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Banana

Today, I found a blossom on my banana tree. This is only the second time I've ever had blossoms on my banana plants since I started growing them several years ago. Problem is, bananas take something like six months ripen. It can't be rushed. In addition to that, bananas don't hold up to frost at all. And the Farmer's Almanac is predicting a colder than normal winter for the Deep South, with "above normal" snow fall.

So while I have this lovely, massive, strangely sexual blossom hanging from all that verdant green now, it will probably end in heartache. Some day in January, frost will cover my tree, and then within a few days, the leaves will be brown, the potentiality of fruit destroyed.

I wonder if I can take sick leave if my excuse is that I stayed up all night, keeping a fire burning bright beneath the fronds of my tree in order to keep the cold at bay. I doubt it.

Such is the plight of those of us living in the sub-tropical region.

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