i spent about 20 minutes trying to convince esther and her friend catherine that pince cones are in fact eggs containing baby mice. when they didn't believe me i admitted i'd got it wrong (i'm man enough).

i explained instead that baby dogs came out of pine cones and if they came along very early on a sunny summer morning they would hear the pine cones popping and puppies flying out. they didn't believe this either, but i think they enjoyed being smarter than an old person for a while !

on the way out esther pointed up at this tree and said "look mummy, there's a pie in that tree". and so there wasn't. unless it's a giant mushroom pie.