Learning to Share

We used to have two wimpy little apricot trees along the side of our house. Then, last year, one of them croaked unexpectedly. Everything above about 3 feet off the ground just died. Bummer. The surviving tree looks to be in peril as well, with a big, expanding black crack a couple feet up the trunk. But it flowered and produced plenty of fruit this year.

I tried to wait until it was ripe to pick, but I noticed lots and lots of half-eaten apricots on the ground and decided to pick as many as I could reach before there were none left.I probably picked about three dozen. But they weren't ripe. I had to put them in paper bags on the counter to ripen. It worked well and now they're delicious! But...there were lots of apricots I couldn't reach. I wasn't even sure how the squirrels could reach them. I thought maybe I'd get out the big clippers and just cut off whole branches to get to them.

But, I hesitated. And these guys didn't. I accept that I need to share with the wildlife, such as it is. But really, couldn't they share a little more with us?