tea with tamf

At the beginning of the year, our new neighbours decided to give their garden a bit of a makeover. This mostly entailed felling all the grand trees and shrubs that had grown there over the years, laying some turf and planting a few flowers. We found it all quite ironic, as one of the selling points of the property had been its mature garden - but on the other hand, some of the trees had become quite ginormous.

Then there was a storm, and another tree fell in another neighbour's garden. Now the local birds had lost quite a lot of roosting spots.

Because of all this, I delayed or cut back my own plans of cutting down trees in my own, also quite mature, garden. I felt very sorry for all the birds that had suddenly been made homeless. The pigeons seem to have appreciated our trees, having made three nests on our property and raised at least two chicks to maturity. Pretty well done, seeing that we also have a scary killer cat here.

I did manage to fell one tree that was getting out of hand. But I stopped at its neighbour when I noticed another pigeon nesting - I don't know how successful they'll be with an August brood, but I also don't want to be the one to crush their dreams.

However, the plant massacre seems to be neverending. Now yet another neighbour's garden is getting the raze-everything-to-the-ground treatment, getting rid of all hedges. I've seen quite a few confused birds jumping around in our garden, where there's fortunately still shelter. I think we'll he to remain the local refuge for a bit longer.