Excerpts from Just Clara May
by Clara May Ayres

Letter for the Future

November 1988

Dear Terra and Kayla,

My darling Great Granddaughters, Kayla, only six months old, and Terra, three years old, since I am eighty-one years old I want to try to tell you some of the things I do that make living more interesting.

Let's pretend we are going for a little walking trip and apply all the things I just said. How about a slow walk around my little yard?

Just look at the beautiful rose bush. First,we see a perfect white rose. The petals look and feel like white satin. I wonder if fairies make their wedding dresses out of them? Oh, look at those sharp, sticky thorns. Be careful! They can hurt. Why does that beautiful rose have such awful thorns?

What do you see crawling across that dark green leaf? A tiny little Lady Bug. She is dark red with black spots. Oh, she can fly, she just left for another plant. Lady Bugs protect plants and trees, too, by eating nasty little bugs called aphids that kill plants. When G.G. was a little girl, I learned a little verse: "Lady Bug, Lady Bug, fly away home, your house is on fire, your children will bum." Whoops! There she goes.

Let's walk on. Oh, what do you see on that damp rock under the leaves? That's right! An adorable little frog. If you try to touch him, he will quickly jump away. He jumps so fast and so far that no one can catch him. That's his protection. I love little frogs. They are so good for my garden because they catch mosquitoes and flies. Their funny, little croaking song helps put me to sleep at night. Let's make up a little song about him:

Over by the fence, G.G. sees a bright yellow flower. Do you know what it is? That's right, a dandelion. I wonder why it's called a "dandy-lion"? It sure doesn't look like a lion. Most people call it a weed and think it is useless, but let's really look closely. I brought this little magnifying glass in my pocket so we can take a close look at the flower. It's made up of hundreds of tiny, bright yellow petals. In some countries this weed is cultivated and grows into a great big fluffy flower as pretty as a chrysanthemum. It is useful, too, because the flower makes dandelion wine, and the leaves are good to eat, like spinach. Now, what do you mean by YUK?

What are those little white things over there? That's right, Kayla, toadstools. What a funny name. I'll bet they are the little chairs that the little frog we saw sits on. They are also called mushrooms, but you must never, never eat them. Some are poisonous and could kill you in a few minutes. The only mushrooms we can eat are the ones we buy in the grocery store.

Over on the fence is a honeysuckle vine. The flowers are very pretty. But what else do you notice about it? You're right, it smells heavenly. Oh, what we would miss if we couldn't smell.

Well, here we are at the cherry tree. This tree is different from most cherry trees because it has three kinds of cherries on it: Bing, Royal Anne, and pie cherries. All trees have just one kind of fruit, unless we graft (that means fasten) branches from another tree onto it. Yes, we can eat the cherries and a pear of that other tree over there. But we must wash them first.

Look up in that tree. There's a Robin Redbreast. Isn't it a beautiful bird? There she flies down to the bird bath. Oh my, she is splashing water all over the place. I'm glad you two don't take a bath like that or there would be water all over the bathroom! Here's a little poem from Mother Goose about our robin:

Now, that is why G.G. puts out bird seed in the winter. I know you two will do that, too, for your birds.

It's beginning to rain, so we must go in, but aren't the drops soft and quiet? For Goodness sake, there is the sun shining right through the rain! The sun shining through rain makes a rainbow. Do you see that beautiful rainbow way up there in the sky? I don't think there is anything in the whole world that is as beautiful. When the sun quits shining, the rainbow will go away. There is an old saying, 'If the sun shines when it is raining, the devil is beating his wife." I'm glad that's not true, aren't you?

Now we have used all those things I mentioned in the beginning of this letter:

My darlings, life has been interesting and it is so much fun for me watching my grandchildren grow up. Now, I can watch you grow and I hope I can be a fun companion to you both.

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