Trees

When we moved in to Tani, two years ago, there was a grassy reserve on the other side of the pathway over our front fence.

There were lots of trees.

Then a For Sale sign went up around the various entrances to the reserve. I looked online to see what was happening and discovered that the reserve was to be subdivided into 23 housing blocks.

For a long time, nothing happened.

When we got back from our short-lived trip to the UK in March, there were lots of blokes chopping down trees on the far side of the reserve.  It was during the first set of lockdown restrictions. If you could work from home you must work from home. Essential workers only to be allowed actually to go to work.

I remember thinking that I could certainly see that you can't chop down trees while working from home, but I equally couldn't see that it was essential work.

Anyway, back in March we still had lots of trees around us.

Then the tree fellers went away and men came with bulldozers and big diggers and the chopped down trees were taken away and they dug a HUGE hole with a large slag heap mound of mud behind it.

Then nothing much happened.

And now more people have come and have chopped down more trees, and they have started to put roads in. We couldn't see any of these buildings properly when we first moved in

We do still have lots of trees around us. This is our place looking from the "reserve"

I think most of these trees are probably safe. They were on our side of the cyclone fence which stopped people going onto the reserve during the first phase of the tree felling. And the trees at the back of us also seem safe - although someone (I assume the council which owns that bit of land) has cleared most of the scrubby rubbish away

The truck has been an interesting addition over the past week or two. It and a small digger have been excavating a large hole in the back garden of the house at the end of the pathway. It's unusual for us to get much traffic noise at our place so we both noticed when the sound of a truck reversing close by started up.

Lindsey and Ian are back from Sydney now and we have returned to living at our place, and coming up to Hill House when they are both at work. Rupert and Hugo were a bit dismayed when we packed the car up and took all our stuff away. They were delighted when Lindsey and Ian came home. And pleased when we turned up again this morning.  Brandy and Whiskey were pleased when we came home yesterday and actually stayed the night. They were a bit less exuberant about it than Rupert and Hugo, though.

Flowers in the sky at Hill House