Auntie Miniver
The rabbits were all here and there. This as all creatures know was not like them. Christmas baking had not gone according to plan 5-46-1A. Cookies had failed. Stuck to the countertop, on kitchen gadgets ranging from spoons to rollers the rabbits were in a rare state of a-flutter. As Christmas carols played…this was the fourth round of the St. Paul’s Christmouse choir, the rabbits were in desperation hop mode.
Seldom and rare…bear came to the rescue. Not that bear could make cookies…he had been banned from the kitchen, due to his own cookie catastrophe, years ago. Rather… this time…the bear was about for encouragement coaching. If anyone could fix the cookie flummox bunnies could, they just needed some down time and calmness and bear knew this. Time to make the bunnies laugh…time for reminders and memories.
Wantmore loved this Bear and Bunny story (Volume 1). He had read this Bear and Bunny book numerous times, enjoying the illustrations and looking for the mice within the pictures. The book illustrator, also the author, had written of this grand search and seek quest on the earlier pages…How many mice can you find? There are forty-three mice in all…well – maybe more…enjoy!
Wantmore counted his mouse pictures and as he reached his 46th…closed the pages. This mouse size book was given to him by his Auntie Miniver who was an olden mouse when she gave Wantmore the book. Auntie Miniver had written inside the book, “To my dear nephew Wantmore love from Auntie Miniver, Christmastime at Kemmelberry”. Though not dated Wantmore well remembered opening the present some years back, was it 1970, maybe 1974…perhaps later…perhaps earlier…this caused confusion…time for tea and non-mouse Christmas crumbles for joy.
As the hot tea was sipped, Wantmore sitting on his mouse-made chair looked at his Christmouse tree decorated with goodly things…a bit of pinecone…a bit of twig…some shiny things found from the forest trail and a small silver-gilt button tree-topper from that Waterloo tunic of the non-mice Bailey family. Alone this night hoping for a knock at the door Wantmore recalled how Auntie Miniver sailed to Dunkirk in a little ship in 1940. The non-mice crew had brought soldiers from the shore to the destroyers at sea. Several times Auntie made the journey to the beaches until home again.
Auntie Miniver was a youngling mouse then…not quite known for knowing what to do…until those May-June days of 1940. There had been much noise and commotion, cries for help, airplanes and great splashes of water, rifle fire, cannon fire. So much noisy time for a mousetime Auntie Miniver, after 1945, settled in her Kemmelberry meadow home and with pen and a paper began to write…
Once upon a time it was Christmas and the rabbits were making Christmas cookies for the bears…then with paint brushes and colours Auntie Miniver began to paint blended mice within the written pages. Wantmore opened his gift book again starting at page one and at about page three…a knock at the door…family mouselings…Wantmore’s oneziss… arrived with Christmouse bits and crumbs, Christmas cheer and a desire for Auntie Miniver stories again…volumes one through eleven…that stories never grow old.
All images by P. Ferguson, December 2024
Merry Christmas to one and all…mouse and non-mice!