Weekly Photo Challenge … Surprise

Oh dear! Where do I begin; my life is a surprise.  In my work as a library assistant to the Rare books librarian and the cataloguer in Special Collections for the last twelve years every day brings a new/old delight in the guise of a fine binding, font, illustration, author or printer … it is never exhausted.
I am a child of a broken relationship; a mother, sister, aunt, cousin, wife, grandmother in a family where surprise is often a euphemism for shock.  My last child at 40 was rather unexpected!
I am a gardener, my flower beds are a constant surprise no one thing more precious than the other.
I put myself in the domain of wonder; social media is amazing.
So the surprise I wish to relate happened this week but the story is complex.
Earlier this year we visited my daughter in Rio where avocados grow on trees abundantly. I remember in the 70s when avocados began to appear in the supermarkets rather too sophisticated and expensive for me as  a new wife then.  However, my husband (since divorced) worked in the docks and one or two of the extraordinary delights found their way to our home.  While they remained an acquired taste; as a would be gardener tried to grow the stone. I balanced the stone on cocktail sticks precariously over water in a sherry glass.  Weeks or even month later a root and a leaf might appear but sadly we ever didn’t cultivate a tree.
So when in Brazil where of course we had the best climatic conditions to get beyond the embryonic stage I tried again.
When I returned to the UK I left the stone balancing over a jar of water as before.

Later I learned that the stone had produced a rather leggy branch and roots.  Unfortunately the conditions in the tiny house in the favela was not conducive to continued growth and maturity.
So the the little sapling was taken on an hours bus journey to North Rio to a house with a garden where it was planted.

So eight months later we can dream about avocado blossom and fruit … now that is a surprise!!