BLUE PETER BOOKS COVER GALLERY - PART THREE...

Copyright BBC TV

Since doing my previous two posts on the BLUE PETER BOOKS, I've acquired a few more to round off my collection so thought I'd share them with you here.  I was never what you'd call a regular viewer of the programme even if I saw enough of them for it to seem so in memory, but I have a fond affection for the show as it represents part of my childhood and teenage years.

I only caught the occasional episode after LESLEY JUDD departed in 1979, but again, it seems in retrospect that I saw more of them than I actually did, and I must confess to fancying JANET ELLIS (didn't everyone?) when she joined in 1983.  The Twentieth Book was published in the 25th Anniversary of the show, and I've had a softcover copy of the book for quite a few years now, which seemed a bit of an anomaly as the others were in hardback.  I've since discovered that it was a second edition printed by Scholastic Publications, so I assume it was printed for schools.  (I've recently obtained a first-print hardback edition as well.)

I now have Books one to twenty, which represents the first twenty-five years of the programme, and I'll soon have Book forty, which was the last one ever published in 2011.  The only other one I have is Book twenty-eight, published in 1998 to celebrate forty years of Blue Peter.  (Oh, and I've got a Blue Peter stamp album as well.)

"Why not collect them all?" you may well be wondering.  Simply because they mean nothing to me.  The only Blue Peter programmes I've watched in many a year are the Anniversary shows - and that was only to see the presenters from the past who I grew up watching.  Maybe one day I'll add the few remaining ones published in Anniversary years, but it's not at the top of my 'things to do' list.  Time will tell, I guess.

  

A DOGGIE TALE... (Updated)

Zara circa December 1987

I was in the back garden filling my bird feeders the other day (as I do every day) and, coming in through the porch door, I spied scratches in the paintwork on the lower part of the exterior of the kitchen door in front of me.  I'd seen them before, naturally (many times), but so used to them am I now that they don't really register with me anymore, so why they did on this occasion I'm not quite sure.

The scratches had been caused by not just one dog, but three.  First, PRINCE, a mongrel we'd owned back in the early '70s that looked almost like a 'miniature' German Shepherd; then TARA, an actual German Shepherd we owned from around the mid-'70s to 1986.  Finally, ZARA (another German Shepherd), who I'd bought to replace Tara when her time had come to an end earlier in the same year.

Zara circa 1987

What's interesting though, is that we'd moved away from this house in 1983, when Tara was eight and a half years old.  Tara died three years later, which is when I got Zara - and a year after that we moved back to our previous house (as regular readers will be tired of reading).

So what's interesting about that?  Well, the back door of that other house likewise has scratches from both Tara and Zara (made when they were seeking re-entry after being out in the garden 'watering' the plants), so both houses bear the marks of the same two dogs, but, in the case of this house, made with a four year gap between them.

It had occurred to me a few years back to fill in the scratches, but now I don't think I'll ever bother.  It's somehow oddly reassuring to see the 'footprints' of our three dogs still there after all this time (Zara died fifteen years ago), as fresh as when they were first made.  It's as if Prince, Tara and Zara are still around in some way.

Tara circa 1984

In fact, sometimes, when the wind is howling late at night, I seem to hear scratching at the back door and a muffled whining, as if something is seeking shelter from the elements.  My first thought, of course, is that my ears are playing tricks on me, but then my curiosity kicks in and I make my way through to the kitchen to check things out.

Whenever I open wide the door, however, only the inky blackness of the night beyond stares back at me - but the unmistakable smell of doggie fur hangs in the midnight air, as if I've only just missed a canine visitor or three wishing to remind me that their spirits yet linger out in the garden in case I should ever forget them. 

Never, my doggie pals - never.

******

Finally managed to find some pictures of Prince.  The original photos bear the printed date of July 1974 in the margins, but whether this is when they were taken or developed, I'm unsure.  If the latter, there wouldn't be much of a gap between the two occasions.  Alas, poor Prince.  We only had him for about a year-and-a-half.  In fact, as I've only got three photos of him, I might as well show them all here.