Sorting out the Trees

 It's a slow start. We're all in recovery mode. I see the perfect outside lamps on Marketplace, except they'll need renovating. I have to drive to Rangiora to get them- forty minutes as road signs are so unhelpful I keep taking the long way. In Rangiora there's no indication of the street you're driving on, just the ones that come off it. I get lost a few times. But the lamps look good- the right size and more solid looking than the cheap looking crap available now. And they're $10 each. 

Greg comes for a look at the house and approves the lights. Says he'll help rejuvenate. He helps me move the small trees I planted a couple of weeks ago. They need to be further apart. I'd love to know what they will look like in 15 years. My mother used to lament that people planted trees too close to their houses. Since I've been at 22 College I've taken out a Magnolia Grandiflora on the north fence line. When the pipes for the house next door were dug up for EQC repairs, they stopped the little digger, took out an axe and chopped a huge root going underneath the house. Crazy. I also took out a gladitzia at the front which was right outside the living room window, and the liquid amber I chopped down a year ago had large rotting branches hanging over the roof. I learned the value of medium sized trees. These will take a while to grow, and I'm not sure how grating the lack of privacy with the Goodlands will be in the meantime, but I look at these little babies and know they'll stretch. Meanwhile, the Tasmanian Blackwood is resplendent in its new abode, waiting. Outside, the sky darkens thunder and lightning punctuate day's end. Feels like spring.