My dear readers, I have told you in recent posts that the Captain and I are in Spring Fever mode and are “spiffing” up both the inside and the outside of our home…also known as Villa de la Luna! When we moved to Florida…we fell in love with our Spanish/Mediterranean home with the front courtyard and decided the home looked sorta like a villa, so of course it needed a name. You see, I tend to name every thing….. even inanimate objects..ie; Belonging to the class of nouns that stand for nonliving things: The word car is inanimate; the word dog is animate!
Shortly after moving into our home, we ordered the sign that named our home, Villa de la Luna which translates “Home of the Moon”! The Captain put the plaque in the foyer, just outside the courtyard, beside the huge double courtyard doors. It just seemed the right thing to do. If you would like to see how the name came about, check out this link: Total Eclipse of the Heart…and Moon
Let me describe the front of our little casa. We have three, huge, Shady Lady trees, dripping with Spanish Moss in the front yard of the house…and very tall ficus hedges all along the property lines separating the neighbors on either side.
Personally, I think the moss is so romantic…makes one think of the movie “Gone with the Wind” and Scarlet O’Hara is standing on a hill under the Spanish Moss laden Oak tree as the sun is setting with brilliant colors of yellow, red and orange. The wind is gently blowing through her hair as she looks down at Tara, her Southern plantation home in the distance.
Yep….I like the look of Spanish Moss.
So what is the problem you might ask?…. the problem is that these tall, beautiful branching trees whose canopies cast a soothing, wonderfully cool shade over the whole front of the house and courtyard, continually shed their leaves.
… and the leaves and tiny, tiny flower-ettes leave a sappy stain, the color of rust all over our circular drive. This ugly stain has to be power washed for complete removal, which means a weekly power wash if one wants to stay ahead of it. The driveway looks like old cars have sat there until they have completely rusted before they were hauled away, leaving a reddish sienna brown coating etched into the concrete. There appears to be only one solution to ridding the driveway of this unsightly mess. Cut down one of these lovely shade trees, particularly the one in the middle of the circular drive as it is the one that appears to be the perpetrator doing the most damage.
But to cut down a tree? Oh, my gosh!
You see, the outdoors, trees and flowers were an ever present reality in my life along with I Love Lucy, Aqua Net Hairspray and black and white saddle shoes! I absolutely love trees and growing up I loved climbing trees, teetering on skinny little branches going as far to the top as the strength of the branches would allow. I guess you could call me a tree-hugger because as a little girl, I hugged trees. I was most likely a tree whisperer long before the name was coined because I talked to trees.
So how can I, order the chopping down of one of nature’s beauties?
My desire changes from day to day. On an extremely stressful day, when I go out to water the plants in the foyer…and I see the mess of leaves strewn all along the foyer walls and driveway, along with the rusty residue. I want the tree gone. Then, on calmer days, as I sit on the Lanai sipping lemonade and enjoying the gentle breeze floating over the 10 foot courtyard walls…I think to myself….oh, it really isn’t that bad when sitting in here and if one of the three trees were removed…would the ambiance be the same?
I would like to tell you my dear readers, that this dilemma has just come up, but that wouldn’t be the truth. I have had this love/hate relationship with these Shady Lady Trees since we moved into this house 6 years ago.
Oh, did I forget to tell you that the three trees have names? Of course they do….Kathryn Hepburn, Maureen O’Hara, and Rita Hayworth. Three fiery shady ladies with rusty colored hair.
Help me folks, is it time for Rita to leave the trio?
Thanks and have a great beginning to your week.
Blessings to all!
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