Harvest

Submitted for our Harvest theme

Dug Up: Part 1

By: Gillian Zylka

It’s all a muddle in my head. What went first, the deck, the old tree, the trampoline, or the kids?

 I think it was the deck; old rotten and graying, we sawed it up and burned it in the backyard. It took two days of huge bonfires with a garden hose nearby for safety, but the firemen showed up nonetheless. I was tending the fire, I almost got fined. The firemen were both impossibly gorgeous, and all I could was say “Did I do something wrong?” Yes, I had broken quite a few bylaws, but I had makeup on that morning, they let me off with a stern warning.

The trampoline was moved to the front yard,  sign went up down the street. “Free trampoline,” and our address. I couldn’t bear to see it go, we waited inside the house for half an hour, when we went outside it was gone.

The kids hadn’t used it in years, and every summer I would say, “I think I’ll get rid of the trampoline this summer, you guys never use it anymore,” to a chorus of protests… “No no,” they would say “…not the trampoline.”

First one of the boys went away to University, he did his first year came home for the summer, then told me, “Mom, I’m going back to school this fall, I won’t be coming home again, except at Christmas.”

We took him to the airport and he turned with tears in his eyes to board his plane.  We went home and I cried for a very long time…first one gone.

The other two announced their departure the same day a few years later, just before the University of Calgary school year began. That was it. I was on my own.

The following summer, I decided, this backyard was dominated by the trampoline now gone, time to do some work.

I dug out weeds in the  flower beds and planted gardens. I was very enthusiastic about it, it took a lot of hard work.

 Then the tree in the front yard had to go, it was thirty years old, a poplar and split up the middle, it was leaning precariously in the direction of our neighbours roof. It was on city property, they came and took down the tree. It was a sad day. It was a majestic old tree, large with branches extending to the sky. You could see it for blocks, easily the largest tree. We split the rounds into firewood, and consoled ourselves by burning it the following year. It wasn’t the best firewood, the old fireplace smoked and left the house smelling like fire, but we relished the experience. It meant something to us.

This summer, we decided to plant a tree; it started with one. Our neighbours across the street have a weeping birch that is quite possibly forty years old, also a majestic tree, with big long graceful branches that drape down with multitudes of small healthy leaves.

I announced, “That is what I want, I want a weeping birch on my front lawn…”

We went to the garden centre and found one. It had been wrapped up since it left the nursery, it was dubious if it had been taken care of properly, but it was on sale, we foolishly bought it. We also found an Amur cherry tree, which was undoubtedly healthy, and I thought would go well in the spot where the deck had been burned. We bought the two trees and brought them home in the back of our Van, with a red tag trailing. 

Check out Part 2 tomorrow...