Y'all Come Sit a Spell

Come sit a spell with me this morning. The coffee is hot, the drizzle is soft, and today’s prompt asks for a useless fact I love sharing. I didn’t think I had one. Then, after a little thought, I remembered a fact I picked up on an excursion in Costa Rica: coffee trees prefer growing in the second canopy, beneath taller trees.
I learned it during a Panama Canal transit cruise. One of our excursions took us to a coffee plantation, where we could see the trees growing in that shaded layer below the taller ones. In my photos, the coffee plants make a deep green blanket across the slope, with the taller trees rising above them. It’s one of those details that might have slipped right past me if someone hadn’t pointed it out.

That’s what makes the fact stick. I can picture the plantation, the greenery, and the coffee being prepared during the visit. It isn’t just a random piece of information I picked up somewhere. It’s tied to a day in Costa Rica, part of a cruise I still remember, and to the little surprise of seeing how the plants grew.
Maybe it’s not the most useful fact in the world, but I enjoy sharing it. And now, when someone asks why, I can tell them where I learned it—and show them the photos.
So that’s my answer: coffee trees prefer the second canopy. A small fact, with a whole travel memory tucked inside.