Pooh sticks and tea

If you close one eye and sort of squint, the sky looks like a bridge in this photo. Okay, so squint a little more. There!

Yesterday I went for a short walk, just to clear the dust from my throat after getting ready for "the big sale" I was walking along and got to the bridge over our brook and there were some sticks there... And no one was watching.... So I played a short game of Pooh sticks.

For those who cannot remember, this comes from that well-loved children's book Winnie the Pooh. You and a friend, or your bear, each throw a stick in the water on one side of a bridge. Then you run to the other side to see whose stick wins. Lacking both a friend and a bear, I did it myself. I won!

How is this tea related? Well, after such rousing events, Christopher Robin and Pooh bear would have tea. This charming book and A. A. Milne's others with Christopher and Pooh are full of tea. The most famous of which may be the one where Pooh goes to Rabbit's house for tea and eats so much honey he gets stuck in Rabbit's door for several days.

When I was little, my Grannie Grunt and I would have tea with the fairies who lived under the bridge at the bottom of the meadow. This was a serious event that other grownups didn't understand, but my Grannie did and it was wonderful fun! We didn't play Pooh Sticks, as it was quite a climb up to the bridge and across a busy highway.

Sometimes it is good to remember childhood, drink tea and play Pooh Sticks

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