rejectomorph (flying_blind) wrote,
rejectomorph
flying_blind

Shade

The fruitless mulberry tree will probably have to be cut back this fall. It's pretty much a giant weed, and grows so rapidly that it needs to be pollarded about every five years lest its branches entangle the utility lines. Once they grow long enough, they tend to snap during heavy snows, so it's very unwise to allow them to extend above your power cable or telephone line. The disadvantage of pollarding, though, is that there will be almost no shade for this end of the house next summer. In fact, decent shade won't be fully reestablished until the third year. I've always wanted to replace that tree with something that reaches a decent size and then stays that way for decades, but I've never gotten around to it. I'll probably leave the place before I get around to it.

The shade of the tree is nice today. The air is pleasantly cool, but the direct sunlight is hot, and it's enjoyable to sit in the flickering, muted, green light under the tree and listen to the leaves rustling. An acorn woodpecker spent a few minutes hopping from branch to branch a while ago, snacking one or another small insect. There were quite a few acorn woodpeckers last spring, but they made themselves scarce this summer. They were probably sticking to the deeper woods, where there are no rooftops and pavements to intensify the heat. Now that the weather has cooled a bit, they are visiting the yard more often. Now that I think of it, the only avians who seemed to be more plentiful than usual this year were the hummingbirds. Of course, they've got their own built-in air conditioning.

The evening is so nice that I'd be foolish to spend any more time sitting here in front of a computer. I'm going back out to enjoy the tree, while it lasts.
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