Early in January my gardener Martin and I went back and forth to the municipal building in Chapala about five times to secure a permit to remove and prune some trees. (All trees are the property of the national goverment here.) Once obtained, he and some friends went to work on a ficus and a palm that were both threatening to uproot the wall near the entrance.

Before:

Later, we decided to have the African tulip trees that were rather sickly and directly under the telephone lines cut as well.

After:

Of course now, by contrast, it looks a bit barren.

Someday we’ll hope to have some nice shrubs flanking the walkway.