A slice of what?!

After shopping for various odds and ends at Boyes and The Range, why is PicturePoems taking a bread-knife to a non-scratch glass-scourer - and cutting it into equal slices with the help of an 'OCD bread board'? Surely, it can't be just to create a Silly Saturday image? No, it's not - as my Extras demonstrate.

Early next month it will be little Miss B's 4th birthday. Last month her parents took her to London Zoo, ever since when she has wanted a toy zoo. So we, her grandparents, have spent a small fortune on a few quality Schleich wild animals. Now I am channelling my 1960s' Blue Peter spirit to create an open-plan zoo for her to play with. (As she is so creative, I'm sure she'll add her own buildings from bricks, Duplo and building-magnets.) But cutting this cleaning sponge into slices makes perfect pieces of hedge for her to place wherever her designer's eye suggests. I've tested the hedges and they stand up beautifully, so won't frustrate her by falling over. The enclosures are metal holders for paper notes (only 32p each!) and don't actually cage or confine the toy animals. I think she'll have lots of fun with it - and in adding to it, if the fancy takes her. More crafting sessions with Granny, perhaps? (Our other present is some Fimo modelling clay, the sort you can cook in an oven to harden.)

As it has not stopped raining all day, not for a minute, I couldn't garden. So it was crafting-without-guilt for me! Ironically, if I hadn't been cutting toy hedges, I'd have been cutting real ones. Thanks to Mr PP for taking the main photograph on my behalf.

PS If you look at the square image of the elephants by the hedge, can you guess the source of the bush behind them? 

PPS The red ends of the scourers, being the wrong colour for hedges, might be used for ... um ... washing-up!