babies, tomboys, puppy

On a square of rugs arranged in the Grove, several mothers and small babies gather with push chairs and baskets full of nappies, bottles and other accesssories. The babies, all more or less the same age, are cuddled, loll on the rugs and are picked up and held in the air.

Two girls climb on to the branch of a tree parallel with the ground and practice hanging there upside down, there legs hooked over the branch. Tomboys, they used to be called. Is the term still used?

Giles who lives by the Grove has acquired a newfoundland puppy. I meet him standing by the main road, the dog folded in his arms like a big, black fur coat. Her name is Seal because, in her present state of infancy, she looks like one. She is eight weeks old. "I'm trying to get her used to the traffic," he says, as Seal looks nervously at the road with shy, black eyes. "She doesn't like it very much, especially lorries."