Friday 30 April 2010

Little Mole


The moles are producing their litters at the moment so how nice to receive this from seven year old Lena in Germany who is learning English.  Wie der Maulwurf su seinen Hosen kam it says on the back, How the Mole Got His Trousers.  In Old English mole is mouldwarp (a combination of molde = earth and weorpan = to throw) so in times past the two languages had a similar name for this furry creature.

But what of our  ktek or little mole in Czech. It is the creation of Zedenek Milar who in the 1950s wanted to produce a film featuring a little animal showing how use flax and tripped over a molehill, and as they say, the rest is history.  The first film he made was 'How the Mole Got His Trousers' which sometimes appears in English books as How The Mole Got His Pockets.

When our friend first appears he is carrying all the objects you can see but he cannot play with the ball because he keeps dropping everything, and then he sees a pair of trousers drying on a line with Big pockets. He goes to ask all his friends if they have any, no, he sheds tears.  But the forest creatures come to his aid -
Mole grows flax
Frog helps him drench it
Stork breaks it 
Hedgehog combs it
Spider weaves linen
Crab Cuts It
Reed Warblers sews it

Everything ends happily as you can see on this pretty card.  The Czechs have produced stamps in the past celebrating this character and his adventures:


So ends this story of friendship on Postal Friendship Friday, hosted by The Best Hearts Are Crunchy

an

8 comments:

Snap said...

Adorable card and stamps. Love the story/history. Thank you! (Cute little guy.) Happy PFF!

viridian said...

When I was in Prague i saw this little guy. But to many Americans with yards a mole is a pest. This guy looks cute.

Postcardy said...

That's a cute character and cute card.

Tussy said...

Lovely set!

You Got A Posty ~ PFF
Theme Day ~ Statue

Sheila @ A Postcard a Day said...

I remember Moldy Warp the Mole from the Little Grey Rabbit stories, but this is a new and delightful one for me. Interesting that they were advocating the use of flax all those years ago, and now it's being promoted again as a green product.

Lyneen said...

Cute little guy... the ones that make mounds in my yard are not so cute... Happy PFF!

LiT Web Studio said...

GREAT card...guess what? i found the film! it's on youtube!! Wie der Maulwurf zu seiner Hose kam

papel1 said...

cute picture....Happy PFF (even though its Sat)
Judy