Reprise

I was reminded yesterday as I walked through the Pudding Bag - which is part of Stanmer woods - of the times when my younger son came with me to walk the dog.  In particular, I remembered how, in his red wellies, he would scuff through the fallen leaves.  He would have been 5 or 6 and delighted in getting dirty by splashing in puddles.  Afterwards he would say, with a cheeky grin, "Mum's going to kill me".

There were times when he got tired and I encouraged him to keep walking by telling him a story.  He always preferred the ones I made up as we walked along, usually about a character called Henry Horse.

As I have a lot to do today, including visiting the quack, taking the dog to kennels, a little light shopping and packing the car for an away-day or seven, I will repeat a post from as far back as February 2010.  That's for today.  For the next few days I have scheduled some more of the story of Les Lavandes.  But I should remind you: it is nearly the true story of Les Lavandes since I may have been guilty of a little exaggeration or embellishment in some places. All the events described, well, nearly all of them, actually did take place and most of the people are real characters even if I have described them more as caricatures.

Back to today and the story of

Henry Horse Plays Football

Henry Horse was bored. He had played with all his toys, and now he was looking out of the window trying to think what he could do next.
Henry saw his friend Percy coming along the lane. Percy looked excited.
‘Hello, Henry,' called Percy. ‘Look what I've been given.' It was a football.
Henry and Percy went out to play football, but horses' hooves are not really the right shape for playing football.
It was Percy's ball, so he had first kick. The ball just went sideways!
Then Henry had a try. The ball went sideways the other way!
Percy had another go - and missed the ball.
Henry decided to take a run up to the ball. He ran at top speed...
...and kicked the ball hard. It went sailing through the air...
...and landed in the middle of some very prickly bushes. Henry did yelp as he got the ball back.
When Percy had his next turn he kicked the ball hard as well – right into the middle of some-one's picnic.
Henry decided to take another run up to the ball. WHAM! Up it went, up, up, and away...
...over the picnic, over the bushes...
...and right into the middle of a very muddy pond.
Henry waded in to fetch the ball, but when he came out he was so muddy that he had changed colour.
When Henry got home, his father had to wash him down with a hose before Henry could go indoors for tea.

(Illustrations by my cousin's son, now a Lieutenant Colonel, then a schoolboy.)