Willow weaving

Under warm Suffolk sunshine I watched an artisan weaving Willow; his labours produced my favourite basket, one that lights an approving smile from the check-out staff at my local Co-op. Handles and leather wear and crack, mellowed by hands and transport, thus    baskets, hampers and panniers acquire even more charm when distinguished by the life      they've lived. 

My Suffolk basket

Under another warm sun, by a riverbank, the Water Rat and the Mole were having a small adventure:

Hold hard a minute, then!' said the Rat. He looped the painter through a ring in his landing stage, climbed up into his hole above, and after a short interval reappeared staggering under a fat, wicker luncheon basket. (The Wind in the Willows 1908. 8).

The Water Rat expects the unexpected company of the Otter and the Badger, he embraces their fellowship in a community lunch, whose scent might indeed be blown by the wind through the woven willow of his basket:

"coldhamcoldtonguecoldbeefpickledgherkinssaladfrenchrollscresssandwichespottedmeatgingerbeerlemonadesodawater- "(8). Grahame's portmanteau of words listing the food items suggests the philanthropic capacity of the wicker receptacle: a picnic hamper is seldom packed for one.  

In Kenneth Grahame's The Wind in the Willows a Children's Classic at 100 the serosity of the Water Rat's lifestyle is described in the following terms: "His boat is the perfect nature-perfecting agency through which he can realise this life, conveying him and his lunch hamper to areas of his own choosing, in his own time" (Jackie C.Horne and Donna R.White, 2010. 31).

The fluidity of Grahame's syntax emphasises the rafting nature of the Water Rat's life and attitude to casual encounters, for whose alimentary needs he is mindful. The social cohesion of his floating feast, marks the spirit of philanthropy with which Grahame endows the character of the Water Rat.

    

Bibliography

Grahame, K.                        The Wind in the Willows.   New York: Charles Scribner's Sons,                                                     1908.

Horne, J.C and Donna, W.   Kenneth Grahame's The Wind in the Willows a Children's Classic                                                 at 100.   United Kingdom: Scarecrow Press Inc., 2010.