A day of citrus and chickens . . .

For his anniversary present, I got Kevin an orange tree. (Romantic, eh?) He told me once, "If we move to California, I want an orange tree." Secretly, I wanted a lemon tree. But, since it was Kev’s gift, not mine, I got him an orange tree instead. We probably won’t be able to have both, because of cross-pollination issues, so it was very self-sacrificial of me to get the orange tree instead. But don’t pity me. Unless you want to, of course.

Kevin was really surprised by his gift. When he came home from work, he found it perched on the kitchen table. He couldn’t believe that I could pick out any sort of agricultural item all by myself. It was a proud moment for me. The sad part is if we plant it at our house and then move, we’ll lose it. But, oh well, if we move somewhere else in California, then maybe my chances at getting a lemon tree will improve. The guy I bought the tree from said that we should have edible fruit in the winter of 2005. Yippee!

We went to dinner last night at a place called the Slocum House in Fair Oaks. As we were walking up to the restaurant, chickens started appearing from nowhere. Apparently there is some historical significance to the chickens, but I never figured it out. I did hear someone saying that the city council hotly debated whether or not to allow chickens to roam the city, unrestrained. Apparently the ‘free the chickens’ campaign won the debate. We ate outside by a big maple tree and when it started getting dark, lights in the tree lit up above us. It was very romantic. Except for the chickens. But that was fun in its own way too, I suppose.

Speaking of farm animals, I just finished reading Animal Farm by G. Orwell. It’s very funny, insightful, and easy to read.