SEEDS LOVING DUDE

My new hangout place has to be under the guava trees seeing how beneficial this humble fruit can be.  

Have always taken for granted that there are always guavas to be picked but recently I have transferred some seedlings from seeds I sowed in pots which haven't made much of a progress.   As real guava trees are tall, they are better off in the grounds whereas the grafted varieties can still do well potted.

Nothing like having your own guava trees although there's one just outside of MSG as well as many others growing around the island.  In some orchards / farms the fruits are left to rot as islanders probably see them as just another tree.  Birds like them but there's too many variety of fruits and berries around here they're just spoilt for choice.  

However here is one dude who loves his seeds in particular guavas.  

A mimic artist and iconic fixture in the island's grocery store, he's one who's known to make me embarrass when I step into the store without bringing him his favourite fruit.  An attention seeker and capable of different guises, he would call out from the top of his perch "How are you?"... "How are you?"....

I always see that as asking "Where's my guava? Where's my guava?"

When he sees me rummaging my bag, he'll start to whistle and do a little dance and clearly he's a lady's bird as his owner claims he only reserves his whistles for females.

Oh yes, he loves guavas as much as I do!

Don't be fooled however as he doesn't eat the whole fruit.  He pecks away the skin and flesh and is only interested in eating those precious seeds.  

LITTLE BABY STEPS...

Nothing quite like homegrown!  The taste and fulfillment you get from growing your own fruits and veggies are so worth it.   

Out of my long list of things that I love very much to grow are tomatoes.  Seeing how people who grow their own tomatoes raved at the sweetness and deliciousness of them all makes my desire to grow bigger.   

I yearn to grow tomatoes like these

I spent hours looking at people's tomato harvest on IG as well as gluing my eyes on the computer checking out seeds that promised gorgeous looking tomatoes.  I always thought tomatoes were either orange or green (ripe and unripe) until my internet stalking revealed that a rainbow of colours like blue, green, orange, pink, yellow and even white (varieties) tomatoes exist! Oh boy.. on top of that, they were all so good looking!

My world literally swam in tomatoes but as much as I was obsessed with them, in the garden it was a totally different story. There was zilch tomato.

In the beginning, seeds just refused to sprout and when they sprouted, they looked like teeny weaklings but I never gave up sowing more seeds! 

Finally I must have done something quite right because I found a few robust seedlings which continued to grow taller.  Each day I watched so eagerly with excitement for the first flower to appear.  They did appear in clusters and then frizzled out and dropped.  The cycle repeated again and again and months after the first flowers appeared, there was still no sign of any tomatoes in sight.

Aren't I clever?  Just because I read of people hand pollinating blooms, I reckoned since no tomatoes were still in sight and bees just weren't doing their jobs, I happily used the tip of my not too dainty fingers to tickle those tomato blooms.  

More disasters followed but surely I am getting nearer to harvesting those prized tomatoes.