I couldn’t quite get the same photo angle, what I ought to do is go out and exactly retake some of the early photos. But it is interesting to look at these two photos. The first is from 1961, the second from 2011:
Moving from L to R: you can see two low branches of the Gingko in the upper left, since pruned out. Behind that is the white pine which came down in two pieces during the 1990’s; the garden area (mid left) appears to be largely an overgrown thicket, just off left-center midground is a young blue spruce, that never flourished in what was much too wet and shady an area. Directly behind it is a double trunk black cherry, removed in the mid 1990’s. The small garden path between the cherry and the hemlock is visible, this remains today. A particularly interesting tree is the small sapling in front of the hemlock. This is the leaning oak, it is an important piece of the landscape today, but is still an awkward looking tree because it does lean. However, it really is gangly in this photo. To the right of the hemlock is a pine that came down in the 1990’s (we lost several in that decade, self-thinning). The pillar has no euonymous bush on it. The fringe tree on the far right still remains.
Not quite the same photo: You can see where those low gingko branches were finally taken off, much later than they should have been (when it became apparent a fire truck would not be able to get in the drive). The garden and the area beyond the garden has regained a lot of structure. Those maples are actually in the previous photo, but because of the overgrowth (mostly Norway Maple saplings) you couldn’t see them. The hemlock on the right has not gotten much wider, though it has gotten taller; the thicket of dark shrubs to the hemlock’s left is where the black cherry was. The oak is the real change: all you can see is its trunk. In front of that is a young Norway spruce planted about 8 years ago.
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