Not the Running Part!

My children are not all sports-minded. Yes, we have an adult son who is committed to his cricket, and it's great. We love seeing his pride in his ability, as well as the satisfaction that he gets from contributing to the result when the team does well. We also see the frustration when he hasn't had a good day at cricket or if the team has done poorly.

Just recently he came home from a day of cricket with a hand injury - he'd split the webbing between his thumb and forefinger. OUCH. Don't worry, it makes me cringe just thinking about it too. It didn't look pretty, but he had it bandaged up by someone at the ground and continued to play. Yep, you read that right. Continued to play. I didn't even know about the injury until he got home that night and showed it to me.

It probably could have done with a stitch or two in it, but it was already late and he didn't feel like going to the hospital and waiting to be seen. We agreed it would probably heal just fine on its own, as long as he looked after it - with the warning that if I saw any sign of infection, I'd have him straight to the doctor. Anyway, he promised he would be diligent about looking after it.

So, off he went to cricket again the next day. I KNOW! Unbelievable. Anyway, luckily it didn't slow down the healing and within a couple of weeks you wouldn't have even known there was an injury at all. Of course, there was also the distraction of thinking he'd broken his thumb in the next game another week later. Only bruised, as it turned out, but it all made me kind of grateful that he's the only sporty child we have.

Our youngest son, aged 12, was playing cricket at school last week - because it was a class activity. When he was younger we tried to get him to play the game but he has never shown any interest. We don't mind too much, we're not pushy about the kids doing something they don't want to do. He's always been active, he just doesn't really enjoy organised team sports. Anyway, thanks to that one season of junior cricket when he was small, as well as playing in the backyard with his big brother over the years, it turns out he's pretty talented. Enough for the teachers to now be trying to encourage him into the school cricket team. He still says he's not interested, so we'll see how they go with that.

He went to watch one of his friends play baseball just a few days ago and when I picked him up afterwards I asked the standard question, "So, do you think you'd like to have a go at playing baseball yourself?" His response: "Nah ... it looks okay, but then there's that running part."

My daughter, sitting in the front seat of the car, burst out laughing and said, "That right there is my whole problem with sport. There's always a running part!"

Reviving my Green Thumb

It's a little rusty. My green thumb, that is. When we were younger and starting our family, the Caveman and I both took pride in our gardening - planting vegetable and herb gardens, selecting native trees and getting the kids involved. We really enjoyed learning about various plants and watching things grow.

The only problem we had was that we lived out of town, in an area with very little rainfall, so it was hard to keep much of it alive - I built up some pretty impressive arm muscles carrying buckets of household water to the plants, after collecting it from the washing machine or shower. We couldn't afford to "waste" our good drinking water from the rainwater tank on it. It costs a lot of money to buy a load of water.

Unfortunately, between moving house a couple of times since then, raising the family and getting back into the workforce, we've both found we have less time and interest in gardening. As rental tenants especially, we just sort of maintain what's already there, with no real interest in adding to it at our own expense. Added to that is the fact that we are again living in the same area we were in all those years ago, relying on tank water with very little rainfall, so the garden really does look a bit neglected.

Recently we had a visit from the owner of our house, just to check on some work they'd had done. While they were here we talked about the gardens and agreed that they need some rejuvenating. After some discussion about how to do it as cheaply as possible, we came to an agreement about groundcovers. In particular, the succulent varieties. I usually struggle to keep groundcover plants alive, especially during the dry months, so I had kind of given up on them. I've never been a big fan of succulents either - I can't explain why. I'm not really prejudiced about plants, I promise! - but I've agreed it might be the answer to sprucing up the garden with very little money or water necessary.

As it turns out, lots of other people love succulents and most are very generous about sharing them. They are a great choice for a tight budget because you only need to take a small cutting (or break off a leaf) and plant it, and voila! a new plant grows. I'm actually enjoying gardening again, watching my baby cuttings grow and transplanting them into the mature gardens as soon as they're ready. It's not taking too much water to get them established, so most of them are doing well so far.

Fingers crossed my green thumb continues to thrive!