The Great Cherry Tree Massacre of 2013

So the lovely and overly-laden cherry tree in the backyard of our new place first suffered this indignity at the hands of recent storms...

   

And then we realized that some of the branches were pressing rather dangerously onto some power lines (probably thanks to their newfound cherry-weight.) We called the electric company to take care of it and... well... they certainly did.

 

 

The fact that they were using a cherry picker did not fail to amuse me.

   

That poor tree is right by an electric pole with wires going off in two different directions, so it basically got its ass kicked in a bid to avoid disaster. I'm glad it's safer now, but it does look a bit sad. And now we have a clear view of the pole. Yaayy..........?

   

I'm sure it'll cheer up and fluff out a little next year. From what I've read you're supposed to prune cherry trees pretty thoroughly anyway so that they produce better fruit, so... here's hoping this counts! Certainly means there'll be fewer cherries for me to clean up, I guess. I wish I'd gotten a picture of them shoveling all the cherries off the patio, haha. It looked like a cranberry harvest out there.

PS: this is what it looks like when a robot brontosaurus throws up:

   

I don't know why I thought that was so funny. Probably because I'm a child.

Christoween Part 1: The Tree

So I decided a little while ago that I was sad about never getting to use Halloween decorations... we don't generally have parties since most of our friends come into town around Thanksgiving and Christmas, and this year we weren't even in this country.

So this year, we're having Halloween for Christmas. And I am having way too much fun with it.

So without further ado, the tree:

I don't know if you know this, but fake black Christmas trees are really difficult to photograph... especially in a small space with weird light and a prime lens and a curtain that can't be moved any farther away :-P  This is literally the only angle where I could get the (almost) whole thing in the frame. (The next posts will look a little better, I promise.)

 

 Much to my husband's chagrin, I restricted the ornaments to shades of orange, brown, gold, silver, gray, black, and a little white. I think there's also a tiny touch of purple.

 

 We still need a tree topper :-( I keep forgetting to look for a boring blank star that I can cover in orange glitter. Because glitter is what Christmas and Halloween are all about.

 

 Look, it's Tiny Bat!

 

Gotta have a christmas pickle! It's not quite as fun when there are only two of you in the house though.

Next up, gift wrap!