I gave a friend at work an apple tree today. It's his birthday and for whatever reason that is what popped into my head for a gift idea not a card or a cake or a good book, but an apple tree, a Fuji apple tree at that.
I picked it up at this really cool plant store, Yabusaki's, over on Dwight in Berkeley. They have all sorts of plants from herbal to flowers to bonsai trees (tempermental things those trees are, very beautiful but so high maintenance, I haven't figured out the trick to making one last longer then a month yet) and neat little Japanese-style houses and shrines and buddhas to decorate your plant with some Eastern flair. It is run by a Japanese family who have been in the neighborhood for years. The staff tending the grounds are mostly immigrants from Mexico so I got a chance to butcher what little Spanish I recalled from high school.
"Um, tienes un tree de apple?"
"Que?
"Los trees apple?
"No puede comprendir que tu hablas a mi senor"
(Okay, scratches head, ahh!...) "Gente esta en la officina?"
"Si, senor"
"Gracias"
"De nada"
On my way to the office I passed the family's pet cat munching on some of the plants that were down low. Obachan (the family matriach in Japanese) walked by and smiled when she saw me looking quizically at her cat munching away, "oh, Mako does that a lot. He love to nibble on plants so we leave these kind on floor for him. May I help you?"
I told her I was looking for an apple tree for my friend and she deftly guided me through the wondrous jungle she took well deserved pride in and there it was, a Fuji apple tree, thin and 6' tall with plenty of branches and more on the way. I paid $40 for the tree, a bargain in my mind considering how nice it was, and gently placed it in my beat up '91 Mercury and then snuck it inside the building when I got there.
I couldn't wait and immediately charged into my friend's office with a loud "TA DA!" He was definitely surprised. The smile on his face told me my gift idea had been a winner. He told me memories he had of the lemon tree his mother tended in the backyard of his childhood home and the lemonade she sometimes made from it's offspring. I suddenly wished I had gotten him one of those instead but then, I was reassured when he told me he had wanted to plant something of his own in his garden, an apple tree he always thought. He had purchased books on pruning, gardening tools and even had the perfect spot just off the patio picked out, all he needed was the tree.
I love it when things work out like that
....
I picked it up at this really cool plant store, Yabusaki's, over on Dwight in Berkeley. They have all sorts of plants from herbal to flowers to bonsai trees (tempermental things those trees are, very beautiful but so high maintenance, I haven't figured out the trick to making one last longer then a month yet) and neat little Japanese-style houses and shrines and buddhas to decorate your plant with some Eastern flair. It is run by a Japanese family who have been in the neighborhood for years. The staff tending the grounds are mostly immigrants from Mexico so I got a chance to butcher what little Spanish I recalled from high school.
"Um, tienes un tree de apple?"
"Que?
"Los trees apple?
"No puede comprendir que tu hablas a mi senor"
(Okay, scratches head, ahh!...) "Gente esta en la officina?"
"Si, senor"
"Gracias"
"De nada"
On my way to the office I passed the family's pet cat munching on some of the plants that were down low. Obachan (the family matriach in Japanese) walked by and smiled when she saw me looking quizically at her cat munching away, "oh, Mako does that a lot. He love to nibble on plants so we leave these kind on floor for him. May I help you?"
I told her I was looking for an apple tree for my friend and she deftly guided me through the wondrous jungle she took well deserved pride in and there it was, a Fuji apple tree, thin and 6' tall with plenty of branches and more on the way. I paid $40 for the tree, a bargain in my mind considering how nice it was, and gently placed it in my beat up '91 Mercury and then snuck it inside the building when I got there.
I couldn't wait and immediately charged into my friend's office with a loud "TA DA!" He was definitely surprised. The smile on his face told me my gift idea had been a winner. He told me memories he had of the lemon tree his mother tended in the backyard of his childhood home and the lemonade she sometimes made from it's offspring. I suddenly wished I had gotten him one of those instead but then, I was reassured when he told me he had wanted to plant something of his own in his garden, an apple tree he always thought. He had purchased books on pruning, gardening tools and even had the perfect spot just off the patio picked out, all he needed was the tree.
I love it when things work out like that
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anyways, thanks so much for the HOT comment, now you make me want to go back to bed
i guess the squeaky wheel gets the oil...
mwah