Raindrops On Roses and Kettle With Noses And Other Lovely Things...

So we're busy chopping the long limbs off trees and I'm balancing precariously up a ladder trying to saw the branch off an overgrown Ash, and then Harry offers to help. He wants to hold the ladder.

"No," says my Mum, "Your Mummy shouldn't really be balancing like that at all, and I have to hold the ladder very still. But you know what? I wish you could make us a cup of tea."

Tea! Oh please, bring me tea!" I say, and we both laugh.

But Harry says, "I can! I can do that! Can I try? Mummy? Can I try?"

"Well," I say, "I suppose you can put the kettle on, that would help."

"Cool!" Says Harry, "What do I do?"

"Go into the kitchen," I say, "Get the kettle, fill it about half full with water and then put it back on the base and switch the red switch on."

So off he goes, and he's gone a while and then he comes back and he says, "Mummy, where do I put the water? Does it go in its nose?"

And my Mum and I crease up at the idea of the kettle having a nose.

And I say, "Yes, it goes in the nose."

So off he goes again, and then he comes back and he says, "I've done it. But Mummy, why were you laughing at me?"

So I tell him, "We weren't laughing at you my love, we were just laughing because you called the bit where the water comes out a 'nose'. It was cute. It was funny. But the actual proper word for it is a spout."

"Oh." He says. "Spout."

And you can see him thinking.

And then he says, "What, like dogs have, instead of a nose? A spout like them?"

And I practically fall off the ladder I'm laughing so much.

***

Nose?
Spout?
Snout?
It's all much the same really, and to be honest I far prefer the idea that my kettle has a nose and my dog has a spout. It makes the world a much more interesting place to be. Don't you think?