Hide and Seek Beans

Hide and Seek Beans

August 28, 2017

Back home again, and playing catchup. The the Trucker’s turn to have some down time, and my turn to get busy.

After twenty years, this is the second year I am not part of the back to school crowd with my children. I have now become a consolation prize for the three year old Niece, who feels very much left behind and neglected since her siblings all jump the school bus and leave town each weekday.

This morning we were picking green beans. I showed her how to find where they hid (that word is important for later) under the leaves, and how to choose which were ready to leave the stalk. For her baby hands, it was more like search-and-destroy, but little hands need to learn sometime, and when better than when the project is still fun?

As we progressed down the row, she began selecting and pulling beans independently. At the end of the first row, I noted our bucket was not nearly as full as it should have been. Nor was there a small person at my elbow any longer. Glancing across the garden, I spotted her hunkered down by a lima bean bush. Then my ears heard her little voice say, “I’se gonna tuck you in nice and tight, and nobody’s gonna find you, ever!” OK then.

When the beans were harvested, and the pint sized helper had run off to other pursuits, I went back to check on whoever was “tucked in tight.” I found string beans by the handful, carefully wrapped in large green bean leaves as though they were baby dolls, tucked randomly under lima bean bushes. Oh Julie. So, first I picked the beans, then found them all over again. Well traveled beans, they are.

The Trucker looked up from his mileage reports when I re-entered the kitchen. I told him of the bean hide-and-seek party. Between chuckles he made a comment about sharing my imagination with sister’s children. Well, I may have an imagination of my own, but the Niece found hers all by herself!