It comes back down but it’s so quick that it’s almost invisible. It’s more visible in the slow version of it.

If all goes well from now until Fall, this little bud will be the first pomegranate that our tree ever beard.

I saw this olive tree a couple of years ago – very small at that time – in one of our local grocery stores. I wasn’t sure if it grows well in our climate here, and I even hadn’t thought of growing one in my garden. I decided to give it a try; I bought it, planted it in a pot, and placed it where it met its requirement which happened to be our front-door entrance.
We don’t need an olive plant in our backyards to remind us how peace is the ultimate solution in our time but this one surely is a great reminder for me.

And this is a few days after I cut the sunflower seeds from the bird feeder.
I’m not sure what exactly he is doing here but he doesn’t seem happy at all.
Is he chipping off the palm tree’s trunk and eating it? .

After washing my hands up and over, front and back, finger tips and between fingers, I was holding them in the air that my right hand started complaining.
She said you know what? This doesn’t seem fair that we are just to be blamed for spreading the virus and not credited for all other things we do for you!!
Just look at how you start a day? Who rub your eyes to wake you up? Who makes your bed, wash your face, brush your teeth, fix your hair, dress you up and make you ready for the day? This is just the first 5 minutes of the day. The list is long, I can go on and on…
My mouth interrupted her, “believe me you are not the problem, I am the problem here. I am the one who let any stranger in, without checking their identity…”
I said alright, if you two like to chat, I may put you both in self quarantine together!!!
No complain since then 😉

Pepper got a booboo!
It all started by showing some authority power to Randy and his friends, the squirrels that invited themselves over for sunflower seeds.
That’s right, they didn’t come without invitation, I was the one who installed the bird feeder and filled it purposely with a mixture – of grains- that included sunflower seeds to make sure squirrels can feed from it too. -Pepper doesn’t know this part and I would like to keep it this way-

The beginning and the end of the story are pretty much accurate. The middle part however, is kind of my understanding/interpretation of the interactions between Pepper, birds, and squirrels .
Randy, the very first squirrel that discovered the thing, shared the news with most of his friends and they gradually exceeded their time share of the bird feeder to the point that even birds had to wait for squirrels to leave before they can eat.
Pepper who didn’t mind birds flying in and out and making noises, couldn’t stand the presence of squirrels and made sure they understand how she feels about them.

All the chases failed tho as Randy and friends were quick and well skilled in climbing tree branches to reach to a safe zone and wagging their tales for Pepper from up there which made her even angrier. And poor Pepper was left on the ground pretending like climbing the wall while all she was doing was scratching the wall with her claws and barking furiously.
One afternoon, after another chase and run, Pepper came inside looking very nervous and anxiously started walking around my leg. I felt something is wrong but couldn’t tell what exactly, until I found the trace of blood on the ground. I found the source of bleeding to be on her paws but couldn’t see where exactly it’s coming from. I rushed her to clinic and after examination I was told that her dew claw’s toe was broken and it torn the skin around it.

She got a bandaid, a pedicure, and hopefully a lesson to not to scratch a wall that she can’t climb.
And I learned my lesson too; this house either belongs to Pepper or the squirrels not both. I decided to cut the sunflower seeds from the bird feeder.

Due to our busy schedule since January, our Christmas tree (once a fresh tree) got to stay with us longer than usual. Just 3 months!!! This gave me the idea to mix and match the cultures that are both embedded and essential in my life. And here is the result, my 7 Ss for 1399 Persian new year on a fresh Christmas tree.
The following is what I wrote sometimes ago for what your celebrations become when you immigrate to a new country with a different culture:

24 years ago, I left Iran with a precious bag. Not the one that I was holding on my shoulders nor the the one that I checked in at the airport. A bag invisible to the eyes of others, a bag that I was holding very tight in my heart and contained very carefully-selected memories of everything that mattered very much up until that moment in my life my friends’ and family’s love and what had made me what I was at that point, my family’s culture.

I knew that I’m holding a treasure box as it will never be the same and will age with me. 

I knew that I will open it when I need to be pulled back in time and drown myself in a time when I had a smaller world surrounding me, when my heart wasn’t stretching half way around the globe, when my world could fit in a circle with 100 miles of radius. 

I was a curious seed, planning to cross many countries and ocean, looking for a different garden with different soil, and weather to settle down deep in the ground and call it my home.

Adventure started right when I stepped out of the airplane. The cold breeze in my face was just a tiny hint of what was ahead. It was mid November and technically we were still in Fall and thinking of winter was an immature idea in my head.

We didn’t decide to stay home, but we can decide on how to spend our time while staying at home (hopefully not catching the virus and not passing it). What is upon us, is a unique situation which doesn’t happen that often and many of us has only read about precedent incidents in history books.
Time to time the world get tired of standing tall and strong and need some down time. And it takes all of us with itself in this journey and very unfortunate that some of us don’t bear the journey.
This is a painful knock on our conscious, may we get a better understanding that how deeply we are all connected, how strongly we are fragile, and how carelessly we are in denial. There is an invisible chain wrapped around our ankles connecting us to things beyond our surrounding people. As free as we feel we are, our actions/reactions/words carry a huge load of responsibilities.
A tiny tiny virus could cause a pause in our lives all together and more serious side effects if we don’t act together, if we don’t understand how influential is our role in a society that we are sharing with people in all range of health and age.
This tiny tiny virus is the image of pure truth, no bluffing, no pretending, no denial, no hiding is able to shield its reality.
Let’s stay home as part of our social duties, everything can wait for a safer time for all of us.
And special thanks to the same social media that once was blamed for disconnecting us from our surrounding world which now has come to our rescue in this social distancing time to let us stay connected virtually.