The Mole had been working very hard all the morning, spring-cleaning his little home. First with brooms, then with dusters; then on ladders and steps and chairs, with a brush and a pail of whitewash; till he had dust in his throat and eyes, and splashes of whitewash all over his black fur, and an aching back and weary arms. Spring was moving in the air above and in the earth below and around him, penetrating even his dark and lowly little house with its spirit of divine discontent and longing. It was small wonder, then, that he suddenly flung down his brush on the floor, said 'Bother!' and 'O blow!' and also 'Hang spring-cleaning!' and bolted out of the house without even waiting to put on his coat. Something up above was calling him imperiously, and he made for the steep little tunnel which answered in his case to the gavelled carriage-drive owned by animals whose residences are nearer to the sun and air. So he scraped and scratched and scrabbled and scrooged and then he scrooged again and scrabbled and scratched and scraped, working busily with his little paws and muttering to himself, 'Up we go! Up we go!' till at last, pop! his snout came out into the sunlight, and he found himself rolling in the warm grass of a great meadow.

'This is fine!' he said to himself. 'This is better than whitewashing!'

An Edinburgh Boy

Kenneth Grahame is the author of this attack on the joys of Spring cleaning and despite being the archetypal writer on the Thames he is a true born Scot, born in Castle Street Edinburgh in 1859; only moving to the village of Cookham when his mother died when he was just five.

Mad March Days

And even though it’s a wee bit early for spring cleaning the days of Mad March are upon us, with the air still chill nature has begun to stir. March is called “Mad” because it is when hares box and spar, looking for a mate and the males duke it out to see who will father the most leverets this year. In tribute to this madness is an astonishingly realistic piece of home sculpture that can grace your table or mantelpiece. This Limited Edition Border Fine Arts Classic Sculpture has been entirely hand made in the Scottish Borders. Each one is then hand painted, no two will be identical. It is a very limited edition of 350. It’ll take a week or two to come, but the wait will be worth it and there’s money off in our very own March Madness.