I've been away for a while, looking at some beautiful gardens and interesting buildings, and then I come home to this.......... the wisteria which now reaches half way around the garden, twining itself on a thick, strong marine rope that elder son fixed for me a couple of years ago.
A couple of years. So much has happened, apart from the wisteria more than doubling in size.
Here is a rare, probably one-off photograph of one such wonderful happening.
Grandson, now just eight months old.
I haven't written letters in this blog to him, as I did to Granddaughter in her babyhood because it seemed better to do something different. I have done many things differently. He's a different little person, clear from the very start. When ever he catches my eye he beams and laughs. I have a feeling that we are sharing some tremendous joke, but I don't know what it is just yet. Sheer joy in life, probably. I'm happy to share, whatever it is.
So here he is, engrossed in an encounter with Evesham asparagus, the ideal finger food for babies who like doing it for themselves, as he does now. Asparagus is great. You can wave it about, and when you've bashed it a bit it even waves back. Then you can eat it. Great stuff!
He can spend an hour, happy in his high chair, sampling a variety of foods, wet and dry, hard and soft, mashing them into the tray, wiping them all over his face and arms, squelching them in his little strong fists.
How deeply satisfying it all must be. How totally enjoyable when you don't have to clean up.
Why was cutlery invented when you can have such rich sensory experiences with simple food?
Watching his level of concentration makes me think of what engrosses me, what makes a mess, gives multi-sensory experiences, can occupy me for an hour at a time without me even realising that time has passed?
Well, gardening, of course.
Here's a bit more of it on the rock garden.........
Perfect finger food for oldies. Even if you have to miss out on the eating bit such activities are still food for the body and the brain..
Perfect for youngsters too, because Granddaughter is meanwhile examining her own patch of garden outside the kitchen window.
"I'm going to have lots of strawberries here. You can share some of them," she says, which is really just as well, as that's my strawberry bed she's got her little strong fists on.
Her little bit of garden started with a old sink in which she planted daffodil bulbs, but it has now expanded into what was my herb patch and strawberry bed. Somewhat more invasive are the fairies who are apparently active in her patch and are threatening a take-over of larger areas. My larger areas no doubt.
Perfect!
