Apple Tree Farm

I have had this little cardboard cut-out farm for years. I must have bought it around 1995 or so, I fell in love with it on so many levels. It was made of paper. It was by Usborne, by my favourite illustrator, Stephen Cartwright. It required fiddly sticking and folding. It came in a book of press-out shapes. So, I bought it, and I have stored it carefully wherever I have been living, moving it from Cape Town to Jo'burg and back down to Cape Town with me. Stored in Cape Town for two years, and finally, brought to my current address in England.

So what's different now? Why, after all these years of careful storage, have I popped out the pieces and constructed the farm?
Look who's playing with it! My very own mini-me, my daughter! She loves it, and sat patiently with me, helping me find the right roof for the right building, the right tree in the right spot, the animals in their sheds and fields, and the people, all busy with their chores and duties around the farm.

I realise that in a week or so it's probably going to end up in the recycling box, buckled and bent and not quite so pretty anymore, but, it will have been played with! And of couse, I took these pictures so that we will always remember Apple Tree Farm.