Besides this plum, Father had an apricot, prune, cherry, a pear, two peaches, two (maybe three) figs, four or five apples (plus a crabapple), an avocado that never produced, a persimmon, a lemon, an indeterminate citrus that finally, in the 1960s, came out as a grapefruit, plus one each almond and walnut. Besides the previously-mentioned loquats, I think I got them all. Produce from these kept Mother hopping, what with canning, and later freezing, some, and making jam and jelly from others, plus the inevitable applesauce. We were never out of dessert. And, of course, during summer you could just go out and forage for yourself. My personal favorite were apricots plucked right off the tree.

This is not to mention all the grapevines scattered throughout the yard: Concord, Thompson seedless, tokay and muscat.

Father was an irrepressible grafter; each apple tree had up to three or four different varieties growing on it. This Santa Rosa plum, in fact, had a couple other kinds as well.

Other plants in this scene: artichokes at the lower right; acanthus lower left; to the right of the plum, iris going down that slope above the lawn. Later, they'd be obscured by the ring of grape vines running all along the crest.