For the time being, the whole, heartbreaking tree desaster around our buildings has come to its end. Or better: the trees’ end.

And even though I had already admitted defeat, I still had to take another little frustrating defeat to make this whole business complete.

Last week, all doomed trees were marked (which was pretty much 90 per cent of all trees around our building). Even the three tall fir trees behind our neighbouring building were marked although so far noone ever mentioned that these trees were supposed to be cut down too. It surprised me because after all I am a member of the committee regarding this whole re-design of the estate. I already suspected that, after my last discussions regarding this whole tree-cutting-business, the managing board might prefer to just not inform us in order to avoid more discussions. Still, I went to the caretaker and asked:

“So, I noticed that the big fir trees are marked as well. Are they going to be cut down too?”

“Yes, they are. You know, when the guy from the garden company and I were marking the trees we looked at them and noticed that it is never going to be as cheap as now to cut it down. All the big machinery will already be here, so I decided these tree can go as well.”

“Oh..did they have a desease like the other ones?”

“No. But I mean, look at them! They are huge!”

“Oh?”

“I bet they are more than ten meters high!”

“…”

“And they don’t really look nice either!”

What can I say? You just can’t argue about trees with Swiss people.

So today, the big machinery came and within two hours our estate was cleared of all the trees. It was admittedly quite unsettling to watch it. The caretaker suggested with a smirk that I should stay inside all day so I don’t break into tears which I would have loved to answer with a scornful, evil eye, but I was too busy thinking about the itssocheapweshouldtakethechanceandcutmoretrees-approach. And you know, he was right – even while watching them from our window, I couldn’t help but shed a tear or two. It took them ten minutes to get completely rid of the two birch trees (while the little one and I were having breakfast). One of them had to go because it was rotten. The other one had to go because the managing board suspected that it might be rotten too. My suggestion to first check before we cut it off was disposed with the argument that it is definitely rotten because it grew so close to the other one. Turned out today that the tree was perfectly healthy.

It took them another ten minutes to cut off the three big firs (while I was having a shower). So efficient! So fast! It was pathetic. And it didn’t help that the little one was watching and shouting with a pitiful expression “off! off!” (ab! ab!) all the time. It really reminded me of Dogmatix…

So, we now have a very open area around our house. With open, undisturbed views over the soccer field, the industrial area and the neighbouring houses. The flat is definitely brighter, I admit. And I can check out our caretakers flat now.

I guess I will wait for the new trees to be planted and I hope that they’ll compensate. Karsten reminds me of the piano I bought as exchange for all the trouble. I’ll go now and play. Forest Scenes by Robert Schumann. Ha.