before and after

This is a picture from April 4:

This is a picture from today:

You might think that things look remarkably similar, and if I rotate around a little bit, the difference might be a little more apparent:

You wouldn't know it from the shape of the bushes, but the pedestals (that might not be the right word...) that frame the stairway, on which Lilli was going to place her Halloween pumpkins, are GONE.  Last week we told Peter, our contractor, that we would not be heartbroken if those bushes were removed in the process, and he assured us that the crew would touch them as little as possible.  He was right!