Today I discovered that my front neighbor's family (Miz Mary's
family)had at sometime this week when I was distracted, removed the park
bench that was a symbol of my former neighbor's hospitality. She is not
deceased. She unfortunately has been denied to return home after
spending the last almost whole year in the nursing home close by. She
loves this hill and to be denied it's beauty and peace is wrong. Yes,
she's not young, and she'd suffered quite a few strokes and TIA's before
they finally decided to put her in this nursing home. and it's a good
one, with loving people, and her family visit her all the time. but
it's not HER home (she had life rights to live there......my meaning
exactly, she's not gone yet). Out of frustrated tribute to a most
incredible lady I grew to respect and love, I'm sharing this image with
my garden friends because it's now gone...........and to add insult to
injury, while backing down the driveway towards my own home and Fairy
Holler, in the illumination of the headlights of the van, I saw to my
incredible dismay, that her family had pulled another one. A few weeks
ago, her beloved pussy-willow had been cut to the ground. It was about
a foot thick. I understood. They seek out water and it was too close to
the foundation. But in the light of the van, I noticed immediately that
her beloved (and mine)pink Acacia trees, the woolly branched pink Locust
tree, that were not only lining the edges of the driveway at the
beginning but were tromping happily towards my own gate and I looked
forwards to one day having a shrubby tree lined driveway, were gone.
cut to the ground. I'll post a picture of them from last year. The
heavy freeze had burnt the leaves, but today or yesterday, I've slept
since then, I noticed new replacement leaves and buds for more flowers
had begun underneath the burnt and dried leaves. No, someone came and
cut them ALL to the ground including removing MY prickly pears that grew
at the base of one strapping pink locust tree that used to be where my
mailbox used to be before Miz Mary paid a man to put three mailbox
timbers up for me, Jerry and herself closer to the paved road just for
the mail carrier. (this was what she was like, always being kind to
everyone)

I am, to say the least, devastated. I'll get over it, but it saddens me
especially since Miz Mary is still here on the earth, not five miles
away and doesn't know what her family is up to. It makes me wonder when
I'll come home one day and discover that they've bulldozed the old farm
house and leveled the yard around it.......next I fear they'll cut down
the many lightening struck maple that stands in silent and dead tribute
out front, and I fear they might even cut the twin sister of the dead
one that sits next to the driveway with the beautiful and perfect
dogwood Miz Mary planted underneath her boughs, and this year was loaded
with flowers for the first time since she'd tucked it between the
gnarled roots 14 years ago when she'd moved back.

sometimes it just makes me sad that people don't think first.........but
here is what used to be when you came up the dead end road, and was
waiting for you to sit and just enjoy underneath the shade of the trees
to just enjoy and listen to the quiet...........

madgardener, up on the ridge, back in Fairy Holler, overlooking English
Mountain in Eastern Tennessee