Our grandchildren accept us for ourselves, without rebuke or effort to change us, as no one in our entire lives has ever done, not our parents, siblings, spouses, friends – and hardly ever our own grown children.
Ruth Goode, author 1902-1997
The boys are on holiday from school at present and we decided to have a day together.
After picking up two boys from their house and then meeting the other two at the railway station, we went to Mary Potter Hospice.
A call went out the other day for volunteers to do some gardening. The Hospice had been given a flat of black and white pansies and wanted to plant them urgently to make an “All Blacks” Garden. They needed help in moving plants from one garden bed, removing them to another and planting the new plants.
The boys entered into this wholeheartedly and were officially crowned the Youngest volunteers at MPH. The Hospice grounds rang with the laughter of four cousins enjoying themselves. James, the eldest commented that if he ever has a house of his own, the grounds will be all concreted. He thinks his Granma’s patio is just about right. Little planting, many pots and exposed aggregate.
There was a husband and wife team already there when we arrived and it took hardly any time (approx 1.5 hours) to do all the planting, removing and weeding necessary to make the beds look great again.
Unfortunately, somebody had carried the mulch/blood and bone through the complex instead of taking it around the outside. The smell that greeted us was truly awful It smelt like a bad case of diarrhoea but the smell dispersed in a short time. dreadful while it lasted and of course, each of the boys made a comment as you can imagine.
Cold drinks for the boys, coffee for Granma and we were off to the food court at the mall for lunch. I tend to forget that growing boys need constant feeding. The food court is great because they can each choose what they want to eat from whichever concession they like.
The next stop was Hang Dog, an indoor rock climbing arena where the boys showed their prowess at scaling walls. More laughter as they worked out how to manage the harnesses, belaying etc.
After two hours they decided they had ‘done’ Hang Dog and so we went to my daughter’s house where they spent a further couple of hours playing ‘Black Ops’ on the PS3.
Two teams. The oldest and youngest vs the other two. A very serious undertaking quite different from the other things they did today.
More memories to keep and take out later when they have grown up and maybe won’t want to spend a whole day with their Granma.
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I choose how I will spend the rest of my life 