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THE North Shore Gardens Contest Society’s annu-
al garden tour has delighted green thumbs for 13
years. This year’s show of blooms, held July 30,
featured the commuanity’s best, for all to see. The
North Shore News dropped in at the Upper
Lonsdale home of Larry Wick, one of nine gar-

dens on this year’s tour. I saw a young mom

the other day at the
grocery store. She had
her kids with her;
three adorable, bois-
terous little people all
under the age of four.

Two of them ran about
the check stand, fingering
the brightly wrapped choco-
late bars and using empty
shopping carts as bumper
cars. They squealed with
delight each time they
banged carts together, until
one of them got his fingers
caught in between, and let
out an ear-splitting shriek of
rage and pain.

This particular mom had
a baby strapped to her ina
Snugli, and was at her wits
end trying to unload her
enormous load of groceries
onto the counter while
keeping her brood under
control,

“Enjoy them now,” I
heard myself say with a
touch of sadness in my
heart. “Because before you
know it, they’ll be all grown
up.

She looked at me and
smiled weakly, as if to say,
“Couldn’t you just take one
of these children off my
hands for a few minutes
instead of throwing out
those trite lines?” .
Of course, I know she
was thinking that because
when I used to drag my -
adorable-but-boisterous
toddlers around town on
errands I felt that way
exactly. Older women used
to come up to me daily, [
swear, to remind me to
enjoy my kids while they
were little. Like I didn’t
know they were going to
grow up one day; give me a
break, you nauseatingly
= : . : p serene, cheerful lady with
TT aE pbs ; ££ arte we eae one quart of milk in your
SS : cart.
SCULPTURE, including a garden gong made from TOUR participant Larry Wick chatted with volun- But hey, guess what?
a@ rusted oxygen tank, features prominently in the teer Marie Bruce in the garden of his Windsor Those smiley ladies were
? garden's design. Road home. right. In what seems like a
= . aan ean heartbeat, it’s over.
NEWS photos Cindy Goodman
A birdhouse perched high amid the foliage is among the unexpected sights visitors encounter when wandering tnrough Wick’s

enchanted garden.

See Crasy page 18