The big old pine at the corner, which has been a picturesque snag for as long as I can remember*, finally toppled in the rain and the wind. It made the expected mess out of the surrounding area; but it missed the young spruce, and the sheep laurel, mountain ash, shadblow, etc will probably recover just fine. However….it isn’t actually, quite on the ground. The butt end and some of the branches are, but most of its weight is being taken by a four inch red maple that it fell on and bent double…and didn’t quite break.**  Not really a problem, I’d just leave it. But I would like to fix the boundary fence that it smashed. Only, the top of the maple (under load and ready to recoil like a demented trebuchet) is tangled in the fence, and the pine is leaning on it.  And I have a nasty feeling that if I poked at the fence, Something would let go. Boing!!

Or maybe anyone who is fool enough to walk through that area will get what they deserve? Still it would be nice if it was actually on the ground. I dislike hung trees.***

*Over twenty years, amazing how wood lasts.

**I had sort of intended to leave that maple, but there are more than enough of them.

***of course there is also the Damocles Sword bit of another tree, suspended above that same bit of fence, thoughtfully left by the state…