On sharing and thinning

In past years, we have attempted to shield our peach tree from the birds with netting, in various configurations and with varying degrees of success. Usually what happens is the birds manage to find their way under the netting anyway, get trapped, and then we make a general snarled mess of the netting trying to release them. Also, it is rather troublesome to get under the netting ourselves in order to pick peaches, so we are derived of some of the spontaneity of plucking and enjoying a ripe peach when wandering through the garden. This year we decided to forgo the netting and share with the birds. I think I've enjoyed more fresh peaches this year than when I tried to keep the bird from enjoying them also. They are extremely ripe and juicy now, and in a few days will turn mushy, so I picked a big bowlful and refrigerated them in order to prolong their peak flavor for a little longer, and I'm letting the birds enjoy the rest. There are enough to share, and I have further been rewarded by visits from some attractive and interesting songbirds. I'm not enough of a birdwatcher to know what kinds they are, but they are not pigeons or grackles, which is what I seem to see the most of around here. Apparently pigeons and grackles don't like fruit, for the only birds I've seen eating it are much smaller and generally much better behaved.

I thinned the apple tree today and tried to be a little more aggressive than we were with the peach tree. Even though it is a little late for thinning to affect fruit size, it should be better for the tree. If we don't thin it, there are so many apples that they weigh the branches down and sometimes even break them.

There's a lesson in this somewhere....about not being greedy and trying to hang onto so much for yourself when you can't possibly use all that you have...and about how sometimes it is better to thin out your excesses, so that they don't weigh you down. Or something like that.