A Clean Slate for Bow

It's been raining on and off, day and night, for the past few days. It rained on Mother's Day. Bow and I stayed amused during the rain with indoor activities. I brought him a slate and a miniature chalkboard into the pen to play with.

Bow and the slate

I don't persist in making Bow practice attempts at writing each and every day, as if it were training, but every once in a while, I let him try his hand again, to see if he has improved or if he has a longer attention span for this activity now than he had before. Sometimes I take in paper and a pen, or paints and an easel, and sometimes it is chalk and a chalkboard. Bow is familiar with all these different tools, and he does not need to be told what they are for.

Trying the left hand

Bow enjoys experimenting with the chalk, but there does not seem to be any clear intent to write or draw anything. He just likes the process.

Bow tried writing with his left hand, but when I mentioned to him that it might work better for him with the right hand, he switched.

Then, of course, there is also the possibility of drawing with chalk directlu on the concrete floor.

While he was exploring all of the possibilities, Bow noticed that you could write on both sides of the board and that there was actually a clean slate waiting for him on the other side, should he wish to use it. But he didn't choose to use it. Not this time, anyway.

Every day is like clean slate, a chance to do the same things in a different way, or to do something completely new. Just because we did not avail ourselves of all the opportunities yesterday does not mean that we might not today. It's like the bumblebee in the tulip tree, who can explore a flower that it left untouched the day before.

Peony about to bloom May 10, 2015

I went outside yesterday afternoon, and everything was soaking wet. The ants were no longer patrolling the peonies, which now look as if they are almost ready to bloom.

Sword with the first blooming peony of May 11, 2002

I looked through some old albums yesterday and noticed that the year Bow came to us, the first peony bloomed on May 12. By May 19, most of them were in full bloom.

Bow with the blooming peonies May 19, 2002

Will they bloom the same day this year?

This peony looks about ready to burst into bloom --May 10, 2015

My friend Pam Keyes is intimately acquainted with a rosebush that blooms each year exactly on Mother's Day. I wonder how it knows to do that! Will my peonies follow a fixed pattern? Or are they free to choose?