I am declaring a breakthrough.
It's nothing earth shattering. At no point did I feel the need to run around shouting 'Eureka'. But still, in its own little way it marks something important for me.
It's this: my children did some gardening.
OK, so nothing new there but this is the point: they did it without my instigation, they did it for their own enjoyment and they did it without needing any advice or input. To me that marks a breakthrough.
It's also rather timely. I've just realised this Saturday will mark the fifth anniversary of my blog. When I began Ava was only five. Now she is ten and at the weekend she chose to weed and clear her veg patch, take out old leaves from her pond, tidy out the greenhouse and cut back the raspberry canes.
Oscar was only three when I began blogging about getting my kids into gardening, and this weekend he decided to clean out his birdbath, rake and clear the leaves from his garden and check on the progress of the bulbs he'd planted.
And then there is Archie. Archie is the reason I began blogging in the first place. I'd decided to stop the garden design work for a couple of years when he came along. Three children under six and a career calls for a lot of juggling and I remembered what I'd learnt years before on being given three brightly coloured Hacky Sacks - I'm a rubbish juggler.
Now Archie is five and this weekend he chose to... run around the garden holding a pink space hopper behind his back yelling "Look at my enormous pink BOTTOM! It's ENORMOUS! It's my BOTTOM!"
As the wise sage of Rock, Meatloaf, once intoned 'Two Out of Three Ain't Bad'.
Lovely blog, congrats on 5 years and green-fingered children!
Posted by: Helen Ison | January 29, 2014 at 10:07 AM
Many thanks Helen!
Posted by: Dawn | January 29, 2014 at 10:37 AM
How wonderful your children are enjoying gardening. It's awesome seeing children grow things isn't it!
Posted by: Ock Du Spock | February 07, 2014 at 06:15 AM
Yep, that just about equates to my experience of assisting with an after (primary) school gardening club - the five year olds just want to run around (not necessarily shouting about their bottoms, although … ) while the middle children ask lots of questions and the eldest get on with things. Bless.
Posted by: Caro | February 09, 2014 at 03:13 PM
Ock Du Spock - it is indeed
Caro - 'tis always the way - and even more so with pre-schoolers
Posted by: Dawn | February 10, 2014 at 10:10 AM