Pancake Day in the Wood.

Breeze, the snooziest ogre in the whole universe, woke to the sound of slip-slap, slip-slap. His nose twitched because the air was full of the scent of lemon. This was unusual because the wood always smelt of trees, leaves, flowers and those that lived in it but this afternoon the only thing he could smell was lemon.

…lemon …. and blueberries.

He slid down the tree trunk, raced across the wood and stopped in the clearing. It was dreadful,  instead of seeing neat plates piled with pancakes

All he could see was bits of pancakes flying from pans to the floor, or getting stuck on trees, leaves, grass,  even the pancake flippers had bits stuck to them.

This won’t do at all, he muttered and began to race around the clearing. Ten minutes later he had to stop, he was stuffed, he couldn’t eat another pancake and worse his feet were sore from running.

Lilbeth came over to sit beside him. “That was a very nice thing you did Mr. Breeze.”

He opened one eye and looked at her. She nodded.

“Why do you say that Lilbeth?”

“Because now we don’t have to tidy up. And maybe we will get better at flipping pancakes for tomorrow.”

She left him sitting there with his mouth wide open. He didn’t know if he should cry or laugh. He would have to do it all again tomorrow!

 

 

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Why Ogres have green skin.

The first Ogre was a giant called Charlie. It was said he could stretch to reach the clouds. His feet were bigger than a large saucepan.  Charlie’s hands were huge like dinner plates.

Charlie lived in the middle of a huge town. When he tiptoed around town, birds fell off their perches. Jellies lost their wobble and collapsed onto plates. Children ran and hid.

Charlie felt sad. He loved talking to people, telling jokes and having fun.

The trouble with being left on your own is fun is hard to find.

One afternoon he said, “I am leaving. There is no reason for me to stay. I live on my own. I talk to nobody. Visitors never come to my house. It is time to move on.”

This he did. Charlie packed up his clothes. Then bundled them along with all the food he had and placed them in a tablecloth. He knotted the ends of the cloth together, slung it across his shoulders. In a box he put everything he thought he would need. Hammer,  plates, a saucepan and kettle. Charlie walked a long distance.

When he reached the base of the Lumpy Sugar Mountains. He sat on a fallen tree and looked around him.

It was pretty. Birds came and sat beside him. Charlie enjoyed listening to their twittering and singing. He took out a chunk of bread. The birds fed on it and flew towards the large wood in the distance. A rabbit came to sit by him.

Charlie looked at the mountain.  It looked big, cold and lonely. He looked at the wood. He noticed many birds, rabbits and squirrels darting in and out of the trees. He decided birds and rabbits might be good company. He set off to find a place in the wood.

Charlie loved living in the wood. He found a river to fish in and a spring with clear sweet water to drink. He discovered berries and apple trees on the outskirts of the wood.  In the fields surrounding the wood farmers planted crops of potatoes, carrots, cabbage and broccoli. Charlie was never hungry.  If he took some of the crops from the field he always repaid the farmers by mending gates and walls. Though the farmers were puzzled by this magical mending.

In time others came to live in the wood.  Charlie fell in love with a daughter of an Ogre family he knew.

The change in the Ogre’s appearance happened slowly. The Ogres lived in the deepest darkest part of the forest.

They rarely saw the sun because it was filtered through the trees high above them. Because of this something strange began to happen to Charlies grandchildren.

 

 

Their skin began to take on a slightly green tinge.

As they were the only Ogre family in this wood, well, they didn’t care about their skin colour, they were happy.

And Charlie? He always believed having green skin was a very small price to pay for happiness.