Fall is here. School has started, and I have lost my little gardener. I have had so much fun since we moved to Minnesota sharing my love of gardening with Tavi. (My mom, a Master Gardener, shared her love of gardening with me, and now I get to pass it along to my grandchildren.) Tavi planted carrots and herbs by seed and tended the plants and asked me no less than once a week if it was time to pick the carrots. Finally, it was time to harvest the first of the carrots this week, and I should not have been surprised that they were huge. All the grandkids enjoy picking tomatoes and cucumbers and packaging the extras for the Food Shelf.
Tavi was counting the number of trees that she knows and came up with 17 trees that she could identify. That seems like a lot for a seven year old. But she loves nature and learning about plants and how they help the environment. We read a new book “The Weeping Willow” this weekend that talked about how much the tree loved having children play under it. I told her about how I loved to play under the neighbor’s willow tree when I was young and pretend it was my fort. She asked if I could call someone in the neighborhood and ask if we could play under their tree. Yesterday, we set off on a short walk and let Tavi play under the willow near our street. She was in heaven. Gene and I stood by, taking photos and smiling. She seems so big at times, and yet she is still a little girl playing under the Willow. And to top it off, her middle name is Willow.
