The snow is  gone the day I take this picture. This little grandson loves to dig, to fill his trucks with dirt and dump them over and over. He has other small machines too, the kind he can use to push dirt around in his favourite place near the front door. A shrub has been cut back here. It will eventually be taken out because it’s old and was overgrown, but for now until he has a sandbox, this is one of his favourite places to play.

His cousin has a sandbox, and perhaps he’ll have one some day too. For now, the dirt behind the shrub works.

His shovels had broken parts from being in the hot sun in summer, and exposed to the cold in the shed in winter. It was  time for new digging tools, so I searched an online catalogue and came up with a plan for both grandsons for Easter. A set of tools for each.

When I got the items, I realized that was a lot of tools for two little boys. They were pretty big, but sturdy too and they’ll handle a lot of digging. I suggested to the four-year-olds that they could share with their Moms for the family gardening projects, and perhaps the boys could each choose one of the shovels and their Moms could have other two. They were excited about having a new shovel and pretty good about sharing.

I knew how much N loved to dig and rake when he was here with his Dad for a little backyard visit last fall. As we were cleaning up the gardens, he raked the soil of one of the garden beds for me. He counted up the peach pits that had made their way into the garden via compost, and he kept on raking.

I’m sure he’d love to do that again. Maybe the next time when he comes by with his Mom and Dad, we can have our safe distance visit and he can rake the garden for me and help get it ready for planting.