market treasures

If it's Monday that means it's off to Armeria in search of good things to eat in the coming week.  Sometimes Ricardo has these little beauties.  He did today.   Goodie for us.

this tree deserves a post

I am going to ignore the silence of the last year and turn over a new "leaf" and talk about this beautiful tree that had to be sacrificed to our gas and water lines.

About 15 years ago Mr. C found a little plant struggling to survive in our front patio garden.  He dug it rip and moved it around to the back side yard, stuck it in the ground and basically forgot it.  Now, all these years later, it had grown to a huge tree, about 30' tall .  The roots had invaded our gas and water lines.  The cement and surrounding garden area had to be dug up and the cleared out.  And the decision was made that the tree had to come out.  Meanwhile, it had grown up to act as a lovely, tropical screen between us and the garden next door.  I was NOT happy with this turn of events and your can see why.

And that's just the trunk!  Here's a picture of the upper part, taken  from the second floor.

The leaves made a lacy bower across the big opening on the stair landing up to the 2nd floor.

This was how it looked on the day it was cut, but it once had fewer limbs and more leaves.

This is the view out of the kitchen window.  You'll just have to imagine how wide this tree was; probably a good 20'.

First cut.

All done.  Wide open.  Yes, the light is nice but I miss the "secret garden" aspect.  The view is not bad .  I should be thankful because it could have been a lot worse.

And here's what's left

So there's my brief but spectacular report on the demise of our tree and my resurgence as a blogger.