Shadows & Upheaval

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Since childhood I've had a love of trees and how they frame our world with a canopy of color, filter light, rustle in the breeze, cast shade in heat. It wasn't until I married my husband that I learned some people consider yard trees to be a major headache :-). The former owner of our Seattle home was an avid gardener and had planted many trees, one of which was towering between our house and our neighbor's. My husband had a tree company take it out, fearing it would crash into one house or the other in a wind storm. There were still 4 smaller trees left on that side of the house, so it wasn't as heartbreaking to me as it might have been. After our first windstorm here, I was glad he had been proactive about it. I have an arborist look after our remaining trees and get them trimmed and inspected every couple years.
At first sight I just loved seeing the shadow of this large old lovely along a Capitol Hill street, then I noticed the brick gutter (a common feature in Capitol Hill) was a victim of serious tree roots. One of the downsides of lovely tree-lined streets. The Department of Transportation recently started requiring certain new developments install blocks around the root systems of new tree plantings to prevent this kind of damage to sidewalks, curbs and streets.