The Gecko had vanished, and everything seemed normal in the woods again. Algy thought that perhaps his imagination had been playing tricks on him, but then again, he wasn’t quite sure… In any case, he was happy to think that rain was falling on Thierry’s garden now, and the plants would be able to grow lush and green again. As Algy perched on a large branch which had fallen across the burn, he remembered a poem he had once heard:

          I hear leaves drinking rain;
          I hear rich leaves on top
          Giving the poor beneath
          Drop after drop;
          ‘Tis a sweet noise to hear
          These green leaves drinking near.

          And when the Sun comes out,
          After this Rain shall stop,
          A wondrous Light will fill
          Each dark, round drop;
          I hope the Sun shines bright;
          ‘Twill be a lovely sight.

[Algy is quoting the poem The Rain by the early 20th century Welsh poet William Henry Davies.]

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The sound of the waterfall was so soporific that Algy quickly fell into a reverie. While he dozed, it seemed to him that the Gecko had climbed onto a long branch overhanging the water, and was doing something extraordinary with its remarkable tongue. As the water tumbled down over the rocks, the Gecko was sucking some of it up into the air, where it was quickly transformed into vapours which rose higher and higher into the sky…

… Far, far away, on the other side of the world, massive clouds were beginning to form and, very soon, torrential rain began to fall on a parched land in desperate need of water. Perhaps Thierry’s garden would be saved…

[Catch up with the latest developments in Thierry’s photo-illustrated story of his tropical paradise at thierry-facon.]

Algy moved nearer to the waterfall. He knew that a shortage of water was the key factor behind the disturbances in his friend Thierry’s tropical garden. The Gecko had explained to Thierry that the trees were sending their roots deep down into the Underworld in a desperate search for water, thus allowing disturbed spirits to travel up into the garden. Although Thierry was an expert in water management, there was little he could do when no water was available. The Gecko had recommended the use of a magical musical instrument to help banish the evil spirits, but Algy felt that this might not be enough. Ultimately the plants must have water…

Algy perched on an old broken branch by the waterfall, pondering this problem. There was such a huge quantity of water in the West Highlands, but how could he send it to the other side of the world? As he watched the water jumping and playing in front of him, Algy noticed something very strange. He was convinced that he could see a brightly-coloured gecko fading in and out of sight on a rock beside the water…

[Catch up with Thierry’s photo-illustrated story at thierry-facon.]

One of Algy’s Tumblr friends, Thierry, lives in an exotic location on the other side of the world – a place very different from Algy’s northern home. Recently, Thierry has been reporting a sequence of strange events in his tropical garden. Unlike the gentle mosses and ferns in Algy’s mild environment, Thierry’s plants have grown alarming and dangerous, and now seem to have minds of their own.

Algy was keen to help his friend regain control over the evil plants, so he flew over to the old oak woods, to ponder the matter by an ancient woodland waterfall. The constant flow of the tumbling water in such a peaceful setting can be a great aid to clear thinking and inspiration, and there is much wisdom there …

(You can catch up with Thierry’s story and photos to date at thierry-facon.)

Surprise!! Once you get this you must share five random facts about yourself (or algy haha!) then pass this on to your 10 favorite followers :)

Dear Kara, Algy is deeply touched to think that he is one of your 10 favourite followers. Thank you! xoxo

(1) Algy learns something new every day. For example, until yesterday Algy was completely unaware of the existence of ice cream cupcakes! The world is certainly a remarkable place…

(2) Algy loves to sing but – as his voice is not quite to everyone’s taste – he is learning to play the ocarina, just in case he ever has an audience. Secretly, he would like to play the accordion …

(3) Algy’s best friend is a small rat named Twicklewick, who has a very pointy nose and fine whiskers.

(4) Algy has three toes pointing forward, and one toe pointing backward – on each foot, that is – and he can paint with his feet.

(5) When Algy first arrived in this remote northern land, he was a long, long way from home, and he felt rather sad and lonely. But then he discovered an amazing world of new friends on Tumblr, and he has never been lonely since xx

Many of Algy’s Tumblr friends know telescopical – the wonder blog that reblogs our original work to tens of thousands of people who would not otherwise see it. And very, very many of us here on Tumblr are profoundly grateful for telescopical’s amazingly warm-hearted support, endless encouragement and constant reblogs.

In reality, telescopical is Kara, and today is Kara’s birthday. So Algy sat on a rock and sang “Happy Birthday” to Kara as loudly as he could, hoping that his voice would carry all the way across the wide ocean to Canada. Dear Kara, may your future be forever bright with a constantly glowing light on the horizon, and may every day sparkle and shine for you, like the reflections on the water that Algy loves so much. Have a wonderful birthday, Kara, and a truly wonderful life xoxo

The world was exceedingly wet. In many places there was water where usually there was something else. Although it meant getting his tail feathers uncomfortably damp, Algy could not resist perching in a clump of reeds at the edge of an impromptu lochan, so that he could study the lovely reflections of the sky in a place where normally there would only be soggy grass. He knew that soon the water – and the reflections – would be gone again.

As he sat there looking at the sky on the ground, Algy thought of his friends in northern America who had been shut indoors for weeks on end during an exceptionally cold winter, but were now on the verge of a spring thaw. He hopes that very soon Robert Frost’s well-known poem will be fulflled for you, and you will be able to get out and about in a world transformed by the coming of spring:

          Come with rain, O loud Southwester!
          Bring the singer, bring the nester;
          Give the buried flower a dream;
          Make the settled snowbank steam;
          Find the brown beneath the white;
          But whate’er you do tonight,
          Bathe my window, make it flow,
          Melt it as the ice will go;
          Melt the glass and leave the sticks
          Like a hermit’s crucifix;
          Burst into my narrow stall;
          Swing the picture on the wall;
          Run the rattling pages o’er;
          Scatter poems on the floor;
          Turn the poet out of door.

[Algy is quoting the poem To the Thawing Wind by Robert Frost.]

It was such a dark grey day that the world seemed to have lost all its colours except brown… and grey, of course. Algy longed for some brightness and sunshine and warmth, but there was not even a wind to blow the clouds away. Nothing moved; nothing changed. And then, just when Algy had resigned himself to the gloom, the post bird came flying by. Algy only occasionally receives any mail, so he was startled when a postcard landed at his feet. It had flown all the way from California, that sunny land many thousands of miles away. But that wasn’t the most extraordinary thing… someone had sent him his own special sun! Algy was delighted and amazed. He immediately flew up into the nearest tree, and put the sun into the sky where it belonged. Now his day would be bright after all!

Thank you, thank you Jules! There is no gift better than sunshine on a cold, grey day :)))

Way, way back in those long-ago days, just a few years after Algy had dreamed of the little girl on the other side of the world, that same girl was sitting on a rock on her own native shore. Unlike Algy’s warm southern home, her northern seaside was cold and grey, so she was well wrapped up against the cool British climate. The girl was a wee bit older now, and she sat there very quietly, dreaming of the future… As she gazed at the chilly water swirling around her rock, she thought she saw a strange, fluffy bird with bright yellow hair and dangly legs doing a crazy dance in the sea in front of her…

Many years passed… and then, one day, Algy received messages in his Tumblr mailbox from his friends nosealviewing, babalou71 and josepha-amarantine …

And this concludes his response 🙂

Long, long ago, and very far away, young Algy was perching on the rocks of a southern shore, dozing in the warm evening sunshine. As he gazed sleepily out to sea, he dreamed of a little girl on the other side of the world who loved fluffy animals and birds more than anything else except stories, and who would one day grow up to tell the tales of his adventures to the people of the future…

Many years passed… and then, one day, Algy received messages in his Tumblr mailbox from his friends nosealviewing, babalou71 and josepha-amarantine, all of which read: “THROWBACK THURSDAY: Find an old picture of yourself and post it up in this ask then pass this on to the next 10 blogs on your dash.”

Well, Algy couldn’t quite do exactly what was asked, as he had no assistant to take his picture in those long-ago days. But he hopes that maybe this will go some way towards satisfying the requirements of his friends – even though it’s no longer Thursday 🙂