The Little Apple Tree
After my husband, Hal and I (Ilona) retired, we decided to leave the city life behind and move to a quieter place with less rain to the eastside of the Cascade Mountain Range to a small town by a beautiful lake called Chelan. After a long search and process, we found the house we wanted. No stairs, all one floor, two large bedrooms, two bathrooms, a beautiful big library for my Hal, a very large kitchen, living and dining room and an attached double garage. The outside was white stucco, and it had a red tile roof.
After the inside was all remodeled, we were very pleased to move in. The house was finished and was now awesome. The outside needed to be completed now. My Hal wanted some trees in the yard, and we found two beautiful cherry trees, one of them was a weeping cherry. Hal also wished for an apple tree, to harvest his own apples for apple pie which he loved.
The little apple tree of course did not bear fruit the first and second harvest times. Hal showed patience, he was waiting and often went to check out the blossoms, still no apples followed. But the following autumn, oh so happy was my sweetheart when he discovered after the blossoms came the actual fruit. He looked at his tree every day, most likely counting apples and looking forward to the harvest day!
My Hal took a wicker basket and I, with a sober face, not laughing at the size of that basket, wished him luck for this harvest day and thinking of this gigantic basket coming back in with a few apples in the bottom of it. Good thing, I did not laugh, the joke would have been on me.
While Hal was harvesting his apples, our neighbor’s cat “Boots” came out to visit my Hal and they had some petting time. Boots liked Hal, whenever our neighbor would be gone for a few days, my Hal would look after him and feed him. They became good friends. Boots had a beautiful black coat and had four white paws. Boots came out to explore the apple tree, keep Hal company and made sure every apple was picked.
When my sweetheart came into the house and into the kitchen, he was all smiles. From the cold air outside Hal’s face was red cheeked, a big happy grin on the face, eyes shining with happiness. He put the basket, FULL of apples on the counter and said:
“Apple Pies Please!”
What a sweet story! And apples after all! I bet Ilona made some tasty and wonderful pies. And Boots the cat could tell. . He (or she) knew who to count on and trust. The Cole men have all been gentle and kind. A cat knows! Hal and Ilona had some lovely years in eastern Washington. And they know when to “come home” to the Pacific side. Such lovely adventures they shared. And now they share them with us! So very grateful!!!
Thank you dearest Sharon for your comment. Boots was a little boy. Yes you are right, the Cole men have been gentle and kind, and I was the recipient of that gentleness for 64 years. Thank you again my dearest friend. Ilona