White Oleander

Today was another vacation burning day. It was a chore day.

Our yard is lined with oleanders along the front and one side. The oleanders are dying. I thought that cockroaches and oleanders were going to be the survivors of a nuclear holocaust. But the oleanders aren't going to be so lucky. They're dying of Oleander Leaf Scorch (read all about it).

Here's a picture of an oleander that's still on the side of the yard.

That is what oleanders are supposed to look like. (Actually, there are a couple of leaf tips at the top left corner that are showing the scorching.)

Here's one still at the end of the driveway.

Dying.

There is no cure. There is no vaccine. They're going to die.

Instead of waiting until they're dead then starting a new screen to block the view of the highway we decided that now's the time for them to go.

Today I took down the last clump of the oleanders that went across the front of our yard.

Of course (since this blog is all time-lapse all the time) I made a time-lapse video of the process.

I set the intervalometer to have the camera take a shot every three seconds. I play them back in my video at a rate of 30 frames per second. That speeds the action by 90 times. It took a little more than an hour and a half and the video is over in just over a minute (including a four-second title).

After I took the camera in the house I continued to hack at the stumps. There is no way to get them out of there without some heavy duty power equipment. As I was hacking away a car stopped and the driver got out and came over. He's in the tree trimming business and can grind the stumps out. He's a neighbor. I think we'll hire somebody to do that. Maybe him.

This really isn't a terribly interesting movie. If you skip it I won't be upset.