Chicky!

It seemed like only yesterday but it was almost 25 years ago when my late mother planted this fruit tree in our small property in the 80s. My mother grew up in the province and enjoyed wide expanse of rice fields which they owned, fruit bearing trees that provided endless supplies of fresh organic fruits, vegetable plots, chickens and turkeys, dogs, cats, birds, horse back riding in the afternoons, and lots of special memories that were shared with her youngest child whose was constantly hungry for stories (that was me!)

Since we grew up in the city where the small apartments we grew up in had just enough garden space for small boxed plants, my mother compensated by getting us a dog (a huge St. Bernard-German Shepherd mixed breed which is a gift to her), several stray cats she picked up on her walks, and I remembered the turkeys and chickens slowly coming in and out of our lives and the non-stop stream of people, relatives and friends stopping by for a visit and short stay. Needless to say, my mother tried to recapture and share her countryside life with us.

Chicky's buds!

So when we moved to the countryside in the mid 80s, my mother was deliriously happy! Finally, she had a bigger lot with bigger space for her ward (which included her children LOL) and so she had chickens, dogs (people always give her dogs as gifts and she rarely refused!), cats (it reached up to 21!), and finally, her favorite plants and fruit trees!

Chicky's fruits are sweet and available all year round!

So we inherited this lovely tree from my late Mama. I named her Chicky, our chico tree. Chicky survived storms, extreme heat, neglect (when my Mama died we led busy lives that had little time to care for our plants!), rainy, windy, dry, and oh, she is a great survivor and lately, I could not hug her as I wanted to because the ants decided to live with her.

I will write about our trees next time because today it is all about Chicky. And Chicky is one elegant beautiful tree who hums and tease me (she reaches for me every time I pass so I end up tangled with her branches all the time!), and in return, I sing to her, I caress her old limbs when I water her. This is my tribute to the great lady who gave life to Chicky and to the great One who gave life to all . . .

And for Lisa of:

And for another Lisa:

And for Jan of:

Jan wanted us to document something every first day of the month.
Jan, I took this picture of Chicky last April 1
although I was a tad late in posting about it!

Hug a tree today.
It may save your life.