Good Bye to Our 140 Years Old Ash Tree!

We love these trees !

Our Beloved Tree

We love trees! This was the reason we fell in love with the current house where we live. Over thirty years ago, when we were young and starting a family, we decided to buy this house because we loved the trees in our backyard and in our neighbourhood.

These beautiful  old trees have been providing us with shade, and beautiful foliage while making our house cool and comfortable in the heat of summer.

However, good thing cannot last forever. Slowly, some of these majestic trees started dying and a couple of them were downed by either wind storms or severe weather a couple of years ago.








There was one tree in particular that we loved the most - a 140 year old Ash tree sitting at the back corner of our yard and gracing our property.

Unfortunately, there seemed to be an ash tree epidemic in Toronto and many ash tree have been infected with diseases.  The ash tree in our backyard was no exception, infected with diseases and started dying a couple of years ago. Last summer, lots of branches broke and fell off the trunk into the next yard.















Our neighbour kept complaining to us fearing that the tree would fall soon and land on his house while the family slept. We resisted the notion of cutting our beloved tree.

However, upon the relentless complaints expressed by our neighbour, we had no choice but applied to have permission to have the tree removed.

Andy - our tree cutter

In Toronto, we cannot cut down any trees we want once when the tree is over a certain size. Since this tree was a huge tree, we must applied at City Hall and obtain permission to have it removed.


Andy, our tree cutter came with his team of assistants and started cutting the tree down.











My heart ached as I watched each branch being hacked away and dropped to the ground.

Using a gigantic chainsaw with a blade about a meter long, Andy skillfully cut the huge trunk into pieces.

As each piece of wood was carted away, a part of me was taken with it.

This huge tree has stood in our backyard long before we moved into the house and it has been a part of our lives:

It witnessed the birth of our younger son;
it accompanied our two sons grown from infants to teens,
and the branches waved them goodbye when they left home for university.

This same tree has been with us for more than three decades and saw us through life's ups and downs along with the changing seasons:

Every spring, it gave me much joy when I puddled around under its leaves and did my planting.
In the summer, its abundant  foliage served us well and protected us from the scorching sun while we enjoyed many of the family barbecues and gatherings.
When autumn arrived the fallen leaves from the tree formed huge piles where our young sons played hide and seek rolling in them and had so much fun.
Every winter, the trunk covered with glistening snow welcome our grown sons home each Christmas for our family reunion.








Whenever our friends came to visit, they gazed in amazement at the beauty of this magnificent tree and marveled at the much needed shade and cooling effect it had on our house.

How could I bear to see this faithful tree gone forever from my life?

As the tree started to disappear in front of my eyes, my eyes started to tear and I wanted to hold onto this tree forever.

Wood - Nature's Gift to Us

I wanted to be reminded of the fond memory hidden in this tree. Instead of letting all the wood pieces taken away and burned for fuel in someone's homes, I wanted to keep some pieces of the tree. Though our children are grown men now, I would like other kids to enjoy this tree and have a great experience playing outside when they come to visit at our house.

Keeping some of the wood from our tree

I asked the tree cutter, if he could ( for an extra charge)  cut the wood pieces and create a special woodsy area for us and for the little ones. He did!

Kids and adults will have fun and quiet time here

Andy did a great job and we are pleased with our Flintstones style outdoor seats. Can't wait until the kids are here at Thanksgiving and have fun playing outside!

R.T.
Toronto