Honeysuckle Hedgehog

There’s a hedgehog in the woodbine
Beside the garden gate,
Who goes out walking every night
When it is very late.
Our Tuppy doesn’t like him,
He barks and jumps around,
He really doesn’t understand
Why hedgehog makes no sound
But rolls himself into a ball
And lies there very still,
Till Tuppy loses patience
As playful puppies will.
For Tuppy loves his basket
Upon the bedroom floor,
He goes in when they call him
And Grandpa locks the door.
But hedgehog is nocturnal
And when we are a-bed,
He does his midnight shopping
And sleeps all day instead.

3 September 1979

The Birthday Hat

When I was five the other day,
Candles pink and candles white,
Daddy’s sister came to tea,
Candles pink and white.

She brought a birthday hat for me,
Roses pink and roses white,
A summer hat of golden straw,
Roses pink and white.

I wore my hat upon the beach,
Ribbons pink and ribbons white,
The warm wind blew it out of reach,
Ribbons pink and white.

We chased it far across the sand,
Sea-shells pink and sea-shells white,
And came back laughing, hand in hand,
Sea-shells pink and white.
For Bessie, August 1981

Summer Days

We took our teddies on the beach,
My cousin Camilla and I.
The golden sands reached down to the sea
And the sea stretched away to the sky.
We played all day by the edge of the tide
With the seagulls circling high,
And at night we dreamt of our day on the beach,
The teddies, Camilla and I.

August 1982