Tree story

The storms and rains of January through to March have brought dramas to the Perigord. Most were about trees nearly missing ....(enter your favourite target here) as they fell, occasionally not missing.   There was also heavy grumbling about the inevitable power cuts though they were mostly of short duration. The local population is often well equipped with generators, candles and oil lamps.

An old walnut  was uprooted but the split twin oaks in the back ground, held together three-quarters
of the way towards the top by a powerful band, resisted well

Drama came to La Chaise as well.   One storm arrived only a few days after Simeon had replaced the damaged keystones of the Shepherd's Cottage.  The elderly acacia in the garden was slowly uprooting itself with the intention to rest its weary head on the cottage roof.  Alex and Audrey promptly lassoed it and attached it to our trusty John Deere.

Wood cutter half way up tree, stabilised by red and blue ties. Note new corner to  house

The bucheron had already been signed up to do some pruning and general tree trimming but could not get started because of the rains. This time he had little choice.  The tree had to be lightened of its branches before being cut down.   One priceless skill of the bucheron is his ability to cut branches so that they fall down cut end first - impressive to watch.

It is always sad to lose a tree, but in this case sorrow is somewhat mitigated by the fact that the acacia is a type of arboreal weed.   If the ground surrounding it is not kept very clean, there would soon be an acacia forest. This assertion is supported by a local legend:  

There was once an old man who left his forest to his sons. His sons cut down his beloved deciduous trees and decided to plant fast growing pines.   The old man was often seen walking with his cane in the new plantation, occasionally stopping to grieve.  The sons never visited their pines.  Some years later the old man died.  When his sons came to bury him they found themselves with a flourishing acacia plantation. The old man had pushed the acacia seeds in, one by one, with his cane.Rain did the rest.

And rain it has too -  the wood cutter has been asked to prune the walnuts on the edge of the lake so that a digger could get near the edge to remove the gunge from the bottom.  And here is the lake with overflow full open....