My actual task for this sunny Sunday morning. ..

Two wild cherry trees that weren't part of the landscape design when it was carried out a few years ago have now become so large they bugger the symmetry of the garden.

Humanely as I possibly can, I will saw the base with a chainsaw, rough up the stump of the trunk and pour in stump poison which over the winter will kill the roots and shrink the whole thing making it easier to dig out in the spring.

The trees will be stripped of their smaller branches (eventually to be shredded) and the trunk sawn into small logs to be dried out for my wood burning stoves.

As I said. As humanely as I can. I will keep the chainsaw behind my back till the last possible moment.