Our garden at the front of the house certainly looks different. And our house is less enclosed. The tree that was planted just before we took possession of the house is no longer there. Like many others of the original trees planted by the builder on the completion of the houses on this street, it has been removed. It wasn't an easy decision to make, we both love trees and to remove a living tree seems somewhat akin to a criminal act.

The other trees on the street were removed over time because the owners felt variously that their homes were too crowded, too shaded, or the trees' integrity was compromised by the onset of a disease, or simply because the trees died, and usually because of something like the emerald ash borer that has destroyed so many trees in the area. In the case of our tree, some of the limbs had died for some reason, and in any event the continual need to rake up dead needles on the lawn and on our neighbour's lawn took its toll in work for my husband.

He's the one who does the heavy lifting in the gardens and around our property, for obvious reasons. To me falls the pleasurable tasks of planting and primping. But he did all the excavation work, the laying of brickwork and stonework enclosing the gardens. He saws away dead branches, and mows the lawns, rakes up detritus and plants the trees and shrubs, not me.

So on Monday along came the tree fellers and made quick work of our pine tree. It took them altogether three hours and then some to cut down the tree, shred much of it and haul away the larger trunk portions. They did a meticulous job. Harming nothing under or around the tree, since we have much growing in its immediate vicinity. And they cleaned up after themselves, leaving us little to clean up ourselves.

And then all that was left for us to do was to return the objects that my husband had withdrawn to ensure their safety, including all the garden pots that are usually assembled around that area. Now, we have to become accustomed to the wide open view that has resulted with the removal of that tree that we were so accustomed to seeing as part of our treasured garden landscape.