Saturday, August 11, 2007

Walled up and closed


I am almost finished reading
East Wind Melts The Ice.
I have enjoyed each essay and the way this almanac has changed me.
This essay is for December 1 through 5. It would winter.

The full force of summer is at my house. The temperatures are flirting with triple digits. The humidity is high. The night time lows are in the 8o's. It is hot.

Liza Dalby writes about citrus in this essay. I happen to have a Kumquat tree. It grows in a large pot on the deck until the danger of frost. My husband will then carry it into the living room for winter. It is an old tree, a large tree. It blooms and sets fruit and come January the fruit will be ripe inside the house. Last summer we had 6 inches of rain in two days. The Kumquat tree drowned. It lost half of its leaves. Yet still the fruit set and ripened. I let some of the fruit rot and go to seed. I planted the seeds in the pot and they sprouted. This summer the seedlings have grown tall and they bloomed. The little trees are producing tiny green fruit. They are blooming again
in the heat. I had thought I would let the Kumquat go. The living room is small and taking care of the tree all winter is time consuming. After reading her essay I decided the Kumquat can come in again this year. I will move out a chair. I will transplant the seedlings and have many Kumquat trees. I will have a grove some day in the living room in the winter.

I am saving the last few essays for September.
I will be on holiday until than.