Wednesday's Words for December 16, 2009

The Ashburys have a tree in their living room!

Yes, I can hear you all now. “Hello, Morgan, it’s Christmas time, and a lot of people have trees in their living rooms.”

Well, yes they do. But this tree in our living room is not a pine or spruce, real or manufactured. It’s a Yucca.

We never planned to have a Yucca tree in our living room. Yes, that’s right, not only is it a Yucca, it’s an accidental Yucca.

Several years ago, our second daughter gave us this nice little plant, it stood six inches tall in a nice little pot. She gave it to us, and said, “It doesn’t require much water.”

And she chuckled.

Here is where I admit to you yet another failing. While I have been known to grow beautiful and richly lush vegetable gardens, while my outdoor flowers have been seen to thrive, I am, generally speaking, dangerous to house plants.

It’s only a vile rumor that houseplants being delivered to me have been heard screaming in abject terror. Not true. But this failing of mine is no secret within the family—and now not much of one outside of it, either. Even David James, my now fifteen year old grandson recalls the time he gave me a potted violet for Mother’s Day when he was five. He handed it to me, then pulled it back at the last moment and said, “Grandma, this is very important. You. Have. To. Water. It.”

I forget about the houseplants, I admit it. But this plant that our second daughter gave us sat on top of the television, and it was rather nice to look at, and because my beloved watches television each night, he adopted this plant as his own.

He has watered it faithfully, once a week. About three or four years ago, unbeknownst to me, he began to feed it Miracle Gro.

The plant grew, and needed a bigger pot – and then, months later, a bigger pot still. It went from its perch on the television to one on a table to...well, let me be honest. The pot it now occupies sits on the floor, measures 28 inches in diameter, is 18 inches high and is, I fear, perhaps a bit small for our behemoth.
The plant itself is actually a tree—maybe two trees as it has two trunks—and positioned as it is in front of one of our living room windows, takes the place of a curtain as it takes up the entire window. And beyond, in truth. This thing stretches to the valance above the window which is, I believe, at a height of 8 feet.

We recently acquired two new recliners; we brought the electric fireplace down from upstairs and put that in front of the window in my office, and then closed off the upstairs since no one lives up there now and heating that space doubles out gas bill.

Are you beginning to see our dilemma? We have a nice artificial Christmas tree, plenty of decorations but nowhere, whatsoever, to put them.

So the Ashburys have a tree in their living room. It is a Yucca tree. And last night, with the help of a couple of my grandchildren, it was transformed into the Christmas Yucca.

Love,
Morgan
Feed the flames of your passion…with a novel by Morgan Ashbury
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