Perseverance, secret of all triumphs.
- Victor Hugo -
For those who follow my posts regularly you'll know I'm a bit of a gardener and that over the last few months I've been cultivating my own vegetables; an enjoyable and rewarding endeavour. I've had rather good results with almost everything I've planted out delivering a bountiful harvest and whilst there's been a couple things, like my carrots, that haven't been so great I'm generally pleased with what I've grown and harvested.
I'm still eating my own vegetables and my tomatoes, Aztec tomatoes, are just coming in now. They taste magnificent and I'm pretty pleased indeed. What you might not know though is that I also have some fruit trees as well and this weekend I plucked a small harvest from one of these trees.
I have white nectarine, pinkabelle apple, satsuma plum, orange, lemon, dwarf almond, grapefruit and dwarf apricot trees and it's the last, the apricot, that delivered this weekend.
The poor little things have had a fight on their hands though as only a few weeks ago we had a vicious sixty-second hail storm that battered my little apricots quite severely and I wasn't sure any would survive.
Speaking of getting battered, I myself, was subjected to a rather brutal battering during this storm; a storm that delivered many millions of dollars worth of damage in my city. Thousands of cars were destroyed and it blocked gutters causing the subsequent rain to spill over into houses and cause a lot of damage as well. My house included.
Coconut - Code for testicle
I was standing in what I thought was the safety of my verandah taking a video of the hail coming down when one of those hail stones came in from the heavens at a 45° angle and struck me a glancing blow squarely to the right testicle...Am I allowed to say testicle on the blockchain? I'll say coconut instead so I don't offend anyone.
My right coconut was struck a glancing blow and it hurt a great deal! I believe the words I said were, oof at the initial impact followed by a mother fucker and a couple of what the fuck's. Seriously, one fucken hail stone coming in at that acute angle? Have I angered the gods in Valhalla, I thought to myself as I writhed in agony.
That's not the coconut-destroying hail stone in my hand below, that one was way bigger, but you get the idea. I gave it a rub (my right coconut) which, I have to say felt pretty good, and then cowboyed up and moved on with my day. My right coconut has recovered fully, fear not...It's fully functional.
Anyway, my apricots took a pounding...The ones on the tree...I'm not referring to my right coconut/testicle now ok? Look, let's just assume that from here on I'm not referring at all to my coconuts when I say apricots, ok?
I've been keeping an eye on the apricots and this weekend made the determination that I'll pick them. Sure, some bear the scars from that fateful coconut-crushing hail storm weeks earlier but in general they look ok and better still, they taste great! You can see me holding one in the main image...I ate it right after and...Yep, sweet and super-tasty!
I didn't expect a harvest this year as the tree is quite young however I'm pleased to have a few, I got around twenty, and feel pretty good that they survived the storm...Just like my right coconut did as well. Thank goodness for not-so-small mercies.
It's amazing how nature finds a way to endure, to persevere and survive against the odds...It's a good thing too. Sure, my apricots have a little scar or two...Sure, my right coconut has a dent from that glancing hail stone incident, but both the apricots and my heroic right coconut found the perseverance to survive and thank goodness for that right?
Design and create your ideal life, don't live it by default - Tomorrow isn't promised so be humble and kind
Discord: galenkp#9209
The images were taken by me