It is not quite springtime here in Kherson. Almost, but not quite. We had two days of sunshine and I rejoiced. How I love the sunlight!
I started the day out with a load of laundry. One load of laundry can take all day if the water pressure is low. I had started a load the night before but the water went off before it was finished. So, first thing this morning (after making coffee of course!) I started the machine again and it was finished in less than 20 minutes. I emptied it out into my big purple laundry tub and sorted it into clothes to be hung up inside on the drying rack and clothes I hang outside on the balcony. Usually I try to hang out all of Mel’s jeans because they are so long and heavy when wet. I took a couple of items out, pinned them to the wire above my head and then thought to myself, why don’t you trim the grapevine today?
As I have mentioned before, I grew up in Colorado. There are not a lot of vineyards in Colorado. I’m sure people must have grapevines somewhere in Colorado, but to my knowledge, I had never seen one until I went to California the first time. And there – oh my! Thousands upon thousands of grapevines in vineyard after vineyard. Grapes for eating and grapes for wine, grapes for juice and grapes for raisins. I’ve been to California now several times and at different times of the year, so I had mind knowledge that grapevines need to be pruned.
Actually, my first schooling in grapevines came from the Bible. Jesus calls Himself the True Vine in John 15, “I am the true vine, and my father is the gardener.” And as I was growing up, going to Sunday School and church, I learned that grapevines must be pruned to bear fruit.
Our grapevine was planted in front of our building many years ago by the owners of the flat we live in. For several years it grew up along a strong wire that was attached to our balcony. Now it reaches all the way to the floor above us. I had looked the grapevine over a few days ago, while it was still rainy and gray, and had decided that the first nice day we had I needed to get out Mel’s hacksaw and cut away. This was a very brave thing for me to do. I have had many wonderful houseplants over the years and seldom do I spend several hours cutting all their branches and stems off, down to the bare stalk. On the typical houseplant, that would spell its doom and death. But grapevines are different – so I’ve read and so I’ve been told. They need this severe pruning in order to produce fruit. “He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful.”
I dug around in the box Mel keeps his tools in and found his little hacksaw. I was somewhat skeptical when I first looked at it. I think it’s a Russian or Ukrainian hacksaw because I never saw one quite that small in the States. The two prongs that hold the blade are only about 5 inches apart. The blade seemed about “normal size” to me, which means that half of it, or maybe a little more, was sticking out the end and was not attached to anything. It just wobbled. How typical, I thought.
I stepped out onto the balcony and looked at the vine. Where do I start? If I just start hacking away, I could accidentally cut off one of the branches I want to keep. I decided that in this case it was better to start at the end and work my way backwards. I looked over at the office window and found the end of a branch I wanted to remove, followed it back to where it joined with one of the larger branches, then followed that larger branch back to the vine. Then, reaching through the bars, one hand on the branch and the other wielding the saw, I found a good place and started sawing.
The saw worked wonderfully! I pulled the cut-off branch back inside the bars and dropped it on the floor. I did not want to drop them to the ground below because so many people walk past all day long. Soon the balcony floor was covered with branches. I got down on my knees and reached out as far as I could below me and started cutting one of the branches there, up against the vine. Our neighbor below us does not like her balcony covered in the summer with grape leaves (and later grapes) and has asked us to please keep the vine up and away from her balcony. As I was sawing away I realized that my reach was not long enough to just use the little part of the hacksaw. So, I started sawing with the wobbly end – and if I sawed slowly it worked! The saw is rather bent and misshapen now on the end, but I think Mel will forgive me.
There are still several branches that are too high for me to reach. Mel will have to cut them off when he returns from Spain. And maybe we will buy a ladder – then I can finish painting the bars all the way to the bottom of the balcony above us as well. But for now, the parts that I can reach are “clean.”
Soon new growth will break through the branches that I left, sending out long, green, supple shoots that will reach for the sky. Long tendrils, thin but very strong, will appear at intervals along the new growth, wrapping themselves around anything within their reach – bars, other branches, the clothesline, (and me – if I stood out there long enough) – holding the branch in place, giving it security to continue it’s mission. And before we know it, we will see tiny green grapes begin to grow on those new branches. “Remain in me and I will remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me.”
Now I have a balcony floor covered in grapevine branches. I’m not sure what to do with them. I don’t think I should put them in the garbage – the garbage container is always full and overflowing on to the ground around and grapevine branches would just contribute to the problem. I may take them out and toss them up against a wall where other people have burned things before. I don’t want to burn them myself, but I’m sure someone will do it. “Apart from me you can do nothing. If anyone does not remain in me, he is like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned.”
“If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be given you. This is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to by my disciples.” (Emphasis mine. From the New International Version of the Holy Bible, John 15:1-8)
Photos: Early summer on the vine and Almost ready for harvest
