In a Mere 5 to 13 Years

It takes 5 to 13 years for an avocado tree to start bearing fruit. Huh. My mango tree had fruit the second year.

Standing an impressive 30 centimeters (1 foot) tall is my new avocado tree. It was not an easy process to get started. I bought (and ate) avocado after avocado, and my efficient maid disposed of every pit I was trying to save. Finally I got one safely into a glass to root. Then…I waited. Nothing happened for about three weeks. I gave up. The maid optimistically buried the un-rooted pit in one of my terra cotta pots.

It grew!

Avocado trees get quite large, and I am counting on this. The tree is strategically located to shade the east side of the house, the most exposed side, from the direct sun. Someday it will reduce the heat gain substantially. As for now, the gardener and maid tend to it conscientiously. I mean, I’d have to go Outdoors to water it.  Anybody who knows me knows that I Don’t Do Outdoors.

 

Paradise

Jim took this photo a few months ago of one of the trees in our yard. This one is supposed to be both good luck, and difficult to grow.

Sometimes living in a “tropical paradise” isn’t what you imagine. There’s the rainy season, the typhoons, and the hot, dry season. But sometimes it is just like you imagined a tropical paradise would be.

Today is one of those perfect days. It’s warm, but not too warm, not humid, with a steady gentle breeze blowing. The sky is the perfect shade of blue and cloudless; the sunshine brilliant but not overpowering. It’s the kind of day that makes me want to recline in one of the lounge chairs by the clubhouse pool, with a chilled beverage at hand, complete with the little umbrella in the drink. I don’t even like reclining in lounge chairs by pools. I don’t like being outside in any climate. But this is the kind of day that makes me wish I did.

We haven’t run the A/C in three days now. We have all the windows and doors open letting in that breeze. Once in a while you get a whiff of tropical flowers, particularly the jasmine at night.

Paradise.