The saga of a Platanus

 In our garden there is a quite big tree, a Platanus, that has been possibly be brutally cut down before we moved in.

Still, despite the cut, branches have been growing up from the top and, although not as impressive as it was probably before, it has been still a fascinating tree. Covered by a lot of ivy, which we have bothered relatively little to remove, it has been one of the few trees that are welcoming to climb (thanks to the ivy, I guess).

This tree is probably one of the oldest ones that we have in our garden and all the Swedes I talk to are always mesmerized we have such a tree in our property.

The crack 

  

Today, our arborist came by for the annual apple trees treatment and I asked him if he could check the other trees around. He then noticed a big crack on the plane. I am pretty sure that that has been there for quite some time, it can't have been appearing from nowwhere, but on the other hand, the tree has been covered by ivy and I have attempted recently to clean it a bit.

A big chunk got off

The risk that it would fall and harm something is small, at worse it would damage the hedge, but better to take precautions as we usually don't have much luck with trees that are old and fall. So, we agreed on removing the dangerous parts.

One can see how big the trunk is (or better, was)

From the other side, the part that got removed

I believe we have a mixture of branches and ivy

It is an old tree and it is not in its best shape. I believe this was the main reason why its crown was cut before our arrival. But it is still beautiful to see, with those enormous leaves that when it is autumn and winter (and partially spring), fly around. 

Good to have firewood out of the cutting of the tree

What is left of the tree got secured and stabilized. Let's see what will happen to it.