Dead wood

It is not just the middle-aged oak tree over our mini-ponds which has a die back problem, the much older oak just the other side of the southern fence, right at the top of the back garden has die back too.

So last week, some tree people were called in to take a look and cut away the dead wood. A job which had to be done, but I was a little anxious lest falling wood damaged the young trees on our side of the fence. In the event, I didn't need to have worried as when I inspected the work later in the afternoon I could only find very minor damage to the lead shoot on one of the yew bushes. Fair bit of broken dead wood lying around, very dry and very light, soon cleared up. Plus, there were a few hangers in the tree above, some perhaps three or feet long but not looking very heavy at all, nothing like the much larger lump, maybe twelve feet long, which came down a few years ago.

And that was the end of that. Except that late yesterday morning, I happened to be looking out of the upstairs study window, when a crow must have perched on one end of one of these hangers, which promptly rocked down and the crow flapped off, rather noisily. Another inspection, which turned up a few more bits and pieces, but nothing which looked like the hanger in question. On the other hand, I found that the lead shoot, say around four feet of it, of one of the holly bushes had been knocked over and needed to be cut out. A job for the gadget at reference 2. But I don't suppose I will remember or notice in a few weeks time.

On the other hand I did notice some low hanging dead wood on a couple of our small oak trees - not young but tall and thin given that they don't get much light. A ladder job at some point fairly soon.

I also noticed that however often I walked up and down the garden (on my brick walks), when I got to the top of the back garden, there were always some fallen sticks which I had not noticed before and which needed to be gathered in. I associated to (amateur) proof reading in the world of work where, however often you thought you had read something, as soon as you pressed the publish button, you spotted something you had missed. And, now I come to think of it, blogposts are very much the same. Although to be fair, something you had missed is often more than a simple error and might be better described as mission creep. Different sort of problem altogether.

The snap above taken looking east from somewhere near the brick compost bin. Foreign oak tree in question above, domestic trees, mostly beech, below.

PS: so far, there may be die back, but no sign of the processionary moth which has been found on the rather smaller oak just the other side of the western fence, moth which was noticed a few months ago at reference 1. Not an all-clear though, as it is not, we are told, a moth spotting time of year.

Reference 1: https://psmv4.blogspot.com/2020/12/more-stuffing.html.

Reference 2: https://psmv2.blogspot.com/2015/10/autumn-cutlery-1.html. Continues to do good service, but maybe time for a sharpen, or more probably these days, a new cutting blade.