The picture on top is a copy from ‘Pluk van de Petteflet’  by Annie M.G. Schmidt with illustrations  byFiep Westendorp. Annie MG is the writer of childrens books in the Netherlands. I read her books a lot to my little girl, I love them for their  quirky humor and their beautiful illustrations. The book is about Pluk, a small boy, who lives alone in an appartment on the top of an appartment building (the Petteflet). One of his concerns is to preserve the park – or rather the wasteland area – around the Petteflet from reconstruction planned by such worthies as the Mayor and the Parkmaster. Those in authority find the parkland too indistinct and too chaotic and dishevelled. The park is saved because of the hasselbramen (=husselbrambles?) planted by Pluk. When grownups eat those brambles they forget all about reconstruction plans and immediately start to play games.  There is a lot that connects me to this story: a wasteland, a garden rescue mission, grownups throwing all care to the winds and playing like children ….

Where can I get those hasselbramen – they would make for a great experiment.  Drugs are out though, have to come up with something better to make adults play.