A walk in the Park......

Parenting is one of those tasks in life for which we are least prepared, and yet it is the most important one we will ever do. To complicate matters it is crammed with paradoxes.... we train them to grow up strong and independent, then miss them like mad when they leave home and go to live halfway across the world.

We avoid showering our kids with all the put-downs we experienced as kids, so that they can grow up with good self esteem, and they pick up on our attitudes to our selves rather than what we are saying about them, so it all perpetuates anyway.

By the time we finally get to middle age, and grow up and learn to like ourselves, our kids have already grown up and are dealing with their own insecurities! But just when it seems that we have blown it, (and don't get me wrong here, our kids are great people!) along comes a second chance! Grandchildren arrive when we are settled and know who we are, and they are a delight! .... except that they often live far away because we did such a good job on the independence thing!

We went through all these dilemmas until our daughter and son in law left Zimbabwe a couple of years ago, and moved nearby. Now, at least one of our grandchildren is able to spend time with us, and we really enjoy our times together.

Last weekend we went for a long walk, and the little guy gamely trotted along with us (ok, lets be more accurate... he ran circles round us!)

He had hundreds of questions about the war memorial at the park entrance....

We looked for rats next to the big pond, where Max photographed them once before....

We fed fish in the pond next to the conservatory.......

He was enchanted by the pergolas....

But his absolute best was hamming it up on the stage of the outdoor thetre where a Shakespeare production is put on annually!

It was sheer delight for all of us.