I don’t really know how to tell the unique story from today’s market in Northampton. I will relay the events.
At some moment I noticed a slender young mother with her young son who was excited by my sunflowers. I guess he was around 4 or 5. I walked over as he was fumbling with a sunflower that was in a bouquet of 4. As soon as I asked if I could help I realized the boy did not understand me. He was Chinese and speaking earnestly about a very large sunflower. His mother told me he wanted the seeds. I held out the entire bouquet for him to take. More whispering between mother and child.
The mother told me that they could not take them all. They were staying in the nearby hotel and leaving for New York come morning. But the boy was still fumbling with that big sunflower. Here he was in a strange place connecting to my sunflower. I explained to them both that the seeds were deep in the flower head. The mother translated. Hmmm...the boy still touched the sunflower searching. I realized this was a unique moment but did not know what to do. A mesmerized child, a gentle mother and my huge sunflower.
Ah, give him that one sunflower! That will work. My friend, Kerry, who had stopped by helped extricate that one sunflower from the bunch. Oops. There was a bee guzzling nectar from the flower head. The boy jumped back. His mother said he was frightened. While the boy watched I lifted the bee, drunk on nectar, and placed it on another sunflower. Oh! This was just too interesting. So when I again handed him the sunflower to take with him he accepted it.
I wonder if, at the Wiggins Hotel in Northampton MA, late into the evening the boy was digging out the hundreds of seeds buried inside.
At some moment I noticed a slender young mother with her young son who was excited by my sunflowers. I guess he was around 4 or 5. I walked over as he was fumbling with a sunflower that was in a bouquet of 4. As soon as I asked if I could help I realized the boy did not understand me. He was Chinese and speaking earnestly about a very large sunflower. His mother told me he wanted the seeds. I held out the entire bouquet for him to take. More whispering between mother and child.
The mother told me that they could not take them all. They were staying in the nearby hotel and leaving for New York come morning. But the boy was still fumbling with that big sunflower. Here he was in a strange place connecting to my sunflower. I explained to them both that the seeds were deep in the flower head. The mother translated. Hmmm...the boy still touched the sunflower searching. I realized this was a unique moment but did not know what to do. A mesmerized child, a gentle mother and my huge sunflower.
Ah, give him that one sunflower! That will work. My friend, Kerry, who had stopped by helped extricate that one sunflower from the bunch. Oops. There was a bee guzzling nectar from the flower head. The boy jumped back. His mother said he was frightened. While the boy watched I lifted the bee, drunk on nectar, and placed it on another sunflower. Oh! This was just too interesting. So when I again handed him the sunflower to take with him he accepted it.
I wonder if, at the Wiggins Hotel in Northampton MA, late into the evening the boy was digging out the hundreds of seeds buried inside.
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