LEAVES

I have this HUGE holly tree at the bottom of my ( small ) garden. It blocks out a lot of sunlight and I have been thinking for some years about whether to get it chopped down. I mentioned it recently to my friend Jan and she suggested bringing her gardener Tom around to take a look at it as she said Tom " loves holly" .

Well Jan and Tom came this morning and I can confirm that Tom does indeed " love " holly. For a start he was amazed at the size of my tree. And he said it was the most magnificent holly tree he had ever seen. He couldn't believe how wonderful it was.

Well with all this enthusiasm for the tree I was wondering if it was still a good idea to get it chopped down. But Tom did agree it was too big for the garden. You can see HERE how it looks from above. He gave me an idea of how he intends to reduce it to a manageable size - which in the end will be quite small. He is going to cut it all by hand the old fashioned way slowly and methodically. And the best thing is that he is going to take all the leaves away himself to use for compost. AND he is going to take the larger branches to make stuff with. Apparently he loves making things with wood and in fact is getting quite excited at the prospect of having a supply of holly. He will have to leave it for a year to season and then he can start using it. I am really pleased that the tree will be living on through the things Tom will make. He is a lovely lad and says things like ..... " we have to respect the tree " and " the tree has obviously been happy here to have flourished so well. ". So he is coming back on Thursday to make a start.

I will really miss seeing the tree out of the BACK WINDOWS as its sort of been part of the family since we moved here in 1984. The birds love it too - all those lovely RED BERRIES. No wonder I have put off getting it cut down. But the time has come I think to let it go.

The Forum Challenge today is leaves so I think my holly tree sort of fits the bill. I took this shot in the back lane with Jan and Tom standing underneath it so you can see how big it is - well it's big for a holly tree anyway.

Funny thing happened this evening. Tino was out in the cat enclosure. It was pitch dark out there. I was in the dining room and I could hear a dog barking. It seemed louder than the usual dog barking I hear in the distance. And it kept getting louder. So I went outside into the enclosure and there was this dog with its nose pressed against the mesh barking in a frenzy at Tino who was just stood there watching it. I was surprised he wasn't frightened as he's never seen a dog before. I realised I must have forgotten to close the opening into the back lane this morning. I don't have a gate - it fell down ages ago - but I have some fencing stretched across the gap but I hadn't put it back so this dog had got into the garden. I rushed out of the back door and as soon as the dog saw me it ran off into the back lane but then stood still and kept on barking and barking. I closed the gap with the dog watching and barking. I had no idea whose dog it was or where it had come from but then I could hear its owner calling its name. Its name was...... Holly.

Neil is home. He got back around 10pm after his journey from Manchester and a ( boring ) day at work. He looks exhausted. He has to go to Middlesbrough tomorrow for his monthly training course. He could have just done with a quiet day with no travel involved.