Becoming a grandmother is wonderful. One moment you're just a mother. The next you are all-wise and prehistoric.

A friendship can weather most things and thrive in thin soil; but it needs a little mulch of letters and phone calls and small, silly presents every so often - just to save it from drying out completely.

The child who ran weeping to you with a cut finger is now brought home, smiling gamely, with a broken collarbone and incredible contusions- 'it wasn't Jezebels fault, Dad.'

The work of a garden bears visible fruits-in a world where most of our labours seem suspiciously meaningless.

Many a cat can only be lured in by switching off all the lights and keeping very still. Until the indignant cry of a cat-locked-out comes at the door.

Bears being sent through the mail should never be squashed up to make them fit. It gives them indigestion.

A cat likes to hear you calling him. He sits in a bush a yard from your shoes - and listens.