Jack has grown up a lot in the last little while. "I'm 12 now you know!" and starting to leave off some of those little boy habits. Like running around the house in his tradie undies, and wearing white cotton singlets that expose his "bulging biceps". But now he's asking us to admire his "eight pack" - always wanting to be one or two in front of his big brothers.

School in the garden isn't his favourite thing, but he does pretty well for a young'n as he works with the rest of us each day. He has taken over the irrigation duties, does any small maintenance jobs, has certain crops that he picks each day or second day, and has just taken responsibility for one block of the garden that currently has garlic, pak choi and chard growing in it. 

All of these tasks are important, complex, require close attention, demand a diverse range of skills, and are often HARD work! But he steps up (not always perfectly willingly), gives it a go, and invariably, after a bit of self doubt is erased by making mistakes but finding a way to fix things, makes a success of it. And as you can see above, he now wants to do all of the flame weeding! You are welcome Jack!

I'm finding he's a lot like a young and tender plant - he needs a suitable community that will provide the various elements required for growth including having his abiities regularly stretched, a habitat that suits his particular needs to flourish, a niche that gives him opportunity to grow in his own way, and symbiosis with other members of his biodiverse ecosystem that is mutually beneficial. 

I might start calling him Cabbage.