Fallen

I had a really late morning, staying in bed reading and getting up to have a breakfast at half past nine. It was a gorgeous wind free morning so I decided to sit on the veranda to have my breakfast. My neighbour saw me sitting there and asked me to look to my left, where I park my car and I saw that one of the big, dead ash trees had fallen during the night. Practically this means I can't get my car out the normal way but I can get out through the cow-field, if I drive really slowly. The tree has to be taken care of quickly.

All of a sudden I knew precisely what part of my autumn will look like in terms of chopping wood and that our shortage of firewood seems to be taken care of for a year or two. I fetched my electric chain saw and got to work but the thing stopped working after twenty minutes. It was going to be that kind of a day. I went to town to see if I could get it fixed but the saw apparently was too old and checking it would cost half the price of buying a new one and there was probably no spare parts for this very old saw anyway. I borrowed my landlords motorised, also old, chainsaw in stead and got to work. Tired now after a couple of hours sawing and you can't really see any difference. It will take a while. 

So, if I think of it another way, I've been really lucky. Two years ago my landlord and I agreed that the two dead ashes needed to come down in a controlled way but, it never really happened. Now that one of them is down, I think "what if" thoughts. It could hav fallen over my car, or my neighbour or myself when we passed it. It could have fallen the other way over my other neighbours lot and crushed one of his houses. Or, his granddaughter who is visiting at the moment, or anyone else in his family. None of that has happened but it stirrs thoughts. There's still one dead ash left, clearly on the neighbours ground. I'll talk to him tomorrow.

A relieved blipper bid you a good night. Take care.