Sweet Tea and Next Year's Lemons

Here get comfortable and have a glass of tea with me, while I tell you what I went through yesterday for my tea. I drink about a gallon of tea every two days. The doctors tell me this is good because of all the antioxidants in tea. Personally I just like the way it tastes. 

Here's how it goes.

2 Quarts (give or take) of hot water, heated just prior to boiling,
Add 3 family sized tea bags of Luzianne Tea (other tea like Lipton's has less tea in the bag and requires more bags which somehow seems to make the oily tea skin that I HATE)
1 cup of sugar added to the hot water
Stir
After 4 or 5 minutes remove the tea bags. (The box says 3 minutes but I'm usually to busy to get back to it that fast)
I used to fill to the top of my gallon pitcher with ice, but now I save energy by adding cold water
1 entire fresh picked fresh squeezed Meyer Lemon

Now here's where I run into trouble. The Meyer Lemon is the best part of this tea and I started adding it right about the time Rob told me that the tree was wrapping up it's season this year and I'd better hurry up and use what was there. Oh my how refreshing tea is this way!

So now it's been at least two months and I'm still picking lemons off my tree (I love my Lemon tree!) Except now the tree is working on next year's fruit, and is in full bloom, oh joy to the lemons we will have next year.

Do you know what adores citrus blooms? Honey Bees! Having lived on a farm for part of my childhood, I have a very aloof way of dealing with honeybees. I'll leave them alone and they leave me alone. It's a very good relationship this way. Except now... The tree has what I want and it has what they want... So how to grab those Lemons and leave the bees be?

These pictures are pretty aren't they? They smell good too, as just yesterday I told my friend Vicki, there was a beautiful delicate perfume in the air and how thrilled I was not to be allergic so I could enjoy the smell. But do you see that butt? That bee butt? There are really two in this photograph, but who's counting?  This tree is covered with many such butts, and for every bee butt there are 10 buzzing bees in the air. Seriously girls can't you give me just a minute with my tree?

So now that I've told my story, my darling Lady Bird has arrived with her boyfriend I'm going to enjoy their company. Would you believe they visit so often these days - every one here recognizes her on sight?