Cracked

I don't know how I missed it. I have walked past it a hundred times this summer and it must have always been there. At least I hope it has been there awhile and didn't just appear over night.

I was out early this morning puttering about, when I noticed a big crack. I had to step back for a moment and take in the size of the crack and try not to get too nervous about seeing the crack.

No, my neighbor was not bending over with un-belted trousers slipping down his hips. It was a tree that had all of my attention. My tree with a crack.

The tree has had issues for some time. It is a messy tree and always loses twiggy branches every time the wind blows. Earlier this year it lost a couple bigger branches, that luckily landed on the other side of the electric line that runs behind it.

It's a huge tree, I am not sure how many people it would take to circumference with their arms stretched out, but probably 4, maybe five. It's an old elm that has been reaching up to the sky for decades. It was severely pruned during one freak ice storm at Halloween. It had me nervously biting my nails and hoping that the wind did not pick up, that the  branches coated in ice would just continue to fall straight down and miss everything, house included.

Today has me feeling that same nervousness. I immediately went in and called the local utilities and after being transferred a few times, I finally talked to a woman who would "pass along my message". That seemed to only add to my anxious state.

Will they show up today? Will they just drive by and go on, not bothering to get out and walk around the tree to see the offending crack? Will they meander down the alley way behind the tree, daydreaming and killing time so they won't have to worry about working in the heat today? Will they shrug their shoulders and leave all of the worrying to me?

So here I wait. Wait with my big cracked tree and wonder about it's plight. Will they say it's okay, will the trim it, will they decide it all must go? I dread that last thought. Despite all of it's messy habits, it is a big shade tree. It helps to cool a lot of the back yard and the house. I am keeping my fingers crossed that despite being cracked, it is still viable....much like me.

At the base of the tree I have the top basin from an old bird bath. I fill it regularly with water for the squirrels and birds and yesterday it was visited by one of the members of the fox family from next door. Today I was out there with my camera, hoping to catch another visit from my tiny, slender friend but the premises were being used by a robin instead.

Puffed up and cleaning his feathers, he seemed unconcerned about my peeping ways.

The bird looked a little sick here, but that was not the case. He was using the side of the concrete basin as a loofah and was scratching his beak...

Thoroughly soaked and ruffled...let's face it, none of us look that great when stepping out of the shower...

Looking a bit cranky at spying me, spying on him...and with a camera no less.

I was hoping that by the time I uploaded a few pics and wrote the majority of this blog the people from the utilities would be here so I could give an update. I guess that will have to wait for tomorrow on another blog, or sometime this week or month, whenever they decide to show up.

Cracked.....crabby bird....and corn, picked from the garden today.

That concludes today's blog....brought to you by the letter "C"... Darn it, I could have done my 30 blog day challenge using the alphabet. Well with a few extra letters thrown in. Somehow I don't feel enthused enough to start a new challenge of the alphabet after this challenge. Which is a good thing. I have a feeling I would be run out of multiply by bloggers with pitch forks, flame throwers, and other assorted painful devices for even suggesting such a thing.

But it has been fun....hasn't it?