Pear Tree in Blossom
What impressed me most in my childhood was the flowers of pear tree.
Those around are found of cultivating flowers and plants, in my home, a towering pear tree instead.
In spring, it was in full flower and ripples of intoxicating fragrance prevailed with wind.
In autumn, almost everybody hoped that she can reap huge fruits as many as the flowers in spring.
To our disappointed, almost every year, it was fruitless. In my memory, the record havest was merely three pears. One year, it had one huge pear, which
was there times the size
that of pears in shops. At that time, I was confident that it was the biggest pear in the world.
Qingdao is a hilly area. My home is located in eastern highland of Qingdao city. The pear full of white flowers from afar, as the long white yarn of a lady
dressed in white, opening
her arm and waving her sleeves, she sat or lay down airily above the red roofs which is the exclusive scenery even in Qingdao province.
Often, I told the passers proudly from other high-tops:"The big pear tree which you can see is my family's big pear tree!" ; "It's my family's big pear tree!"
Grandmother and I treasured it as the apple of our eyes, without a glance we wouldn't go to bed each night, fearing one morning it disappeared abruptly.
Despite the fruitless flowering of the pear tree, still, it was the star in the vicinity. Since everybody knew that the real purpose of planting pear tree is not
for its fruits, but for
appreciating its and furthermore, for its faint odour in each spring.
Until my third year in middle school, it has lived in our courtyard for over ten years-the very year of the Culture Revolution.
One day, a person sent a pear tree and persuaded father to substiture the old one, he said that we can savor the dense perfume of its white flowers in
spring and its rich fruits in
autumn. Stirred up by the man, dad yielded.
While digging tree, grandmother, I and even the whole family cried.
The new pear tree never thrived, with few pathetic thin flowers in spring and fruitless in autumn. Grandmother said "the new pear tree's soul has been
eaten by the original's
