Saturday, 16 August 2014

31 - to Sebastian, Lily and Elliott - August 2014

Dear Sebastian, Lily and Elliott,

Papa has written a poem today.  He thinks it should be called “The Friendly Scarecrow”.

Do you think that’s a good name for it?

Love Jojo and Papa

We saw a scarecrow with an old straw hat
In a vegetable garden he stood, not sat.








He didn’t act scary, he didn’t shout “BOO”!
and his is face looked quite funny because it was BLUE




The birds pointed and laughed and stamped with their feet,
They were laughing so much they just couldn’t eat.



They were laughing at him, but he didn’t care,
He’d saved all the veggies without having to SCARE.




Saturday, 9 August 2014

30 - To Elliott, Lily and Sebastian - August 2014

Dear Lily, Elliott and Sebastian, 

These people are our friends Martin and Tracy.  Can you see how happy they are?  

They live on a boat.  Look how low the window is, they can touch the water without leaning over very far at all!

Their boat is very long.

It’s so long that I could only fit half of it in this drawing.

They have two little dogs, one brown one and one black one and they love to come out and welcome us very loudly when we come to visit.

This very long boat is a special kind of boat.  Can you guess what these special very long boats are called?

No, you’d never guess!   

They are also very narrow.  They are so narrow that Papa couldn’t lie down sideways in them, and Elliott’s bed wouldn’t fit across the top.

Hang on tight Elliott!  Don’t fall in the water!

Now can you guess what the name of these special boats is?  

I think you can, its called a NARROW BOAT!

Narrow boats are specially made for England where some of the canals are really really narrow, and they are made to fit into them.

All of the furniture is down one side of the boat, and they have to be very long so that it all fits in a neat row.

You’d have to be a very tidy person to live in a narrow boat.  If you left a mess on the floor there would be nowhere to walk.

Give everyone a hug from us, 

Love 

Jojo and Papa

Saturday, 2 August 2014

29 - To Sebastian, Elliott and Lily - August 2014


Dear Sebastian, Lily and Elliott,

When we were talking to Lily last week, we showed her our friend Ria standing on her boat.  All boats are boys here in France and in Belgium where Ria comes from.
Her boat is beautiful and shiny and grey and his name is Max.


There is a special story about why the boat is called Max.

When Ria was a little girl she lived on a farm, and her father had a great, big horse to do all the heavy pulling work on the farm.   He used to pull ploughs and wagons and help in all sorts of ways around the farm.

He was a special working horse from Belgium and he didn’t have a tail but he did have a wild scruffy mane, and big hairy ankles that made it look like he was wearing slippers.


He was a very big strong horse, but he was very quiet and gentle too even though he was quite old.

One day when Ria wasn’t even as big as Lily is, she was playing near him and she must have made so much noise that he decided he couldn’t take it any longer. 

He gently picked her up by the shoulder so he wouldn’t hurt her, and took her away to where she couldn’t annoy him any more!

When Max was too old to work any more, Ria’s Dad went to town one day and came back with a brand new tractor.

It was red and white.  Oh oh!  What’s wrong with this drawing?

Ria used to help her Dad drive the tractor too, even though she was a very little girl.

So now, whenever we see Ria and her husband Dave in their boat Max, we think of Max the great big gentle horse and the days before there were tractors to do the work.

Isn’t that a lovely way to name a boat?

Give everyone special hugs from us, 

Lots of love,

From

Jojo and Papa