Leftovers and mums have always been souperstars

“What did you do today?” I asked Diana. “Nothing much,” she replied.

Then she remembered. “I chopped up some old veg that were getting past their best and made soup.”

I thought of her three little cherubs. “Did the children like it?” I asked. “It was only soup,” she said. “But, they loved it!” Leftover vegetables. Only soup. It occurred to me that ever since we discovered fire, in every society around the world and across the generations, mothers and grandmothers have been turning scraps into filling food for thankful children.

In some places the process has changed not at all. And how often has it come between families and starvation?

Only soup?

Perhaps it’s time we gave that mix of water, heat, love, and whatever food was available, it’s proper place, as one of mankind’s – or womankind’s – greatest inventions.

Sarah, Ellen, and I were having a long-distance conversation.

I mean, Sarah and I had our chairs a safe distance apart in the garden, and Ellen had hers indoors, by the open window.

Among the, usual, chatter, I mentioned some people finding creative ways to help a young couple who were due to be married in the middle of what became the lockdown.

Sarah sent a meaningful look through the window. “Tell him, Gran.”

Ellen made a show of rolling her eyes. “She means... after Bob and I got married when wartime rationing was still in place. I had my grandmother’s wedding dress. The week afterwards, I sent it in to a newspaper appeal on behalf of bridesto-be who had nothing.”

People! Is it any wonder I love them? Not just in this troubled time, but in every troubled time, they continue to amaze!

For most of us, a blank screen on our phone would be a cause for worry, especially if we were in the middle of using it!

Joanne was FaceTiming her daughter and two-year-old granddaughter, Leila.

They only lived a few miles apart, but it seemed like ages since Joanne had held that darling little girl.

She was in the middle of saying as much to her daughter, when the screen went black.

She spent a few frantic seconds thinking her mobile phone had died and saying: “Hello, hello, can anyone hear me?”

Then she heard her daughter’s voice saying: “It’s Leila, Mum” She’s hugging the phone and won’t give it back!”

All of this will pass, of course. Gran and granddaughter will be reunited.

But it might take a while longer before Joanne looks at her blank phone screen (before she switches it on) and doesn’t see in it a virtual hug from Leila!

“He’s just a daft wee boy, but, you know...”

This was pretty much all Maureen ever heard about Ross during the years her husband was his foreman.

She got the impression that Alistair’s forbearance was all that kept the lad from getting fired – on many occasions.

Fast forward thirty years. She and Alistair are retired. Alistair has recent health problems meaning Maureen rarely leaves him. And who is never off the phone seeing what needs doing? Who regularly waits in the queues outside the supermarket to do their shopping?

Ross, the daft wee boy (in his fifties now) determined to take care of his old foreman.

“If we’d had money,” Maureen told me, “we might have invested in stocks. We don’t, but my Alistair invested a lot of kindness in a young life. Who knew it would mature into such a beautiful and unexpected dividend?”

Getting into the garden, Eases pressures of the day, Being at one with Nature, Helps chase the blues away. Kids love to grow things, It’s fun for them to do, Planting, weeding, pottering, Pleasure through and through.