Yes!

A fabulous granma wears leopard print and walks with her cute little grandchldren up a muddy track. There are tractor tyre marks in the mud. It's lightly raining.

June’s weather has been issued in short spells: sunny-dry, sunny-drizzle, cloudy, downpour, rainbows, humid, might-rain-might-be-blowy. Washing is on the line to dry or to get an extra rinse. Roses bloom, and when I get a chance to check the polytunnel there are tomato plants rising, the strawberries and nasturtiums are zooming over the path, the lovage has doubled.
When I get to the land, with Mr, Old Dog, and grandchildren 6 & 7 (aged 4 and 3 respectively) there are tracks through it. This is magic to all of us: we, the adults who instructed this progress and fully expected to see it, and the children to whom this is pure surprise. Knowledge is no impediment to murmuring ‘wow’ and savouring the press of our boots into bare earth as we wander up through the fickle mizzle. I see the levelled area which will become an outdoor kitchen: it’s mud and scraped nettle root and it makes my heart boom YES THIS IS IT!
We walk to the top field to admire the yellow digger, the huge blue tractor. We mark the occasion with photographs, but then the grown-ups get talking.
Two cute children sit high up in a tall tractor, thrilled with themselves. They are waving.

The little ones break free from my hands. It’s sunny now and they run down through the meadow and are lost in the blonde swish. When they reemerge Grandchild 6 has her t-shirt pulled up so the grass can tickle her belly. Grandchild 7 has lost and found his wellies, his socks and trousers are soaked, an unimportant detail to him. (We are relieved not to be on a boot hunt.)
They chase butterflies, they rescue a slug lest a crow eats it, they hang on the carved up chunks of felled ash!- which is a bicycle but also a horse and a nest.
Two cute children perch on large chunks of cut down tree, they are engrossed in play

I follow, watching them at play, vaguely thinking: so random, but connected. In the moment and timeless. It’s what you know plus magic. Deliberate creation that works with the raw materials, there’s a flow.
This is going somewhere. 
This is the adventure. Sometimes it gets hidden in work but-
YES THIS IS IT

Comments

Damyanti Biswas said…
I love the images you've picked. It says so much about the bond with your grandchildren :)
11 June 2022 at 10:32
Steve Cromwell said…
A big change from a big tractor! And this sums up so much of childhood: "chunks of felled ash!- which is a bicycle but also a horse and a nest."
13 June 2022 at 02:33
Lisa Southard said…
Sharing this adventure with our family is awesome :-) xx
15 June 2022 at 18:24
Lisa Southard said…
Imagination magic :-) And yes, that is a flippin' big tractor!
15 June 2022 at 18:25
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