Spiders and snails and puppy dog tails

The block we live in seems almost frozen in time.  The people who live here are mainly retired civil servants and so things around here carry on along their gentle path and when change happens, it happens in a gentle way. I don't really miss having the facilities of one of the grand new developments, and we like the fact that you have relative freedom to do what you like.

Take the patch of back garden.  Our neighbours have often complained that it's stony and that nothing grows there, but of course, on their own, they are not really up to doing much about it.  DH decided that it would be nice for Monkey to have a patch of grass to sit on and run around on, and so has undertaken the project of digging up the garden, raking up the stones (and bits of building rubble, old pipes and what have you), putting down fertilizer (well-aged horse manure) and planting grass seeds.

About a month on, he's gradually managed to complete and sow a good patch.  After some rain, we've been treated to the sight of this beautiful emerald green patch of lawn, full of the softest grass and looking so lush that the neighbours have all stopped to comment on it.  This grass variety may not last the humid and hot summer, so we've been making the most of it.  (The photo above shows the patch of ground that's being prepared, not the 'finished' grass).

Monkey is so happy out here and (unusually for him) can just sit on the grass for ages while DH rakes over the ground, digs up stones and does other garden stuff.  The raking unearths fascinating stuff: funny dark woodlice that scuttle off to bury their heads in the loose earth, pale cream woodlice with brown patches looking like Guylian chocolates gone wrong, little metallic beetles, as shiny as buttons, little millipedes curling up at the slightest touch.   And the other day, we found this strange leaf-cicada.  Isn't that great camouflage?

If you don't live in Hong Kong, it's hard to appreciate how a small patch of grass can make such a difference, but to Monkey, it's giving him the childhood he deserves.