Ask and (sometimes) receive in a big hurry

Earlier this week on our morning walk, I was bemoaning the lack of growth in some of our sunshine-oriented plants in the front yard to our friend Bridget who loves to garden and has great gardens to show for it. And it struck me that the trees in our front yard have grown to the point where the sun doesn't actually get to the plants until late in the afternoon.

When I got home from the walk, I went out front for a long, critical look at the trees. Most of them are huge locust trees ranging from 50 to 75 feet (maybe higher) in height. But there were two smaller trees that could be taken down and let in quite a lot of light. (I really loathe removing trees because of their positive impact on the environment but these weren't contributing all that much anyway, or so I rationalized.) There are also some lilacs that can be trimmed back so the shade from them doesn't impact the garden. I can do that kind of thing myself and I love to get all sweaty and dirty doing yard work.

I mentioned my idea to Johnnie on Tuesday evening. We bantered back and forth about him getting the trees down and left it at that. While I was at BJ's with Erin and the girls Wednesday morning, Johnnie called me to say that he couldn't take the trees down himself because there were power lines and phones lines among the branches. BUT, there were two tree guys there who would take the trees down for $30 cash. What a deal.

When I came home after lunchtime, the trees were down, the branches neatly stacked on the curb for pickup today by the town (we love our town services that we pay through the nose for) and the trunk was cut and ready for loading into the truck to take to Erin and Mike's to dry and heat their house next year. Holy cow! It looks much brighter without the scraggly trees in there and, even without a great deal of sunshine today (it's raining), I can see it's going to make a big difference for the landscaping plants.

I never ever expected such quick action on my request. I'm just thrilled! I know serendipity played a part (the tree guys were at our neighbor's house trimming trees and Johnnie just happened by) but I'm thrilled and now, once it stops raining, I can get out there and do the remainder of the trimming.

Whoo hoooo!