Time to prune the olive tree

We have an olive tree in the back garden which I put in in around 2002/3, so it has been in a few years.  I found this photo of Robin, with Kookaburra on the terrace and the tree is small and compact. The photo was taken on the 10th of February 2003.  We did not have a fence around the terrace then!

2003 - A young and fit Robin - and just look at all those pots. 
That was in the days when Grandma liked to take an interest in the garden.

2003 - a better view of the kookaburra, and Grandma and Robin.

However, we have only pruned it once and have just let it go since, apart from cutting the branches that hit us in the face when walking through the carport.

A lot of other trees were getting out of hand too, in both the back and the front garden so we bit the bullet and got someone in to prune them all properly - the olive, apple, three citrus trees plus three large bushes that were beginning to get tangled into the cable TV and telephone wires in the front garden.  (It would be lovely if we lived in a modern suburb where all the wires are underneath the ground)

We called out the same arborist that looks after the gum behind the olive.  He checked that over too and gave that a clean bill of health.  It has a thin out every five years or so and is due end of this year, but he thinks it will be OK until next year, but we will get it checked - it is a very big tree.

Before the tree was pruned - it is well above the facade of  next doors garage.

...and after.  It is just above the facade.

The pruning and mulching of the branches started at about 7 am and it was all too much for Winnie - she took off and we did not see her again until nearly 7 pm. Which was a bit of a nuisance as she had an appointment at the vets for her yearly vaccinations.  So we had to cancel that, twice, as we did not think she would stay away that long....

The garden was awash with branches but between the three workers it was all removed and through the
mulcher by lunch time, leaving the garden immaculate - well, as immaculate as our garden can be.

Next job for me is to cut the lavender  (bottom right) which smells just lovely.  Might wait
for a cool day for that though - mid thirties as we have at the moment is a bit to much for me...