Florida Oranges

Oh it's time for Florida orange juice! This is a picture of the orange tree in our backyard. It's been quite a pitiful tree, but it is starting to look pretty good these days after a few years of pruning and care. It has an interesting little "twist". Someone planted or grafted a lemon tree right next to the trunk of the orange tree, so sometimes I unexpectedly find a lemon instead of an orange! No kidding! Two totally separate trees growing as one. Mmm...throw in a rascally racoon and it sounds like something Aesop would be interested in.

Meanwhile the little seed garden is looking about the same. Basil and chamomile are still in the lead, but I think yellow pepper is about to get into the game. Now, let me tell you, I'm biased about rooting (ahh the unexpected pun) for the basil because I was the proud owner of its predecessor.

Below is last year's basil plant that I let go to seed and, you guessed it, the resulting seedling babies!

Nature never ceases to amaze me.

The Dove and the Ant

An Ant, going to a river to drink, fell in, and was carried along in the stream. A Dove pitied her condition, and threw into the river a small bough, by means of which the Ant gained the shore. The Ant afterward, seeing a man with a fowling-piece aiming at the Dove, stung him in the foot sharply, and made him miss his aim, and so saved the Dove's life.

"Little friends may prove great friends." ~ Aesop