A few weeks ago the Christmas tree made a visit to the chipper shredder, thanks to the City of Chicago. Eric and Alan took our respective trees to the park and enjoyed the opportunity to chat up the alderman in true Bridgeport form. Some of you may know that Sarah E. and I had been planning on getting dwarf lemon trees for about a year now. After visiting with her last Saturday again, I decided there is no better time than now! Sarah is in the process of buying a home and waiting to get her tree until she is more settled in, so I'm forging on alone. I decided on the "improved meyer lemon tree" and found a seller online in California that has a good track record. Shipping a citrus tree to Chicago in the dead of winter can be a dangerous thing, so I paid a little extra for special shipping and waited very anxiously for two days. What delight this new happy green and growing tree would bring our gloomy wintery home!
The second day, the day it was to arrive, we watched the UPS tracking obsessively and were a bit distraught that it said "Out for delivery" at 5:15 in the morning. I waited excitedly that morning, knowing I needed to leave for work. It didn't come. It didn't come while we were at work, either. But then, at about 6:00pm, the DOORBELL RANG! (This is rather exciting as our doorbell frequently decides NOT to ring, and our visitors call us from their cell phones begging to be let in out of the cold). Eric and I stampeded down the three flights of stairs and greeted the UPS man with great expectation.
There it was!
A thin box stamped with things like "PLEASE DO NOT FREEZE OR OVERHEAT" and "FRAGILE" and "THIS TREE HAS BEEN CERTIFIED TO NOT CONTAIN ANY OF THOSE DANGEROUS SNAILS THAT HAVE BEEN PLOTTING TO DESTROY ALL CITRUS TREES, CAUSING MASS DESTRUCTION AND ULTIMATELY ENDING ALL LIFE ON EARTH AS WE KNOW IT" and other informative bits that would be helpful for UPS employees.
We skipped upstairs with our new tree, and Eric took pictures of The Opening. 
The tree has now made its way into a pretty blue pot, and is sitting my the window with a plant light, since there's no sun coming through the window anyway. It's just growing away!
[Eric]: We got a tree. It's brought a lot of joy to our home, particularly to one person. I guess on a quantitative basis of joy-per-dollar, it's one of the best things we've ever bought. Also, a tree is a lot better for us right now than a dog would be. As trees go, it looks good. It even has buds on it, which, according to the enclosed pamphlet, could become lemons in 6-9 months. We'll see.
5 comments:
Such a nice looking lemon tree. I especially like the contrast between Eric's and Liz's narratives. I'm glad you're carrying on the tradition of Gpa's kumkwat/citrus growing. A nice shiny green thing is very hopeful during the dead of winter. Especially if it has buds!
Love ~ Mom js
ya baby! nice tree. When mom was explaining it, i thought it was like one of those fruit pillar things and it was fake. haha, what fun:-) We're making lemonade whenever i come visit you!
ps...forgot to sign my name:-) Love ya guys! -Anna K.W
Very fun! Great to read the update.
Love,
Allyn & Em
Murphy would eat the tree. I need to get something special for my plants because they are in the bathtub- away from prying dauchshund noses.
I have been wishing for fresh fruit though... maybe strawberries!
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