It started as a disaster so how bad can it get?
It’s amazing how fast trees grow. From the google street view photo from 2013 it looks like it’s not higher than 7-8′ with a trunk diameter less than your wrist. Skip a few years and it’s taller than the house. The rings became unclear towards the center so I may have under estimated the age.
Aimee has got so bad that a Doctors appointment is needed. I have it a bit but it’s manageable. A couple of people told us about the Poison Ivy Patrol so we have a consultation next week at the property. It’s nice that after the consultation you’re armed with enough knowledge to safely remove the ivy yourself if you wish.
It’s harder to identify this time of the year as the leaves aren’t out, that said it may be safer to remove in this leafless state.
The joys of poison ivy. Difficult to spot in winter, come summer however it will be eradicated without mercy. Can’t wait to go to the O+ Gala in less than two weeks with a sexy rash!
This is a great site on identifying poison ivy, season by season.
Saw maybe my first woodpecker in the US today, I think it’s the Downy woodpecker (Picoides pubescens), it was pretty small, probably no bigger than a Starling.
Came across a lovely big bumble bee, we think it was the Common Eastern Bumble Bee (Bombus impatiens). It might be common but it was pretty cool. These bees are known to be hardy and will be the first to appear in spring.
The good pictures were taken from internet, mine are the rubbish ones.
We also had a bald eagle fly maybe 100m over the garden which was nice. We’re lucky to live by cliffs which seem to attract eagles and vultures.
Can anyone tell me what this tree is? It’s over 100′ tall, the trunk must be a good 4-5′ across and it has lots of small red blossoms on it. These trees are numerous around Kingston but I haven’t been able to identify it.
A beer or substitute for the first person who identifies it correctly.
Taken from Google street view, may or may not have had tenants then.
It was a cold winter day when these were taken so will be much nicer in the summer. One day we hope to move the cupola (the little house that sits on the roof) so it’s in the center of the house, making it slightly larger and adding more windows etc.
If you don’t know what a cupula is or it’s purpose then this is a nice little article.
It will be nice when we have removed up all this stuff, the junk, the rotting deck and the staircase. The staircase isn’t original and was probably added when they split the place into apartments. Yes, they are cement asbestos tiles but we will remove them carefully (with correct dust masks etc) and dispose of it in a proper fashion. We will keep the upper deck until the time comes to replace it.
No denying it is pretty bad. Looks like work was just abandoned…. very Mary Celeste of the roof. Nice views from the top though.
According to the neighbours the garden had been unattended for about a decade. In that time many hundreds of saplings (they looked like ash) have taken root. The small ones could be pulled out by hand but most needed digging out. Not hard but when you have hundreds it can get tiring. Spend two weekends on it so far and probably have half the garden cleared.
Worse than the trees are the creepers which are thick on the ground and like to put down roots every 6 or so inches which makes pulling them out hard.
The garden is a good space and we will first get accustomed to the levels and how we start to use it before we do anything. Currently we are thinking of some lovely blossoming trees and beautiful blue stone walls. We will visit https://www.opus40.org/ again to give us some inspiration.
