06 Dec 2022 GONE AT LAST

Years ago, a unit owner, long dead, planted three trees, two next to the road out front and one next to the retaining wall in the backyard. They all flourished, growing to an impressive size. The two in the front are a buckinghamia, whose flowers have a fragrant aroma, and a golden rain tree which sheds its leaves and flowers on the cars parked beneath it. The tree in the backyard has for years dropped its seed pods and squishy, tubular white flowers onto the lid of the inground tank and the washing on the clothes hoist which is fixed to the lid, not to mention the bird poo which also soils the washing. The material falls for several months of the year. But the biggest nuisance are the roots which have moved part of the base of the retaining wall and grown between one of the protective buttresses we installed, and the wall. Nearly as bad is the fact that the tree casts a shadow over the clothes hoist, when the sun is at its highest. I wonder what the late owner was thinking, when he planted the tree. I have always been outvoted on removing it, but a new owner convinced the management committee that the tree should go. Today, it was removed by a skilled arborist and his crew. They took out a section of the fence above the wall and felled the tree into the adjoining car park used by staff of the Eagle Heights Shopping Centre. The tree was cut up and fed into a wood chipper. The whole operation was completed in little over an hour. I have known the arborist for many years and visited China with his Dad in 2007. I told him that he had made an old man very happy. There are too many instances on the mountain, of ignorant people planting trees in the wrong place. PS  The washing takes less time to dry now. I wonder why.