Tractor!

When I was a boy, in the late sixties and early seventies, there was a series of books called 'How And Why'. I had the How And Why Wonder Book Of Trees and the How And Why Wonder Book Of Dinosaurs. I think the former must have been a present because I cannot to this day put a name to a tree. Except, probably, a weeping willow.

But dinosaurs, my God, how I loved dinosaurs. Not because they were fearsome; I loved the brontosaurus as much as the tyrannosaurus. I think it was partly because they were from another time and what looked like another world and also because they were HUGE. The size of a double-decker bus! (Although maybe double-deckers were smaller in prehistoric times.)

Over the years, I've encountered other children with this fascination, all boys as far as I can remember and all somewhere around the age of seven or eight. Round my part of the world, the other fascination for some small boys is tractors. A friend of mine had to learn all the brands and models to satisfy his young son's curiosity.

Growing up as a city boy, I was never exposed to this potential source of fascination, although I have this second remembered that for a while I was fascinated by combine harvesters and wanted a toy one. Anyway, I encountered this splendid looking fellow on Hophouse Lane as I was driving back from Kendal. I wonder if the matching aerial and wheel colours is an option or comes as standard?