I’ve got a bit of a ‘thing’ about Sally, our post girl. There she is, tramping up our drive every morning come rain, snow or sun – rosy cheeked with a ready smile and a cheery demeanour. Or cycling around the village with her post bag – rosy cheeked with a ready smile and a friendly wave.

I finally worked out this morning exactly what it is about her that I find attractive. And if, by some weird and random chance she reads this, I hope she takes it the right way! She seems like a bit of a throwback to my childhood – straight out of the pages of ‘The Secret Seven‘. If she doesn’t go home and beat up her kids then she probably has a small white fluffy dog and on Sundays they go and have adventures together, which certainly includes a little scrumping. Her small white fluffy dog quite regularly finds lost children trapped down an abandoned mineshaft but no fear, Sally will understand those tail wags and barks and be on her post bike in a jiffy, racing to the rescue.

That’s her on the book cover with one of her pals setting out on a big new adventure in a world without any grown ups. That might even be the abandoned mineshaft come to think about it. No doubt the small white fluffy dog has gone on ahead.

You don’t often come across people like this any more – or even people who simply remind you of people like this. A lost era of innocence and good old-fashioned healthy fun in summers that lasted forever.