Wayside Magic - Variations on a Theme

 

Solace

 

Sometimes you need the sea. Sometimes the sea and soft falling rain is enough. 

The world will be the same the next day, but sometimes the sea is enough. 

Ocean

 

Happiness is the ocean. Happiness is the ocean and days of cool and gentle rain.

Wayside Pools

Running from wayside pool to wayside pool my children play in waterlogged evening light. They delight in the feel of the water, the abundant life of tadpoles, dragonflies and the odd unexpected noises of the frogs.

Water is their favourite plaything - this is their second walk and play in the pools of the day - and they've enjoyed the mud around the house in-between. We started the walk with a warriors coating of mud and ended it with more. 

They luxuriate in the sensations, the found things, and again I wonder all that we lost when we began to live so much within fall walls.

 

Not even your to your toes

For most of the eighteen months we've lived in our small town the stream we pass on our walk has run dry. On either side of the road there has been merely the hard dirt stream bed.

 

The recent rains have changed that. 

A week ago our local dam was at 4% capacity. Now it is at 66% capacity. It is not a small dam. 

There is an amazing amount of water around, and we are all loving it.  

The younger children love walking with us to the stream to see its fast rushing mass, listening out for the sound of the moving water as we make our way down the hillside. 

We experimented with throwing leaves, rocks, and eventually branches into the water to see what happened, watching as they were caught in the currents and swept into the mess of whitewater. 

My brother and I stayed close, within lunging reach, and warned - repeatedly, you never, ever, ever go into flood water, not even your little toes. See, see what happens to the branch, see how it's swept away and then gets trapped on the otherwise of the road. Step back, just a bit further back. 

They listen, but are warning are a sideshow to the delight of throwing in their pieces of debris, squabbling over who gets to throw in what. 

They don't know it, but they're running a science experiment - working out which things float most, which things remain visible, which things disappear quickly, how fast and powerfully the shallow water moves. 

I hope they remember the learning and delight of the water. 

 

 

Sun-Gold Glory

The grass stalks caught in the setting sun become magical. 

I never tire of the way they grasp at the light. 

 

Climb

 

She climbs a tree in the last light - the disappearing sun illuminates her joy and determination. 

Five

 

My Dino baby is five - the last of my little ones. 

She's ready to explore the world and ready to be enthusiastic about all the curious things she comes across. She loves to wade in puddles, carefully tuck her dolls into bed, boss her uncle around and distribute cloud dough all through the house.

Her laugh is infectious, and she is well practiced at cute, and uses it to her advantage. 

It turns out little dinosaurs, just like little kids, grow up way too fast. 

Mary Poppins

An evening walk - my stubborn, sunshine girl insists on bringing an umbrella, putting all our eyes at risk with her wild swinging. 

"I'm Mary Poppins!" she tells us. Mary Poppins does have strong connections to our area - the author was born not so very far away. 

The girls run and play with the umbrella until we finally confiscate it after she hurts her hand in the mechanism - shocked at the small pain despite our warnings. 

They run and play, light-footed and so very free in the fading light. 

 

Time (in a bottle)

If I could save time in a bottle 

The first thing that I'd like to do

Is save every day 'till eternity passes away

Just to spend them with you

Time in a Bottle - Jim Croce

Time passes so swiftly, my little ones grow so fast. The days of small people around me is vanishing so quickly. And I don't understand how there are so many love songs about relationships between adults, and so few about the deeper and more enduring love for ones children. And many of those that are around are deeply dark. I wish I could save my little ones at at all their ages, and keep them with me for always. To see them grow is also an adventure... but... the days just go so fast, and so many things distract from the important.