A SAD DAY...

Yesterday, I watched from the balcony as our two lovely eucalyptus trees came down...

This agile pair were our hired assassins

It feels almost criminal to fell a tree, but these tall, spindly twins that framed our view out over the Hollywood Hills had become a potential safety hazard.  It is now nearly ten years since we bought this property, and in that time the trees have shot up, with long, narrow trunks and spreading limbs towering up above the house.  Not only had they become alarmingly top-heavy, they were also diseased: the leaves that fell abundantly from their branches were pock-marked with white, sticky growths, and required constant sweeping.  The sap--or whatever goo it was that oozed from them--had stained the entire surface of the deck and seriously damaged the material covering out outdoor furniture.  We were told by the arborist we consulted that this kind of eucalyptus could be expected to keep shooting skyward, and that the treatment for their disease for which we had paid a considerable sum just two or three years ago would need to be regularly repeated.  The advice was, essentially, if you don't take care of the problem now it will be a far more difficult job in a couple of years' time.

Still, we arrived at the decision with considerable reluctance, and watched them go with considerable sadness--and frankly, a little guilt...

Are trees amongst the "living beings" the dharma teaches us not to harm?  I don't know.  But it felt like the betrayal of two old friends, who had done nothing other than to provide us with a lovely frame the view from our balcony, and required nothing of us but to sweep their leaves.

Our (hardly!) naked, and still lovely  view