It's All My Fault

i admit it, i did it, i killed my tree. i didn't mean to, but i'm the one that planted the ivy. i'm the one who let it get out of control. i'm the one who didn't stop it soon enough. but it climbed the tree and choked it to death. on april 17th, we put it out of it's misery before we had a tree limb fall on the house or worse, on someone. 

it was already oddly shaped because we had lost a large limb years ago (pre-ivy) in a wind storm. 
 

i kept apologizing to it as i watched the tree guy at work.
 

look out below!!!
 

my husband had a lot of wood to cut up and haul.
 

we made the choice to keep this much of the tree for several reasons. it still provides a good bit of shade and a privacy block from the road. and a big reason for me... it is a huge sanctuary for birds. i'd like to know how many nests and families are in this thing. sometimes the amount of bird sounds coming from it is amazing. 

 it's kind of a large, natural high-rise aviary apartment complex.  :)