It was a sunny day on Nether Oak Close, and down at the end of the cul-de-sac, behind the hawthorn hedge, through a small child-shaped hole, you might have seen three children sitting in a sun-dappled hollow.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The children were Sarah, 11; Millie, 7; and little Paul, 5. They were the kids of Hugh and Margaret Fitzsimons from number 16, the house that ended the cul-de-sac on the left, with the magnolia tree at the gate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Sarah was sitting on a log, book in hand, reading to her two siblings. The book was House at Pooh Corner<\/em>, a favourite of all three. She had just finished the story where Roo falls into the Poohsticks River and is rescued when Pooh discovers the North Pole, gives it to Christopher Robin, and Christopher Robin uses it to rescue Roo.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Unbeknownst to them, they were being watched by a female figure sitting in the Y-fork of a large birch tree nearby. Just as the story finished, she smiled, wiggled her fingers, and muttered under her breath.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Sarah turned the page and, as she did so, the hawthorn hedge rustled, and a group of familiar figures appeared in the glade.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Pooh Bear was humming a Very Useful Hum when Piglet came trotting up. Piglet was a Small Animal, and when Small Animals feel they might be late for something important, they trot.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cPooh!\u201d Piglet panted. \u201cRoo says you\u2019ve lost something!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIndeed, I have,\u201d said Pooh importantly. \u201cI have mislaid the morning.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Piglet blinked. This was bigger than he\u2019d expected. \u201cWhere did you last see it?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThat\u2019s the difficulty,\u201d Pooh said, scratching his head. \u201cI was having<\/em> it only a little while ago. A delicious sort of morning. And then, suddenly, I wasn\u2019t having it at all.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Roo bounded onto a stump nearby. \u201cMother says mornings don\u2019t go missing. She says mornings are for Getting On with Things.\u201d, his friends nodded this sounded very like something Kanga would say.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Eeyore poked his long face through a bramble bush at that very moment. \u201cTypical,\u201d he said, in the unmistakable voice of one who is looking forward to folding twenty loads of laundry. \u201cLose a morning and expect the rest of us to find it for you. Don\u2019t mind me.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWe don\u2019t, Eeyore,\u201d said Pooh kindly, \u201cbecause you are Very Good at noticing things.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cNo I\u2019m not,\u201d Eeyore sighed. \u201cBut I suppose we\u2019d better look anyway.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n And so, they set off: Pooh thinking in a thoughtful sort of way, Piglet trotting nervously, Roo leaping from stump to stump, and Eeyore trudging behind with the air of someone prepared for disappointment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The two younger Fitzsimons children looked at Sarah. She shrugged and whispered, \u201cThis is not<\/em> me.\u201d The three children got up and followed the animals further into the copse.<\/p>\n\n\n\n They searched beside the log where Sarah had been sitting. They searched under a pile of leaves, where Piglet found a beetle who was Not a Morning At All. They searched up in a tree, because Roo thought mornings might climb.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But nowhere was there any sign of a missing daybreak.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Pooh sat down and sighed a polite, puzzled sigh.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cPerhaps,\u201d Piglet said timidly, \u201cit didn\u2019t go anywhere at all. Perhaps you only thought<\/em> it was lost?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cNonsense,\u201d said Pooh. \u201cI had it. I remember because I said to myself, \u2018Pooh, what a fine morning this is.\u2019 And then I sat down to think about honey, and when I looked up, it was gone.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cPooh,\u201d Eeyore said, in that tired-but-kind voice, \u201cyou can\u2019t lose a morning by looking away. It\u2019s still there. You just forget to notice it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Roo perked up. \u201cIs that like when I forget to notice peas at dinner?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cExactly,\u201d Eeyore said, rather pleased to be understood for once. \u201cMornings and peas. Very similar.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Pooh thought about this. \u201cSo the morning is still here<\/em>? Even though I forgot to notice it?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cOf course,\u201d said Piglet, growing braver. \u201cYou\u2019re sitting in it right now.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Pooh looked around. Sunlight dappling. Leaves shimmering. Breeze rustling like a soft whisper.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cOh!\u201d he said, delighted. \u201cThere you are, morning! I wondered where you\u2019d got to.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n And the morning, being a forgiving sort of thing, shone warmly over them all.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWell,\u201d said Eeyore, \u201csince the morning\u2019s been found, and never really lost, I suppose that\u2019s that.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cBut I felt<\/em> as if it were lost,\u201d Pooh said. \u201cAnd that was a very real feeling.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cFeelings usually are,\u201d said Eeyore. \u201cBut feelings aren\u2019t always facts. Which is bothersome.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Roo hopped close and tugged at Piglet\u2019s paw. \u201cDoes that mean if you think something is gone, but it isn\u2019t, you should look again?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Piglet nodded. \u201cAnd maybe\u2026 maybe ask your friends to help you look properly.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Pooh beamed. \u201cA splendid lesson. A Very Good Lesson indeed: The three human children nodded. It was a good story\u2026 very Pooh.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Just then a breeze rippled through the birch leaves above them. The children, Sarah, Millie and Paul felt the hairs on their arms lift as if a story were taking a deep breath.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The woman in the Y-fork of the tree stepped out of the branches as lightly as a falling feather. Her eyes were bright; her smile was like candlelight in a quiet room.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI think,\u201d she said, \u201cthat you children read very well indeed.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Sarah\u2019s jaw dropped. Millie squeaked. Paul clutched the book.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI am Br\u00edd,\u201d the woman said, \u201cgoddess of being clever, and of stories told properly. When a story is spoken with care, when it is lived<\/em> instead of mumbled, its characters wake up. They step through hedges. They ask unexpected questions.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cLike when Christopher Robin asks, \u2018Have you seen a silly old bear?\u2019\u201d Paul whispered.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Br\u00edd winked. \u201cExactly like that.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n She knelt on the leaf-litter before them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cListen to me now. If you practise reading\u2026 and telling stories\u2026 and imagining what might be just behind the next tree\u2026\u201d She tapped Sarah\u2019s book lightly. Then she straightened, and the sunlight shimmered around her like a page turning.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cTell them Well,\u201d she said. \u201cTell them properly. And the stories will live.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n With that, Br\u00edd dissolved into a flutter of birch leaves, and the copse became quiet again, except for the whisper of Pooh and Piglet and Roo and Eeyore fading back into the world from which they\u2019d come. Pooh, it seemed, needed some honey.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Sarah looked at her siblings. Two heads nodded, enthusiastically.<\/p>\n\n\n\n And the morning, still very much there, seemed much brighter than before.<\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Another adventure down Nether Oak Close, where we meet the children from number 16 and have a Winne the Pooh adventure in the forest at the end of the cul-de-sac and we meet Br\u00edd the goddess of goddess of being clever, and of stories told properly<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":204,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,18],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-203","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-stories","category-nether-oak-close-stories"],"yoast_head":"\n
\u2018<\/strong>Things aren\u2019t gone just because you stopped noticing them. And friends help you notice again.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201c\u2026then even when you are as old as your parents, adventures will still come looking for you.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cShall I keep reading?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n