Annual Newsletter 1994
Dear Friends,
A friend and neighbor who works in a busy office commented recently on how “therapeutic” life must be which evolve around symmetrical and immobile objects. Does she know something we do not? An orchard stands still, but it is filled with idiosyncrasies.
Her pressure-packed day, filled with harried clients, tight schedules, and mountains of filing doesn’t reflect the quiet glory of a rural lifestyle? Can avocation and vocation be one and the same? For Bill, perhaps.
It is late Sunday evening as we gather our thoughts. We have just celebrated Adrianne’s 12th year in quiet fashion – “ribs with a view” and Forrest Gump. Just the four of us. Yet, the arrival home was reflective of what our friend spoke. The orchard behind the house (the last trees that Bill’s dad planted forty years ago) was ablaze with fireflies. The starry night sky glowed overhead and flickered with lightning to the south. Moments to be absorbed, not ignored. Adrianne’s favorite, Ann Shirley of Green Gables, has scope ” … my garden is like faith – the substance of things hoped for … ” We all look upward or forward with anticipation.
Hope springs eternal. Adrianne’s arrival twelve years ago was also a year of no “homegrown” peaches. But it was filled with hope. Despite nature’s twists, we bank on another day. This past winter’s 20 degrees below zero was the culprit for this year’s barren trees. Some wit reflected that in nature there are no rewards or punishments; there are only consequences.
We learn. We grow. We change.
The apple crop can be cause for praise. It appears to be promising. We will have the first of the crop to go along with the “imported” peaches the first week of August.
“If you don’t like my apples, why do you shake my tree?”
Hope to see you and your family,
The Gammies
