Today

Over the weekend we went back to Sussex, this time to celebrate the 18th birthday of my best mates' middle daughter. We had a jolly friendly meal at the Tudor House in Alfriston and were priviledged to be the only non-direct-family people there. Well, we do feel like Auntie & Uncle to all those kids!

The following day we agreed to collect our friends' elderly parents from their house in Willingdon so that we could continue feasting at our friends' house.

Tried to remember where the parents lived. "Oh, I'll recognise it," said I "It looks like Little Grey Rabbit's house."

In My Day

How I loved to read Little Grey Rabbit when I was a child. I don't know how old I was when I started, but I know I was still reading them in my teens.

The inner covers, back and front showed the picture of the house with its pointy roof. I never questioned the alternative reality the books showed and somehow the portayal of the characters coloured how I judged these animals to be in reality.

The sensible Rabbit, flighty Squirrel, restless Hare and wise but frightening Owl (he was, after all, a predator). And why should Hedgehog have been the milkman?

RSVP will always mean "Rat shan't visit party" and I often wondered how you made a cowslip ball.

My favourite was Moldy Warp the Mole who took them all on a treasure hunt underground. Most of the animals waited outside in the fields and Alison Uttley gave a truly unsettling description of dusk deepening to night and the fear of the animals.

Anyway, we found the house which was similar, except it has half-timbering.