I am so glad the fruit picking is over, as now we would get garden workers again. All the able men work on the farms during this time, leaving only the old and alcohol infused for us to pick from. so we do everything ourselves! Nicky, the guy who always works for me came yesterday, and I almost sang out loud I was so glad. My beds for the winter veggies have to be sorted, and fast.
A while ago Joy again spoke to me about the three hundred year old pepper tree that she wants out. 'And,' she said pulling herself up to her full five feet, I'I found out that this tree is on the list of trees to be destroyed.' As this tree had not as much as put out one shoot around it in all this years, I went onto the internet to see if that was indeed true.  Where she got her info from I don't know, as I found that there are two completely different species of Pepper trees, the one here being the Calofornian Pepper. The other one is indeed an invasive tree, the Brazilian Pepper. It is more of a shrub, bearing red berries that is poisonous, and it spreads very rapidly, invading huge areas.
I told Joy this, and she just looked mutinous, and told me that she believed her informant, and anyway, she said, she also had a look in some tree book!
But as there is no comparison between this two trees, our one being a huge tree with a trunk of about six meters around, with very fine feathery leaves, and the Brazilian one has long shiny ones, I could not see how she got to her conclusion.
She told me that anyway, she was busy cultivating an indigenous garden, and did not want the tree. I go walking a lot in the mountains, and here, where we have little rain in the Karroo, the smaller plants grow under the bigger plants and shrubs. I almost begged her not to have the tree killed, but she again looked mutinous, and said: 'Hello-o-o? My place!' I was in a state of depression, as I so loved this old lady that have stood for about three hundred years, and in which shade we had so many delightful family gatherings!
As Joy has a doctorate in Zoology, I just assumed that she would not only be knowledgeable about fauna, but also know something about flora. When she first moved in, and she told me that the old Willow must go, I was surprised, and told her that it was no Willow, but a three hundred year old Pepper. I am really worried, and prayed every night that she would realise the history and beauty that she was going to destry, as this tree was planted by the first settlers in Haarlem. I found a few pictures of some of the branches of the old tree,and on one of these Andreas sits playing underneath it.