Wednesday, April 14, 2010

Apples and Oranges

Gentle Reader,
This week marks the one-year anniversary in our new home, in our new state. The three weeks preceding mark the one-year anniversary of overstaying our welcome in a somewhat seedy hotel waiting for our bank to give us the OK on our house. My how time flies!

So, here we are after so many years in the rainy, damp, moist forests of the Northwest, living in the sunny, warm, dry desert of SoCal. From time to time I get asked how we are liking it here, are we getting acclimated, fitting in? It's a funny thing--the places are very different--it's like comparing apples and oranges: crisp, delicious Washington apples and juicy, sweet California oranges. For so long I thought apples were the best--only apples for this gal. I figured I'd just live out my life eating apples and die happy--and damp up there in the great Northwest. But clearly, the Lord had other plans for us.

At first, I kept looking for apples here. Where are the apples I know and love? I'll live in this new place but give me what I am familiar with. In fact, the first thing I did, before we even finished unpacking, was visit the local garden center. I asked the proprietor if they had apple trees. She informed me that apples do not grow here. It's too warm and dry. But, on one of my first trips to Costco in California I saw ORANGE TREES for sale. Well, if I can't have an apple tree,  I thought, by darn I'll plant an orange tree. So I did.

The orange tree has a way to go before it puts down roots and settles in enough to produce oranges. But it blossomed this spring and it's getting there. I'm feeling the same way.

2 comments:

PeterK said...

I sympathize. We're pretty big apple people in the south. (Maybe not Washington big, though. : )

But you will LOVE California oranges (If you don't already). It's crazy how much better they are there than anywhere else.

mamagale said...

It's true, Peter, thank you...many of our friends and neighbors have an abundance of oranges and they share with us--they are so juicy and delicious--the oranges I mean, not the neighbors.

Happy Birthday Scott!

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