Conversation over dinner

B. Every time the buttons on my cardigan get caught in that netting over the vegies, I think of Peter Rabbit.

G. Flopsy, Mopsy, Cottontail and Peter?

B. Exactly. In Mr Macgregor’s garden.

G. Amazing how these childhood stories stick with you. Remember the gumnut babies?

B. Snugglepot and Cuddlepie. They were pretty twee. Like a couple of cupids without the bows and arrows. But I remember the big bad banksia men, they were terrifying.

G. Me too. I think of them whenever I see a big dark banksia bush.

B. Did you read a book called The Little Round House, or was it The Little Round Garden?

G. Rings a vague bell. But I do remember Ferdinand the bull sitting under a cork tree. Sweet gentle Ferdinand. That gave me my picture of Spain. I wanted to go and sit under a cork tree there.

B. I had a fantasy of South Africa…from a tale about a family having a pink tea under a blue jacaranda. I badly wanted to go there and have a pink tea.

G. You’d have got a nasty shock if you’d landed in one of the townships.

B. As you would’ve if you’d landed in a bullfight in Madrid.

G. Ah, the innocence of childhood.

April 2019

Answer to LP3.

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