untitled

i don't know what to title today's post. i just can't find a word to express all the mixed up feelings we have. we're all so sick inside because they cut down the two large mulberry trees on the courtyard side of our apartment. the beautiful ones that danced and waved at us every day when we looked outside. the ones that were home to the blue jays this winter and the chickadees and squirrels in the summer. i was expecting this. i was just hoping they could wait a few more years. but fear stepped in. the trees were very large, and their land area was very small. there were residents who were afraid they would fall down. residents who don't live with them outside their window. residents who have hated these trees for years . . (it's a long story . . but i've heard these people speak vehemently about how these trees needed to GO.) i knew their days were numbered. the really horrible part is how the gardening committee and the managing agent decided to present the removal. they put up a copy of a letter stating that all trees in all apartment sites would be pruned february 12, 13 and 14. nothing was mentioned about cutting the mulberries down. yesterday morning i kept checking on the pruning that was being done to the mulberries. all of a sudden i realized that the pruning had gone too far and i rushed downstairs and yelled at the workers to stop and then ran like a crazy person to the office. the managing agent was out (the one who had co-authored the announcement) and the back-up people only knew that the trees were to be pruned. so they ordered the tree pruners to cease . . and the topic was brought up at the shareholders meeting last night. we didn't have enough time to present contrasting evidence of good tree health (which we had done five years ago). today the trees came down. it's been a painful lesson for the girls about insensitivity, self-centeredness, and what it means to live with small-minded, hurtful people. 

 i couldn't stay home for the removal. we left at 7:45 this morning for brooklyn. yes, we ran away to untidy, still a bit wild, wonderfully disheveled brooklyn. we had breakfast at one of our favorite places: park cafe on 7th avenue. and then we went shopping at the coop. i usually don't go on weekdays. we usually do lessons or instrument practice or work on ellen's end of year dance pieces . . but not today. and then after the shop we dropped morgana off at her guitar lesson . . and waited to take her to her ballet class (she's in the dark blue leotard). 

 chanda is working on a sweater for her harry potter halloween costume. nothing like an early start! she intends to be "lucy potter." it's a character she made up and she will wear a hogwarts robe with a grey sweater and . . hmmm . . maybe a skirt? and tights? it's been a tearful, mournful day.