Cut Down in its Prime

I loved this silver birch tree. It had grown by the side of our front drive since we had lived here, and that's some time. Len had pruned it once after which it developed a double trunk and grew vigorously.

Four years ago, my gardener advised me to prune it again as it was getting tall and spindly. He told me that silver birches have a habit of developing hollow trunks and they can topple unexpectedly. He pruned it. For two summers, it flourished with fresh green growth erupting all over the trunk. I rejoiced. 

Len cursed the fact that it got in the way of his mowing and that it rained down 'catkins' on the car. Then, one day last year, a tinker turned up at the door and persuaded Len that he didn't need the tree, and that he would chop it down for the princely sum of £90. £90 for two minutes' work seems quite exorbitant to me. 

Now my once proud and joyful tree has been reduced to a stump which is being consumed by wood fungus. It still gets in the way of the mowing. Good.