Hortensia laid baby Harriet in the soft grass at the foot of the billowing white and green cow parsley and with Harriet's eyes watching her every move, carefully climbed up the Hawthorne tree. They were at the edge of the forest where the path led to the Old Ladies cottage. The hedges were tall and deep now and the cow parsley particularly delicate against all the abundant green. Hortensia sat on a branch that leaned out above Harriet, the birds were busy feeding their young and the air was full of chirping as she gently began to shake the branch so that delicate petals of creamy white began to fall around Harriet. 'Spring snow Darling', they both laughed as Harriet gurgled with delight and held up her hands to touch the softly falling petals.
Harriet loved her adventure walks with her Mother - for there was always a new flower to see or a wonderful new scent to sniff - most of all she loved the radiance of her Mother's smile as she greeted the abundance of beauty all around.
Archibold (or Archie-The-Bold to give him his full title) was very keen on walks too, he tended to head for the stream and to walk at a much brisker pace than Hortensia. This was because he was usually very excited and about to embark in his little boat on an escapade. Today he had company, Hector, Stephanotis, Isabel and Horatio (Hortensia and Archibold's eldest son who was back home from job experience at the garden centre again) were all going with him to Archimedes' island in the middle of the river. They would be safely out of the way of any humans and Archimedes could be relied on for entertaining stories and good advice.
The gnomes were planning their trip to accompany Hector back to his city home. Hector had been full of enthusiasm, but after sleeping on the idea, felt that it would be irresponsible if he didn't prepare the others for the realities of city life. So they packed the little boat with useful ropes for practising abseiling, lots of lunch, hammocks for naps and all the usual ball games etc and of course a present of seedy cake and foot balm for Archimedes from Aunt Mildred.
So as Hortensia and Harriet dozed off for a little nap, the excited gnomes pushed off from the shore and headed out for an adventure.
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