Trees be gone

Here are a few photos of the aftermath of our tree removal. We had three trees taken out: a big apple that had a rotten trunk and fell down a couple of weeks ago, a smaller apple tree whose days were numbered, and a small years-dead pear. The garden contractors took away the smaller branches and cut up the larger pieces for me to burn in the wood stove.

The new view westward toward the back gate and the vineyards beyond. On the right is one of the two remaining, healthy, apple trees.

I don't miss these trees at all. Some of the apples were good, but there were way too many of them. I had to pick them up several times each summer before I could cut the grass. The did go into the compost, and that was good, but it was a lot of work.

The view looking eastward toward the house. The blue spruce is the shortest of the three fir trees in the photo.

The big apple tree shaded part of the vegetable garden in the spring and fall. Now, with it gone, there will be a lot more light coming through. And the views that have opened up are pretty cool. I figure that if these trees were planted around the time the house was built, they're probably about fifty years old. I read that fifty is the low end of the normal lifespan for a healthy, well-maintained apple tree. So these were not premature deaths.

What's left of the big apple. Doesn't look like much, does it?

There's a fourth tree that will be coming out in a couple of months. It's a tall blue spruce (we think) that is also dying. There are no needles on the lower third of its branches and many fewer than normal on the upper branches. This has been going on for a few years. The tree is too close to the house and is crowding two other trees. It needs to go. In the second photo, you can see the top of the doomed tree between the two tall pointy fir trees (we're keeping those). The spruce is on the left, and the linden is on the right. The linden will have more room to breathe.

Clean up

The hedge guys arrived on Tuesday morning as scheduled. There were four of them. Two started right away on the back hedge while the boss and another guy started cutting up the fallen apple tree. I took some photos in mid-morning, but don't have any more yet. At this stage they were cutting the small branches off for mulching and beginning to cut the larger branches and stacking them for firewood.

These two apples, the big one and the smaller one in the background, are now history.

All the work is done now. In addition to the hedge trimming, we had three trees cut down: the big apple in the photo, the smaller apple (just to the right of the back gate in the photo), and a completely dead pear in the northeast corner of the north 40. The small apple is dying and is filled with mistletoe; the pear has been dead for several years now.

I asked if they could cut the branches to the length that our wood-stove takes: 33 centimeters. No problem, they said, and now I have firewood ready to go (for next year, probably). I also have one or two new chopping blocks for doing the splitting. It's a real relief to have this done, and done so quickly.

What didn't get done is the removal of the tall blue spruce. The contractor said that he'd prefer to do that bigger job this winter, when his schedule will be lighter. That's fine with us. I'll have more photos of the trees firewood soon.

Ruts o' ruck

On Monday the construction crew (who are working down on the main road) took away one of the trailers that they parked outside our back gate. It's the "office" they've been using to have their morning coffee and lunches in. Consequently, there was no other "activity" behind our house yesterday. I'm hoping it's a sign that the construction is over, but the other trailer and the front-loader are still parked out there.

This rut is at least a foot deep. That's our hedge on the left.

This is one of the ruts they've made over the past few weeks during their back-and-forth with the big dump trucks and the front-loader. I'm hoping that they will fill them and re-grade the area before they're done. Hope springs eternal.

In other news, our hedge guy stopped by yesterday to say they're going to start at 08h00 this morning. He said we'd talk about the tree removal when he gets here.

Strange bedfellows

Or maybe I should say "strange vinefellows." One of these things is not grapes. These are some of the vines that grow on the wall of the old, and rarely used, cabane du vigneron (the grower's shed) out in the vineyard. The grapes aren't harvested for wine, but they do get nibbled on.

The grapes that haven't been eaten are beginning to rot. The red berries aren't grapes. Food for the wildlife!

Our wet days are continuing for a while and the temperatures are mild. I'm being attacked at night by a mosquito, or mosquitoes, as if it's summer. It's obviously warm enough for them to breed in all the puddles and other places where water accumulates. We need a good frost to be rid of them.

Amandine aux myrtilles

I found some blueberries in the freezer. They must be a hundred years old. Well, maybe a little less. I don't remember the last time I went blueberry picking... ok, I went and looked it up. July 2016. So these berries have been in the freezer for more than three years. And there are still more.

The recipe worked really well with blueberries. I'm encouraged to do it again.

So I decided to use some of them to make dessert this weekend. I made it with the pear amandine recipe I've made many times, swapping out pears for blueberries. The amandine is a kind of firm custard made with sugar, butter, eggs, and finely ground almonds. That goes into a pre-baked pie crust and the blueberries are sprinkled on top. It bakes for about thirty minutes.

Across the road

This is the view from the deck this week, looking across our road to our neighbors' property. They were here working in the yard last weekend, but took off back to Blois as the weather got worse. The grass was really too wet to cut, but they managed to cut some of it. They're always pruning and trimming and neatening things up. It's a big piece of land; it extends into the woods in back and down to the stream in the ravine. The woods don't need a lot of maintenance, though.

Our part-time neighbors do a good job of keeping their property looking neat and tidy.

Things are a lot greener than they were a couple of months ago.

We're in a holding pattern where our yard is concerned. I'm waiting for the weather to allow the hedge trimmers to do their thing. And the big apple tree is still on the ground. I haven't made progress in the vegetable garden, either, because I don't want to have to stomp around in the mud. But it's time to get things torn up and put away.

We're starting to bring plants inside, which means getting the greenhouse organized to receive them. Some of the potted plants are too water-logged to lift, so that's on hold for the moment as well. A few dry days would help a lot. It's hard to believe I'm saying that after the Saharan summer we had.

Stretch those legs

I caught Tasha stretching her front legs on Thursday. I had the camera out (for something) and there she was in front of the sliding glass doors, so I took a photo. Then she stretched. Got it!

It may look like the sun's out, but that's just the leaves turning gold. It rained most of the day on Thursday.

Bert spent most of the night in the house last night. He sneaked in before I could close his door, so I just let him stay. Around three this morning he meowed, his signal that he's ready to go back out. So I got up and walked him downstairs. His door was open of course, but he likes to be escorted. Tasha spent most of the night on the bed. She uses my back for a pillow.