East West

If out early enough, I can get the eastern exposure yard work completed before the sun gets too high. I can then shift to the west side where the trees and house will provide some shade as I attend to its needs.

The back yard once had an enormous carob tree, a beautiful monster which sucked up irrigation water like a camel and dropped massive numbers of heavy pods. I never experimented with the culinary possibilities of carob but was content to enjoy the tree itself which eventually died of a disease that foiled the experts who treated the patient with the same creativity of an 18th century physician prescribing bleeding and purges.

With the monster gone, the yard has made a come-back and there is more grass to mow. We put in a ficus. Although pretty, it lacks personality.

I prefer trees that I'll remember.