Before And After

We spent a good share of the weekend involved in storm-related clean-up. This was the stuff that I couldn't do on my own earlier in the week. Here's a little bit of what happened.

This is the hedgerow to the north of my house. The neighbor's Bradford pear is on the left, on top of my lilac. The Maple-leafed Viburnums in the middle are flattened. On the right is a Washington Hawthorne that is snapped in half.

Looking down the row today, you can see the stump of the pear tree. The neighbors took the branches off, but left the larger parts for us to deal with. We will keep the wood. By the shadow of my head is the stump of another pear that went down earlier this year, onto the Viburnums.

I expected the Viburnums to stand back up, but they did not. When I tried to encourage them, they started snapping off. They must have been weakened when the tree fell on them earlier in the year. Now they are just the sticks that you see on the left in this picture. I think they will survive the winter, but we won't get to enjoy the sight of their red berries.

On the right, is the remains of the Hawthorne. Getting that down was a two person job, and we both sustained injuries. The husband had it worse, though, as he seems to be having a bad reaction to the puncture wounds.  This tree may survive the winter, but it will probably grow into a very odd shape.

In the center of this picture is Weasley's precious crabapple tree. It was not pretty. Behind it on the right are the old pear and apple. To the center is a large birch that just bent this time. We've lost parts of it before. On the left, a smaller birch, snapped in half.

As you can see, two thirds of the crabapple's branches were broken off. Another large piece may have to come off the back for balance, but I'm going to wait on that. What really has me worried is a large portion on the right that was split, but not to the extent of being removed. It may heal, but if we get another heavy, wet, or icy mess, it may split and take the tree with it.

The old pear and apple tree behind the crabapple didn't do too badly. The old apple did get slightly tipped, so we took a large limb off the back, in hopes that it wouldn't go any farther over. 

This is the birch that snapped. It will survive, but will probably grow strangely from the break. When I first planted this, it was a twig, 12 inches tall.

The front garden, completely buried. The lump in the center is a very flat Rose-of-Sharon.

The Rose-of-Sharon stood back up, sort of. It had already been tipping downhill after the hard rains of the early fall. Its tipping more now. I'll probably take some branches off the back, so that another storm won't bring it over for good.

This is out back, where the trees from the neighbor's woodlot have bent over, or broken off, into our yard. We chopped up the broken ones. The cherry leaning all the way to the left actually stood back up. Unfortunately, it broke as it stood up, and is dangling like a guillotine over the path here. We'll be doing something about this, soon.

And just for fun, the willow out front. Its a weird little tree, but it looks terrific in the snow. Like some fairytale hideout. And as a bonus, nothing really seems to bother it. It always pops back up!

Now that most of the chopping down and chopping up is done, things should be getting back to normal here. I did have some e-mail issues during the snow adventure, so if I have missed responding to some of you, I apologize. And, as if in repayment for last week, its warm and sunny here this week. Perfect New England fall weather. I hope it is fine where you are, too. Don't you just love Mother Nature?