Good-bye to a tree

Yesterday, my neighbors cut down a tree that had been on their front lawn for forty years.  They said it was leaning dangerously.  I know they were saddened but convinced it was the responsible thing to do.  I've lived in this house for only a year and a couple of months,but I felt like it was our tree and I loved it.  One day, I lay on the bed, held the camera up over my head, and tried to record the top of the tree with its lush branches.  I didn't know then they would have to cut it down.

If truth be known, it didn't have many branches on its lower half.  A lot of them had been cut off, and one huge one snapped under the weight of the snow, over the Christmas holiday.  But, I'm pretty sure Black Jack thought it was her tree.  Her Channel 1  viewing has had a drastic program cut.  She will adapt without complaint, observe the better access to activity along the street, and look for squirrels in the remaining trees.
I suppose some might say the lower half was not all that attractive.
But, I guess I have that tree hugger mentality.  I remember trees, maybe most of all the two big elms on our front lawn when I was growing up, but lots of other ones too.  I will miss this one, but try to take a page from Black Jack's book.  Scott's too.  (Factoid #5 in the link.)  As I watched his reality change with slower and weaker limbs in his last few years, I felt him think, "This is how it is now."  And then, he found the good stuff in his "now" and carried on joyfully.  

One more view from our bedroom window, this time looking from right side up.  Funny, I don't mourn for the snow:)