'Crabbed age and youth'...by Sheila Claydon

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In a poem attributed to him, William Shakespeare said 'Crabbed age and youth cannot live together.' He was right about so many things but not about this, well at least from my perspective. Why do I feel this way? Well, although I sincerely hope I'm not crabbed, I am definitely aged. This means that I now have regular help with my garden and my house. Not a lot, but enough for me to no longer have to tackle the heavy jobs.

In the past 6 months my longtime gardener has retired and the woman who helped with the house has left to have a baby. So now, instead of seasoned experts, I have two young people helping me instead. My new gardener is 21 and just setting himself up in business. The cleaner 23. Both work hard but this is where the crabbed age bit could come in if I let it, because neither of them have enough experience to get everything right.

When I asked the gardener to clear the weeds that had grown up around my very small pond, he cleared everything leaving a patch of bare earth. That was when I discovered that his 5 year apprenticeship was in landscape gardening not horticulture and he didn't know a weed from a flower. Not the best recommendation for a gardener I know, but he wasn't aware of the difference and now he wants to learn. So while he does the heavy stuff, I teach him about the plants in the garden I have planted and nurtured over many years. As a bonus he has done a brilliant job of rebuilding the pond, re-laying paving stones and moving large plants, all things that needed his landscaping skills. And now we are working together I've learned all about his brothers and his parents, his dog and its recent operation, his hobbies (cage fighting...the mind shudders) and now, his new girlfriend and his plans for the future.

Then there is the cleaner. When she first arrived she seemed shy so, in true writerly fashion, I asked questions, hoping to put her at ease. That was when I discovered she is a student who is working to pay her way through university. She already has a Degree in computer science and is now studying for a Masters in Data Collection using Artificial Intelligence. Wow! I don't know how long I'll keep her as there must be a much more exciting future career out there for her, but in the meantime I'm learning quite a bit about the uses of AI while she learns some of the finer points of housekeeping. Because a 23 year old graduate who is still studying isn't ever going to be the best I consider a forgotten window or an unplumped cushion a small price to pay for our interesting conversations. So far I've learned about the use of AI in medical care, specifically the lungs, and in return she's learned how to clean windows without streaks, and how an expandable feather duster works wonders! Not a fair exchange really but it's all I had to offer other than my great admiration for how she is managing her life.

And in addition to those two I have my granddaughters, all of whom are moving forward with dreams and ambitions. A trainee vet, a college student whose final exams are almost over and is going to take a gap year, working behind a bar in addition to bringing on her young horse, while she decides what she actually wants to do, and finally a younger one just about to start senior school. They don't get to hear much about their grandmother. Instead they tell me all about their adventures, what thrills them and what bothers them.In this way I have learned a great deal about the inner workings of a horse, some rather grusome facts behind lambing large flocks, and the ethics of animal care. I've learned, too, how to mix an espresso cocktail and a mini Guinness. And the youngest one has taught me faster and better ways to use my Ipad and phone as well as how to catch mosquitos and the future of the world relating to climate change. Such a mixed and interesting bag!

We have young neighbours too, all of whom we like a lot and see regularly. So my take on Shakespeare's 'Crabbed age and Youth' quote is that old people won't ever get crabby if they open themselves up to living with the young. They have so much to tell us if we truly listen. And they are such fun.

My book Many a Moon, the third in my Mapleby Memories series, also includes relationships between the old and the much younger, and how wisdom can be exchanged for vitality and interest. Crabbed old age! Pah!