In Spite of it all

On Sunday, I had to run up to see someone quite a distance away, but being a nice day, and having a lot of time, I took the bike and went for a long ride. I live in the valley in this city, and I forget that much of the rest of the city is "up there" somewhere. While I realize I have a rather large hill to climb, it doesn't strike me how large until I am at the bottom!

However, all hills can be climbed, and I did it too. I enjoyed the ride. I haven't been up to that part of the city for a long time, and they have been busy people over there! They have remodeled the main road and, as a result, other things have had to be reworked as well. It's almost unrecognizeable -- some of the buildings look the same, but they don't look quite the way they did. Interesting.

I did what I had to do and started on the way home, but of course, I never take the same road back. I have to see other parts of the city, and I wanted to go by a house of an old woman I used to visit a lot. She passed away several years ago, and I miss her a lot. She always had the most immaculate garden, with so many flowers! In her last few years (she was 98), she hardly left the house, so her garden wasn't tended quite as nicely. But she would root a rosebud that someone would give her so she had a white, a red, and a yellow outside her door. She had the most amazing lemon tree in her front entrance -- she got 1 and a quarter cup of juice out of one lemon!

The house appears to be empty now. Her grandson lived there for a short time, but I think he didn't look after it well, so he was asked to leave. The yard looks slightly neglected, and there aren't all the flowers in her yard. There is an apple tree in the back, and no one is picking the apples. Very sad.

I stopped at Betty's house, since I haven't seen her since earlier this year. I try to go over once a month to have a spinning day. Betty is in her early 80's and is the lovliest lady I know. She is losing her eyesight, which she finds particularly annoying. She can still knit a little if the light is strong enough, and she can't read as much as she would like. She still can spin somewhat, and enjoys that. Her grandson is living with her as he is going to university, so she is not alone.

She has had a gardener for a few years who looked after her yard. There were a few large trees that needed some trimming as they have become over-grown. Since Jim didn't have the necessary equipment to do it, she hired an arborist. They arrived with all the harness and truck and set to work very quickly. Jim arrived at that moment and said that he could have done that! Well, she didn't feel he was able to do it as efficiently as they could. Then he said, well, I'll trim the cherries.

Betty has two Nanking cherry trees in her front yard, up against the house. They really grow as shrubs, and can get quite unruly if not kept under control. They could have used a bit of a pruning.

Well, Jim trimmed them right down to the ground! Just for spite. Betty was horrified. I was shocked when I saw the stumps. They will come back, but there were no cherries this year, and there may be only a few next year. But I can't believe how anyone can be so cruel because someone else did something better than he could. Needless to say, Betty is looking for a gardener now.

I rode on my way back home, and had a pleasant outing for the afternoon. I am constantly amazed by the strange lot of humanity we have in this world. I don't understand it all.