8. My Diary [Hydrangeas Do Not Seek Punishment]

The cherry blossoms are gradually falling, spring is heading toward its middle, and horsetails have increased in my garden.

Before long, weeds like field horsetails will fill this place and start to trouble me.

This garden exceeds the limits of what one person's eyes can oversee.

Every year, I mix herbicide in a large tank and kill the weeds with a watering can.

It is about time I started preparing for that.

I believe it was around the time before summer last year.

My daughter, seeing me spraying the herbicide, asked,
『Are you giving water to the flowers?』
and asked.

I hesitated for a moment.

But thinking it wasn't something to lie about, I told her,
『I'm spraying herbicide.』
and taught her.

My daughter continued, saying,
『What's that?』

I told her as gently as I could,
『I'm spraying medicine. It's medicine that makes the annoying weeds growing in the garden wither.』

『That's poor things!』

『Will the flowers wither?』

『I'll never forgive you, Daddy!』

and she ran off.

I knew this would happen.

Feeling quite conflicted, I set the watering can on the ground.
Then, I walked after my daughter.

My daughter was crouching in front of the hydrangeas that had been gradually gaining strength, looking a bit sulky.

Words of excuse spilled from my lips at the sight of her back.

『I'm sorry.
Daddy just wanted to have a beautiful garden for everyone to play in.』

My daughter said,
"It's okay. Just be careful next time,"
and while saying that gently, she snapped off the hydrangea,

"Look! I picked it for you before it withered!"
she laughed.

I
"It's beautiful, isn't it?"
smiled back at her.

My daughter is always kind, and she has absolutely no idea how to distinguish between grass, flowers, and trees, and I find that so endearing that I thought I would hug her from behind.

But, because both of my hands were dirty with herbicide, I thought I would finish all of this work first, then wash my hands, and then hug her properly.