An apple of a tree … a California story

There are two kinds of people -- Those who love trees and those who don’t.

We used to wait for the spring season…

When the Apple trees flower, they would turn the backyard into a beautiful cacophony of pink and white blossoms, occasionally sparkled with a dash of budding green leaves.

We’ve been in this home for six years now. And except for this one season, the Apple tree would be the first one to break into Spring dance, a ritual that would repeat with so much vigor that kids would wonder if they should play on the carpet of thick fluff petals on the ground or look up at the enormous amount of pink and white bloom.

And when the other flowers would seemingly try to beat the Apple tree’s splendour with the sheer number of flowers they could produce, it could put everyone else to shame with its lush green foliage under which kids could play non-stop throughout the day.

 And then the apples would appear. Lots of them. So many that we would get tired of distributing them among neighbors, get tired of even looking at them apples. Sweet, juicy, with a bit of grainy feel. Awesome green apples!

And when we wouldn’t know what to do with them Apples, we’d play baseball with them. Coz there were plenty of them to last an entire season. Okay, the baseball thing was a lie but whatever you call it, cricket, dart .. anything!

I must mention, I completely ignored the fact so far that our neighbor would religiously chop the branches on his side of the fence. He would do it so aggressively that the tree would look like half a tree if you were to look at it straight from the fence. The foliage and fruits and everything was just in our yard! I never paid attention to it. After all, I’m just renting this home. Its none of my business right?

This winter, the Apple tree shed its leaves late. As if it knew this was its last season of glory. Like there’s no tomorrow, it lasted well into the freezing December and refusing to turn its leaves yellow as it normally would.

Come March, me and the kids waited for it to bloom. We wait for the lush pink and white flowers! They never came. Maybe it was the weird season this year around.

And then the neighbors complained to our landlord that the Apple tree roots are spoiling his landscape.

What? Hello? “I don’t see any roots popping out on my side!!!!” But they’re on his side of the fence. Of course, he’s been pruning and chopping the branches  so much that the tree was weighted only on one side. Guess what? The tree’s current status is so his doing. The roots are just trying to hold onto whatever support they can get to counter balance!

It was a beautiful Monday morning! Just like the past few days, the first thing I did  after getting up in the morning was to go check if the Apple tree has flowered yet. Still no flowers. I do see the tiny little leaves but no sign of flowers yet. Damn the California weather.

The comes the call. Wife calls up to say the landlord sent some people to chop down the tree. Shock! Disbelief!

I didn’t care that I had a busy day. Must head home. Must see the tree one last time. how can they chop down the tree without asking me? Oh wait, I’m just a tenant! Even though my commute back home was probably one of the fastest – just 19 minutes, it seemed like eons.

As I pulled into the driveway, the sight of a fallen tree awaited me. Really? All it takes is less than 30 minutes to chop down a fully grown tree? Apparently yes.

What was once the center of this story is now just a stump.

Just a stump.

I have no idea who, what I’m mad at. I really don’t. I just know I’m mad.

“I know this too shall pass. As with many other trees that I fell so much in love with but couldn’t keep. Almost always they were undone with little or no notice. I was always kept in dark.”

And now my neighbor can have his landscape in peace. Just the way he wanted it! 

“So much for California laws. The damn tree was more than 56 inches in circumference FTW.”

It doesn’t help that I just renewed my lease for this place on the 10th. Grrrr!!!

“I guess I should be happy about the remaining, smaller Apple tree. Eh? Sniff”