Wednesday, January 6, 2010

I Can See Clearly Now, the Tree is Gone.........(well, not really)

I used to really be addicted to QVC. Every once in a while I still flip over to it and see what they are hocking. So a few months back when a pair of large, heavy duty ratcheting pruning shears, with bonus small pair came on, I HAD TO HAVE THEM! It could cut through large branches with ease! So I got them, and with so many other things I get from QVC, I never even opened the box.

My Mom came over yesterday and we were talking about the tree out front. She suggests I cut it down and plant something else. It isn't a very good looking tree. It blocks the front window and lets very little light into the front room. It's shaped like a giant bush, not a tree, and even after having an arborist come 'fix' it, it still looked like an oversize bush. He told me it is a Brazilian Pepper tree, which I found out later are very invasive. In fact, they are such a nuisance, people just try to kill them off with little success. They need to be poisoned, and apparently you have to get the poison from Florida as they don't sell it California. I learned this from my friend Pete who had one in his yard he tried to kill forever, successfully. After my Mom left, I pulled out my super-deluxe pruning shears and decided if this tree is so hard to kill, I would just give it a little hair cut and see if I couldn't make it look a better. After all, I can't really hurt it, right? Well, 7 hours later and 17 garbage bags plus a trash can full of clippings, I now have a tree, rather than a bush. It does look better, but who knows..... I may just hack it down altogether and plant something new. For now, I am enjoying my new view out the front window. I can see all the way down the street, which I have never been able to do before. (so I can be nosier than ever!)

Thank God for QVC! Now, does anyone need me to whip up something with the immersion blender I bought about 2 years ago? I know it's in a box in the garage somewhere....... This is the 'after' of the tree, not a noticeable difference to most, but huge to me.

I don't have a good BEFORE picture, but you can sort of see how bushy the tree was.













No comments: