Fairy Gardens

Dear Liza,

One of the great joys of living in Portland is getting to spend time with your cousins Jasper and Kestrel. Yesterday afternoon, I walked over to their place through blinding sunshine and had fun with all sorts of projects.

Cousin Jasper had an essay to write about Sacagawea, the Shoshone woman who guided the Lewis and Clark expedition in 1803. He had all his notes, and even a good outline, so it was just a matter of coming up with sentences and transition phrases and actually getting the words down on paper. It was challenging, but by the time we headed off for dinner, it was ready to be typed into the computer at school.

Cousin Kestrel and I had a few different projects. I had carried some rising bread dough over, and we shaped and baked it. I am afraid that I didn’t give it enough time and that it will be “under proved” and “under baked”. Baking while Grandma-ing is difficult!

We also had fun in the Fairy Garden. Since it was a dry day, and (almost) warm, we went out back to the little triangle of vinca, quince bushes and grass that is Kes’s garden.

Over the years, Kestrel has collected tea cups, pebbles and tiny animals for her garden, and they get re-arranged every year. The winter rains make a mess of things and they need to get dug out of the mud, rinsed off, and put back. It is a fun, but damp, process.

I enjoy being with Kestrel and Jasper for so many reasons. Seeing how they think and feel about the world, making up games and playing with words, and noticing the changes in their maturity and understanding, is amazing.

I am one lucky Grandma.

Love, Grandma Judy