Mr Badger embraces his inner-musician

I am extremely honoured to be hosting an esteemed guest! Mr Badger, from Wind in the Willows, is currently residing with me in sunnny Essex as part of his world tour visiting bloggers. He originates from my dear blogging friends Pom-Pom and Mags  at Fraise.  Part of his mission is to promote and share 'hygge' wiht those he visits.  Hygge is a Danish word with a rough translation of 'Cosiness, creating a warm atmosphere and enjoying the good things in life with good people.

Before me, he was staying with Cheryl at Sweet Briar Dreams and had an amazing visit to Highclere Castle, the home of Downton Abbey!

It was wonderful to come home on Monday to a parcel which was a patchwork of different address labels.  Inside, I found Mr Badger, along with a beautiful copy of Wind in the Willows.

In addition, he has a passport which every host is invited to stamp and write in and there is an increasing-sized pile of postcards which each host includes. It was a delight to read through the passport and the postcards.

Really surprisingly and delightfully, Cheryl had bought me a gift and postcard at Highclere castle which was lovely!

I look forward to actually reading Wind in the Willows which I haven't done since I was a young child (and then I suspect I was read to).

I discovered Pom-pom's lovely annotations and others inside the book! This book has a great deal of heart and joy in it!

On Mr Badger's adventures.  In some ways, I am sad that he wasn't with me for holiday times, but he is a grateful old gent and will appreciate the Hygge in whatever form it comes!

 On Mr Badger's first day, Tuesday, he accompanied me to school to feel young again whilst surrounded by friendly young musicians.  Since we were learning the recorder, Mr Badger also needed his own instrument so we found him a suitably-sized recorder which he could tootle down.

 Through the lesson, I asked the most-well behaved table to host him and he sat on their table as they took part in their first recorder lesson and tried his hand at the recorder too although we noticed that he was holding his recorder in his right-hand rather than the correct left but as he is an esteemed old gentleman, we allowed it!

Later that evening, Mr Badger travelled up to London to listen to a rehearsal of Hadyn and Ligeti. He particularly enjoyed the slow movement of the Hadyn and could be heard snoozing in the middle of the flute section! We just pretended it was an out of tune bassoon!

On Wednesday, Mr Badger felt rather tired so he stayed at home for some rest and a chance to catch up on his sleep.

On Thursday, he hinted that he'd rather like to spend some time with the children again, so he came to school again and sat keeping time on the snare drum for a very well-behaved year 2 class who enjoyed his company very much.

I wonder what Mr Badger will get up to next? Hopefully,he will have some gentle fun and enjoyment at the weekend!

xxx