Going...Going...

GONE!
AKA Mugged by a Tree butcher.
SO. There we were, Gaffer going like the proverbial Clappers, me doing as I was told when this bloke saunters up the "drive" and threatens "The Tree".

Herself had been on at me for some time to give it a bit of a haircut. I must admit I was loath to do so. Not out of idleness be it understood  - I just LIKED it.

However (There's always a however) common sense suggested it was really a tad HUGE for
A) The garden.
B) Its position over "The Heap", casting mucha sombra thereon.

Truth be told, but not Herself, I was gutted to see it go, but it really was the sensible thing to do. He then proceeded to threaten two at the front, using a particularly specious argument if I may venture so bold.  He parted the growth to show that the inside was "all brown and dead.  Like I didn't know this was the nature of the beast.  But, there again, if we're brutally honest, at 20'+ each it wasn't such a bad idea.  Except that Gaffer was as attached to "Smaragd" as I was to
"Betula. utilis var. jacquemontii is a vigorous deciduous tree to 18m tall, with brilliant white bark on the trunk and larger branches; ovate leaves turn yellow in autumn; yellow-brown male catkins to 12cm long open in early spring"

So we now have the odd gap or two in the sky-lines.
She's standing there, looking out of the kitchen window, like a pillock, wondering what was missing from the window-ledge  :¬))
Next comment "With three trees missing how will the pigeons take there bearings when they want fed?"  ;¬))

The real bit of Sodde's Law is that She woke up feeling "not the best of fettles" flogged herself like a slave driver all day, then started to sweep up all the leaves matey-boy had left on the footpath, as if I was incapable of wielding a brush.

I've just popped back for an edit.
I don't usually hold with these folk who say "Best viewed large" and then insult my intelligence further by turning the word 'LARGE' into a link.
My philosophy is that if YOU want/need it larger you, surely, have the wit/intelligence/skill to do it all on your todd without my instigation, but in this instance I'll make a slight exception.
I enbiggered it to count the rings and spotted the photos were all passably clearer in large and he was right when he said it was "about 20yrs old". Damnear spot on in fact.  He may know his trees, but I'm less sure he knows much about them.