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