The View Out My Window

 We are at about peak fall color here this week.  Teetering on the point between the most trees turning and the least leaves falling off because of wind and rain.  I have really been enjoying the morning view out my window as I do my computering each day.

In fact, all summer I have noticed that this specific view into the woods was so peaceful.  I started to wonder why I was appreciating this view more.  What changed?  Then I remembered.

For most of the 23 years I have lived here there has been this Ash tree full of Poison Ivy smack in the middle of the view.  In the summer the Ivy leaves would be green and lush, and in the fall they would be brilliant yellow, but under it all was that dying tree trunk looking worse and worse each year.  No one wanted to deal with it because of the Poison Ivy.

Finally, two years ago, we asked the neighbor, who is not allergic to Poison Ivy (although he attracts deer ticks like a magnet so there is a trade-off) to help us by chain sawing through the main stems of several gigantic Poison Ivy vines that were taking over dead Ash trees on the edge of the woods.  What a difference that has made in the Ivy department.  I used to find half a dozen Poison Ivy seedlings in my perennial gardens every week.  I have maybe found two or three all year.  Plus, I don't have to look at that ugly vine out my window.  Once the vine died, we knocked the tree over with a tractor and even managed to salvage some of it for firewood.