Skip to main content

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.

Comments

  1. I wish you and your son the best.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Thanks Damo. Parenthood is rarely easy... and we are learning something new every day I find.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Boyfriend, Manfriend, Partner, Companion…a new word required….

Dance "partners" (microsoft) I read a really interesting article the other day written by a Generation Y male lamenting that his girlfriend no longer referred to him as her “boyfriend”, but in an overheard conversation as her “partner”.  He took exception to this expression writing: “I must have missed the memo on my sexless new categorisation – I would certainly not have approved it.  A ‘partner’ is someone you twirl around at a barn dance”. (Andy Jones, Grazia magazine) I have had a business partner;  there are partners in law, stockbroking and accounting firms. And so to refer to my personal life-sharer as a partner was not comfortable for me. But despite the fact that the English language is alive and evolving, there is not a word or an expression to reflect the status of one’s “life companion” whether in a gay or straight relationship if not committed to, or already married. The word “companion” actually applies in both French and Italian. Although in Engl

Bali…Bogans, Tattoos and the Ugly Australian…

Balinese temple (photo LP 2010) I have returned in the past few days from a holiday in Bali, Indonesia, with my sister.  Unlike my trip in 2010 when I stayed more remotely in the north west at Pemuteran  and  the north east at Amed, this visit was to a five star resort in Legian. What a difference!  The streets of Legian were very busy, the locals almost outnumbered by the Australian tourists.  I heard very few languages other than “Aussie” spoken and it reminded me that when I travelled with my French boyfriend to the northern part of Bali, I was told by the Europeans I met that they tended to avoid the tourist hubs of Kuta, Legian and Seminyak because of the loud, rude and crude Australians…yes a generalisation about the Aussies, but unfortunately, as I was to learn, a correct one. A friendly local trying to sell us a toy (photo LP 2012) It is difficult to write this post without appearing a “snob”.  But having canvassed my ideas with friends, acquaintances, col

Friendships...gold and silver...real and virtual...priceless!

My 21st birthday dinner...Oh so formal then! I was talking with a friend the other day about friendship.  About how it impacts on our lives, from childhood and teenage friends, to becoming friends with boyfriends’s friends, husband’s friends and their wives, parents of other school children, social club friends,  friends after divorce or death of a partner, passing friendships, acquaintances…and now virtual friends. It’s complicated. And I am finding in my “middle” years that my need for friends has reduced…not that I don’t value and cherish my friends, but my actual need has lessened.  Why, I wonder?  I used always be a “People who need People” (with apologies to whoever wrote the song made famous in  Funny Girl ) sort of a person.  I was always out and about, making sure that I saw my friends, knew all that was going on with them and theirs.  Afternoon tea for the girls...with bubbles! However, as the years have moved on, my children have become independent