Citrus is one of my favorite flavors and smells. I love lemonade in all the varieties. I love orange juice. I don’t eat grapefruits often, but I love them as well. Key lime pie is one of my favorite pies. If I find a soap or a lotion that smells like citrus, I will often buy it. I don’t know why, but I really do love it.

During the lockdown in 2020 I was thinking preparedness. We try to think ahead like that anyway, but I got to thinking about fruit. We live in Alaska, and fruit, especially fruit trees, don’t grow well here. There are starting to be some highbred trees that will, but citrus is not one of them. They do make varieties that grow indoors though.

My kids and I decided one day to plant several seeds as an experiment. So we planted seeds from a lemon and a mandarin orange. We watered them, cared for them, and waited. Nothing. About 3 months later I had decided I wanted to use the pot for something else. I went and got it and low and behold, there were several sprouting trees.

We had planted 6 or 8 seeds, but over time, only one really thrived. It is now about 7 feet tall in my living room. I have been transplanting it periodically into larger pots, and this year the bottom is growing new branches. It’s a cute little tree, but has never produced anything. I don’t know if it will, or how many years it takes for a lemon tree to produce something. But in the meantime, the leaves smell wonderfully lemony when I rub them between my fingers.

Because of my love of citrus, I have painted several quick sketches of lemons, but never an actual painting. About a month ago, I decided I would do a finished piece. I have been taking several drawing classes, so I sketched out what I wanted.

We have been extremely busy this past month, so the painting took almost a month to complete, but probably only 5 or 6 hours total. I love the finished painting! The colors turned out well, and I love the pop of the single lemon branch with the faded background. Do you have a favorite flavor?