Chainsaw cactus massacre

the almond tree last spring

Had a chainsawing day today... wasn't meant to take up the whole day, and it didn't, other than the start and finish times. Somehow the work got punctuated by morning tea, lunch, nap, afternoon tea and... well, there you have the picture. The main massacre was the removal of the 7-metre flower stem of a giant cactus hopefully before its many hundreds of little fruiting bodies were ripe and determined to make lots of baby cacti. Savage prunings of one large almond tree (one of four) - I leave the almonds to the galahs - and a medium sized nectarine tree provided a reasonable amount of firewood logs now that my fireplace hosts a fire and will remain alight for much of the winter.

One decent-sized log keeps it going overnight if I'm lucky. The other reason for attacking that nectarine tree (one of three) was that it attacked ME at eye level every time I tried to get between it and the wall of the 100 year old  inground stone water cistern. I also cut back the dead trunk of an elderly pear tree (one of two) but have hopes that the remaining side limb will manage some fruit next year. I think that that tree - going back well before my tenure - has had a distinguished career. There are plenty of fine trees on the block which will outlast me by considerable margins.
 Postscript:

A quiz for the adventurous. No prize... simply the honour and glory of being right. The bridge in the background, above, links which mainland to which island famous in song?

Answer: (inserted on 3 June). OK here's a clue. The Skye Boat Song. "Speed, bonnie boat, like a bird on the wing...".  Honorable mention to DB who says he's been across the bridge now linking the Scottish mainland to Skye, famous as the island route by which Bonny Prince Charlie made his escape from the English in 1746.