Home » Friday Fictioneers » Out of the Ash – Friday Fictioneers

Out of the Ash – Friday Fictioneers

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Good Wednesday, my Readers.  I’ve been struggling with this image for HOURS!  So.  Yeah.  Published it, not satisfied so have re-written it.  Those of you who read the original… I hope I can redirect you back!

Thank you, always, to Rochelle for keeping us all in line, for being there week after week with yet another challenge.  And this week, tormenting us with her own picture.  Thanks, Buddy!

If you want to play along, get your creative juices going and write a 100-word story (not including the title) with a beginning, middle and end.  That means, that is stands alone, peeps!  Then, once you are satisfied, click on the blue frog and add your link.  It’s fun, addictive and really challenges one to cut the crap!

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Out of the Ash

 

I watched in horror as they cut down my favourite tree – OUR tree.

“No!!”

“I’m sorry, Lady, no choice. Bad case of EAB – Emerald Ash Borer.”

“And you’re sure there was nothing else we could do to save it?”

“Unfortunately, no. Was too far gone. Just plant another one.”

“You don’t understand. It’s not just a tree. It was our tree. Now they are both gone.”

He looked at me with kindness. “Hang on, we’re not supposed to, but would you like some of these pieces?”

I hugged him in gratitude. “I know exactly how I shall honour both.”

***

Trees in my ‘hood are being cut down left, right and centre because of this bloody bug…

Nefarious creature
Designs that destroy
Canopy in peril
Saved – a rarity

128 thoughts on “Out of the Ash – Friday Fictioneers”

    • Thanks, mon amie! I’m just glad I’m one of the lucky ones who does NOT have an ash tree in my yard… so many of my neighbours had to have theirs cut down.

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  8. At least your neighborhood has and excuse. My town council decided the gorgeous maples lining all the downtown streets all have to go because they have reached their life expectancy. They aren’t being taken down as they die. They are being cut down because they might die soon.

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  14. I feel for the trees, it is bad enough putting up with mankind, but having to deal with the destructive emerald bore also. I really enjoyed the way you put the fact and fiction together.

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  16. I can relate – I got a tiny sapling in a Biology class when I was little which grew so big that years later Dad had to chop it down – the roots were threatening the house 😦

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    • Awww… what a bummer. We had a blue spruce that my dad planted right in the middle of the front lawn. I could jump over it. When we cut it down eons later, it was at least 35 feet high. All the neighbours who had bought at the same time had had to have theirs cut down because of splitting at the top. So we did it too. And got fined $900 for our efforts. 😲

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  17. So sad and so many diseases threatening entire species of trees these days. There’s one killiing all the Horse Chestnuts in the UK, the tree we used to call a Conker Tree. We used to collect the copper coloured conkers, thread the shiny nuts with string and play games with them – now they’re all dying. So well written and sad Dale

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  18. How I can identify with this piece. When we cruised the French canals in later years, huge swathes of embankment had been denuded of trees. In that case it was Chancre Colore, a disease that had been imported via munitions crates during the war and attacked Plane Trees en masse. But you had a lovely finale to your story.

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  32. Sniff…this reminds me of when we had to cut down the apple tree in my grandmother’s backyard. So many memories in a tree, especially when our loved one is also gone. I love that she got to keep pieces of the tree to memorialize her loved one. Very nice story, now I’ll dry my eyes. =)

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  37. I think this the same disease we have had here…. so many trees had to be cut down… The irony is that during the sixties there were huge rallies to stop the cutting of elms for building a new subway station… in the end the elms were saved just to be cut down because of the bug.

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    • Now that is totally ironic. Go figure. If caught in time, i.e., less than 30% affected, the trees can be saved. Still, sad state of affairs.

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  38. A bugger, eh!

    Emerald Ash Bore aside. I am always sadden when a tree is cut down.
    I have had to cut down trees on my property but not till it absolutely necessary. I always joke, ‘save a tree, murder a chainsaw’.

    If I understand it correctly.The new tactic by some municipalities is to cut down all elms (healthy ones}, in an attempt to starve out the bug and keep it from advancing into the area. With the idea at some point, perhaps decades away, replanting to establish it back into area.

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    • I dunno, Calvin. It seems that a ribbon around the trunk equals the demise of said tree. Then again, a friend saw my post on Facebook and offered his services – he said if less than 30% of the tree is affected, he has a very high success rate of treating said tree and saving it. I had to tell him my story was one of fiction 😉 but good to know!

      I cut down a huge blue spruce from my previous property. Bloody thing was over 35 feet tall, if not more. Two other neighbours had planted the same year as my father did and they had to cut down theirs as they were splitting at the top and were considered dangerous. I asked the city if I could cut mine down before it split and they said no. I did it anyway. The neighbours cheered as they always worried with every storm we had. However, $900 fine later… I kinda regretted it…

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      • Um blue spruce have a relatively short life span in urban areas. In the right habitat sure they’ll live 75 years give or take. Otherwise after 25 thirty years in backyards and side yards they usually began to die off from disease and the bud worm or just lack of air. I have about twenty they have made it to 70 feet but they are dying out so I will be thinning them slowly and replanting in between but not with blue spruce. Blue spruce are ornamental trees for the most part and a $900 dollar fine was and is ridiculous. Now if you cut down an ancient old growth cedar that is a different story. Which I have seen more times then I care to.

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        • I’m trying to think how old the spruce was… is have to say at the very least 30 years. Probably closer to 35. I thought it was at least 50 feet high but was told I didn’t know what I was talking about 🙄. I’m not one for cutting down trees foe the he’ll of it.

          Our fine actually included the cost of a replacement tree. So, say the city charged us $800 and it cost $150 for a red maple.

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