Wednesday, July 16, 2008

When Life Gives You Angel Trumpet Blooms....

When life gives you angel trumpet blooms… make new dresses for your clothespin dolls.

Skye is never bored for long. I truly believe the best parenting advice I ever received came from my friend Wisty who said, “Don’t be afraid to let her get bored. Kids have to get bored and move through that boredom to become truly creative.” Or something like that. Wisty is a wise woman.

We are not Luddites, but our home is not filled with all the latest technological gizmos. We have cable and a DVD player and cell phones and laptops and a digital camera. We don’t, however, have a Wii or an Xbox or Webkins or iPods. I’m not sure what we’d give up to make time to play with them…. there’s way too much real living to do. I’ve offered to get Skye an iPod for her birthday, as music is such a big part of her life, but she insists that she doesn’t want one. She likes her CDs and making her own music, thank you very much.

And Skye has always enjoyed making toys as much as playing with them. The clothespin dolls have been a favorite over the years. I’ll be sad when she doesn’t play with them anymore. But I’ll never be able to see an angel trumpet bloom in the same way.

3 comments:

Barbee' said...

That is precious. I don't know how old she is, but what a darling girl. We have 2 daughters and 2 sons now all grown up, plus 6 grandchildren... 5 of whom are almost grown and too old to "play". Treasure these days with yours.

Anonymous said...

I just read the below on a gardening website:

A Highly Toxic Plant
Angel's Trumpet is a member of the Nightshade family. It includes tomatoes, potatoes, and petunias. All parts of the plant are toxic. It is recommended that gardeners use gloves when working with this plant.


Historically, it has been used as a hallucinogenic drug. It is a dangerous drug, that has caused many deaths, especially from teenagers experimenting with it after hearing rumors about it's hallucinogenic powers. It is most often ingested in the form of a tea.


If you have children or pets, we highly recommend you seriously consider the risks before growing this plant.

Sarah said...

Thanks for your concern, but my mother has grown it in her garden for 50+ years, raised four children and had numberous dogs, cats, and grandkids underfoot with no incidents. I played with the blooms myself when I was a kid. I don't think I'll worry too much...