Saturday, July 14, 2007

Who Wants to Play "Name that Fruit?"

While I was mowing this afternoon, I noticed that one of the trees between our back fence and the hay field behind us has some sort of small (kiwi sized) fruit growing on it. I think technically the tree is probably on the hay field owner's property (by inches), but the fruit is hanging over our fence, and no one else is going to pick it. Can someone tell me what this is, and can we eat it? (I'm on a mission to lower our grocery bill, can you tell?)



T. had his birthday party at the park with the stream (not the rock slide park) this afternoon. It was a rainy week, but today was absolutely Glorious! Pleasantly cool and sunny. Several families we invited couldn't make it, but our wonderful friends with eight children were one of the three families who did come, so it was a nice sized group anyway. Our sandwiches, chips, and cake were well received, and there was plenty of food (but not too much of anything except chips. Well, and cake, but Ed got people to take the extra cake home, so we aren't stuck with it.). All the kids had a great time in the stream, no one slipped on a rock and cracked their heads, and there were no fights or hurt feelings. It was a marvelous party! And on the way home, T. told me that everything had been just the way he'd hoped it would be. A parent can't ask for much more than that, eh?

(The second picture shows K. and T. stuffing the Sponge Bob pinata with candy. Sponge Bob put up a valiant fight. Pinatas are one thing that they make better than they used to -- they are almost impossible to break. The first shows the T. admiring the plastic brain that his friend Blake gave him. You can take it apart and put it back together. I'm afraid some of the pieces might have gotten mislaid, but that is pretty much par for the course for brains around here. The last shows T. and his best buddy, Blake, in the stream. Blake is nearly exactly the same age as T., likes the same video games, and also enjoys whacking things with swords. They are frighteningly similar.

Our community finally got their matching money grant to fix up the park across the street from our house. Currently, there is a baseball field, concession stand, walking trail, bandstand, and playground there, but they have some pretty serious erosion problems. As I understand it, they are going to re-do everything to fix the drainage issues and add an amphitheatre to the current amenities. Actually, an amphitheatre sounds pretty grandiose for a little community park in a one stop sign town (but it isn't even big enough to be a town -- what do you call a community that is so small the post office doesn't even recognize it?), so maybe I misunderstood that bit. Anyway, the playground is also used by the elementary school, which is right next to the park. For the park renovation, which is supposed to take at least a year, the playground equipment was taken and moved to the back side of the school. I suppose we could probably still use it when school is out (which is the only time we used it anyway, since homeschooling is not so common here and it would have been awkward to bring our kids over while the teachers & school children were there), but it would be less comfortable. My picture shows the swingset going down the road.

4 comments:

Elisheva Hannah Levin said...

The fruit looks like an apple. From the nodes on the branch, the tree sure looks like an apple tree.

Cut it open lengthwise in the middle. There should be 5 chambers in the ovary. Or cut it across the middle. The cross-section should look like a 5-pointed star. If this is the case, it is in the apple family.

I am a botanist. However, you need to feel sure about a fruit before you eat it and not depend on long-distant identification.

Melora said...

Thank you! That is a great idea. There are quite a few apple trees around. The shape of the fruit threw me, but I suppose there is a lot more variety than I've seen in the grocery store!

Dy said...

So that's how you move a swingset!! Huh. I'd have thought they took 'em apart.

I'm really glad elisheva had a suggestion, b/c I kept thinking, "Is that a MANGO? That looks like a mango! But you're too far north for mangoes!" Of course, I have mentioned before that I'm not much of a farmer...

The birthday party looks like it was great fun. I'm really glad you mentioned that was a pinata (and yes, the do make them of much tougher stuff these days, ugh!) b/c at first I thought that was the cake, and was about to really get onto you for not doing an entire entry all about your spongebob cake!!

Dy

Melora said...

Dy,
It looks Exactly like a mango, doesn't it? But it isn't. It is much too small, and I know what a mango tree looks like. Funny looking little thing, isn't it.

I made T. a SpongeBob cake Last year. It was quite the thing of beauty, if I do say so myself! This year the cake was only notable for being Big. I made 3 9X13 cakes and stacked them, then copied on the ninja fighter that T. drew for me.