During the last three days of the Australian trip, Olive, who has settled here, sent a photo of the garden and asked if I would like to live with her in a farm in the suburbs. She’s been there for three weeks and says the plants are indescribably beautiful and I’d love them.
She was right, the photo she sent me was mesmerized. The garden in the photo has obviously been carefully designed. The colors of the flowers are colorful and harmonious. The broad leaves and thin leaves are arranged in different heights. They are layered and well matched. It is a garden that has been carefully managed by the owner to look like a natural growth. .
Olive drove to pick me up and ran all the way. Olive wants me to encounter dusk on the first day I go. She loves the dusk at the farm the most, and can’t wait for me to fall in love with it too.
With Olive’s hard work, I got out of the car on the last ray of sunshine that day, and I bumped into a wall of pink, white and tender yellow flowers head-on. This lovely estate sets the tone.
Owen and Sue stood under the wall full of flowers, both with silver hair and dressed in gentle clothes, smiling and waving at me.
Push open the wrought iron hollow door covered with flowers, and you will find the residential area of the farm. Owen and Sue hired someone to take care of the large orchards and fields behind the house, and the couple are responsible for the gardens and vegetable fields in the residential area. While there was still a little light, the three of them took me to see the vegetable field, and then turned into the garden. The path here extends straight forward, with various vegetation changing on both sides, and each area is not clearly separated. Olive explained that when designing this garden, Sue considered the different smells of plants, the flowering periods of different seasons, and the color matching of various viewing angles, etc. It dawned on me that every detail here has been carefully considered, no wonder everything is so pleasing to the eye and comfortable.
”I heard from Olive that you like plants. If you want, you can do gardening with me tomorrow morning.” Sue’s invitation fit my heart, and of course I accepted without hesitation.
On the way back to the main house, the sun had already set, the garden was only illuminated by a small lamp, the air was full of the smell of herbs, and the surrounding was extremely quiet. Sue quietly approached me and asked me if I had seen a cartoon called “My Neighbor Totoro”. Seeing me nodding, Sue said mysteriously: “I don’t know if Totoro will come tomorrow morning, it would be great if it comes.”
Huh? Will Totoro from the cartoon come? I didn’t understand what Sue meant for a moment. But no matter who I ask, these three people look like they can’t be said. They just arouse my curiosity, but they refuse to answer. They only say that we have dinner first, and whether the chinchilla will come or not, we have to wait until we get up tomorrow morning. to know.
Dinner is grilled lamb chops and some shellfish, and of course various vegetables grown in the vegetable garden.
In this family, Owen is the chef, he likes all kinds of meat, but Sue is a vegetarian, so Owen has to cook three meals a day, one meat and one vegetarian, and each meal is carefully prepared. With nutrition, we must also consider the presentation of the plate, so that every meal is decent, and the taste is of course very good. Today’s meal plus dessert took Owen all afternoon to prepare.
Owen squinted his eyes with a smile under repeated compliments from Olive and I.
When Owen and Sue were young, they loved traveling, meeting new friends and enjoying unfamiliar landscapes. But as they get older, long-distance travel is no longer feasible, so they live their daily lives as richly as possible, and take out spare guest rooms and rent them to people from all over the world.
”We live at home, and it’s like going on one fantasy trip after another.” Owen looked very happy, he raised the glass in his hand, and continued, “Look, now I know two Chinese friends, We sit together and enjoy this wonderful evening, and Sue and I can listen to you telling several stories about China. Come, cheers, and then each talk about childhood things.” That night, we talked until late, and the next
morning Naturally, I couldn’t get up early. But I was still thinking about Totoro. After washing up in a hurry, I didn’t have time to eat breakfast, so I looked for Sue everywhere and asked her to take me to see Totoro.
Sue led me to the end of the garden, raised a finger and said, “Shhh, don’t make a sound”, then stretched out her hand to push aside the bushes in front of her, and bent down to get in.
Could it be that Xiaomei followed the little Totoro, and then found the path of the big Totoro?
I hurriedly followed Sue into it, and it turned out to be a shrub path as tall as half a person, like an enlarged version of the jungle animal path. Regardless of whether there is a sleeping chinchilla at the end of him, just walking through such a trail is fresh and interesting enough.
Suddenly, Sue stopped, turned her head and motioned for me to keep silent, and to go out quietly to see if Totoro came today.
Like Sue, I crept through the bushes, and at the end of the road was a deep and damp abandoned country road shaded by tall trees. The trees on both sides seemed to be tens or hundreds of years old, and a small piece of wild flowers bloomed on a low wall by the side of the road. The road was not paved with asphalt, and the vigorous grass was slowly eroding the road surface.
The cool wind blows, and the leaves rustle. Sue said regretfully, it seems that the Totoro bus just left, you are still up late.
Seeing my bitter face, Sue pulled me to stand in the middle of the road, and told me to open my arms like her, to feel the breath of Totoro bus passing by. I closed my eyes, the wind passed by my fingertips, wrists, and hair tips, and the familiar music seemed to really sound in my ears.
”It doesn’t matter, the probability of rain tomorrow morning is 85%. According to my experience, when it rains, the chance of chinchillas coming is higher.” Sue said, “As long as there is still a chance, we can go again and again, every time Looking forward to it, my heart is pounding, like starting a new journey.” I said yes with a smile, and looked forward to it silently in my heart.
Will Totoro come tomorrow morning?
It should be.
