Somebody always ends up wet

The three girls lined up on the deck, soaked through and grinning at the camera, with me in the background at the fence holding the hose

If you want kids in the garden, do not start them on weeding. Give them the hose. I worked that out early and I have never had to ask twice since. Planting is fine, digging holds up for about four minutes, but the hose is the one job none of them has ever needed talking into.

Which is how it ends up that half the garden photos I have from 2014 onwards have somebody wet in them. Watering the corn, watering the strawberries, watering things that did not need watering, watering each other. The garden got done, roughly, and everybody had a good time, which as far as I am concerned is the right order of priorities.

I am not going to pretend the spraying was an accident. They knew it was coming, that was half the fun of it, and they came straight back for more every time.

It is not really about the garden either. Hand one of them the hose and washing the windows turns into an afternoon out, which is how there is a photo of the two of us grinning next to a bucket in the middle of winter.

The youngest in 2015, small enough to need both hands, spraying the hose past the strawberry bed at the fence

One of the girls with the hose over her shoulder beside a raised bed full of marigolds, looking straight at the camera

The pair of us on window washing day in 2021, her holding the hose going full bore and me holding the squeegee

Note to self

Weeding is a job. The hose is a treat. Do not get those the wrong way round.

← Water every hour