Some Of My Trees

Here is a high view of some of my trees, shot over the roof of my son’s car. Closest to the camera is the rose we worked on today, in the lower right corner. Behind that is a spindly plum with a few blossoms in front of my no longer recognisable avatar cabbage tree. In the middle is the big plum tree with blossoms, backed by the pale lacebark trio that are a lot taller than they look. Much further back is the biggest fir tree. It is looking sparse and ragged from the storm of two days ago. Left again is the top of the pin oak, with the yellow wattle behind. For scale, that grey line close to the lower edge is the top of the garage. Finally, on the left, is another cabbage tree. There's more detail full screen.

Today was mild, but with a rugged nor’wester for much of the time. I picked up hundreds of cabbage tree leaves, green as well as brown. They were scattered over a wide area. Bending really gets me, but it was the only way. There was too much other debris on the lawn to simply rake them, and they have to be dealt with separately.

Then my son and I spent the best part of the afternoon working on the huge rose bush that was flattened by the storm. First we had to reduce the bulk of the bush by about half. This involved son wading into the thick of it to cut big branches out of the centre. If he was bothered by the thorns he didn’t mention it. He made new support brackets to tie the bush to. The hardest part for me was holding up the heavy bush while he tied it. The bush now needs trimming and shaping, but that can wait.

Now, while we haven’t recovered from the last storm we have been warned that another is on the way in the early hours of tomorrow, in the dark again. That is very worrying.