About 7 or 8 years ago, I had this little tree start growing in my driveway. It wasn’t like right in the middle – it would have gotten run over. No, it was tucked off to the side, at the edge of the driveway, right by the side of my house.

Now, I’m no greenthumb. Indeed, I have a pretty good track record of killing every plant I’ve tried to grow. So when something green comes along and acts lively and hardy without any help from me, I’m usually all for it.

This was a bit different though. I know that it’s not good for the house. I worried about the foundation. After a couple short years, I had a sapling of about a dozen feet in height, 2 or 3 inches thick at the base. I cut it down. I hated to do it, but it had to be done.

That was five years ago.

The tree immediately grew back, and grew back fast. At times, you could see it was getting bigger almost daily.

Last Summer

By last summer it was easily 20 feet tall, and the trunk about 8 inches across at the base.

Amazed (and amused) I did some research and determined that it was most likely a Siberian Elm – a tree that is almost universally disliked and despised by landscapers and gardenists, because of its unruly and unkempt canopy. Its only redeeming feature was that it grows to maturity really, really fast.

Back to the narrative at hand, so here I am with my driveway tree again. I can see it’s damaging the eaves. I suspect it’s damaging the roof. And I fear it’s damaging the foundation. Once again, the neighbors are telling me to cut it down. I resist, I hate killing trees. And I respect a tree that I’ve already killed once but it came back.

Five Rings

It came to a head this past autumn though – my next-door neighbor and I share a driveway area and we had agreed to get it repaved. That meant the tree had to go. I procrastinated a few months but couldn’t put it off any further, so last week I asked my sister to come over to spot me while I cut it down.

I went through my old camping gear and dug out the old swiss-saw, and we got to work.

Surprisingly (and happily) it all came down pretty much as planned. It had branched about 6ft off the ground, so we took off the two main side-limbs first, then the middle one. Nobody got hurt and no property damage was inflicted on anything.

Attacking the Trunk

Finally we removed the main part of the trunk, though the lowest we could get was roughly 8 or 10 inches above the ground.

So now, my driveway is treeless, but for a stump, and I have a huge pile of wood and branches in my backyard to be dealt with later in the spring.

This has happened often enough now that it is almost a tradition…

On Canada Day, I host a BBQ for family and friends. Then within a few days, a significantly large branch comes down on the area where we had been partying.

This happened during a storm last night – and for the first time I actually got to witness it. The limb originated about 30 feet up a walnut tree. These branches themselves are about 15 to 20 feet long. Fortunately there was no damage done at ground level as the branches landed up-side-down, and their foliage absorbed most of the impact. Then they toppled over to settle on the table next to the BBQ.

Previous years have seen a BBQ nailed & destroyed, the picnic bench took a direct hit, a large potted plant was crushed, even the outdoor fireplace was pierced one year.

This angle isn’t much better – the base is over by the outdoor fireplace, the top is in the green bush towards the left, behind the green arch.

I’m actually sorry I missed this… During thunderstorms, I like to sit out on the back porch and watch the lightning and listen to the rain come down – the more violent the better. Not in the habit though of doing that for winter storms… too cold and snowy.

Nonetheless, this must have been pretty darn exciting when it happened. I was probably at work though. Meh.

The branch is about 3 or 4 inches across at its base, and when it broke fate was kind enough to make sure it formed something of a natural point.

The limb is perhaps 20 feet long in total, though it tapers off and branches out towards the end.

In the 8 years I’ve lived here, this is only the second time I’ve had a tree branch come down and cause damage. The first time was a couple years ago when a much larger limb came down in the summer and crushed my BBQ.

Fun times…

There were a few pictures from the roll I developed last night that were ok, or at least mildly interesting. I need to find something interesting to take pictures of.

These were shot with my Canonet GIII QL17, on Ilford HP5+ at ISO400. It was developed in T-Max for 6 1/2 minutes.

So, when was the last time you developed your own film? I haven’t done it in at least a decade, but today I picked up some Tri-X 400 Pro film, some chemicals, and took a walk around the neighborhood. It didn’t take too long to shoot a roll of 36 frames through my trusty Minolta X370. I’ve got a ‘new’ old lens on there, a Rokkor 45mm f/2 that I bought through eeeebay.

Processing was pretty simple and didn’t take long, and I can’t tell you just how rewarding and exciting it is to open up that tank and see the images on the film. It’s almost like magic, really.

Anyhow, below are some of the shots from today. They’re nothing terribly special, just shots that caught my eye between my walk and getting home.

I had planned to go on another little excursion today to do some more photography, but Mother Nature had other ideas. So instead, I stayed under the shelter of my back & front porches and did what I could.

I took a few dozen shots, but these four really stood out. All were taken with a 30mm f/1.4 lens, wide open, and at shutter speeds ranging from 1/30 to 1/90. Other than resizing, the images have not been altered in any way.

To view an image in full-size, just click the thumbnail.

My folks have this maple tree in their backyard, which is shaped like a big green tootsie-roll pop. It’s short enough that if I stand next to the trunk, my head and shoulders are inside the sphere of foliage.

Inside the foliage, it’s like another world, all dark and green and interconnected with wooden walkways and gantries and support structures.

I could just picture the ants and bugs and birds and little critters, all going to and fro as they rush about carrying on their Important Business. “Meet you for lunch on the second twig from branch 37, Bill?” “Sorry Charles, not today, I’ve got a big meeting down by Trunk Junction. Tell you what though, have your ladybug call my ladybug and we’ll work something out.” “Right-o then!”

Or maybe it was the wine.