I have not hugged a tree in a very long time

Not quite sure what made me think of trees, and climbing trees - perhaps it was my ex's mother popping in to see my mother and I today - have not seen her since the last time she popped in, before Christmas I think (so about 6, 7, or 8 months back, or was it earlier this year (and not so long ago?) - anyway, it's been a while.)

She was mentioning how the boys like to play tricks on her - they see her from time to time as they go to their father ten or eleven nights a month - who lives about only 1km away from his mother (their other granny.)- Granny says she'll walk out her kitchen and feel something lightly falling on her head, and upon looking up will spot the boys in a big tree above her head, throwing down little twigs.

I'm glad the boys like climbing trees (although don't all kids?) as I loved climbing trees as a kid too. I was such a tomboy!

I remember a tree - a huge wild fig tree with a low branch that branched (duh!) off to the side across the lawn in front of the capark where my mother and I would go fetch my dad from his work as a male nurse in the Margaret Fuller Ward at the Frere Hospital. I would climb up the tree, not very high, but then edge along that long low branch in front of where my mom was parked, and wave at her.

I also remember a tree at Cove Rock, between the parking area and the beach, that I used to think was cool - I can't remember why now, or if I climbed that tree, but what I do remember is that I gave it a hug just before we left to go home after a day at the beach, and told it not to miss me too much because I hoped to be back soon again. I must have been about 8.

© copyright Teresa Schultz 2010

And now a "plants for sale" sign on our wall too

Maybe it will help? Maybe somebody will stop? And we really shouldn't have taken so long to put the plants and sign out again (even though there's way less plants than before). Afterall, it was what we first did for a bit of income, and to get our web design, photography, and writing business going, slowly and surely.

It's also one of the main ideas we try to promote to others who are wanting to work from home, or want to earn a bit of much needed extra income. See You're so desperate for money that you're reading this on somebody else's computer where we detail how one can start making the first efforts at working from home, or earning some extra income, starting with just one packet of plant or herb or flower seeds.

One good thing about not having sold plants for so many months, is that they've grown a bit, and we can charge a bit more.

We have just 5 plants out in front at the moment. Two Gwenya trees (Wild Plum) at R50 each, and 3 ice-cream bush trees/bushes at R30 each. They're in old buckets, buckets that are falling apart, but are at least keeping the soil together, giving the little trees (well one is almost as tall as me)place for their roots to grow, until they get transplanted into somebody's garden.

A bad thing about not having sold plants for so many months is that many of the smaller ones have died, as we stopped looking after them properly, due to our web design photography and writing work taking off - well, not taking off to the extent that we can go on vacation or buy our own car, or move away from my folks to rent elsewhere that is more expensive, but enough to no longer need any help from my parents (we haven't needed my parents help in over a year, and also paid them back for the previous 18 months that they helped us out with.)

But the month of May went dilly (even though February was our best month ever??) and now we're stuck battling to pay our few small accounts, and even small daily living expenses.

So, the plants are out again. And if things carry on like this, we'll have to plant some seeds soon, and sell seedlings. Until things pick up again. We remain positive that things will pick up again, because we know we deliver an excellent service, at unbelievably low prices.

© copyright Teresa Schultz 2010