Parents and Children…and Seasons in the Sun

The bougainvillea and palms think they are still in summer 

It’s been a week of contrasts.  The weather can’t decide whether it should still be winter or sneaking towards an early spring. And so my garden is filled with cascading bougainvillea  and colourful geraniums, against flourishing and abundant lemons, but drying and languishing dwarf butter beans and tentative broad beans and sugar snap peas.  The vegetable patch looks lush…but is providing very little…style over substance at this stage, I think.  Confusion all around.

Lucinda's petunias are finished just as the lemons ripen

And my son can’t decide if adulthood is all it is meant to be.  It is such a matter of seasons, this maturity thing.  For plants, it seems less complicated…unless the weather upsets the natural order of things. For people, it’s also a matter of circumstances…and timing. 

The geraniums and ivy don't seem to care about the season

It’s tough as a parent to see one’s child trying to dodge the pitfalls in the minefield which is the long road of a life’s journey. We can always look back with the wisdom of hindsight…and perhaps realise the times that when our decisions were difficult the winds were blowing more favourably .  And at other times, less kindly.  But those lessons are what make us mature…

The veggie patch - is patchy!

So for now, I’m off to the veggie patch to harvest what few beans are trying their best, some chillies which always seems to flourish – it must be their fiery nature – some herbs and, with love, to cook a meal for my son.