Toronto is quite a green city. Some, like those of us from the west coast, take a while to appreciate this, because Vancouver and Victoria are so much greener! But, along our streets we have lots of deciduous trees, and we are all thrilled when they put on their leaves in the (late!) spring to provide us with colour and shade. Our street has had a series of trees through the ages, and the largest ones we have now are 70- or 80-year-old
Manitoba maples. (I love this sentence:
"Although its weak wood, irregular form, and prolific seeding might make it seem like a poor choice for a landscape tree, A. negundo is one of the most common maples in cultivation...") These trees are quite plentiful around our neighbourhood, and they are getting very old -- if there's a big wind, it's these that crash their big branches down!
A few years ago, one dropped a huge limb on a family's van.
Luckily no one was hurt!
That was when Arthur looked like this:
This summer we have been sitting on our stoop looking at the one across the street. Sparse leaves, lots of spindly little empty branches. We would wonder if it could hit our house if it fell... Well, the city guys with chain saws got there before we had to find out, and spent the morning making it into not much more than a big trunk.
Beginning
Middle
End
Will they come back later to finish it off, or are they done?
scary - but i think they are done....
ReplyDeleteI hope they come back and finish it off... it could still fall like that.
ReplyDeleteMy parents have some enormous Manitoba Maples (Box Elders) and I love them dearly. They do have shallow roots and short life spans, though. But I find them to be very friendly trees!
that tree sure got a bad hair cut.
ReplyDelete