Please don’t give tourists and others this idea or they’ll be breaking branches to try this and exposing trees to disease.

They are probably repointing the brick which means they pull out what’s left of the old sand and lime mix between the bricks and press in a new mortar mix. It’s a slow and tedious skilled but messy job. Now that I’m living in Washington DC, all our historic houses 100 years old are needing this done. You don’t fill with cement or your bricks may crack from the freeze thaw with nowhere for the moisture to go, called spalling.

Bring something to read/do while you wait. Pack your patience.

And he took that day - Jan 6 - off.