Dead Tree

In the ongoing saga of the neighbour's landscaping adventures, I offer up this dispiriting image of a deader-than-dead birch tree.  About ten days ago, a large, healthy, green-leafed tree was delivered and planted by our energetic and professional nurserymen.  Once they had stuck it in its planter, they immediately downed tools and headed home without so much as a drop of water for the new transplant.  There it proceeded to languish thirstily over the holiday weekend, whipped mercilessly by relentless winds.  By the time the happy band of landscapers shimmered back to work three days later, all of the tree's lovely verdant leaves had turned a crispy brown, and many of them drifted disconsolately down off the branches to the stone flooring.  And there it sits.  Unloved, parched, ignored.  Incredible.