He is very American, his personality larger than life. But he is also different. A gentleman of few words. I somehow sense in those introductory moments, that within a few years, the diminutive and demure figure before me, will give way to a tall, dark, and handsome companion, forever reaching for the stars, destined to tower above his peers. He just needs a bit of love and attention I muse, and I am more than happy to oblige.
Objectively speaking, one might describe him as a bit scraggly, mildly prickly, thick-skinned, slightly green, but his bark is definitely worse than his bite. Not that he ever bites me... and not that his bark is particularly fierce, although, upon reflection, it is clear that he has the ability to fight fire with fire. But I don't mind. I recognise in him the potential to be a giant among men, provided he is permitted to thrive, of course!
And we meet quite by chance. I am meandering around the store partaking in the visual delights of things I haven't seen before when my friend literally thrusts him between us!
Look who I found!
she gasps, clutching him around the midriff with excitement, giggling,
Isn't he so cute?
I'm not sure Sherman is thinking much at the time; he seems fairly oblivious to the sudden attention, but I have to admit...he does bowl me over; I am smitten, but I stop short of blushing.
Love, at first sight!
I always did like the dark, silent types. I look him over... surreptitiously from every angle... a fine specimen, indeed, not too woody, not too bristly... just right. My friend clearly has fantastic taste.
I pull her aside...
He's sooo irresistable! A bit on the diminutive side... but he would likely bulk up if I fed him well, right?
I always seem to do all the talking but Sherman is easy to please... and appears quite happy to tag along... When I suggest that he move to England with me... he doesn't put up a fight... I am thrilled, although I do feel a tiny ounce of sadness creeping in as I drag him away from his hometown. I assume, however, that this ease of acquiescence means he likes me enough to cross oceans for me.
The next issue we have is paperwork... no passport, no visa, no proof that he is a savory fellow whatsoever, no evidence that he is free of transmittable disease! ... And, no time!!! So we take our chances that charm alone will win the day as we cross timezones together, trusting in our faith that this is just meant to be.
Entering my adopted country I am slightly worried that we will be separated by thoughtless, mindless officials with no empathy for love, and no time to entertain the delights of the heart, intent only on following the letter of the law, but we get lucky. I quickly find myself standing at the crossroads of another life choice...red channel or green? I've always loved the colour red but it did feel rather like waving an unnecessary flag at a raging bull when it came to things like this, and so instead I take the left lane, I choose green, sensing that a formal declaration of my adoration for Sherman will not go down well. Customs fortunately show a complete lack of interest, their inattention matched only by that of Sherman's. But at least I know that I now have an opportunity and, more importantly, time... to build on what we have started together.
We breeze through to the Arrivals Hall and wait patiently for our ride home.
We have now been home for 4 days and Sherman is settling in quite nicely into life abroad. I'm so very proud of him.
Click here to see a photo I took of him earlier today and edited in Canva Pro. I caught him unawares. My baby, Sherman.*
Isn't he just adorable?
Sherman - a nod to The General Sherman, a Giant Sequoia, and the world's largest tree, by volume.
Header image created in Canva Pro
Dreemport banner used with permission of @dreemsteem and @dreemport and designed by @jimramones
Ohh I loved this! Beautifully written, and I enjoyed the cleverness behind those descriptions. You nearly had me there, but I saw right through 🤪
Sherman is the cutest! I'm happy you found each other; wishing you many, many days filled with love, sunlight and growth ahead.
haha thank you @beautifulwreck. I love that you saw through it all. I thoroughly enjoyed writing it. Now I cross everything and hope that with the right tlc that he grows hehe. Thank you for taking the time to read my story and for engaging with me. I wish you a blessed day. !LUV !ALIVE
OH.
MY.
GOSH
ok - maybe its because I knew who he was??? but I GIGGLED throughout this entire post. Every single play on words was not lost on me!!! hahahaha I was just laughing and still am!! this was amazing Sam! hahahaha
and i am so glad that baby Sherman got through - i seriously would have been so sad if he hadn't LOL
this is seriously FANTASTIC writing - so clever, so playful, so flirtatious hahahahahaha LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
hahahaha... I hoped you may get a giggle out of it... I have no idea where it all came from 🤷 !LOLZ but I enjoyed pulling it together. He deserved a post all of his own 😂
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Totally delightful, beautiful executed piece too. How brilliant and how innocuous your little Sherman looks, it amazing how much emotion he stoked (Haha). He must adore his new home and well, love will blossom if it hasn’t already, you’ve just got to keep chatting him up. Lovely 😊❤️🤔❤️😊💕💕🌸💓🤔🌸🌺💐🥰
bwahahahaha chatting him up... so funny... the little bugger never replies to me...well not in any language I can understand... but he is still endearing 😂💗 !LOLZ !LUV
He replies by growing!!!
!PIZZA !ALIVE !LOL !LUV
💗
!LUV !ALIVE !PIZZA
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hehe whenever I hear Sherman I think of the tank.
That is so cool you brought one home, I was surprised that you would be allowed to bring into the UK. I think going the other way round they might have confiscated it, the Americans are really tight on bringing in plants and stuff.
I hope you have many many years of joy with Sherman😁
I did some research and the Giant Sequoia can be found in various locations across the UK and Europe too 💗 but in much much smaller numbers... and they are well regarded and looked after over here... although they are in singles or small groups of less than half a dozen. Some are in private gardens, others in little copses and others still in some of the national parks and gardens. You do need a clearance certificate to bring in most items of foliage from abroad but I wasn't questioned on my little acquisition despite my bags being scanned. !ALIVE
Yes I have seen one or two of them over here, I am intrigued to see how your one fairs over here:)
me too❣️
😁
This is a clever interpretation of the prompt. The description had me guessing, and I was even imagining a tall leprechaun who kinda looked like Abe Lincoln. It's great character description :)
haha this made me !LOL so much... I guess you were expecting an entry for the March St Paddy's day contest hehe?
I'll take that 💗; thank you. i truly appreciate that coming from a writer like you, my friend.
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Oh yes, Sherman is absolutely adorable. I actually thought Sherman was a dog until I clicked the photo. LOL.
Adorable still.
!LOLZ thanks @stellageorge. Yes that would have fit too... but he is a baby Sequoia none the less.
This piece is well set up with rich description; I love a little nod to something - even better, a big tree! I did wonder though whether you might have had a stronger piece by using past tense, rather than present continuous. Was that a conscious decision?
You have no idea how much this comment made me chuckle @lordtimoty, for all the right reasons! I truly appreciate honest, thoughtful, constructive feedback from other writers, and especially value it from someone with your strength of writing behind you, so thank you for taking the time to engage. Would you believe that up until an hour before I published this, it was written entirely in the past tense?! But I was struggling with it...and something about my choice seemed off..I couldn't quite put my finger on it...so I did very very consciously change everything meticulously to present continuous. I still wasn't convinced with the final result but I couldn't keep agonising over it, so I left it like that. I would greatly appreciate it if you have the time for some more engagement on this piece and are willing to share your thoughts around my choice of tense, which I now suspect made things worse haha. I found your comment insightful and would love to know why you feel it could be stronger if written differently. Always looking to improve my writing and wish more readers on Hive would give feedback like this ❣️ Love love love this input! !LUV !ALIVE !PIZZA !hivebits
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Hey Sam, will have another look over it tomorrow. It's 8.30pm here, and it's been a very long day, surprised I made it to this point without crashing! In general though, the present tense continuous, I find, doesn't work when you move through a time shift. You lost me when you shifted forward in time - I wonder whether the voice would have felt stronger if it started in past, and transitioned to the present - rather than carrying the present throughout. Anyways, I'm beat! Will catch you tomorrow. Tim
PS. I struggled with this week's prompt, and I'm not quite sure how I ended up with my piece - it was supposed to be fifty other things, but in the end it turned into something which I don't think I could have set out to conceive, in truth, I felt it was one of my weaker submissions to The Ink Well. I prefer working with quirky characters, but went down a setting pathway, and the quirks didn't quite work.
Thanks for the further input Tim, appreciate it... I think you are right... I like what I wrote, but it was stronger before... I think what I was struggling with may have just been which form of past tense I was using at different points of the story... which may have caused the sense of something being off... I probably should have invested more time trying to work that through. I appreciate the advice, honestly I do. !ALIVE !PIZZA
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I know that love for chlorophyll. Beings that have that essence are destined to be irresistible. I fall head over heels in love with them too. Good luck with your prickly love at first sight, @samsmith1971!
haha thank you @gracielaacevedo I couldn't resist when I saw the prompt for this week. I shall take good care of my little love 😂💗!LOLZ !PIZZA
This is a great account of the effects of love at first sight, @samsmith1971 For a love like that it's worth defying all the rules of immigration. Thank you for writing this beautiful story and best wishes to Sherman.
Thanks for the meaningful comments to the stories from other writers.
Thank you @theinkwell. Love is a funny thing. It makes one do crazy things 😂 Now, Sherman isn't getting
a free pass, so he best not just stand around all day doing nothing; he has work to do. I want to see him aspiring to new heights❣️ !PIZZA I enjoy supporting other Inkwell authors and writing in this incredible community💗
I love men with this trait, they tend to look reserved and responsible.
When it comes to law, I don't think they had considered love but I think you were lucky with Sherman to bypass them with love 😁😁
I hope he turns out to be who you want him to be. Beautifully written story ma
hehe thank you Princess 😁
Oh no, you held it all together till the end.
I didn't see Sharman for what it was but for description you used and the picture I held in mind, although it all changed when I clicked the canvas image.
Nice one
!LOLZ thank you @boscohage. I hope he was a fun reveal at the end hehe
@samsmith1971, I was literally lost, carried away then found. How did you do it? 😂👏
hehe... I have no idea !LOLZ... the idea just hit me and I wrote from there... and got carried away myself haha weaving this tale...which had me chuckling away ... believe it or not... most of this is drawn directly from personal experience ... the play on romance was included to add some depth and dramatic fictional element to the true story. Thank you for appreciating the final product !LUV !ALIVE
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😂😂😂😂
Wow @samsmith1971 you got me thinking there. Who tf or what tf is Sherman..
Here I thought he was an handsome young man
And here
I was utterly confused!!
I started to wonder if he was a pet, a dog maybe and well maybe I didn't read it all too well, I would have known right away, or maybe not, 😂😂😂..
Beautiful story...you did justice here Sensei
This is amazing description and phew, I could see everything, you opened my eyes and not only created the scene, you planted me there. I saw you walk in with your friend and I saw you both get excited about Sherman ..
Definitely enjoyed reading this ❤️✅
haha ...why thank you so very much, my lovely friend. It's been a while since we've touched base. I am pleased to have reconnected these past few days💗 and I'm happy that you enjoyed the story ...and found it mildly amusing hehe !LUV !ALIVE !LOLZ
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Yeah .I guess we've both been caught up in different things. Last time we spoke was when you had the Covid symptoms. I'm glad your doing perfectly ok and it's really great to read your story again. Always gives me goosebumps. I really had fun reading through and I hope to reconnect more with you my dear friend .. thank you ❤️✅✅
💕 I am really enjoying your blog... I love the way you have developed your space here on Hive x
Yay! 🤗
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How lovely and well-crafted this is :) It definitely brought about how magically smitten you are with Sherman :)
!LOLZ thank you @ifarmgirl. He is so cute... but what I love most about him, is his potential. Walking amongst the Giant Sequoia in the Siera Nevadas really brings home the beauty, the majesty, and the awesome wonder of creation 💗Being able to bring just a small piece back with me of those incredible memories was special.
He is indeed hehe, I almost can't see him, lol! And glad that he was able to cross the border without getting detected, hehe. He must be really
luckymeant to be home with you.😂💗
Congratulations, @samsmith1971
Your text has been chosen as one of the best of the week and has been published in Magazine #47.
Thank you for your good writing.
Thank you so very much @theinkwell. This is an honour❣️ I am so happy that you enjoyed what I put out this week 🤗💗 Feeling blessed. !LUV !ALIVE
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Wow!!! Is Sherman a Sequoia??? You had me going until the end 🤣🤣🤣
bwhahahaha yes he is indeed !LOLZ ... I mean he is just the smallest Giant Sequoia I have ever seen... but then I happened to see both the biggest and the smallest in the space of a few days hehe !LUV. He gets a nice watering every second day and is currently on my eldest's window box so that he gets indoor sunshine until it warms up nicely outside. He's still too little to chance a frost I think.
Definitely, let him stay indoors until he is nice and big ♥️ However do find him a nice spot before he's ten feet tall 🤣
hehe... I shall do !LOLZ. Hubby has a copse of Avocado trees that he traipses in and out of the house every year...winters they live in our conservatory and it turns into an Avo jungle hahaha... from Spring they get moved outdoors to enjoy the sunshine.
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!LOL you have a jungle in your house! But where are the monkeys???
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How are you doing today? Thanks for checking on me earlier. I stopped by to say hello. I hope you are well? Do have a lovely day and don't forget to take time out and relax. Drink too.
How are you today Sam @samsmith1971? I hope you are doing alright? I stopped by to say hello and let you know that you are always in my mind. I hope you are hitting it hard on the dreemport tasks we have to do? Please do take care
hi @adoore-eu...I am doing ok thanks. it has been a hectic week work wise but finally the weekend has arrived. I missed 2 stars... I am trying again today... sigh... if I can get today then that will be 3/5 which is an improvement over last week so I am going to try to get it. I worked full day today and just had dinner so will get stuck into my challenge tasks in about 1/2 hour ...how are you managing today? Take care of yourself too❣️ !LUV ALIVE
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Thank you for taking the time to read my story hehe !ALIVE
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