I have had several trees taken off my small property. The big ones had to be dismembered from the top down, a task that required a hydraulic lift (cherry-picker) so a man with a chainsaw could take the upper limbs off. They could not be allowed to drop free — this is the city, not the lumbering woods — so each section to be cut was secured with guy-lines and, once free of the tree, lowered gently by the ground crew.

Not cheap, but the neighbour’s roof was safe. Also mine.

In other news, Thursday’s wallop to the head has left me with a spectacular black eye. The point of impact was at the hairline northeast (as it were) of my right eye, so I did not expect this development at all. The cognoscenti can tell that I was not punched in the face — no damage to the eye itself — but the look of the thing is so dramatic that people can’t help but stare.