15 June 2008

Ah, what a day....

I'm sitting outside on my deck in the shade with a sundress on, it's 84 degrees, breezy, and no humidity. The birds are singing. Ahh, if only life could always be just like this.

I woke up, put on my walking clothes, turned the sprinkler on, and headed off for my walk. I swung back to the house halfway through to move the sprinkler, then continued on. That was a nice way to do it. (There's a tufted titmouse on my feeder right now. They're so cute! Big eyes, small body with a tufted head) When I got back, I took some pictures of a 'freak' cherry tree on my cul-de-sac. The builder planted an ornamental cherry tree in front of every house about a year after we moved in. I opted not to have mine planted in front as I had already put in my garden. One of my neighbor's trees started bearing cherries on half of the tree. See the trunk that appears grafted to the right? That shouldn't be there.


See the difference? The right side of the tree bears the cherries.


Delicious cherries


This is what the sidewalk looks like:


It's a mess! The birds eat the cherries, and there's pits everywhere. There's a nest of vegetarian Robins, and I tried to get a picture of the momma with a cherry in her beak, but I couldn't. Anyway, I guess I tried one of the cherries last year. I didn't get sick, so I kept on eating them. I stop by the tree every morning when I'm finishing up my walk and pick and eat cherries. Yum! OK, some of the pits are mine.

We decided to go to a Chinese buffet today instead of IHOP. My sister called me from the parking lot to say the place opened at noon, not 11:00. Em, JD, and I went to Lowe's, then Borders, to pass the time, before driving over to the restaurant. My sister and parents waited in their cars. Boring. We were the first ones in, and had a nice lunch together. I gave my father his usual present: a Walmart gift card. Not creative, but practical. He goes there every Tuesday to buy a new DVD. When we got home, we went to the pool. It was such a beautiful day, and we spent most of our time in the water. I swam laps, and read my book, The Other, by David Guterson, the author of Snow Falling on Cedars. I've read a few of his books, and they're intense and so descriptive. It's a hard story, but I'm really loving it.

We had a summer meal for dinner...grilled Flat Iron steak, baked potato, and corn on the cob. Yum!



And here I am, sitting on my porch with the fan creating a wonderful, if artificial breeze, and writing and watching the hummingbirds visiting the feeders. I wish I could suspend this time. This perfect day. Things have been really hard at home lately. Really hard. Today was a great day with Emily. No conflicts at all. A much, much needed reprieve. I'm going to hope that tomorrow is another good day. And with that, I'll say g'night.

15 comments:

Jay said...

Having a cherry tree would be pretty cool, except it would drive me crazy for it to make a huge mess on the sidewalk. I would have to put it somewhere away from any place that the mess would bug me.

Lena said...

It did sound like a perfect day. Good for you!

Hope things ease up at home.

Mary said...

A perfect day. I hope it's only the first of many.

Happyone said...

That's some tree!!
Part of your day sounds like mine - sitting and watching the birds.
Glad to hear you had such a nice day. Hope tomorrow is just as good.

marykay said...

Nice way to spend the day, I know how it is I like it so much better without conflicts and the drama. I hope you have a stressfree week. I really need to get back to walking u are always an inspiration:)

Martha said...

I felt relaxed just reading this. Glad to hear that things are quiet on the homefront, if only for a little while!

Jenny said...

Yum, your meal looked so good and your travels sounded so interesting! That's so funny about your dad, buying himself a new DVD at WM every Tuesday! I enjoyed time in the pool tonight after church. We lit the tikis and piped our Josh Groban out there, and we have twinkly lights in the pool and it was awesome. That cherry tree is freaky! Have a good Monday, Cheryl.

SOUL said...

hey girl--

sounds like a nice day-- i hope it was--

of course-- any day without conflict is a good day --

we had a cherry tree when i was 14 -- and I ate every single cherry off of that thing !! :))

laterz-

Lone Grey Squirrel said...

I am glad that you had a good day. Here's wishing you many many more.

Moohaa said...

What a fabulous day!! I'm so glad for you. Your joy really shines thru your words.

That cherry tree is truly bizarre. I would have done what you did though. Cherry trees are a mess when they bear fruit.

I'm so glad you enjoyed your afternoon. Hugs!

Gin said...

I have fond memories of my childhood and climbing the cherry trees to pick cherries for the pies my friends mom made. I also remember my grandma's cherry pancakes...pitted tart cherries, thrown into the pan and crepe batter poured over them. Then we'd eat them with powdered sugar on them. YUM!

Hey, that sweet corn (in fact the whole meal) looks yummy!

fiwa said...

I hate conflict - it leaves me so depressed. I'm sorry you're going through that right now, and I hope today will be a good day.

Yum - I love cherries, I'd be out there eating some every day!

lovins,
fiwa

Mo said...

What a great day and I love the eating of cherries while you are walking!

I hope the rest of the week continues to be stress free.

Thinking of you...(((HUGS)))

Ruth Hull Chatlien said...

The weather and the walk sounded great, and that cherry tree was so interesting. I'm sorry you've been have a rough time at home. I hope things stay calm for a while.

Gin said...

Hey Cheryl, I meant to mention our crab apple tree, it was similar to that odd cherry tree. It was a crab apple tree apparently grafted onto a regular apple tree. The regular tree sort of took over and grew right up thru the crab apple part. It would get big apples on it and everything. It looked totally different than our crab. I'll bet they grafted a cherry tree onto some other root stock and the root stock decided to be a tree and sort of took over like our tree did. I just wanted to tell you that. Maybe it will help you solve the mystery of the weird cherry tree!

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