The Gift Voucher

Photo Copyright: Maggie May

When I was forced to give up work last month, through ill health, the team at the After School Club gave me a gift voucher that could be used at any Garden Centre. I can remember at the time I received it (very ungratefully, looking back) thinking that I wished I had the stamina and the energy to even do gardening.

However, on one of my daughter's recent visits, she took me to a very large garden centre that I seldom get to, these days.

It was one of those garden centres that sells many other things....... crafts, books, gadgets to name but a few, as well as thousands of indoor and outdoor plants and things to do with gardening. There were also small pets, but although I enjoyed looking at all the rabbits and equipment, I left that department hurriedly.

I decided on a gadget to help people to be able to weed and do gardening on their knees. There are huge handles on the sides of this low stool so that I can lever myself up. It means I can now get up without great discomfort.

If its turned the other way, it is a sturdy garden seat.

And when it is not being used at all, it folds down flat.

This little stool has given me a new lease of life.

I have also used it to do things like washing the kitchen/ bathroom floor.

It seems to have been the perfect gift, so I am really grateful to the after School Club.

Chimes

Photos Copyright: Maggie May

I have always loved wind chimes......... Well with a Japanese influence in the family it is no surprise that I have been introduced to them over the years. Now they seem to be popular in England too.

I already had several small ones that I accumulated over the years, as well as a large wooden one that I rescued from a neglected garden that I was once tending.

I quite love the sound of them gently chiming out in the breeze. I find it very soothing.

There was only ever one neighbour who referred to them as noise pollution in a half hearted kind of way but she has moved out of the area now.... not because of my wind chimes, I might add.

Anyway, last Sunday after Church, I was very surprised to be presented with the large chimes in the first photo, from a lovely friend who has just come back from a Cornish holiday.

They have a really lovely mellow sound. She said she thought I would like them!

I have been, and still am very busy looking after Amber and Millie while Sam is in Southampton. It has been an action packed week but my energy levels are quite high and I am only tired by the end of the day, which I think of as normal tiredness.

We have had some lovely conversations, the girls and I....... done spelling revision and looked up things on the net for homework projects and I have taken them in the late afternoons to their after school activities, fed and bathed them and wished they'd go to bed earlier.

They have helped me feed and clean out Ash the rabbit and kept him entertained.

They have spoken to their Daddy on the phone every morning and Skyped every evening, so I think they have had as much of an action packed week as Granddad and I have done.

Sam comes home late on Friday afternoon. He has passed the tests so far this week, though his important exams will be when he goes again to Southampton for the third session, as yet at an unknown date.

I surprised my self by signing up to do two evenings a week in the after school club, starting from next week. If it is too much for me, then I can reduce the hours but I can also go back to my four nights if I feel up to it later on. I will not be going back to lunch times yet as I have to adjust to things very slowly after being at home for so long.

Young Love

I wonder if it is possible to feel true love at seven years old?

John, who is seven, was writing a letter at the table where I was helping children with craft work in the after school club where I work. As he was sitting right next to me, I could plainly see what he was writing:-

Dear Kellie,

I do not love you,

From John.

As I always try to get any of the children to put themselves into the other person's shoes and show empathy, I suggested it might be kinder not to send the letter in the first place and then the girl wouldn't have to know that the boy didn't love her.

John responded by producing a letter from Kellie who had announced her love for him. He told me he didn't love her back. I asked him if he could write that he liked her? He shook his head. I decided that enough was enough and went on to do something else.

Some time later, I saw that John had finished his letter and he showed it to me.

Dear Kellie,

I do not love you.

From John.

I do like you and want you for my friend.

I felt quite touched by the fact that John had taken notice of what I had said and spared the girl's feelings.

Yes..... it is possible to love someone and experience a broken heart at seven years old because it happened to me!

I used to meet Michael every summer holiday and play together everyday until he had to go back to school. He stayed with his Nan in the house next door to ours, but he lived in Liverpool which was twelve miles away and that seemed more like a hundred in those days. I lived for those summer holidays when we could be together again. We roamed around the countryside all day long and the days seemed to be always sunny and there were fields, wood stacks and hay ricks to play on.

Then, the inevitable thing happened....... my father's work was transferred to the south and I never saw Michael again. I grieved for several years.

Yes...... it is possible to have a deep love at seven years old...... a very innocent kind of deep love.

The Things Children Say........

Working with children and having access to grandchildren sometimes causes me to smile. Its the things they say.

Millie, my youngest Grandchild, suddenly asked me, "Granny, what is your bottom like?"

Somewhat taken aback, I quickly composed myself by saying, "Much the same as yours, only bigger."

A sudden look of mischief spread across her face and she lunged towards me in glee.

I can almost read her mind at times and as I ran away from her, I screamed, "But you're not looking!"

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I was wondering what to get for the evening meal not long ago and I just happened to say in front of Millie, "I wonder what to get for granddad's dinner?"

"Fruit," she suggested.

"I think he needs something more than that to get his teeth stuck into," I replied.

"What teeth," she said. 

Now as far as I remember he has never taken out his teeth in front of either of the girls. Is it feminine intuition starting at an early age? Admittedly she is a bit older than she was in this photograph, but is only just four years old!

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At Church this morning our Minister was trying to illustrate a point by asking the children in the congregation, "What did you learn at school last week?"

A bright young boy of about seven years old replied, "We learned that the school was closed." (Because of snow.)