattern plate. I kept meaning to take a picture whilst it was up right. too late. I have to laugh with everything else that is wrong with the house it was sure to be knock over by builders at some point. Such a shame.

kymber said...

it IS such a shame! back in 1999 in ottawa we had a wicked ice storm and our beautiful documented 76yr old oak tree took a real hit. we had an arborist come out to try and save it for the next 7 years but alas, it had to be cut down for fear of it falling on the house. your willow looks like it was a beautiful tree.

your friend,
kymber

Sol said...

Hey Kymber. We have 2 tree surgeons that are going to work together on the walnut tree. It is huge and is leaning on the power lines so has to be dealt with before it takes out everyones power or falls on a passing car or tractor.

Hope you are well.

Kev Alviti said...

Plant some apple trees in it's place!

Sol said...

Hey Kev, an apple tree would be too close to the cherry tree there. I would like to replace it but it is so windy here we are going to have to be careful.

Sue in Suffolk said...

Hi Sol just seen your comment on Sue's new life in the country about car boots. I did a post with tips for doing car boot sales just a couple of weeks ago. It's under Car Boot Tips in the Labels bit of my blog. Might be handy for you?

Anonymous said...

That's a bummer. We lost a lot of trees last year due to a freak storm.

Sol said...

Hey Sue, I have read your hints and tips which have been very helpful. I was just wondering if she had any further tips. I seem to be getting more and more nervous as the years go on. So I like everything to be straight in my head before I do things. People have scared me that people are quite pushy and aggressive when buying. I dont cope well with things like that.

Thanks again for your tips.

Susie, it is such a pain isnt it. It is being chopped up this weekend by a friend the tree surgeon was going to do it, but we need to cut the grass and the builders need the space for their building materials. needs chopping now!

Did you lose many trees?

Anonymous said...

How very sad, I hope you recover soon. x