We got rid of the birch that was standing too close to the house; its roots probably went into the drainage from our house which is a Bad Thing. Dad was over with the power saw and had it down in a jiffy; we’ll have plenty of firewood from that tree once we cut it up and cleave the logs! The fumes from the power saw invoked my childhood — so many good memories of working in the forest returning! Feeling like professional house owners now. After all we’ve lived here for almost seven months.

We keep making new discoveries in the garden, too. The red mushrooms coming up in the strawberry patch are rhubarblings! Not quite as cool as if they had been The Shooting Star (Tin-Tin) type fungi but much nicer on the whole.