Today Algy is “It” :)

Today, Algy was very happy to find that he had been “tagged” by two of his Tumblr friends, northernbriton and idlepaddy, who both sent him this “ask”:

TAG YOU’RE IT. The rules are to state ten random facts about yourself. Then, go to your ten favorite blogs and tell them they’re it 🙂

Here are Algy’s answers:

1. I am a silly, fluffy bird 🙂 I would stand almost 2 feet tall, except that I cannot really stand on my own two legs. My wingspan is about the same as my height just now, but it’s still increasing. I don’t like my beak – it’s too long and hooked – so I’m going to get it altered soon 🙂
2. When no-one is listening, I practise operatic arias. I wish I could sing like the other birds, but my natural voice is just a croak :{ So I’m learning to play the ocarina; then I will be able to sing back sweetly to my friends in the trees.
3. I love all the natural sounds of the world, especially the sounds of water – the sea in all its different moods, the burns that trickle gently in the summer and roar in the winter, and the many sounds of the rain – also the sound of the wind sighing through the trees or rushing across the open moor.
4. I like all kinds of mechanical, clockwork and optical toys, mechanical automata, and old animation devices. I’m especially fond of musical boxes and old clocks that play tunes or have moving figures.
5. I have a very soft spot for the Irish, and for their culture and their writing, even though they are often gloomy 🙂 [My assistant’s husband is partly Irish.] I haven’t visited Ireland yet but I will one day. My favourite poet is W.B.Yeats.
6. I don’t like flat lands, only ragged, uneven landscapes with lots of shapes. I like to be out on the edge, at the boundaries of things – where the land meets the sea, or the mountains meet the sky. I love to gaze at the night sky and contemplate the universe, but hate to be in the middle of a crowd.
7. A few years ago, my assistant was very ill. One day she heard the wingbeats of the Angel of Death hovering over the ridge some way from her house. She knew that he would pass on by that time, but I don’t think that she has been quite the same since, so I play with her and make her smile. What I like doing best is making people smile. I have been so surprised and happy to find wonderful new friends all over the world through Tumblr. Now I can make them smile too 🙂 Tumblr has changed my life!
8. My assistant’s garden is literally a nest of vipers – I love snakes, especially beautiful, lazy adders that curl up and sunbathe on the dry grasses.
9. I love the sea. In fact I think I’ll go down to the sea right now 🙂
10. By chance, today is my assistant’s birthday.
    Many Happy Returns, Jenny!

Today Algy is very, very sad, because he has suddenly lost a dear friend and neighbour. She was a wonderful, good person, and exceptionally kind to animals and birds. Algy and his friends are especially sad for her husband. Tonia was much loved in this tiny Highland community, and her death has been a terrible shock. She will be very greatly missed.

Tonia believed in Heaven for both animals and people, so Algy hopes that she is now reunited with all the many creatures she cared for and loved, that went before her XX

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Something surprising had happened in the garden, so Algy and his little friend went to investigate. They seemed to smell the fragrance of saffron …

Algy’s oldest friends were facing ill health and many challenges, so he sat quietly by their favourite loch at twilight and thought of them.

          Oh, what a poignant rapture thus to be
          Lingering at twilight by the ancient sea!

Algy quotes from A Shore Twilight by Lucy Maud Montgomery.

There had been a great deal of rain recently, so Algy decided to have a traditional Sunday night bath …

Be My Valentine …

Happy St. Valentine’s Day!

Algy wishes all his friends a very Happy Valentine’s Day, and recites for them this famous poem Song to Celia, written by Ben Jonson nearly 400 years ago:

        Drink to me only with thine eyes,
                 And I will pledge with mine;
        Or leave a kiss but in the cup,
                 And I’ll not look for wine.
        The thirst that from the soul doth rise
                 Doth ask a drink divine;
        But might I of Jove’s nectar sup,
                 I would not change for thine.

        I sent thee late a rosy wreath,
                 Not so much honouring thee
        As giving it a hope, that there
                 It could not withered be.
        But thou thereon didst only breathe,
                 And sent’st it back to me;
        Since when it grows, and smells, I swear,
                 Not of itself, but thee.

[For the old-fashioned Romantics, Algy has found an old recording of this old English song, sung by Elizabeth Schwarzkopf many years ago.]

Today, one of Algy’s Tumblr friends is celebrating her birthday. So he made this special picture to say “Happy Birthday, allthingssoulful”, and to provide a little mid-winter colour to cheer up anyone who is sad or suffering from the February blues. He hopes that the wonderful fragrance of the flowers will reach Romania, and float all around the world 🙂

After the blizzard, poor Algy just couldn’t seem to get all the snow out of his feathers.

In Algy’s opinion, the weather in the West Highlands of Scotland is not always entirely satisfactory. But there wasn’t a great deal he could do about it, so he tied a double knot in his scarf, hung on to a bush as tightly as he could, and thought grimly of holidays in the sun …