Well, we were for a few hours yesterday. A cotoneaster fell onto the driveway overnight making vehicle access impossible and requiring foot traffic to duck down to waist height.
The weekend was marked by gale force winds and torrential rain. And while we thought we had escaped any damage, it seems that their combined forces weakened the ground sufficiently for the tree, roots and all, to topple. It’s always had a preference of growing over the driveway, and no doubt its lopsidedness was a significant factor in its demise.
Fortunately a crew from All Tree Services arrived within three hours of us contacting them, and half an hour later, very little evidence of the tree falling remained, apart from the root stump. That’s too large for their chipper and will need to be ground down. That’s a job for another day.
The tree was destined to be removed in a few years anyway. We’d planted a Cherry blossom tree and Japanese maple close by to replace it eventually, but were in no hurry to remove it as it provided shelter and an abundant supply of berries for birds in early winter. It also provided a measure of privacy, filtering the view of the house from the street. It will quite a few years before it’s replacements are sufficiently large to provide much privacy at all.
Another Spectrum 
21 Jul, 2021 at 5:32 pm
So i guess you now have a lot of wood fuel for your fireplace 🙂
21 Jul, 2021 at 8:22 pm
We no longer have any fireplaces. They were removed last year during the renovations. Buying in wood was too expensive. Heating just the living areas from mid afternoon to evening in the coldest 4 months of the year cost more than running the heat pump 24/7 for the coldest 6 months. Although it’s not a central heating system (they’re rare in NZ homes), it keeps most of the house at a comfortable 20 – 22°C.
Having said that, today we found removing the fireplaces has its downside. There’s a post coming shortly.
22 Jul, 2021 at 3:14 am
We’ve had three or four such storms this summer with trees falling all over the place. Being a catastrophist, I lump it all into the climate change tipping point. Now I know it’s happening on the other side of the world too.