Grandaddy mows himself a path from his and Nana's backyard, to his barn/shed behind his house. This is also where he keeps his garden, so he simply rides his golf cart back and forth to take care of his bounty. It's very convenient. Grandaddy let Hadley sit in his lap and steer the golf cart.
Every year, Grandaddy gets tons of pleasure giving his tomatoes and cucumbers away. He grows way more tomatoes than he and Nana could ever humanly eat. He just loves knowing other people are enjoying them. In fact, he gave us so many that it looks like I will be making bruschetta and a tomato tarte for our family pool party this weekend.
In our part of the world, farming has deep roots in our families. Now each generation gets further away from that, and it breaks my heart. There are so many life lessons that kids can learn from farmwork. I can remember visiting my Grandaddy and Grandma and going outside to ring the dinner bell, which told my Grandaddy and Uncles that it was time to come in from the fields and eat. When our kids get bigger, I want them to help their Grandad haul hay and do other chores on the farm. It's so important to me that kids understand where they come from and what makes up who they are.
I told Grandaddy that he needed to enter this cucumber in the state fair. He always grows gorgeous zinnias in his garden. Anyone who visits gets to take a bouquet home. Hadley held on to them all night and said she was going to get married with them.
When we left Grandaddy's garden, and rode the golf cart back to his house, we walked around his orchard. Well, it's not really an orchard, but he does have six fruit trees that are bearing a ridiculous amount of fruit. The peaches aren't quite ready, but I'm going to research some peach preserve recipes anyway. Hadley picked blackberries right off the vine and couldn't get enough of them. She swiped two from my hands and would eat them as fast as she could get them.
Plum in one hand, blackberry in the other. The plums were to die for! Nothing like walking up to a tree, tearing a piece of fruit off, and biting in.
Many years ago, Grandaddy designed a stream and fishpond and using a Bobcat, literally dug it out all by himself, in his backyard. It tickles me, because this is the sort of thing that most people would pay a landscape designer tens of thousands of dollars to construct. He used water from the bluehole, beside their house, and ran pipes so that the water in the fish pond is constantly running in and out and not getting stagnant. He is constantly making changes to the plants around it, never fully satisified with how it looks. It, of course, amazes us.
After our time outside, enjoying the "fruit" of Grandaddy's labor, we headed back inside for supper. Canaan snoozed comfortably on Grandaddy while Hadley played with toys and the adults just "talked." Another pastime that is so special to me....visiting someone just for the sake of visiting. I think with the explosion of email, facebook, texting, etc, that visiting is quickly becoming a thing of the past. I hope we can be intentional in visiting ;) Looking forward to making some new recipes with my home-grown fruits and veggies!
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