By: Gillian Zylka
It’s all a muddle in my head. What went first, the deck, the
old tree, the trampoline, or the kids?
I think it was the deck; old rotten and
graying, we sawed it up and burned it in the backyard. It took two days of huge
bonfires with a garden hose nearby for safety, but the firemen showed up
nonetheless. I was tending the fire, I almost got fined. The firemen were both
impossibly gorgeous, and all I could was say “Did I do something wrong?” Yes, I
had broken quite a few bylaws, but I had makeup on that morning, they let me
off with a stern warning.
The trampoline was moved to the front yard, sign went up down the street. “Free
trampoline,” and our address. I couldn’t bear to see it go, we waited inside
the house for half an hour, when we went outside it was gone.
The kids hadn’t used it in years, and
every summer I would say, “I think I’ll get rid of the trampoline this summer,
you guys never use it anymore,” to a chorus of protests… “No no,” they would
say “…not the trampoline.”
First one of the boys went away to
University, he did his first year came home for the summer, then told me, “Mom,
I’m going back to school this fall, I won’t be coming home again, except at
Christmas.”
We took him to the airport and he
turned with tears in his eyes to board his plane. We went home and I cried for a very long
time…first one gone.
The other two announced their departure
the same day a few years later, just before the University of Calgary school
year began. That was it. I was on my own.
The following summer, I decided, this
backyard was dominated by the trampoline now gone, time to do some work.
I dug out weeds in the flower beds and planted gardens. I was very
enthusiastic about it, it took a lot of hard work.
Then
the tree in the front yard had to go, it was thirty years old, a poplar and
split up the middle, it was leaning precariously in the direction of our
neighbours roof. It was on city property, they came and took down the tree. It
was a sad day. It was a majestic old tree, large with branches extending to the
sky. You could see it for blocks, easily the largest tree. We split the rounds
into firewood, and consoled ourselves by burning it the following year. It
wasn’t the best firewood, the old fireplace smoked and left the house smelling
like fire, but we relished the experience. It meant something to us.
This summer, we decided to plant a
tree; it started with one. Our neighbours across the street have a weeping
birch that is quite possibly forty years old, also a majestic tree, with big
long graceful branches that drape down with multitudes of small healthy leaves.
I announced, “That is what I want, I
want a weeping birch on my front lawn…”
We went to the garden centre and found
one. It had been wrapped up since it left the nursery, it was dubious if it had
been taken care of properly, but it was on sale, we foolishly bought it. We also
found an Amur cherry tree, which was undoubtedly healthy, and I thought would
go well in the spot where the deck had been burned. We bought the two trees and
brought them home in the back of our Van, with a red tag trailing.
Check out Part 2 tomorrow...
Check out Part 2 tomorrow...
