And only once more…
Shortly before Christmas it became clear that an old beech tree at the end of our garden was rather more hollow than we realised and in fact has started to rot off at the bottom, presumably as a result of years of moisture getting inside. That part of the garden is quite exposed to the prevailing winds and should the tree have fallen it might quite easily have landed on our oil tank and/or the house itself, so there really was only one way it could end 🙁
I did at least collect the beech mast this year and scatter it around our hedgerows in the hope that more beech trees will grow.
Once the tree surgeons had done their work, this is what was left (they wouldn’t take it any further because there was fencing wire tangled up in the bark).
Not a great deal to be holding up what was actually quite a large tree…