I had the most beautiful surprise this past week. The mail man arrived with a package marked Royal Mail from my friend Pixie! That in itself brightened my day but when I opened it the gift inside took my breath away. A beautiful Friendship Shawl sent to me as an early birthday gift. I just love this shawl, Pixie, thank you so very much for your thoughtfulness and friendship.

Here are some pictures:

From misc

From misc

So, one day I went to the grocery store and spotted a papaya. It looked good. Haven’t eaten one in ages. I bought it and took it home. When I sliced it, I started to throw away the seeds but then I thought what a waste to do that. I had no idea how to plant a papaya tree but decided to try. I rinsed the seed just a little bit because they have a lot of slime and bits of fruit attached. Patted them dry carefully on a paper towel and left them to sit and dry a little bit. I prepared a pot with store-bought potting soil. Same as I use for house plants. I had no idea how deep to plant them but I sort of put them at different depths under the soil, set the pot out on the back porch in the sun and watered it faithfully.

Several little “treelets” came up and I was so pleased. I waited for them to be strong enough to put into the ground and once they did, I planted the best 3 out in a sunny spot in the garden. Along came a frost and even though I covered them, they didn’t make it. I didn’t throw away the few left in the pot that hadn’t been large enough and soon they were joined by some more (apparently some I had planted deeper). I separated them into separate pots to give them more space but left them in the pots so I could pull them in if we had cold weather. I waited and worried over the little “treelets” for a very long time. I lost lots of them and I began to think my little experiment was a waste of time even though it was interesting.

Over time and for whatever reason I lost most of my little trees until only one very strong one was left. It got larger and larger and when it was about 2 feet tall I planted it rather than put it in a larger pot. It took root and grew and grew. I was so proud of my little tree. Then, along came winter and we had an especially cold day. I tried everything I could to protect the little tree. I covered it with frost cloth being careful to make a tent so it didn’t touch the leaves. Afterwards, the tree looks a little weaker and a little droopy but the weather got warmer and for a while it looked like some leaves were coming out of the stalk below where the older ones fell out. Then the center where the growth comes from started dying and almost looked like it was rotting.

I have learned you shouldn’t “top” trees so I was worried about what to do. Then my husband reminded me I didn’t have anything to lose. Either the tree was meant to be or it wasn’t. So I opted to chop off the dead part and kept watering this poor little stalk with no leaves sticking out of the ground. About 2 weeks later I noticed that 4 of the little leaves that had been trying to grow under the places where leaves had fallen off were looking larger and stronger. I kept watering and hoping. One day I went out to check and found that those four little leaves were in fact branches and each had a growth coming out the top just like the original tree. I decided to leave all 4 branches on even though a papaya is typically only a trunk and leaves with no branches. The base of the tree grew wide and strong so I decided to leave them all unless it looked like they were suffering or shriveling.

Well, the little tree grew and grew very fast. I was amazed at the speed it grew. All 4 branches were growing new leaves in a big hurry. the top two are the strongest but the bottom two are doing well too. Then one day I noticed that there were little flower buds growing just above each leaf near the top of all 4 branches. Then, yesterday some of them opened! I was so thrilled after everything this poor little tree had to go through to make it from a seed I didn’t want to waste to a strong and blooming tree. I couldn’t get pictures of the first bloom because it started raining before I could get out there with my camera. I got some pictures today though and the flowers are open just a bit farther so you can actually see them better. So here are the blooms of the tree that was meant to be.

It’s our 25th today but I still feel like a newlywed. As they say, time flies when you are having fun. I feel like it was just yesterday when we stood together in that little chapel.

We plan on celebrating this weekend with a nice dinner out but he surprised me this morning with a dozen beautiful long-stemmed yellow roses. They are so beautiful! Take a look.

Anniversary 4-16-08

You can click that thumbnail to see the full-sized photo and one other. I only wish I could share the beautiful scent with you.

Other than that I have been a very busy little bee with Daughter’s of the Nile activities. Tomorrow will be my first session in my new position and with new responsibilities. I have been busy making greeting cards and “gift in a jar” items to sell. I have a lot of other plans for the year too. I hope I can make it fun for the other ladies and also make some money for our charity.