I wish I had some energy this evening; it's lovely and still plenty of light, but my sinuses are throbbing from allergies. I must switch to a daily antihistamine for the time being.

Last week I noticed branches down in the dog kennel and realized they had been burned off of the tree above, having somehow come into contact with the adjacent power lines. This morning I looked into the back and could discern the larger problem - there is a large limb suspended 15' above ground, hung in an Afghan pine and still attached at the butt to the tree it has started to separate from. It finally wilted so I can see limb is dead. Many of the smaller branches are resting on the power line. We're lucky that branch didn't land a little closer and plunge the block into darkness. I'll call the company that maintains the lines and have them come out to remove the branch. It also means that they give a really ugly trim to any other tree in view that is close to the lines. This evening I gave a heads-up to the next door neighbor that one of her trees will probably also get a trim. If they really don't like that pine I may let them take it out; it's mate snapped off at the base a few years ago when I had someone do other tree work. They're not very healthy and they seem to be very brittle. If I'd known this before I wouldn't have planted them. It's a pretty spot, though, and it's where I have assembled my collection of rusty mowers and wheelbarrows as yard art. They'll have to go lean up against the garage for a while. And that big limb could take out one end of my clothes line (the cross-bar that supports the lines), so I may need to take that down before they come to do the work.

Good timing: if they take the wood with them in a couple of weeks it is the scheduled bulky waste pickup for my section of the village. I'll have to drag it out to the curb. (What I'd really love is one of those big chipper trucks to come and grind it up, then leave all of those lovely wood chips with me!)