Bush League

We bought a new house last week. It was really well-maintained, but also needs a lot of work. Does that make sense? Hopefully, on some deeper level, it does.

One of the first things we wanted to do was to trim or get rid of the rhododendron "bush" (actually a tree, complete with trunk) in front of the house. As you can see, the tree is a perfect hiding spot for creeps, pervs, peeping toms, ne'er-do-wells, nerds, weirdos, villains, lone nuts, and cat burglars. It had to go.

Before.

Unfortunately, all I had were garden loppers, which don't do much against an 8-inch trunk. (That's a free landscaping tip.) Still, I did manage to take the tree down a few pegs, giving it the tree equivalent of whatever it's called when you shave a poodle down to its pink skin.

After.

Much better! Well, sort of, if you like the look of those nasty, apple-throwing trees from The Wizard of Oz. As you can see, it was hiding two windows. We may try to figure out if it will grow if we cut it back to a stump. Or maybe we'll rip it out of the ground.