Indeed, Uncle Wilf had gone to his car and emerged a few seconds later with a megaphone. He walked back to the rugs and looked at all the frogs who had arrived.

He lifted the megaphone to his mouth and said, “ladies and gentlemen, can I please have your attention.”

A hush fell over those assembled and everyone looked expectantly at him. “Thank you,” he said, “I now declare the Easter Egg hunt open. As those of you who have been here before know, there are eggs of all different shapes and sizes hidden away in this meadow. You have five minutes to find as many as you can and the winner who finds the most will get a special prize. However, I must insist that you wear your Easter hats.

A chorus of, “wow,” went up from the young frogs and at the sound of the horn, they all hopped off in different directions, determined to find as many Easter eggs as possible and win the prize.

While the children were running around, the parents sat on the rugs chatting to each other while Flora made sure that everyone had a cup of tea.

“That includes you, Errol,” said Uncle Wilf, who, like everyone else, was curious as to why Errol was not wearing his hat. Normally, he was the first frog to be showing off if he had made something new to wear.

Errol walked over to where he had put the cardboard box and opened it up. He then carefully lifted out what looked like a dark brown hat.

“It’s not very colourful, is it?” whispered Freddie to Herring Gull Harry.

“I agree with you there,” he replied.

With his back to the audience Errol put his Easter hat carefully on his head and then produced a mirror to make sure that the hat was fine.

“Hurry up, Errol’” said Freddie, anxious not to miss out on the Easter Egg hunt but curious to see this mysterious hat of Errol’s.

“You don’t have to wait for me, Freddie,” said Errol. Satisfied, he put the mirror away and then turned around to face his audience and take in the looks of surprise on their faces. He was not disappointed.

“Wow,” said Freddie.

“It’s amazing,” said Herring Gull Harry staring at the hat.

“It’s a bit, um, unusual, isn’t it, Errol?” said Flora, ever the practical one.

‘Thanks, sis,” he replied.

Errol’s Easter hat was indeed a masterpiece. Errol had a top hat and all around the brim he had put chocolate Easter bunnies, all with a different coloured scarf on to give the hat some colour. He had a chocolate bunny followed by a white one and then another chocolate one and so on around the brim.

‘So, you like it?” he asked his audience. He was convinced that he would win the prize today. After all, no one else’s hat came anywhere near the ingenuity of his creation.

“It’s cool,” said Freddie as he hopped off to start looking for Easter eggs before they all disappeared.

“Freddie’s right, it’s cool and you have done brilliantly, Errol,” said Herring Gull Harry. “Come on, lets go and look for some Easter eggs before they all disappear.”

And on that note the two friends hopped off to see what they could find in the meadow. Errol quickly found two chocolate eggs and was so busy looking for more that he didn’t know the warm sunshine was starting to melt the chocolate bunnies.

All too soon it seemed to Errol, there was the sound of Uncle Wilf’s horn again and all the young frogs duly returned to the rugs clutching the eggs that they had found. He had found six eggs which he was pleased about but he was more concerned with winning the Easter Hat competition.

As he approached the rug, a frog he did not recognise looked at his hat, whispered something to his friend and then they laughed. Errol took no notice. Then, it seemed to him that more frogs were pointing in his direction and then they started laughing.

Then, something went ‘plop’ in front of his eyes. It could have been his imagination but it looked like it might have been chocolate!  His heart sank.

Pretending not to notice, he arrived at the rugs where Freddie greeted him by running round him in a circle and then said, “Errol, why are the chocolate bunnies disappearing?”

“What do you mean, Freddie?”

Standing on tiptoe and looking at Errol’s hat, he said “well, it looks like your chocolate bunnies are now chocolate puddles”.

“Tell me you’re not joking.” Errol could feel that first prize disappearing fast as another chocolate drop flew buy his nose.

“Well, it was a silly hat to wear on such a sunny day,” said Flora coming up behind him.

At that point, Uncle Wilf interrupted with his megaphone to announce the winner of the Easter Egg hunt. Percy Barnacle had collected the most eggs and was given a giant chocolate Easter bunny as a prize. Errol groaned when he saw it.

“Now, for the winner of the Easter hat competition,” announced Uncle Wilf and several eager faces looked in his direction. “The winner this year, I am pleased to announce is,” and here he paused for a couple of moments before continuing, “Freddie for his very colourful hat.”

What! Errol was surprised.

Meanwhile, an over-excited Freddie ran up to Uncle Wilf and accepted his prize before running in a very large circle around the rugs showing off his colourful Easter bonnet.

“Your hat is cool,” said the ever loyal Herring Gull Harry to Erro.

“Be quiet, Harry,” Errol replied as he took off his hat. Sure enough, Freddie had been right. What had once been chocolate bunnies were now what could only be described as a brown and white mess that was seeping ever closer to the edge of his top hat.

As he was just about to put it back in the cardboard box, Uncle Wilf walked over without his megaphone and said to Errol, “it was one hell of a hat, Errol, but if it had not melted, you would have won first prize. Here, I have a consolation prize for you though,” and with that he gave Errol an enormous plate of cheese straws.

Errol’s face lit up and he lay back on the rug and ate the cheese straws, dipping them in the rapidly disappearing bunnies. Alright, he had not won first prize but maybe life was not so bad after all, he reflected to himself as he munched away with the help of Herring Gull Harry and Freddie – the two frogs he liked most in the world.

Happy Easter!

Dear readers,

Today marks the first anniversary of me writing these stories for this blog. I hope you have enjoyed the stories as much as I have enjoyed writing them and thank you for taking the time to read them. I am amazed and touched at the number of readers who have visited this site and the different countries around the world that you all represent.

Here’s to another 12 months of  Errol’s adventures.

Henrietta