Vocal Voices

The neighbours have a HUGE birch tree in their garden and with this wind we've had it's done a good job of dropping all it's little seed things; they are everywhere and get in via the smallest gap. My kitchen window faces the birch tree and I had it on vent only and I'm amazed how much still got in.

And matters definitely aren't helped by the fact that all my cats, bar one, are either long or semi long haired so they've been dragging it into the house every time they come in; their tails are just covered . Thank goodness the rain at the moment is helping a bit, but in the meantime the vacuum cleaner / broom and I are best friends

Oh gosh Ria!

Oh no Ria

We took the pups round Mick's mum's yesterday - Fraggs managed to get coated with tiny little green 'bits' from where D had just been trimming a shrub It took a lot of brushing to get it off

Problem solved..... so its birch trees responsible for those micro-twigs and "mouse dropping" seeds!

I'll put the traps away.

Is that what Smudge gets stuck in his fur? I call them stickyjacks

We had one in our other house. The regs here were if a tree was over 8m high, you couldn't cut it down without a council permit. We wanted it gone, the tenants, the neighbours, and us wanted it gone, the council said no. Last year the 8m rule was abolished. The tree was trimmed just below ground level within the month, to much celebration.

Oh boy did those seeds, then the leaves drive me nuts

Mum has had a massive kapok tree in the neighbours for at least 30 years putting white fluff directly over her during Christmas and jan, right when she wants to throw the doors and windows side open due to the heat. It got chopped down last week.

Oh wow Kapok, the stuff they use to stuff toys? I had no idea that grew on trees

The tree grows to 60–70 m (200–230 ft) tall and has a very substantial trunk up to 3 m (10 ft) in diameter with buttresses. The trunk and many of the larger branches are often (but not always) crowded with very large, robust simple thorns. The leaves are compound of 5 to 9 leaflets, each up to 20 cm (8 in) and palm like. Adult trees produce several hundred 15 cm (6 in) seed pods. The pods contain seeds surrounded by a fluffy, yellowish fibre that is a mix of lignin and cellulose.[1]

This one would have been perhaps 30-40 meters high. It was HUGE!!!
The neighbours including the tree owner discussed splitting the tree chopping cost and the council fine, only they couldn't find anyone who would fell it, the they discovered that the fine could also include jail time, so that plan fell flat. I remember collecting bag loads of the stuff one years and sitting there taking any debris out. I was going to use it to stuff a teddy bear I was making. Only, I never finished it.

Kaz wrote:Oh wow Kapok, the stuff they use to stuff toys? I had no idea that grew on trees

Me neither!!!