Lopping the Cherry Tree

The cherry tree just over the school fence puts on a wondrous display of white blossom in the Spring and provides shelter to small birds.

Two gardeners, sent by the school, came to our front door shortly after 3 pm. The school has ordained that a large branch which overhangs our garden, was potentially dangerous and had to be removed. Did they decide that on their own or was it because Len complained it was blocking the light, as well as dropping blossom, leaves and cherries into the pond?

They erected a scaffolding tower around five metres high, and then one of them climbed to the top with a saw to start removing the small twigs. He subsequently switched to a larger blade and began lopping off the upper part of the branch as you can see here.

As I write, they are dismantling the tower in the garden intending to return tomorrow morning to re-erect it on the school side, and sunder the main branch from the trunk. The wood was good. It was simply thrown over the fence, 'to provide shelter to small mammals and invertebrates.'