Coming back from the (non) dog park

Sundays, I often take G, the son of my friend who had passed away, to the dog park. G is full of energy, and often seeking multiple new adventures. This week, he decided that he was done with the dog park. It's too hot out, or he was bored, or some other motivation that made sense in his six-year-old brain.

So I took him to a "secret place". It's actually a place that is very much out in the open and visible to people, and yet it's a place that nobody goes. The math building on our campus used to have a grand doorway facing the street; that doorway has now been converted into a giant window, and the entrance has been moved to the opposite side of the building, facing the rest of the campus. The old entrance still has its paved patio, with beautiful steps leading up to it. Our campus landscapers have planted trees and bushes around it, so the spot is now a beautiful, shady glen. It's perfectly visible to the road and people walking by, but as I said nobody ever bothers to go there. It reminded me a bit of descriptions of Terabithia.

G was delighted with this wonderful, special place. He has the intense curiosity of many six-year olds, fascinated by the moss growing in blotches on the paved patio, by the different colors of the leaves on the ground, by the peeling paint on the banisters. He confidently declared that we need to have a party there, but first we will need to clean the moss off the porch, and also the leaves. We will need to paint the railings (what colors, I asked? He eventually decided blue on one side, and yellow on the other), and lay down stones for a walkway. I asked what kinds of stones: round? Flat? He decided bricks. I read him two books – the adventures of Isabel, and Possum come-a-knocking at the door, and we tickled the dog a bit, and we explored the space some more until the gnats finally drove us away. We agreed that next week we will bring a broom, bug spray, and more books to enjoy the space.

As I was dropping G off at home he told me he'd painted me a picture. It's an island, with a tree on it. There is a fox with several baby foxes. This is the picture he handed me at 3:14 last Sunday.