It's another year when Sophora japonica blooms. The faint fragrance of Sophora japonica always reminds me of the taste of my hometown when I was a child, and I miss the white Sophora japonica flowers on the river bank, the ditch and the intersection of the village head when the Sophora japonica blooms in my hometown.
My hometown is a small village on the Yangtze-Huaihe River watershed, close to Sishu Bridge, the east main canal of Pishihangwa, and Longmensi Reservoir Scenic Area.
When I was a child, Sophora japonica was the most planted at the intersection of the village head and the front and back of the house. Several Chinese toon trees, refined trees or sycamore trees were mixed in the cluster of Sophora japonica. These trees can only be distinguished from the Sophora japonica forest when they are in full bloom in the flowering period or shed their leaves after autumn. As for fruit trees such as jujube trees, pear trees, tangli trees and persimmon trees, for some reasons, they hardly grow in the front and back of the house.
In my memory, seven or eight pear trees and persimmon trees in the village all grow on the edge of the pond, so it is difficult for children to pick them. However, more than a dozen pear trees and jujube trees are scattered on the ridge of the field and in several old cemeteries. Although two jujube trees were planted in my uncle's yard later, the adults repeatedly told me that eating green dates would cause sores, and then look at the peppers covered with jujube leaves, and the children obediently obeyed.
Ten years ago, I went back to my hometown to visit my uncle, whether it was Sophora japonica or Toona sinensis, not to mention jujube or pear trees. I couldn't find any of them. In addition to planting flowers in front of the re-planned new countryside, almost all families only planted Pterocarya stenoptera and Cinnamomum camphora. I heard that only a piece of Sophora japonica planted in that year was left near the Wadong main canal and Sishu Bridge.
There are many kinds of Sophora japonica. Generally, we often say that Sophora japonica includes Sophora japonica, Robinia pseudoacacia, Sophora japonica and Sophora japonica. At that time, I didn't understand these things, only knowing that my hands were often cut by spikes on the leaves when picking Sophora japonica leaves. Therefore, Sophora japonica in my hometown should be Sophora japonica.
Because Robinia pseudoacacia is easy to plant, fast to grow, hard in wood and widely used, almost every family has planted many Sophora japonica trees. Although jujube trees, pear trees and refined trees are better, they grow too slowly to be urgently used.
At that time, the timber in the mountains was prohibited materials. In rural areas, Sophora japonica was almost used for building houses, beating furniture, making shoulder poles, shovels and other agricultural tools. However, the production team collectively planted many Robinia pseudoacacia on both sides of collectively owned river dams, ditches and roads because they wanted to build cattle houses and warehouses and make public agricultural tools such as water wheels and plows.
However, the disadvantage of Sophora japonica is that it is prone to insects and deformation. In order to solve this problem, the simple way is to put the newly cut Sophora japonica directly in the pond for a month or two before using it.
One summer vacation, we took a bath in the pond at noon. I don't know who planted several bundles of Sophora japonica trees in the pond. One of our friends bumped into a branch when he plunged into the water, and his face was cut several times. At that time, we just resented those people who retweeted trees in the pond, but we didn't know why they retweeted trees. It was not until many years later that we found out the reason here. It turns out that the purpose of soaking the newly cut Sophora japonica trees in the pond is to make the gum in these trees separate out in the water as much as possible, so as to prevent the processed wood products from being deformed. In addition, the eggs can't survive in muddy water and are killed for a long time, so they will hardly regenerate insects.
In the 197s, when Sophora japonica was in full bloom, because there was not enough food to eat, every household used Sophora japonica and sweet potato noodles to make Baba for dinner, and it was ok to eat once or twice occasionally. After a week or two, it was really enough to see Sophora japonica flowers, so many years later, they were not interested in eating Sophora japonica flowers.
Although I'm tired of Sophora japonica flowers, I have to follow adults everywhere to stroke the leaves of Sophora japonica during the summer vacation.
At that time, a worker on the production team didn't earn twenty cents. I don't know when the news came that the commune ginning factory bought the leaves of Sophora japonica, saying that they were dried for seven cents a catty. We know that the news is already late, and there are almost no leaves of Sophora japonica that are easy to pick in the village, so we take bamboo poles, baskets and pockets, and follow the adults in the village to the surrounding four trees, the Wadong main canal, the Longmensi Reservoir, and even further places such as Wei Laohe and Gulou Gang to pick the leaves of Sophora japonica. Every day, adults can get 5 or 6 kilograms of leaves, but we children can usually get 2 or 3 kilograms, but we can also sell them for 7 or 8 cents after drying. After a summer vacation, I can always earn five or six dollars. When I show off these achievements with my classmates after school, I always feel happy.
I remember that several locust trees grew very tall in front of the door and at the entrance of the village, while the Robinia pseudoacacia around Caiyuangou at the back of the house seemed to be wild and closely connected, and none of them could become useful. Later, I heard adults say that the main function of these messy Robinia pseudoacacia strips was to prevent chickens, geese, pigs and sheep from entering the vegetable field.
Every summer, the old locust trees at the entrance of the village are covered with greenery and cicadas, and dozens of people, old and young, gather under the trees every day to eat and enjoy the cool. Parents are short in the west, spreading all kinds of useful and useless gossip. Sometimes, in order to listen to more interesting stories, children specially choose big bowls to fill their meals, so as to save time by running back and forth for a meal.
Adults sometimes like to play practical jokes on children, especially when they see a child holding a porridge bowl, they will suddenly tell you that there is a bug at the bottom of the bowl. When you raise the bowl to look for the bug carefully, the porridge will pour down the rim of the bowl, which will lead to a burst of laughter.
when spring goes, it will come, and the flowers will bloom again. Every year, when the Sophora japonica blooms, about 35 riders cycle to the Chuhe main canal to see the Sophora japonica which stretches for dozens of kilometers on the riverbank, and also ride directly to the scenic spots of Gu Lou, Sishu and Longmensi Reservoir in the Wadong main canal, because there are not only more dense Sophora japonica forests, but also many happy places in my childhood.