My daughter writes to the fairies. They live at the bottom of the garden and magically, when she pens them a note and leaves it under her pillow, a reply is left in its place.
Don't look at me like that. There is nothing wrong with having mythical creatures as pen pals. It's excellent reading and writing practice, plus with their plant-based nomenclature, rather a good way of increasing horticultural knowledge.
The only problem is, Ava is a very dedicated correspondent and the fairies are having problems keeping up. Cherry Blossom works very hard, and quite frankly, she sometimes likes to spend her evenings watching episodes of Entourage and enjoying something chilled rather than writing reams of letters. And Brambles is no help at all - he spends all his time at Amateur Dramatics or leafing though his vinyl collection.
The other day Ava was becoming quite distressed because the fairies hadn't written for three whole nights. Fast thinking was called for, so I explained that, at this time of year, fairies are probably busy collecting in their harvest of seeds and nuts, ready for the long winter.
Last night there was another note. With apologies for the spelling errors, it read:
"To Cherry Blosom
Do you have a best frend? I have a best freind and she is called Darcy. Pleaes writ again soon love Ava
P.s. In the uver envelope are some seeds"
So now I have slightly less sunflower seeds for the birds, and Cherry Blossom has run out of excuses.