No.26 Too hard to choose….she wants them all.

The little girl lived in a little town which had all the everyday shops your could need but not any of the larger chain stores. There were therefore times it was necessary to travel to other larger towns to buy shoes or clothes. Sometimes even travelling to the city, 50 miles away, especially to buy gifts at Christmas. Travelling to these other town meant a bus journey and the little girl love these journeys.

The bus journeys took about twice as long as it would have in a car. The 50 miles to the city taking about 2 hours. The reason it took so much longer was because the bus would call into every village and small town on the route, pulling off the bypass, squeezing through narrow village streets, and halting briefly at the one bus stop on a quiet main street. This was the bit the little girl liked best of all because she could see the houses up close.

The little girl had a favourite house in every village and town. Sometimes it was a grand bay window that caught her eye, or a turret with a flag pole would make it her favourite. Sometimes it was the simple symmetry of a single storey cottage, elevated by it’s pretty flowering window boxes, the colours of the flowers coordinated with the colour of a statement front door. A white washed little house, with cream coloured ornate front door and woodwork, looked like a vanilla flavoured cake surrounded by a sauce of bold and flamboyant blooms in the garden. A restrained colour palate would be the appeal of one house but then another favourite would have bright and cheerful pink facade. Smart symmetry of one house but mismatched windows and doors of another house, extended numerous times over the centuries. They all had that in common…..they weren’t “new”. They were always houses of age that had been loved and cared for over the decades, centuries.

…..and the little girl loved them all and couldn’t choose an overall favourite. She wanted to live in each and every one of them.