New Page!

I have added a new page to the site for comments and requests from readers.  If there is a story you see that you would like to see developed more, let me know!  If you have a story idea - something you'd like to see the apricots do or experience, this is the place!  I also accept word challenges:  give me one word (any word) and I will see if I can work it in to a story or title.  All you have to do is click the "Comments/Requests" link on the right hand side of the page and leave a comment.  I look forward to hearing from you!

Acrobatics

"What is that?"  Nora asked.
"A trapeze," answered Silas.
"A trapeze..."
"Yep."
"Are you going to swing from it?" asked Nora.
"I sure am.  Watch."  Silas grasped the bar and jumped with all his might.
"Oof!" said Avery.
"Oops..."
"I have a better idea," Avery told him.  "Why don't you swing OUT from the tree?"
"Okay!" said Silas.  He quickly turned around, once again grasped the trapeze, and jumped with all his might.
Now that Silas knows his trapeze works (and how to use it), he's going to be practicing a lot.  Avery and Nora might join in, too, now and then.  Like the old saying goes, "Three acrobats are better than one!"  Er, uh, something along those lines.

Birthday Cake!

My friend made me a very special cake for my birthday last week.

 It's Avery!

 (Yes, I turned 30.)  Happy Apricot Birthday!  :)

Coasting

Avery and Silas hefted the box up into the tree.  "What is it?" asked Nora. 
"It's for the roller coaster!" yelled Silas.  "These are what we'll use to ride it!"
Nora looked into the box.  It filled with those paperboard food trays used for french fries. 
"From the concessions stand at the park," said Avery proudly.  "We got them off the tables.  We'll have to clean them up a little bit, but I think they'll be perfect."  Nora and Silas agreed and got right to work brushing out the leftover bits of french fries and ketchup.
Nora was the first one to go on the roller coaster.  Silas and Avery held the tray as she got in.  Then they gave it a shove, and away she went!  At the end of the track, she dropped out of the tree into a big pile of grass clippings.  Surprised, she looked up. 
"That was my idea," said Silas.
"Great idea!" yelled Nora.
The three friends took turns on the roller coaster for the rest of the afternoon.  Then they rested in their tree with some mint-water and some spinach-water.  And Nora tried out some lilac-water and found she liked it a lot!  It was a happy day for the happy apricots.

Progress

Nora thinks that a spatula would make a good roller coaster car.  Silas is going to cut open an aluminum can with a razor to make a seat to ride the roller coaster.  Avery is leaning toward the spatula idea, but he might try a plastic cereal bowl if he can find one.  They've collected enough cans now to complete the roller coaster, but they still don't know what to use to keep the cars on the track.  PVC pipe?  That's all they've been able to come up with so far, though they haven't been able to locate any.  Any ideas?

Aluminum

Nora set down her snickerdoodle.  "How many cans of spinach water have you had, Avery?" 
"That's my fourth one today," said Avery.  "I know it's a lot, but I'm saving up the cans to build a roller coaster in the next tree over." 
"Cool!" said Silas.  "Do you have any mint water?"
"Here you go."  Avery tossed Silas a can of mint water and stacked his now-empty spinach water can with the other empty ones.  He had been saving them up for several weeks now and had collected over 50 aluminum cans. 
"Did you drink all of THOSE, too?" asked Nora, pointing at the collection.
"No, I snagged some of them from the recycling bins at the park."
"Are we ready to start the roller coaster yet?" asked Silas as he tossed his now-empty can toward the stack.
"Wait, Silas, don't!!" Avery started.  But it was too late.  Aluminum cans rolled in all directions, lodging in the crooks of the branches below them as well as dropping to the ground.
"Great," said Nora.  "Now people will think this is an aluminum-can tree."
Avery blinked at her.  "You're picking those up," he told Silas, "and then I guess we'll start it now."
"All of them??" Silas groaned.
"At least get the ones on the ground.  I'll get what I can carry from here and meet you in the other tree."
"Hooray!" Silas leaped down the tree to pick up cans while Nora and Avery gathered the cans from the tree and carried them next door.  Together, they fastened the cans between the knobby branches to build the hills and loops of a roller coaster right in the tree. 
"That looks good," said Avery, "but I want to make it longer.  Let's collect some more cans and add to it later."
"Yeah, then it will be the BEST!" said Silas.
"How will we ride it?"  asked Nora.  "What will we use for the track and the cars?"
"Well, I don't know yet," said Avery.  "Do you have any ideas?"
"I'll think about it."
"Ok, we'll all think about those things while we collect more cans.  Agreed?" 
"Yes!" shouted Silas and Nora.
"Great.  Now let's get home for dinner.  I smell dandelion seeds..."
Nora bounded straight across to the home tree while Avery and Silas watched in amazement.
"Yep," said Silas, "definitely her favorite."
"I would say so," chimed in Avery.  He and Silas laughed as they slid down the trunk and then climbed up to their home.  And dinner was sweet.

Favorite Foods

You, the reader, may have been wondering, "What do apricots eat?"  While I can't speak for apricots in general, I CAN tell you what Happy Apricots eat.  Mostly, they just drink water - flavored water if they can find it (mint-water is Silas's favorite; spinach-water is Avery's favorite).  But they eat things like seeds and leaves, too.  Nora likes dandelion seeds a lot.  They're so light and fluffy. Silas likes sunflower seeds.  Avery's favorite food, besides spinach, is honeysuckle.  Well, that's all I know so far. 
You may also have been wondering HOW Apricots eat.  That I can't tell you.  I only know that they do.  And that they like it.  But the how of it is a secret that they would prefer remain a mystery.  Or a mystery they want to remain a secret.  One or the other.
In any case, they DO eat, and they DO have favorite foods.  I haven't found out about all of them yet, but I have told you what I can.  And that is that.
Time to go have some food...

Happy

"Nora, I'm just so happy!"
"Why are you happy, Silas?"
"I'm just so happy being an apricot!"
"Ok...  Me, too..."
"Know what makes me happy?"
"What, Avery?"
"Pushing Silas in a pile of grass."
"Very funny.  What else?"
"I like climbing to the very top branches of the apricot tree, where they're just about to bend because they're so thin, and looking out over the whole town from the top of my very own tree."
"Except it's our tree, too."
"True.  But I'm happy to share it with you two.  Nora, what makes you happy?"
"When the sun shines through the clouds and makes those shafts of light come down, I like that."
"Excellent!"
"And when Silas comes home with grass sticking all over him."
"Not you, too, Nora!"
"You make us happy, Silas!"
"I don't know what to say."
"Say, 'I'm happy!'"
Together:  "We're happy!!"

Jam

   Silas loves to play at the park.  He loves to swing and slide and climb.  He's kind of a natural at climbing, actually.  And at his favorite park, he can drop out of a tree right onto the slide.  Sometimes he drops from so high and slides so fast that he flies halfway across the playground before he lands!  It feels like halfway to him, anyway.  In any case, it's really far. 
   Not too long ago, Silas was practicing his tricks at the park, which was packed with so many people that they didn't notice an apricot dropping out of the trees onto the playground equipment.  They didn't notice the apple, either, but that is someone else's story.  The pine cones were just pine cones.  Silas got a lot of good climbing in that day, and he was pleased with his dropping-and-sliding performance, too.  Just as the park had cleared out for the day, Silas geared up for one final flight across the playground.  He chose the tallest slide (which was, naturally, the fastest) and climbed as high as he dared up the closest tree.  He studied his angles, took a deep breath, and then dropped at the perfect moment on the perfect spot on the slide.  Well, that slide whisked him right down, and he was three-quarters of the way across the playground before he had let out all his breath.  Unfortunately, Silas hadn't really planned out his landing, and he happened to land in the exact spot where, earlier in the day, some kid had been eating lunch.  Splat!  That was one sticky peanut butter and jelly puddle!  Avery came by just as Silas was rolling himself out of the mess.
"Silas!" said Avery.  "Are you in a jam?"
"Ha ha ha," said Silas.  "As a matter of fact, I am."
"Well, let's get you out of it," said Avery.  And Avery pushed him out of the sandwich goop and onto the (freshly mowed) lawn, where he rolled him around a little bit.  After taking a picture of the now-grassy Silas, Avery used some of the blades of grass to scrape off most of the jelly, which Silas would not have been able to do on his own.  On their way home, Avery and Silas discussed how to tell the story to Nora and the others who would ask about Silas's remaining jelly patches.  And Silas told Avery all about how far he had flown off the slide.  Before they climbed up the tree, Silas tapped Avery on the back.
"What is it?" Avery asked.
Silas smirked.  "Thanks for getting me out of a jam."

Pronunciation

I've decided to do my part to settle the age-old debate on how to pronounce the word "apricot."  I've heard it many different ways - "ape-ricot," "app-ricot," "ah-pricot."  And, while I have my opinions, I didn't want to enter the ring with an unfounded argument.  So, the first thing I did was to check the dictionary.  I have a 3rd edition (1994) American Heritage dictionary, and it lists both "app-ricot" and "ape-ricot" as pronunciations.  Next, I searched Google, determined for my position to be validated.  "How to pronounce apricot" got me about 58,200 results, including "How to say grapes in Polish," which I investigated just because I was so intrigued that it would show up in my search (it demonstrates all kinds of fruit in Polish, including apricots) and "My poodle's ears STINK...," which I did not investigate.  From what I gathered from the articles and posts on Google, it all just depends on what part of the country you're from - either way is correct, depending on how the people in your region say it.  And so I have the liberty of pressing upon anyone who happens to read this MY argument for how to pronounce "apricot."  When talking about the fruit or the fruit tree, I say "ape-ricot," with a long "a."  When I'm talking about the color, I say "app-ricot," (which could be mistaken for "ah-pricot," according to those who claim I have an accent, but to my ears I'm saying "app-ricot").  Oh, and there might be slightly more stress on the first syllable, but, for the most part, all three syllables are stressed equally.  And that is my opinion.  Someone from a different part of the country will have a different opinion.  And that is okay.  We can both be correct!

Roll On!

Avery found a roller skate, and he's showing off for everyone!  He's been practicing ALL day!





Balloon

  Nora and Silas looked down from the top of the tree.  "A little to the left!" called Avery.  "Got it!"  Nora and Silas chimed in unison.  They hopped down a few branches to where Avery was waiting.  "Mylar," he grinned, "Nice one!" Then he filled it with air (not an easy task for an apricot), and the three friends lowered the balloon to the ground.  "What do we do now?" asked Nora in her apritot voice (for she was very young).  "DO?!" both boys shouted.  "We jump on it!!"
  Nora felt a pit in her stomach (besides the one that was already there naturally).  She was supposed to jump on this thing?  From that height in the tree?  She climbed a little lower.  Just then, Silas whizzed past her and landed with a phloink in the center of the balloon.  But instead of bouncing back into the tree like he anticipated, all he did was slide sideways onto the ground.  Avery and Nora both laughed and laughed.  And Silas laughed, too, because it actually was a lot of fun.  Avery went next, with results similar to Silas's. By this time, Nora had mustered up the courage to jump.  However, Avery's jump had squelched the last of the air out of the balloon, and so she had nowhere to land.  Suddenly, she heard Avery's voice.  "It's ok, Nora, just jump to us!"  And Silas.  "Yeah, jump to us, Nora!"
  Nora jumped.  And when Avery and Silas caught her, they let her slide off of them just like they had slid off of the balloon.  Safely on the ground, they threw the balloon away.  It's what they had planned to do, anyway, and a toy that loses its air that quickly loses its appeal quickly, too.  So, they threw it out and then climbed back up the tree for dinner.  And THAT is what apricots do with balloons.
 

How It Began

It began with a hallucination.  Really!  I've had similar experiences before - lots of people do, actually, they just call them other things (dreams, visions, memories, etc.).  However, this one was a bit more... visual... than usual.  What I saw was a book - a children's book called "Happy Apricots," complete with a picture of two smiling apricots on the cover.  It looked a little old-fashioned, like the artwork in "The Little Engine That Could."  After I got over the shock of it being GONE when I looked away and then looked back, I said to myself, "This is a story worth telling."  But then I couldn't think of just one story to tell, and the story I did start was boring even to me.  What, a family of apricots?  What are they doing, performing at Disneyland?  Is that why they're happy?  No, no, this would NOT do.  And so began this blog.  It's like a day-to-day, week-to-week story of the apricots - I don't know yet how often I'll be adding to it, but the point is that I'm not limiting myself to just ONE story.  I'm going to follow the "lives" of three apricots (to begin with) and see what happens with them and how their characters develop!  This is simply an avenue for me to exercise my imagination AND my writing muscles.  Oh, and I'm also not limiting this solely to the apricots.  If I come across something (an inspirational quote, say) that is meaningful to me or someone in my life, it just may end up on here (there will be a separate page for this).  Happy reading, and Happy Apricots!