Bereft

Mrs Ottawacker and I have wildly different approaches to plants. Mine leans towards the wilding of urban life: live and let live. Hers, yuck, I can't even go there. Thankfully, I am responsible for the indoor plants, or else my now thriving again lemon tree would have been in the green bin for the city composters to pick up.

Her latest efforts at "pruning" were apparent this morning, as, freshly recovered from Covid (this variant seems only to go away when it has been passed on to its next victim), she attacked the Japanese lilac in our back garden. The poor tree looked completely bereft. I mean, what is the point of surviving the winter to have yourself savaged in the spring?

There is a reason though: Canada's crappy urbanism means wires are still all above ground, and as such the wires have to be protected by home owners. Failure to do so means a visit from the utilities' hired arborists. These are universally shite: they seemingly only employ those who have failed at arborist school. Their results can be seen next to the fence: a line of over-pruned, over-cut pines. All dead.

So maybe her approach works. But it makes for painful viewing, and an awkward wait till the buds make their way through again.