Satisfied
Today was awesome!
It started with a clean house. Then our house was filled up with new friends and good food. We invited the family of one of Lucas’s school friends over for brunch. I’ve been hitting it off well with this talented, intuitive, smart, and funny mommy, Kelly. We’ve had tea together a few times and have really enjoyed getting to know each other. This was our first opportunity to get to know Kelly’s husband, Jon. They have three children, and our kids all got along pretty well. Their oldest son was a little too old to play with the little ones much, so for part of the time, he read and part of the time he hung out with the adults. The others played outside after brunch, drawing chalk pictures all over the patio and pathways. We all had such a wonderful time together. We found common ground. It was relaxed and easy. It’s such a good feeling to make new friends!
Then we went to one of my favorite places, Capital Nursery, and spent some my birthday money from last year. We bought two fruit trees, which is really exciting to me. Some of my fondest memories from childhood involve me and my brother waiting for the fruit trees to flower, watching the fruits grow and become ripe, and then gorging ourselves on the produce. The house we lived in from my birth until I was 13 (right here in sunny Fair Oaks) had two enormous orange trees in the back yard, two cherry trees, a plum tree, and pecan trees, too. I have never in my life since had oranges as good as the ones produced by those trees! They were as big as grapefruits.
Anyway, I’ve been thinking about those special memories and wishing that our yard had some fruit trees so that my sons might have a similar happy experience while they are growing up. It will take a long time before the trees are big enough to produce much, but today we bought and planted a cherry tree and an apricot tree. The cherry is truly a marvel of modern science! (Well, what do I know? This could be very old science.) It’s a marvel to me because it’s one tree with three branches and each branch is a different variety of cherry: Bing, Rainier, and Van!
CalCherry.com (http://www.calcherry.com/ccab/consumer.cfm?varieties=1) says:
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The reason I picked a cherry and an apricot is that they are both available only for a limited time in the summer. And they tend to be expensive in the grocery stores, so I thought it would be groovy to pick and enjoy our own fruit!
We planted the new trees this afternoon. Then Ian worked on our hacked-and-slashed drip system to repair it. I made a wreath out of pruned, bare wisteria vines that had been trying again to climb up our redwood tree. Lucas played; Asher napped inside. It was such a gorgeous day!
We rounded it out with a lovely steak dinner cooked by Ian. Asher is currently grumpy because he’s tired and I’m on the computer instead of cuddling him. Lucas has gone to bed a happy and tired boy. Sometimes life can be so peaceful. And I am grateful.
