A few weeks ago I posted a poem about blossoming; about cherry trees in small gardens. Our garden is small, and we’ve never had a proper blossom tree, though we did have an amelanchier shrub which grew to look like a tree, and which gave both blossom and autumn colour. For some years the amelanchier has been past its best and this year, sadly, it finally gave up the ghost.
On Tuesday, under cold grey skies, despite far more pressing jobs, we went off in search of a cherry tree, hopefully not too big. As it happened I fell in love with a pear, a young tree, with creamy white blossom and elegant leaves. It’s not very big, but it looks strong. The ticket says it grows to 4M in ten years - big enough!
We planted it in the rain- or I should say, John my partner, who hadn’t wholly been in favour (because he’s sensible and knows our garden is small for a tree) but who knew how much I wanted a blossom tree, did the hard work of planting. The sun came out just as he finished.
I love it, and it makes me ridiculously happy to look out from my kitchen window and see it in the corner where the fritillary grow. I finally have my blossom tree. I feel very tenderly towards it, rather like the way I feel about my little granddaughters, and myself come to that. I find writing memoir can take me back to difficult places but I am learning to show compassion for the small but resilient child I was, who I like to think, eventually blossomed.
A few days ago a lovely writing friend sent me this quote - which is now on my notice board, there to remind me to keep going when the going gets tough.
‘It would be an act of, I think, cowardice and almost deceit, to never write in some way about the most important formative ideas, places and years of my life.’ Sarah Perry
If you’d like to read the Sarah Perry’s, Guardian interview, from which the quote was taken you can find it HERE
Next week I will be away with the family, and there be no newsletter - back to normal the week after.
I just hope my pear tree survives without me and by the time I write my next newsletter we will all have seen a bit more sun and a little less rain
Thanks as always for reading
Avril x
Pears for heirs they always say. Such an act of faith in the future, planting a fruit tree.
An elegant piece reflecting a good writing life
Enjoy your holiday. You deserve it. Keep writing always. Wxxx