Hickory dickory dock

We have, on our little suburban plot of land, two enormous oak trees (at least 6 feet around at the base, probably over 8), a baby shagbark hickory, a sassafras, a crabapple, and apple, two pears, a plum, a persimmon, a nectarine, a peach, a silver maple, a staghorn sumac, a redbud and two baby oaks, (and that is a listing of only the TREES!) so losing the enormous shagbark hickory that is mommy to the baby we have shouldn't bum me out as much as it does.
The tree was not healthy last year. We didn't get the glorious golden fall color in October. And the nasty winter and insanely late spring has done her in. But she's so big. And beautiful. And I didn't get any pictures of her in her autumn glory.
In her place, I will plant a tulip poplar who volunteered himself in one of our beds two years ago. He's only about 18 inches tall right now, but they are native to the area and can grow to 100 feet!! Plus they have cool leaves. And I will finally add the Japanese maple I've been wanting for years. There's always room for more trees!

In memoriam, I'm sharing the only two pics I could find of the old girl. (She's in the background of both.)

Through our arbor, nearly straight ahead, alas hidden by the out-of-control porcelain vine.

 

There she is in the back stretching over the rooftop.

UPDATE: Much like Mark Twain, news of our hickory's death is an exaggeration. I actually spotted a bit of green on her a week after this post. She is now classified as the plague victim in Monty Python: mostly dead. Hopefully, she'll get better.