Visitors

Well. we've had many garden visitors this summer. We had the neighborhood garden tour , which was nice, and many friends came by to visit.

The most fun, however has been the kids from the Chinese language immersion school down the street. What a hoot! The school has regular lessons during the schol year; then they have summer school. The kids learn Chinese language and play all day long. I've gotten to know the woman who runs the school and she enjoyed seeing my garden, and thought the kids would like it, too. So, from two houses down the street, here they come.

The kids are mostly 5-10 years old, some Chinese ancestry, some Western, but all speak good Chinese, for a 5-year-old (better than me). They came down the sidewalk, hand-in-hand, to the front of the driveway, and sang a song, to get my attention. We exchanged greetings, Nie-Hauo's and Shie-Shie's, and headed for the garden. Their assignment was, to find as many different animals in the garden as they could, and write them down. We have many little ceramic critters in the garden - frogs, turtles, ducks, pigs, sheep, chickens, trolls, birds, ladybugs. They were then to list them in their Chinese names and how many they found. Of course, they had to investigate the entire garden, up and down, to finish their assignment. I'd not realized that since they were ohnlt 3-4 ft tall, their viewpoint was very different. They were able to spot critters that I'd long forgotten about, since they had become overgrown by foliage.

Also, there was a bit of a competition, and I'd hear someone call out "ducks over here", or "there are the frogs!" The pond, as usual, was a huge hit, as everyone was looking for real fish (they're shy) and watching the water. The boys were trying to figure out the mechanics.

The visit finished with another song, with lots of 'quack-quack-quacks' and waving arms, the duck song; and they linked arms and headed back down the street.

We've had a couple of visits now, two session, and they're a lot of fun.