Bye Bye Birdtown
Today I walked my last street in Birdtown. I have developed a sort of love/hate relationship with Birdtown. I love walking through this historic neighborhood where so many buildings have a nostalgic vibe, but I hate that it is in the complete opposite corner of Lakewood. Each time I had a Birdtown street to complete, I would have to bike 3 1/2 miles to get there and 3 1/2 miles back home.
Standing at the corner of Thrush and Quail this morning and glancing across the intersection to the North Coast Baptist Church made me realize the good outweighed the bad. I feel like I know the streets of Birdtown now, and can even picture the different birds the streets are named after (mostly because I looked them up when I returned from my walks).
However, Birdtown had one final gift for me. While walking down the north side of Thrush I glanced down at the sidewalk to find a small yellowish fruit. It looked like a mango, or perhaps a short stumpy banana. Then I looked back up and spotted several trees with fruit on the branches (along with notices that it was PRIVATE PROPERTY). I took the sidewalk fruit home to do some research.
I discovered it was a pawpaw fruit. I opened it up and tasted the inside. It reminded me of a super sweet banana, and I devoured it. Then I took the 8 seeds I found inside and planted them in two new pots filled with potting soil. The seeds take 3 weeks to 3 months to germinate, but perhaps I will have some pawpaw seedlings to show before I finish my A to Z challenge.
