Today, I've brought you to my father's house to witness the tragic ash, and to solicit your comments at my father's request. He would like your honest opinion. Obviously, I have my opinion, but don't let my exposition bias you. Please tell my dad what you think in the comments. (His name is Bob.)
The shadow on the roof belongs to the tree with the V-shaped crotch on the left, an unidentified species of Fraxinus. Once upon a time, it was a pretty tree.
Today it is a broken and deformed remnant of its former self.
There are many ways to photograph a beautiful or interesting tree. But what do you do with this tree?
According to my father, every year an "arborist" arrives to cut the tree back to keep it out of the powerlines. Apparently this has been going on for many years. Yet, every year, the tree grows back in to the powerlines. And amazingly every year, the solution is the same--to cut back the tree. What do you think about this?
I think it's a tragedy. A tree tragedy. The tragic ash.
My advice is to cut the poor thing down and start over. As my father is very sentimental about trees (well, my father is very sentimental about everything--don't get me started on that), and coming from me, chopping down the tree was a non-starter.
I suggested alternatively he could find a real arborist to try re-shaping the tree, but that will surely cost more money than he's got. Even in this monstrous, misbegotten state the tree still provides some vital summer shade when it leafs out. But for how much longer can that go on? I don't know how much more this tree can take.
So what's your advice? What would you do if this was your tree?
ADDED: The End.
