Longtime readers will remember that I have an orange tree in my living room, a tree planted from seed by Shaggy Hair Boy when he was small. It's got glossy green leaves and awkward branches that stick out in all directions, and I have to keep pruning it when the branches scrape the ceiling. I find paper airplanes stuck in the branches sometimes, and Boy in Black is always knocking leaves off when he practices with his light saber.
Yes, there are times when I wonder, "Why the hell do we have this tree in our living room?" Our living area is already crowded -- with a piano, a keyboard, a drum set, seven guitars, and several amps. We have an oak bench that is usually piled with laptops and books and sheet music. We barely have room for the couch. But still, the tree is a living thing, part of the household, and most days, I like having all that glossy green to remind me that spring will eventually come.
This year, in a surprise move, the orange tree started bearing fruit. Not just one orange, but clusters of fruit, green balls that dangled like ornaments at Christmas time. They've been dropping prematurely and aren't really big enough to be very juicy, but they are turning colour after they drop, giving us a glimpse of orange on a winter day.
10 comments:
That is so cool. I think I would enjoy some color in my living room right about now.
And that's why you have a tree in your living room.
I think it's great that you have an orange tree in your front room - and what a lovely splash of colour those oranges give.
How lovely. It's special too because Shaggy Boy helped bring it to life.
....and you thought you had room in your house for that old desk of mine!?
FA
We had an avocado tree that my boy planted when he was 3. He's almost 14 now, and trying to act cool and tough, but he wouldn't let us take the avocado stick away as long as there was any doubt at all that it might live (there wasn't). We're going to plant a mango in the same pot and see how it goes.
I think I would appreciate some gleams of orange like that very much about now - slowly catching up
I love this post. I'm not a longtime reader, but have gone through your archives and read the long-ago post about Shaggy Hair Boy's orange tree.
It must be nice to have that reminder of warmer climates in your living room.
I followed all your links to go back and read the story of the tree because I was curious if you did something special to make it grow. My mom had a peach tree she planted from a pit. She had to put the pit in the fridge for several months, and soak it, in order to get it to sprout. But Blond Niece just stuck the seeds in the dirt? Wonderful and amazing. I think I have a grapefruit seed sitting on my kitchen windowsill that Buddy saved. We'll try planting it.
I once planted an avocado pit; well, I put it in water and it rooted and then I planted it in the coffee can and from there a large bucket and it grew and grew and grew. Then, my friend said, let me have it. And, I did. Now, she tells me that it is dying. She's had that thing for about ten years. It takes up an entire corner of her house and the roots grow on top of the huge buckets that she keeps transplanting it into. I wish it would have made an avocado.
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