Spring and the problems it brings

On the first day of Spring, every being, except for Breeze, spend their time cleaning. His plan was to sit and watch Spring work its magic on the wood.

Lilian walked beneath the tree he sat in and shouted to him, “Mr. Breeze how come you get to sit around all day while I work?”

“I dunno ask your mum.” He said, hoping she would go away.

“I did – she said, either you love dirt or you are just plain lazy.”

“I am not lazy” Breeze said.

“That is what I said, you love dirt.” Lilian said goodbye and went home.

Breeze smiled, “I do love dirt,” he told a passing bird.

However he lost his smile when he returned home. His cave sparkled. He screamed and ran back into the wood. Banging his fist on Hamish’s door he tumbled inside the moment the door opened, yelling, “It is horrible, just horrible you got to help me. I can’t live in a sparkling house. Do I look like a princess,no, I don’t. “

Hamish said, “Good.”

Breeze stopped and stared at Hamish. “What do you mean good?”

“Great,no more dust flying around you, clogging up the air when you walk, I can go visit you, have tea without my allergies kicking off..”

“Then others would want to come visit – I would have to be nice and not eat all the cakes.” Breeze considered the problem. He smiled then said, “ I’d best go and find some dirt for my home.”

Breeze spent the evening spreading dirt about his home. Next morning he went out side for ten minutes to stretch and admire the morning sunshine. Walking back inside he groaned, “How is this possible?” His home was gleaming, sparkling, super clean. “Ahghhhhhhhhh”

He ran to Elegant witches house where he found his favorite baker, Tulip, having breakfast with Elegant. “Did you do it?” he demanded.

“Do what?” Elegant and Tulip asked.

“Put a magic clean spell on my house?”

“No we didn’t but I am sorry I didn’t think of it. And we can’t blame Lovisma she is on spring holiday.””

Breeze marched away, he needed to think about this problem. As he marched through the wood he spotted a pair of purple boots dangling from a branch in a tree ahead of him. “Hello, now that is a funny place to put a pair of purple boots.” He tweaked the boots.

“Hey let go of my boots.” Penelope demanded.

“Sorry I didn’t realise there was a Penelope attached to them.” Breeze chuckled. “What are you doing up there?”

“I was watching for something to happen.”

“Did it?” Breeze looked about him.

“I dunno I slept late today, all of the super cleaning yesterday made me tired.” Penelope jumped to the ground.

Breeze blinked, her dress was brighter than the sun and her gleaming skin made it hard to look at her. “You look colourful.”

“Thanks. Are you going home now?” She smiled at him and waited for his answer.

“Yes. Bye” Breeze was in a hurry to get home for he hadn’t eaten breakfast. His stomach rumbled with each step he took. As he walked he scooped up lumps of earth from the ground and stuffed them in his pockets. When he reached his home he closed his eyes and walking inside he began to drop bits of dirt against the walls, on the floors, furniture and on him. Then he opened his eyes in time to see each bit of dirt roll back outside.

He sniffed the rolling dirt and whispered, “this stinks of Elf magic.”

While he ate his three bowls of cereal he considered the likelihood of meeting Penelope who was watching for something in a tree on a day when an elf spell had been placed on his home.

“Penelope did it.” Now he knew who cleaned his house, it was time for him to persuade her to let him continue as normal. Trouble was Elves are tricky beings to deal with, for they are clever. But Breeze knew they were kind and Hamish’s words gave him an idea.

So he set to work. The next time he met Penelope she got a fright. “Oh my, what happened to you?”

Breeze looked ill, his normally green skin was an unhealthy orange colour and sprinkled with bright blue spots. He sat down and whispered, “I don’t feel well, my house…”

“What about your house?”

Breeze said, “I am allergic to cleanliness. I need dirt to make me feel well, happy and …alive.”

At his words Penelope began to panic, “Oh dear, oh dear. Let me come home with you and see what I can do to help.”

“That would be most kind of you but there is some evil spell working on my house, every time I get it right – poof – it is clean again.”

Penelope looked horrified. “I will do my best, I won’t promise much but I will do my best.”

And she did, of course, though Hamish did scold Breeze for tricking the kindly Elf. “Well she shouldn’t muddle in other people’s lives, we are all different you know.”

Hamish simply shrugged his shoulders.

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Irish Wedding – The Day Before. — decidinglybob

Friday the 12th of August was “D” day before Sara and Colm’s Wedding. We were woken early by Bob, demanding breakfast. You would think he knew something strange was happening. And it got stranger because they (Ellie and Bob) both had a bath. Though he showed his disgust at this pretty simply by ; rolling […]

via Irish Wedding – The Day Before. — decidinglybob

Muddy Puddles and Ally McDuff

 

Ally

Scruff

 

Ally McDuff has a best friend named Scruff.  He has a thick warm coat, four paws, a curly tail and a big smiley face.

Ally and Sruff love doing things together.

 

Trouble is they always get dirty.

“Stay clean, Ally.” Mum said.

Minutes later they were digging. Ally used a shovel. Scruf used his paws. “We will find the Pirates treasure soon, Scruff, ” she said.

By tea time they found:

An old smelly sock,

a bone,

an funny shaped blue glass bottle.

Ally peeped through the blue bottle and said, “Even you are blue, Scruff.”

“Woof” he said.

Ally looked at Scruff.  He was no longer white and black. He was dirty from nose to tail.

“This means a bath, Scruff,” Ally whispered.  She looked at her arms, she was dirty too.

“Maybe Mum won’t see it. Let’s hide.” They ran indoors.

Scruff hid under Ally’s bed. She squeezed in beside him.  “Mum won’t find us here” She said.

Mum did.  They washed Scruff first. He hated being washed.  He looked sad and wet when he was clean.

Ally was next. “Wash behind your ears,” Mum said.

When they were nice and shiny again, mum said, “Ally you are always getting dirty, someday…you might stay clean.”

“Tomorrow Scruff we will be clean all day.” Ally whispered.

Ally decided if they were to be clean, then Gran was the person to be with. Gran was the cleanest person for miles around. Her house shone in the sunlight. Her garden was squeaky clean. Though Ally wondered if the squeaky noise was made by the mice playing in the hedge.

“No chasing mice Scruff, today we will stay clean.” She said as they walked into Gran’s kitchen.

Gran was baking gingerbread men. Ally helped. Scruff sat on a stool and watched. When they put the gingerbread men in the oven to cook. shoes. Scruff has it on his fur.”

 

Gran looked at them and smiled. “Ahh Ally you and Scruff are wearing a lot of the mixture on your face, your clothes and your face.”

Ally scowled all the way home.  She looked grumpy during and after her bath.

Next day they decided to stay indoors. Ally loved painting. Scruff joined in, splodges of paint flew around the room.

When they were finished they showed the painting to mum. “It’s great, I love it even Scruffs paw prints.”

She looked at them and sighed. “Ally you are both covered in paint.”

Ally groaned. One bath later they were sitting having tea.

“How can we stay clean?” Ally wondered.

“I have an idea,” dad said.

Next morning he said to Ally, “you are coming to help me today. I am going to wash my car and Gran’s. You and scruff can help.”

Ally looked at the bucket of water and the sponge. They couldn’t get dirty could they?

They began to wash the cars. When the y were finished the cars were shining and clean. But when they looked at each other, they were all dirty, even Dad.

“Ahh no Dad, another bath?”

“Sorry Ally, it was my fault. Don’t worry though I will make up for it tomorrow.”

Ally spent the night wondering how they were going to manage to stay clean.

Next morning Dad said “I have a reward for my two helpers, we are going out.”

He brought them to the park where they had fun on the slides, swings and roundabouts, even Scruff had a go.

They came home squeaky clean.

Well done. Ally. Mum said. “You are shining like a new Ally.”

An apology to any visitor to this site in the past few weeks.

I feel an apology is needed. I am sorry for not being able to get online to post pictures, crazy stories etc.

I live in Ireland and while we are supposed to be ultra modern truth is this is Ireland where everything either works like magic or it has the hiccups and that is the way my internet had been working.

I have been told that a new line is needed so I am afraid to ask when this will happen but promises have been made so hopefully, in the near future I will get up and running again. In the meantime the posts will stutter along a little sporadically.

In the meantime, Bob who dislikes Ogres is in hiding, can you spot him?

Hisilicon K3

Hisilicon K3

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Odd Socks

Breeze asked everyone in Mudpile Wood to help solve a mystery.  Socks had gone missing, leaving most with only one sock of every color. Everyone agreed it was time to find the odd socks.

They searched everywhere, from the tip of the mountain to the bottom of the wood. Matt and Daisy-lyah searched in every rabbit hole. Tulip searched high into the sky in case the socks were carried up into the clouds by the wind. And they did not find one single sock.

Breeze remembered Bob, the dog had a friend called Ellie who loved finding things.  He wrote her a short note:

Dear Ellie,

Please help us find the odd socks from Mrs. Groundsels basket, if we don’t find them I am afraid we won’t get any delicious vegetable pies any more. I will ask Tulip to bake you some munchy dog biscuits.

I will leave the red basket on the smooth stones near your friend the dragon – at the pond.

Your best ogre friend

Breeze.

“What do we do now?” Hamish asked Breeze when they left the large washing basket at the smooth stones.

“We take a nap and let Ellie do her stuff.” Breeze said as he climbed the nearest tree. He tried to sleep but kept wondering about the missing socks. His dreams were filled with strange images: sheep eating socks, crows wearing socks after they pecked holes in the feet of the socks and the worst of all giant socks chasing Breeze.

Loud barking alerted them next morning and they went to find out what was wrong. Hamish stood looking at the red basket, “Well. I never.” He said over and over again.

“Superb. Great, Amazing. Happy days are here again, vegetable pie this evening for tea.” Breeze said.

“Woof.” said Ellie as she waited for them to bring her to Tulips house to collect her munchy, crunchy dog biscuits flavored with honey.

Do you doubt that she did it? Take a look at these pictures and tell me what you think?

 

 And where did she find them?

Everywhere!

 

The Tree – Breeze’s Link to his tree.

 

Tulip sat beside Breeze. Her legs were swinging back and forth as she sat on a wide smooth branch.

“What is it with you and trees?” She scrunched up her nose against the strong sunlight as she stared up at him.

“I like trees. That is it.” he said with a dreamy smile.

“But…why?” She asked him.

He considered his answer for a while. “I suppose all of my family liked trees. My grandfather grew his own apple trees, the orchard is over there.” Breeze waved his right arm in the direction of Treacle Wood, many miles away.

“My dad loved to weave baskets from willow and he adored willow trees because he could sit in the shade and work all day long.”

Tulip said, “so trees have been a thing in your family for years.”

“Yes.” Breeze said. “Have you any more questions before I take a nap.”

“Just one. Why this tree?” She looked about them, there were many other giant trees in the wood but Breeze always went to this one.

“Because I grew it.”

His answer surprised her. “You grew it?” She looked at him closely.  She could not imagine him planting anything. She tried to picture it.

“You can’t be that old.”

“For an ogre I am not. But I am still many years older than this tree.” He smiled then said,  “I remember the day I planted it. I was mad at Mrs. Groundsel. She called me a lazy young ogre who couldn’t be bothered to do anything.” Breeze yawned. “So I decided to show her I could do something. I planted the seed. I  came back every day to water and talk to it. Trees like company. It became like a …” He tapped his head with his fingers searching for a word.

“Hobby?” Tulip suggested.

“Pet.” Breeze said. “I grew fond of it and that was that.”

“That was that.” Tulip repeated. “Did you plant many more?”

Breeze nodded his head. “Loads, there was only five trees here when I started, now look.”

Tulip looked at the many hundreds of trees.

“You really are a s ..” she began.

“Strange ogre?” Breeze said.

“Surprising ogre. I think you deserve a blueberry muffin after all that work. I will bring it by later.” She flew away and left Breeze to have a nap.

 

 

Elegant to the rescue.

The yearly event  for witches is the “Broomstick Dive and Duck Ball”. It is a night of feasting, music, competitions and games.

Lovisma loves the competition called, “Whackiest disguise for a broomstick.” Last year she disguised her broom stick as a sausage roll. A giant warlock tried to eat it and broke a tooth. Lovisma didn’t hang around to collect her prize.

Elegant loves the “Design a witches hat” competition. Last year her hat looked like a giant board game complete with rolling dice and moving figures.

This year the two witches began their preparations early. On the night of the ball, they took great care with their appearance. Elegant ‘s gown  was midnight blue sprinkled with tiny glittering stars, her shoes and hat matched.

Lovisma spent ages planning her outfit. When she appeared beside Elegant, she looked like a giant swirling lollypop.  They called their broomsticks and got ready to leave for Warlock Twittchets house. 

Suddenly a loud scream was heard followed by a dog howling in pain. “What is that?” Elegant asked.

“I don’t know. Lets go.” Lovisma sped off into thenight sky.

Elegant looked towards the wood. The howling was dreadful. “Oh, dear.” She mumbled and flew after Lovisma. When she caught up with her sister she said, “I need to help it.”

“But you will miss the fun. Remember last years popping cheesecake. It was fantastic.” Lovisma said.

“I will catch up later.” Elegant said and went into the wood.

She found Tulip and Hamish trying to get close to a huge dog.  He was standing on three legs, the third one was bent and blood poured from it.

“My magic isn’t strong enough. He is in great pain.” Tulip whispered to Elegant.

“We will work together and fix this.” Elegant said.

Even with magic it took them a long time.  When his paw was mended and bandaged. Hamish  said, “We have to get him home.”

Tulip agreed, “yes he can’t stay here he will frighten everyone but where is his home?”

Elegant thought about the problem and declared, “there is only one way to do this.  We need a potion from the bubbling cauldron. Hamish, we will be back in a jiffy.”

The bubbling cauldron was asleep. It didn’t like being wakened and asked to work. Eventually Elegant persuaded it to allow her to make one potion.

When they returned they added the potion to water. When the husky drank it he told them his story.

Elegant was happy to return the animal to his home but she felt a little sad she had missed the fun at the ball. The next day when everyone in Mudpile Wood  heard of Elegants kind act, they decided to hold a party in her honor to thank her.

 

Breeze shows us a picture of the nicest witch in the world.

Many people believe witches are nasty and love to be nasty.  Well….here in Mudpile Wood we have one of the nicest witches on any planet.

Why do I think this?

Because… nope I think I will simply show you a picture of Elegant and let you see for yourself. I will leave a story about Elegant Witch for another day.

Lovisma plays a birthday trick on Breeze

Birthday’s were special to Breeze but he kept his birthdays a secret. He always treated himself on his birthday. Last year it had been an extra 6 fairy cakes.

A few days before his birthday he woke to find Tulip staring at him.

“You were talking in your sleep.” She said.

“Well I hope I was polite.” Breeze watched a very large bumble bee fly overhead. It reminded him of Lovisma. He decided it was his imagination.

“You were muttering something about a birthday. Whose birthday is it?”

Breeze scratched his head. “I have no idea.”

******************************************************

On the morning of his birthday Breeze woke to discover Spike his pet frog was missing. Most mornings he woke to the sound of Spike darting around collecting his breakfast of flies and insects. This morning there was no happy “ribbit” sounds. He walked to the entrance of the cave and stubbed his toe off a chunky sized box. On top of the box was a bow and a card.

He read the card:  “Happy birthday, Mr. Breeze.”

Breeze looked at the box. He nudged it with his toe. It jumped three inches into the air and landed on the same spot. He bent down and carefully lifted the lid. There was a loud angry “Ribbit…ribbit” and a frog jumped out. The frog looked sad and odd.

It jumped onto Breezes knee and jumped once more landing on his hand. Breeze raised the frog close to his face.

The frog said “ribbbiiiiitt..”  He looked ill to Breeze.

“Oh Spike, what happened? Are you ill? Why are you yellow with smarties on your skin?” Breeze suspected it was a trick played by one of the goblins.

To cheer Spike up, Breeze took him to the Hiccuping pond close to Mudpile Wood. Within minutes of arriving Spike was happily catching flies.  Breeze however wasn’t happy because he made another discovery. Each time Spike hopped his skin color changed. One moment he was a smarty covered frog and the next he looked like a pair of pajama’s all stripes. The flashing colorful frog was attracting a lot of attention. Spike hid in Breeze’s pocket.

Breeze concentrated on solving the problem of poor Spikes skin of many moving colors. Tulip was not impressed either. “Why would someone do such a thing?” She demanded with red poofs of angry smoke shooting from her wand.

Breeze moved away from the wand and showed her the card. “It’s your birthday!” She shook her head. “Why didn’t you tell me?”

“Because I celebrate it quietly in the way I want to.”

Tulip put her hands on her hips. “That sounds like a load of rubbish to me, but it is your day. However I will bake you a special cake. ” She looked at Spike. ” First we will ask Elegant to fix this.”

“But don’t tell her about my birthday.” Breeze hissed.

“You are very peculiar for an Ogre. Most stand on the mountain tops and shout it out. But don’t worry I won’t.”

They found Elegant hanging out her washing.

“I thought Witches just zap things and they get done.” Breeze said.

“That is the lazy Lovisma way of doing it.” Elegant said. She looked at Breeze. “What has my little sister done now.”

“Why would you think she has done anything?” Tulip asked.

“Because she was so happy today and she was up before the sun, which is most odd for her.”

Breeze whispered, “Please Elegant. It’s poor Spike, please fix him.”

When the kind hearted witch saw Spike she took him in her hands and whispered to him, “Oh Spike you poor fella. Don’t worry, close your eyes I will have you back to normal.”

Spike and Breeze closed their eyes. When they opened them Spike was back to green. He was so happy he did a happy frog dance tumbling and hopping around Breeze.

Breeze looked at Elegant. “What about Lovisma? Who will punish her?”

Elegant tapped the side of her nose and said, “already done, you won’t see her for a day or two.”

Suddenly they heard a terrible screech. Breeze hid behind a bed sheet on the clothes line.

Lovisma appeared before them.”Who did this to me? I look like Goldilocks. Help me Elegant…” Her hair was golden, her skin like milk and her lips a soft cherry red. She was dressed in a pale pink dress. Her hat and shoes matched perfectly.

When she spotted Tulip, Lovisma screamed and vanished.

Tulip said, “Come to tea Elegant, about five o clock, I am baking a special cake for Breeze.”

“Will it have cherries?” Elegant asked.

“It will.”

Though Breeze felt sad for Spike he was delighted to hear about his special cake and decided that next year he might remind Tulip about his birthday and leave creating the surprise up to her.

 

 

Mudpile Wood: Part 2 Job Swap.

What happened when the fairies swapped

their jobs.

 

They practiced.

Ellen insisted Breeze watch. She told him he had to pretend to be a sleeping child. He thought she was bossy but he  didn’t mind being the sleeping child until Izzy tumbled him out of his sleep on the wide branch. He hit the ground with a bang.

Ellen made Izzy do it over and over again until she got it right. Breeze grumbled loudly each time he hit the ground.

 

Next it was Ellen’s turn to wake the trees up. “This will be easy peasy,” she said.

He hoped it would be for the tree’s sake.

 

It wasn’t.

The first time she tried it the trees bloomed bright red.

Breeze said, “They look hot.”

The second time she woke them they flipped upside down and their roots were waving at the clouds. A lot of angry squirrels and birds left in a hurry. But the third time she did it perfectly.

 

Now we are ready to start work,” Izzy rubbed her hands together. “This will be fun.”

They agreed to meet back at Tulips house at dawn.

 

Breeze sat and waited for the sun to rise. He liked watching it climb out of its bed. He said good night to the moon. It smiled at him.

Minutes later he heard a loud noise. He climbed the tallest tree to spy on Hungry Wood which was a few miles from Mudpile Wood.

It was called Hungry Wood because the Ogres who lived there were always hungry.

This morning the wood was shimmering and hopping.

 

“Oh dear it shouldn’t be doing that. Or should it?” He called for Tulip. She took a look and called Elegant to come and help.

The three friends decided to visit Hungry wood.

“This is not good at all.” Elegant said when they were close to the wood.

Every tree and bush was trembling. Animals scurried and raced from it. They huddled in a group behind Breeze.  He wondered what was going on.

There was a loud belching noise and a giant oak shot from the ground to fall back into place shuddering and groaning. Then a hawthorn tree did the same little dance. Ellen came out of the wood shaking her head. Her hair stood on end and she looked frightened. “I don’t understand it, I did everything I had done in practice but it is n’t working.”

Elegant sighed. “Every wood is different, they have to be treated differently.” She flew into the wood and a moment later there was a great shimmering rainbow of green that flowed over the wood followed by silence.

When Elegant came back to them, Ellen hugged her. “Thank you.” She squinted and looked beyond the wood. “I hope everything went well with Izzy.”

“We will have to wait and see.” Elegant told her.