There is an ad on prime time TV that shows a guy standing in his backyard with his partner, looking up at a tree and saying 'I own a tree. I've never owned a tree before.' I hate ads but that particular ad I had a soft spot for, as although the guy was obviously a new home owner, it was the tree he related to (OK it was an ad and it worked).
Well now that is significant for me. Because I own a tree. A big pine tree in the front yard on the western side. Perhaps 30 feet tall, maybe more. Big. The canopy is half over my roof and half over the next property. At the moment there is no house on that property. But there will be. And I had a call from the new owner, a nice bloke, proposing that I cut down my tree so that their cars will not have pine cones and resin dropped on them while they are in the drive.
So what do I do? I would never cut down that tree left to my own choice. All right, it does put a lot of stuff in the gutters which is an ongoing problem, and no doubt affects the rainwater that goes into my two tanks on that side of the house. I don't drink that rainwater - not yet, but if it gets dry enough over the next few years I may. But sulphur crested cockatoos and Major Mitchells flock into that tree (and the one on the other side). There are 50 to 100 of them. They swoop in, usually early in the morning, and then they quietly chew. If you go outside you can see glimpses of their whiteness and hear some crunching noises but that is all. After a while you can hear a pelting noise - that is them dropping the chewed pine cones onto the roof and ground. This routine can go on for an hour. Then all at once they fly from their different positions in the tree as if a gun has gone off. They squawk and scream and fly off. It is a racket. When you look around you can see bits of pine cone everywhere - strewn on the footpaths, in the garden, on the verandah roof (and in the gutters, sigh). It is a treat not just for them but for me. And a laugh.
I guess some of us love trees and the shade and natural unpredicatable events they bring, and some of us love cars.
Heaphy Track
2 comments:
Don't even think about cutting down the tree. They can put their cars somewhere else if the house isn't even there yet. You might think he's a nice bloke but I find it incredibly arrogant that he would even ask such a thing.
Well thanks for your support. I have decided not to cut down the tree, and you won't believe it but in shining a torch up in it at night I saw an owl! I am now going to buy another tree (Australian native) and plant that in the garden as well :-)
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