When a branch falls in the city ...

A tree beside my building has provided shelter for my west-facing apartment from the summer sun in the late afternoon. The knothole in the centre gave space for a mother racoon to birth her kits. The smaller one on another branch is a squirrel condo. I heard tell of baby squirrels, but I saw none.

Suddenly at 10:45 a.m., the morning of 16 May, I heard cracking, popping sounds outside my apartment. Racing to the balcony to investigate and about three seconds after I looked over the rail, the two foot thick branch split with a loud cracking sound, fell on the ground bending the fence. Fortunately no human was in its path. There was no sign of anyone except for some of the tree’s dwellers.

I watched as one squirrel scampered up the tree and the other crashed to the ground with the branch. I saw it a few minutes later, scampering up the tree with the other so I guess it did not suffer injury. The raccoons were apparently out for the day.

After it was clear this mini disaster movie was finished, I went down to have a closer look.

I discovered that there were several other tree dwellers there who took the idea of home made meals very literally -- apparently, some sort of beetle grub gnawed away at the tree's insides weakening the branch. An ominous sign. I fear the city may need to take down both trees before the summer is over. I will lose my summer shade. Raccoons will lose a heritage site. Squirrels will go nuts finding a new neighbourhood. Blue jays, cardinals, robins and redwing blackbirds will land elsewhere.

Since then, another branch fell late one evening and the stark reality of the tree's demise was brought closer to home when I stepped onto the balcony. My view of the valley below had changed substantially. I had a clear view of the southbound lanes of the highway and could see the river, even at night.

A recent storm took down a third branch opening up the view to the ground below.

The increased sunlight will add to the summer heat experience, but I hope to use the extra solar input to experiment with solar cooking. My solar battery recharger should work more quickly.

I doubt this will make much difference in the winter. However, I will still get plenty of sunshine when I need it most.