Love is...

Bear, drying
Originally uploaded by joellaflickr.

... restoring Christopher the bear to his original pinkness in the washing machine (40 degree gentle wash, Ecover liquid, inside a pillow case) then drying him in a range of positions on the radiator before sewing up the hole in his back created by the spin cycle.

Christopher is about 35 years old, and was made out of fake fur and old tights by a spinster neighbour called Ruth who had a soft spot for my toddler self. His ears are odd because my sister tore one of them off and my mum never got them to match again, and his eyes were originally bigger and further apart (and, I believe, blue) before they got smashed against a radiator in another childhood fight and were replaced by these little orange ones.

He did have two babygros, one pink (not sure whose that was originally) and one blue, which belonged to a premature baby called Tarun who lived next door to us in the 1970s. But I washed the pink one and it disintegrated, so now he's down to one.

With a bear like Christopher, you never sleep alone.

joella