I planted these trees about 23 years ago. I find the garden provides my best metaphors. The sunburst on the right is rangy, takes up lots of sunlight and needs to be cut back - hard - every few years.
The golden elm has never needed to be pruned but has simply taken what it'll get. Still a majestic tree the golden elm has allowed the dominant sunburst the centre and has still grown tall and beautiful.
Nature finds a way.
This touches something deep in side of me. I believed that this was what a poached egg was until in a high school home economics class I was told just just to boil some water and crack an egg into it.
No. But yes. I suppose that is poaching.
I got a coddled egg kit from mum's estate a few months ago and thanks to my three lovely chooks I have been able to do this on a regular basis. The Tabasco sauce a recent addition.
My friend Paul gave me a seedling last June. It's either the Bhut Jolokia or the Trinidad Scorpion. Either 1,000,000 Scoville points or 1,500,000. Hot, given that a Jalapeño is either 5,000 or 50,000 (Paul and myself don't agree on that).
But hot. And it made for some hot taco mix.
This Nashi finally died this year. Utipa. But there a heap of rootstock coming up - I'll get some scion wood in July from the rare fruit society and see if I can make a Phoenix rise from the ashes.
Right. So you self seedwd in my driveway five years ago. Since then I grafted a set of donout peaches onto you and espaliered you up my driveway, bearing fruit.
I grafted Nonno Guiseppe's favourite peach onto you two years ago and you have fruit ripening.
Hey! Self seeded peach in my driveway. If you're unhappy I'm sorry, but you weren't doing much with that good rootstock.
I gave the Brugmansia to Nana about ten years ago. Both Nana and my Mum are dead.
As we're clearing up Mum's place - where Nana lived for a while - I came to remember when I gave it to Nana.
First of all, it's a pig of a plant. It won't die and will just get long and rangy. Its flowers are nice enough, but everything about the plant is poisonous in some way. I offered some cuttings to my father in law and once I knew what I was talking about he promptly and politely declined.
But Nana liked the plants and I did at the time. When I gave it to her I reminded her that the Angel's Trumpet is unpopular because some people might boil up the flowers for their drug effects and some kids have died.
Nana shrugged. If people are stupid enough to do that why is it my fault. I call it the Darwin plant. Just another element in the process of natural selection.
One of the hottest chillies there is. 200 times as hot as a Jalapeño. And it ripens in a funny way.
