The Tiny Hands Project

The fallen blossoms of crossvine
(Bignonia capreolata)

I’m seeing a lot of a certain pair of tiny hands lately. We’ve been ‘quaranteaming’ our 2-year-old grandson during the pandemic shutdown, and those little hands are into everything at our house. 

Since we’ve had such beautiful weather, I’ve had many opportunities to get him outside and get those hands into nature. He doesn’t always want to have his picture taken, but he’s been tolerant of holding things for me to take a photo.

This is a collection of those photos (all phone photos, of course). 

In between photos, we are throwing sweetgum balls into the stream, pebbles into the neighbors’ pond, pine cones into a water-filled wheelbarrow, and watering plants like crazy. He loves water. My friend gave him a 5-piece set of the frog life-cycle: egg cluster, 3 stages of tadpoles, and a fully grown ‘daddy’ frog. Those frogs jump in and out of watering cans, pans of water, and bowls of suds. We found one tiny real frog among the pots, but it was too fast to hold onto.

Mushrooms

Different pine cones (to him, it's 'big' and 'small')

Iris virginica is a big plant!

Tulip-tree flower (Liriodendron)

We’re gradually learning to appreciate bugs and understand they have a job to do. Small tasks around the yard—potting up small plants, pulling weeds, watering thirsty pots—they are all opportunities to help as far as he’s concerned and he has jumped in with both hands on everything. He loves to help.

Mountain laurel (Kalmia latifolia)

Adding fresh food for monarchs

A snail!

Helping to sort plants

I don’t know when this will end, but it is a time that we are definitely treasuring. Of course I am grateful to have such a yard (and a garden) where staying in place can be a joy, but really that was part of my master plan about using Georgia's native plants in the landscape. Nature lives here, and every moment sharing it with him is just one of my rewards.

A path walked many times, from back yard to front yard