This afternoon when I got home from the luncheon with the Over 50 Lunch Bunch, I decided to water my plants in the pot outside my doors. In the planter are growing what will someday be, I hope, day lilies. The bulbs were a gift to me from Ed, a Victory friend. They have sprouted nicely sending up tall green fronds which are now bending over from their weight. No flowers or even blossoms in this, their first season, being planted. As I poured water over them in this particular pot, I could not help but get irritated with our cats. You are right, we have no cats in this household any longer---so why I am upset with them?
When Justin and I moved here over 9 years ago (I know, that's a long time for me to stay in one place this long!), we brought along several planters containing plants and a tree we'd had since Timmy died. The tree was grown from a seed he'd planted in pre-k at St. Johns. It had sprouted after he died. Justin and I stopped in to his classroom to pick it up, grown in a styrofoam coffee cup. I was so glad to have it. The seed grew into a plant and eventually it was transferred into this large planter presently on my porch.
The lemon tree flourished on the patio at both The Preserve house and the lake house, living in a screen enclosure. When we moved here, my friend, Rick, moved the plants in his trailer, carefully putting a bag over the lemon tree so as not to lose any of the fruit from it. The tree was placed in my river room where it got plenty of sun and light. The other planters had peace lilies which had lived all this while, about 5 years, and were flourishing in their pots in the river room. They seemed happy there....
But, now come the cats. We had Boots and Lynx who evidently did not like moving to this new house or for whatever reason were behaving badly. Instead of using their nice litter box, one or both chose to use the soil in the planters instead. Ugh!!! Justin and I tried to correct them of this practice but they were so sneaky. I could not tolerate this so we moved the planters into the courtyard by the doors. The lilies lived for a while but they missed the sunshine and direct light, eventually needing to be removed.
A lemon on Timmy's tree
The lemon tree did okay at first but then started to lose its leaves. A friend from church, a Master Gardner, came over to examine it, and cleaned the leaves one by one with a cotton ball and soapy mixture. Under his microscope he could show me the 'little bastards' which were affecting the health of the tree. Pests outside on the open courtyard had a field day with my plants and eventually the tree died. I was wounded then, and still now, that the tree died.
I had grown some seedlings in the past using lemons grown on the tree and gave one sprout to his father. But, I had none, having now only two lemons saved in my freezer for however long I choose to keep them. My friend, Cindy, thought perhaps she could save the rest of the tree after it was trimmed back, but, alas, she could not and gave it a decent burial. If only those blasted blooming cats would have left my plants alone, they could have stayed indoors and away from the 'little bastards' that destroyed them.
I am still not over it, not yet. I DO keep a record of wrongs (I Corinthians 13) especially about this and the other havoc they wreaked around here. Those darn cats!!! I don't miss them one tiny bit!!
