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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

AIBU to send a sympathy card to the neighbours tree

98 replies

aliasname · 09/07/2019 23:29

Shade from the sun, shelter from the storm
You reached your branches, to the summer morn
You shared your fruit with the grasping world
You shed your leaves as autumn unfurled

But they did not care, those murdering turds
That you gave a home to the bees and birds
Struck down in your prime, brutally slain
You wept silent tears in your sorrow and pain

For they did not care, as they took up the axe
And grinned as they swung, and started to hack
They did not see - Natures Majesty
As they, hellbent upon their travesty

But now, another life has died
And Mankind laughed while Our Earth cried.

OP posts:
stayathomegardener · 09/07/2019 23:36

I love trees; have planted hundreds but please don't you would come across as a complete arse.

Ponoka7 · 09/07/2019 23:39

Why did they cut the tree down?

Was there really birds and bees that lived in it?

GreasedPiglet · 09/07/2019 23:41

It's still nesting season - it's illegal to knowingly disturb nesting birds at the moment.

Tingface · 09/07/2019 23:47

Ha!! Do it Grin

ifpossible · 09/07/2019 23:51

This subject always irks me! We got tree surgeons who work at a local estate to look at ours & one had to come down cos it was in danger of falling and taking the gable end with it. My god the abuse we got from some arseholes we had never set eyes on before was unbelievable. I never even attempted to explain to these people as it was none of their bloody business and we didn’t want to lose the tree either!

5foot5 · 09/07/2019 23:51

OK. I love trees. Really I do. I am a member of the Woodland Trust and have a book on the famous old trees of the UK.

Sorry but your poem makes me cringe,

They grinned as they swung their axe. Really? Are you suggesting they are sadistic tree murderers who chopped the tree down for pleasure?

The tree wept silent tears. Oh please!

What sort of tree was it? Have you enquired why they had it removed? Was it diseases? Did it have dangerous branches. Was it undermining their foundations or taking all their light? They must have had some reason, it's unlikely they did it just because they like chopping down trees.

StillCoughingandLaughing · 09/07/2019 23:51

What the fuck are you drivelling on about?

Chloemol · 10/07/2019 00:07

Really! How do you know there wasn’t an issue with the tree? If you are that concerned plant one in your own garden and leave your neighbours alone.

RasberryR0ulade · 10/07/2019 00:12

@StillCoughingandlaughing Most would assume it could relate to another post perhaps
Are you pissed or just aggressive?

Original poster
aliasname · 10/07/2019 00:13

I don’t know why they killed it, they are new neighbours and we haven’t spoken to them. The tree looked very healthy and wasn’t near the house, but obviously we don’t know the exact reason.

I guess IABU but it just made me so sad. I touched the stump this morning and it was dripping (maybe they’d sprayed it with something to kill it very dead?) but that’s what prompted my ‘weeping’ line.

Yeah I know I was being melodramatic but the fact that the previous neighbours left it alone shows it wasn’t doing much harm... I do go around hugging trees though, so I am biased.

OP posts:
Original poster
aliasname · 10/07/2019 00:20

We have planted trees in our garden, but thanks for the suggestion. Problem is it would take 20+ years for a tree that size to grow.

OP posts:
2018SoFarSoGreat · 10/07/2019 00:21

I totally get it Alias

My previous neighbor had a tree that the raccoons and skunks lived in, and I loved to watch the babies run up and down at dusk. They chopped it down - along with all the other trees in their yard - and I was so distraught I called the police. They quietly laughed at me. It is horrible. Hope they had a really good reason to do it.

MoaMartinson · 10/07/2019 00:26

Don't contact them just quietly report them. It’s a criminal offence to cut down a tree that hosts birds, or even prune it, during nesting season if your local police don’t deal with it appropriately, follow it up via your local RSPB branch. It would make me angry too.

skybluee · 10/07/2019 00:46

I would be sad too.

PCohle · 10/07/2019 00:49

Christ, don't send them a twee, passive aggressive poem. It's their garden and you have no idea why the tree had to come down.

ErrolTheDragon · 10/07/2019 00:55

If they're new neighbours, it may be that they had a proper survey done and it was found that there was damage caused by roots. It may be that they couldn't get full insurance without moving the tree.

Or they might just be unthinking arses who don't like trees. There's no way (without asking them) to know.

BadLad · 10/07/2019 00:59

My previous neighbor had a tree that the raccoons and skunks lived in, and I loved to watch the babies run up and down at dusk.

I'm sure you'd be delighted to have skunks living in your own garden, and this isn't NIMBYism at all.

Iwasatglastothisyear · 10/07/2019 01:07

I'm the greenest person I know (apart from the Hulk and we're not really very similar at all) but please, do not do this.
They're likely to think you're a bit strange.

MrsTerryPratchett · 10/07/2019 01:11

That would 100% end up on www.passiveaggressivenotes.com/

SD1978 · 10/07/2019 01:22

So you trespassed in their garden to fondle a stump? I think you have more issues other than juts a flair for the dramatics.

TheTitOfTheIceberg · 10/07/2019 01:26

Have you ever been to the Sistine chapel, OP?

AndBreatheJustBreathe · 10/07/2019 01:33

Oh no. I have a huge conifer in my garden that blocks our light and needs to come down at some point.

Can I expect rage and abuse?

TSSDNCOP · 10/07/2019 01:40

And woeful verse Breathe

If they cut it down for no reason that's a great shame. If the cut it down because a survey by a professional type who may know a thing or two said it was dangerous that's fair enough.

Either way you can't know without asking and if you sent me that note I'd think you were batshit and avoid you like the plague.

15YemenRoad · 10/07/2019 01:42

I'm feeling extremely embarrassed for you. Are you consistently this dramatic over things that are nothing to do with you?

I can honestly say, if I were your neighbour and received that poem, I would laugh, cringe and then seriously think you were unhinged and avoid you.

Please do consider your reaction to this, it's bordering more than melodramatic to straight up lunacy.

Trees are beautiful, useful and nature overall is beautiful but come on. This isn't even your tree, it's on someone else's property.

LikeDolphinsCanSwin · 10/07/2019 01:51

I got rid of one. It wasn't that old, given how small it was when I bought the house. But 8 years later it was interfering with my drains, shading my whole, small, garden and affecting my buildings insurance.

I don't hug them, but generally speaking I like trees. But in the appropriate place. In the wrong place they are a bit of a menace.