Doris, Pius (Chicka), and Ashleigh have a garden

The trio didn't take long to get started. Enthusiastic spade work, plenty of fancy hose work and lots of digging. Mulching and a sign to finish it off. Ashleigh showed she has a mean right hook if Pius - who prefers his nickname "Chicka" - annoyed her.  Jude yearned for a sweet-smelling red rose, so we checked out what was on offer at Sharpe's when we went to get the mulch. Climbing Black Boy on bamboo trellis around a tank will do the trick. The trio have their own gardening gloves now, but bare feet still cop it from the ants. Little brother and sister David and Wonderful came for a visit.  We went and checked out the round table and benches at Min's and will bring them over for a tightening and paint job. Put up the gazebo, furled it and have stored it in the garage. Tom from the neighbourhood and Kristy, volunteer coordinator for   Samaritans,  joined in and will pop in from time to time. Lovely weather, lots done, a great day. Listening to The Science Show on ABC radio on the way home, there was a discussion about how urban children are largely "nature-deprived", fear the bush as they are convinced there actually ARE things living there which will eat you, are fearful of critters in general, only do "safe" things, are sometimes tailed by protective parents in cars when they go out on for a bike ride and never learn to climb a tree. How sad. I can remember the things we did as kids and teenagers and if our parents had known  what we did they would have died a thousand deaths. We were urban dwellers but would disappear to the beach, creeks and anywhere a million miles from home. We had very little money, racketty bikes and I can't remember that we even bothered about taking something to eat or drink - we just took off and came home for dinner at night. When we had enough pocket money we went to the pictures - on foot. It wasn't all joy, we got bored as well but we dealt with it somehow. Perhaps we learned that every minute doesn't have to be filled with something entertaining supplied by others.