Chuck says:

The spring is my favourite season of the year; there is the new, the renewed everywhere. Fawns at dusk across the street, baby rabbits under the California lilacs in the side yard, new fledglings around the bird house in the patio. The pear tree has blossomed, the rhododendrons bloomed and the conifers with new green tips. All this is wonderful but I must confess expected. However, this morning as I rode my bicycle to the smolt counting fence on Shelly Creek I had a delightful surprise which lifted me to the heavens. I ride this route so often that it seems as though the bike knows the way and I just go along for the ride. In here, out there, swing to the left, go up the hill. This morning as the bike and I followed the old pathway I suddenly – unconsciously? – swerved onto Vine St. before reaching the familiar Crabapple Crescent. As I came around the corner I saw one of those dry stone defined watercourses which have become locally popular in recent years. But lo and behold this one did not have a dry bed of mundane rocks. It was spread with sparkling blue gems (plastic? glass?) which caught the sun and for a moment literally overwhelmed me with their beauty.
Was it the surprise that so delighted me or was it the startling beauty of the scene? Such an experience need not be analyzed and more likely, I suspect, resists analysis.
What a life full of wonder we live.

Christopher says:

How often to do get to offer someone something they love to do.. This 10 year old lad loves to cook, and play ping pong, which he had played once before. So having him over to make crepes for dinner and play lots of ping pong was a big hit. His eye-hand coordination is so strong.

As we played our ‘game’ evolved, new rules evolved which went beyond the ping pong table.. It reminded me of Doc Brown’s famous line that ended Back to the Future. ‘Roads? Where we’re going we don’t need roads.’

He shows promise in both these and other pursuits, and is so appreciative and full of wonder. Rare these days.