The city came by and trimmed our tree out front. It’s a honey locust, very common around Toronto because it’s robust and quick-growing. In Toronto, the first 6 feet or so of your property is controlled by the city, if you have a tree planted. They come by and maintain the tree when they can, I think most often prompted by calls by people in the neighbourhood.
When I saw the guys out front, I was relieved because our tree was getting a little unruly – branches touching the hydro wires, and our neighbour Joe (a retired bachelor in his 70’s) really hated how it hung over his house. I asked if they could trim it significantly, especially over Joe’s house, and then leave us the larger branches on our front lawn. I might make a little fence out of it somewhere, I guess, or something else my neighbours probably won’t like.
After they left we found a little cross-section lying on the grass. Theresa liked the wood grain, so she put it on a little shelf in our kitchen. It’s about 4 inches across. You can see this branch has 24 rings, so it’s been around for 24 years. We’ve been here for about six and half years ourselves.
The next day I found out Joe had passed away the previous week from stomach cancer. Rest in peace, Joe.
Dave Howard 