Winter is when the Pelham Bay oaks show you everything — no leaves to hide a crack, a rot pocket, a limb that has hung over the roof since the last blow. Owens Bros. Tree Service reads that bare structure and works while the ground is firm, taking out the hazards along Shore Road and easing the crowns on City Island lots where the water waits at the end of the street. Salt air and open exposure are hard on a tree, and pruning here is about giving the wind less to grab. Storm work on the sound side belongs to the dead-still hour after a gale: the drive opened, the downed wood hauled off, a way out to work in the morning. Come spring the yard is set, and the trees left standing are the ones that earned it.