orange trees

I’ve got this tree in my house. Well, it’s in the courtyard area of my house, but the entire house is a courtyard apart from my room. My room links directly to the outside courtyard that is the central area between my family’s house and my house. So, this tree. It’s a beautiful orange tree with the bottom half of the trunk painted blue and the top white to match the color of paint used on the house. I have always loved this tree because I am a tree person (yes, tree hugger) and it’s huge, so it brings a lot of green into my life. I also have always thought it was pretty cool to have an orange tree because one, it’s the fruit of Palpa (duuuulce narangas!) and two, because it seemed like such a novelty to wake up, pick some oranges, and make fresh squeezed orange juice. Currently, we are in the season of oranges, and this tree has finally produced fruit. (My family here was surprised because apparently this is the first time – awesome!). Well, I was pretty excited too, because I could finally make my fresh squeezed orange juice. So, I start picking down the oranges with my little host brother two nights ago. He’s got a broom, trying to shake the tree and nothing falls. I have my blue teacher-like scissors and my gray cardboard padded chair. He starts shaking the tree and all this white and gray stuff starts falling on me, which I guess is the junk from the tree and the birds that live in it. Not a single orange falls. I climb up on my chair and proceed to reach for an orange. I can hardly reach them and get stabbed by the zillion little prickles on the branches. I get one down. I get two down. I get three down, and by now I have tons of pricks on my arms and more on fingers. Done. No more orange searching for that day. That night ended with my little brother building a little wall around all my plants in the garden so when they get watered the water will stay concentrated under the plant – intelligent.

A few days later (today). I am still determined to get down some oranges. There are about thirty still up there, and if you don’t cut them down before they fall on their own the impact breaks them open and normally bugs get to them first. So, I am back with my chair and scissors. I got down a whole EIGHT this morning! Whoooopy! However, about three weeks ago I started the Natalie Rose Detox (which I am loving, btw) and it says that you can’t eat fruit (eliminating all sugars). So, guess there won’t be too much orange juice made today (but a little can’t hurt!), and they will be regalar-ed, or gifted off to other people. That’s always a nice gift I think, except that everyone here has a field and is growing oranges, and trying to gift them off to you. Who can gift them first is the challenge! And now I’m in the race.