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History repeats
Mar. 23rd, 2025 11:12 am
Our old place, a dismal, mildewed duplex at the end of a cul-de-sac, had little to recommend it. Some nice neighbors, including the kids who used to make paper with Denise and watch me throw pots in the carport. Feral kittens, two of whom we brought with us when we moved to River Road. A small stretch of blackberry bushes along the fence that we pruned and watered for berries. And plums.The plums were kind of a surprise. One of our over-the-fence neighbors had a tree, but well outside of reach, so we never got to collect windfalls. Then one year, a plum tree sprouted on our side of the fence, right at the end of the street. I assume scrub jays planted it, dropping pits while eating on the fence. I espaliered it to the south-facing fence, and and it flourished, even gave us plums in the second or third year. I don't know whether the tree is still there or not, haven't been back since we escaped the place. I suspect someone less appreciative of volunteer fruit may have cut it down to preserve the fence.
There was a plum tree next door when we moved up to River Road, but it was one of those ornamental jobbies, the ones with red leaves and pink blossoms. It was pretty old, the trunk had split at some point and grown back from the root stock, so half the branches had red leaves and pink blossoms, the other half green with white. Eventually, it rotted out to the point that they took it down, and that was the end of it.
Except. Sometime in that period, the jays--or possibly squirrels--had taken one of the rare fruits to eat on the fence on the other side of the lot. And dropped the pit.
I'd noticed it several years ago, a little red tree, growing slowly in the shade of our big incense cedar. Didn't really pay much attention, until this year. When the whole thing burst into bloom. I've got a ten-foot treelet covered with pink blossoms, right outside my office window.
It's plum beautiful.