Our neighbour came round with his chainsaw

The upshot is that we took out the catalpa completely - well it's too big for a small garden like ours. He assures me that because the water table is so low in Bordeaux cutting down the catalpa won't cause his house any subsidence problems. Bon.

Then we trimmed back two of the mulberries - which turn out to be grafted onto sycamores. It is a grafted tree introduced into France some years ago and prized for its vigour...

Anyway, those chainsaws are great, aren't they !

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