Dry.

It felt quite chilly this morning again but I knew I would soon warm up once I started sawing away with the bow saw. Before moving the roof ladder from its usual place at the back of the house I cleared the back gutters of several bucket of soggy leaves. Then I was ready to haul the double ladder up to the hens' run. It wasn't until half-way through the morning that I realised the single ladder would have been long enough. I was able to set the ladder up nice and securely against the tree trunk and then the long process of tree cutting began. 

It took a long time with the bow saw especially when I had to keep stopping to  rest my hand. Still the view from the top of the ladder was pretty good. Eventually I heard the first cracks as the branch began to give way. I flew down the ladder to safety and then had to wait for a few minutes before the branch fell. This it did covering most of the concrete, I had taken down one of the washing lines beforehand and it only just missed the other line. The branch didn't break away cleanly and stayed attached to the tree. Before trying to get it off the tree I used the loppers to cut off as many of the small branches as possible. 

The robin was back singing sweetly from the hedge. (Is he a one-legged robin or is he just standing on one leg?) 

After a break I moved all the cut branches off the concrete and on to the  soil where they can dry out and at the same time smother any weeds that are trying to grow up through the soil. I cut as much of the big branches as I could and by very cautious sawing and then swinging the big branch from the ground finally got it to fall away from the tree. This is how it looked at the end of the day (7.00).