Some of my friends know that I am an avid gardener. Over the past several years, I have been transforming both my front and backyard into something more of an mini-orchard/farm.  The farmer in me enjoys the connection to the land, the work that is part of producing food, and the idea of self-sufficiency.  But it’s definitely still a work-in-progress.  My front yard is now a mini-orchard, with the lawn that used to grace it now gone and replaced with wood chips.  (Some of my neighbors probably see it as as something of an eyesore; but I feel good about getting rid of the front lawn, which was purely ornamental and served no useful function (at least not to me) .)

This morning, as I was inspecting my fruit trees  (in my suburban version of “walking the land,” something I used to do when we still lived in Vermont and had 2 acres of land for our house),  I noticed this on one of my Asian Pear  tree.

It appears to be a set of blossoms.  In late September!  After I just harvested a nice crop of pears just a month ago! Obviously, the tree is confused.

Ordinarily, fruit trees require some period (several months) of chill time before they will bloom and fruit again.  However, we’ve had a rather hot summer.   It is rather mysterious.  In June, something similar happened to my blueberry bushes.  One of them also set some blossoms, well after I had already picked all of the ripe berries.  Those few additional berries just ripened recently.  I had attributed that to a late bloom.  But the blooms on the pear tree are a real anomaly.  Very peculiar indeed.