I noticed while visiting a city that the gardens in front of some of the houses were surrounded by walls made of granite stones. It was an unusual sight as that was not the pattern in some other parts of the city. A resident of the area mentioned to me that that part of the city was prone for flooding during rain. The gardens were therefore reinforced with additional protection by strengthening the walls.
It was while watching one garden from the street, I noticed that gardens provide a lawn and beds for plants and trees. They too need protection.
The delightful sight was the sight of birds in one of the trees in that garden looking for berries.
While walking past this refreshing sight of how gardens were secured, I remembered how Anna and I had to get the wall of our nutmeg farm rebuilt to secure it from the fury of the rain. The wall had crumbled in three places during the rainy spell of December 2022. It was a difficult exercise with five men working for five weeks to complete this one hundred and twenty meters long and four meters tall wall!
After the building activities stopped it took a while for birds to return to the site!
The Kingfishers were regular visitors as the stream beside the wall provided them their morning feed. The photo below was of a Kingfisher I spotted in the farm, perched in a coconut palm after the wall was rebuilt!
What was delightful was sighting other birds using the farm, as a flight station in the mornings and evenings.
I confess that walls do not give an aesthetic look most of the times. It stands out subduing the sights in the garden. However it is necessary for making a garden secure for plants, trees and birds!
As I have begun the preparation to retire from my work in June 2023, one thought lingers in my mind!
Have I done enough to spread the message of securing our homes for children!
I have seen families build their houses and make them a hospitable place for adults.
I wonder whether our homes are secure for children!
As more and more children get introduced to mobile phones, TV, internet and social media, with the volitional choice of parents, even from the first year of life, I have a suspicion that the visual media has become a third parent in most homes! If there is one negative influence upon children during the pre-school years, which would have lasting consequences, it is exposing children to use the visual media at the cost of parents spending time to bond with their children through different interactive times. Even the meal times which are conversation times usually, have become TV viewing times in many homes!
Secure our homes for pre-school children for them to grow and develop in the ambience of parenting presence, availability and interaction!
That is a gift even more valuable than the money we deposit in the banks for their future education!
What shall profit a family, if they give education to their children but impoverish them without their proximity, affection and accompaniment!
M.C.Mathew(text and photo)
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