They are used to shops and cafes and pubs being open all the time They are used to crowds and queues Everything is possible, nothing denied Until, that is, they come and visit me. City-dwellers always seem to be going somewhere as quickly as possible. The village school seems fine (though I'm told by others that the one in the next village is much better).People live where they feel comfortable with the pace, and real time, for me, is in the country. I may spend lots of time commuting each day but I spend very little worrying about the kids.

They walk to school and play round the neighbourhood until nightfall. It feels safer, and the countryside is just a short walk through the council estate.People are always saying that living in the country is good for children, but what they really mean is that it is good for parents. I like it because it is absolutely silent at night and you can see the stars (and not the street lamps) when you look up. The real reason I like living in the country has little do with such things. In the same way, I loved having a Rayburn, but there is nothing romantic about keeping it stoked up with coal. The view from the kitchen window was stress- free (pasture, rolling hills etc) but if I'd looked the other way I'd have seen a road filled with articulated lorries.None of this is meant to be negative It's just the way it is.

Ratty was not so scary but only because he was usually dead and deposited by the cat at the back door The mice were everywhere. One Christmas I sat and watched them race to see which could eat the chocolate tree ornaments first.Wild animals, dead and alive, are part of life. It's cute having hedgehogs galore, but not so fab when one keels over dead in the garage. One day, as I was tapping away at my computer, I looked down and saw Mole looking up He was small but terrifying. You get close to nature when you live in a house without a foundation, and I had got used to the odd plant pushing its way up into the house.

But weeding your front room is one thing, discovering you are living in a set for Wind in the Willows another. The blossom was gorgeous, certainly, and the pesticides were not too bad either. You don't get one without the other, the farmer said, and really doesn't everyone have to watch the way the wind blows? As for the pasture, the land had once been a dump and there had been a little problem with methane. None of this seemed to affect the rodents, of which there were many. It was surrounded by apple orchards and horse pastures and, I suppose, it could be called lovely. Take the old and picturesque farmhouse that we lived in for years.