As the tide turned and the sun sank lower in the sky, Algy leaned back on the wet sand, surrounded by reflections of the clouds. He was thinking especially of his dear friend Monica mojo5050 – who by coincidence posted a beautiful image of reflections on a beach today – and of all his Tumblr friends who were facing difficult challenges in their lives at the moment. While the rippling, silvery waves quietly crept up the beach to dampen his toes, Algy thought of his friends, and of a poem by Sheenagh Pugh:

          Sometimes things don’t go, after all,
          from bad to worse. Some years, muscadel
          faces down frost; green thrives; the crops don’t fail,
          sometimes a man aims high, and all goes well.

          A people sometimes will step back from war;
          elect an honest man, decide they care
          enough, that they can’t leave some stranger poor.
          Some men become what they were born for.

          Sometimes our best efforts do not go
          amiss, sometimes we do as we meant to.
          The sun will sometimes melt a field of sorrow
          that seemed hard frozen: may it happen for you.

Algy says: may it happen for you – and more often than sometimes :-))

[Algy is quoting the poem Sometimes by the contemporary British poet Sheenagh Pugh.]

The autumn inevitably brought plenty of cloudy days, not to mention strong winds and rain, but at times the dark clouds had beautiful silver linings, and bright rays shone through them from beyond. When that happened, Algy just leaned back on the sand and gazed at the beautiful play of light which caused the whole sea to sparkle with diamonds…

Algy hopes that even on the dark days, your clouds will turn out to have silver linings, and rays of light will shine through to sparkle on you :-))

Algy loves to perch on a rock beside the sea, just watching the perpetual ebb and flow of the tide. And while the water swirls backwards and forwards beneath his toes, Algy thinks about this and that and the other thing… and about all his amazing Tumblr friends around the world.

Algy knows that quite a few of his Tumblr friends suffer from depression in various forms, more or less severe. For some of his luckier and more carefree friends, smiling comes easily, but for many others it is not so simple. So today Algy is thinking especially of all his friends who do not find it easy to smile. He hopes that his adventures may help bring a smile to your face on the bad days, and that Sadness will leave you soon 🙂

          I pray you, Sadness, leave me soon,
            In sweet invention thou art poor!
          Thy sister Joy can make ten songs
            While thou art making four.

          One hour with thee is sweet enough;
            But when we find the whole day gone
          And no created thing is left –
            We mourn the evil done-

          Thou art too slow to shape thy thoughts
            In stone, on canvas, or in song;
          But Joy, being full of active heat,
            Must do some deed ere long.

          Thy sighs are gentle, sweet thy tears;
            But if thou canst not help a man
          To prove in substance what he feels –
            Then give me Joy, who can.

          Therefore, sweet Sadness, leave me soon,
            Let thy bright sister Joy come more;
          For she can make ten lovely songs
            While thou art making four.

[Algy is quoting the poem Sadness and Joy by the early 20th century Welsh poet William Henry Davies.]

Algy thought that his friends’ garden was looking very scruffy at the end of the season, and they didn’t seem to be doing anything to improve it. He decided to help out by cutting some grass, but the task turned out to be somewhat less straightforward – and very much harder work – than he had expected…

Have a lovely weekend, everybody, and don’t labour too hard in your leisure time!

Algy’s friend Pete of tvoom recently “tagged” him to publish five random facts about himself, but Algy thought that maybe his invisible assistant should be included too, so…

Five random facts about Algy:

1. Algy’s eyes are bright blue.
2. Algy likes to take things easy, and tries to avoid work as often as possible 🙂 Sometimes he hides in the bushes so that his assistant won’t ask him to do difficult and dangerous things!
3. Algy is of uncertain age, but like most fluffy birds he is probably much older than he looks. He can’t remember when he was born as he was just a tiny chick at the time…
4. Algy loves the sea. However, although Algy can fly, he can’t swim. He is happy on the ground or in the air, but is in danger of his life if he falls into the water.
5. Algy reads poetry and likes playing with old-fashioned toys 🙂
6. Free extra fact: Algy loves all his wonderful Tumblr friends xoxo

Five random “facts” about Algy’s assistant, in Algy’s view:

1. Algy’s assistant’s eyes are brown.
2. Algy’s assistant rarely stops working: she expects everyone to work hard – especially Algy! – and often demands impossible feats in horrible weather. Boo hoo :-{{{
3. Algy’s assistant is of uncertain age, but definitely a lot older than many people assume. She can’t remember when she was born, but she can remember a world that was different in many ways.
4. Algy’s assistant loves the sea. Algy’s assistant can’t fly, and really doesn’t care to leave the ground at all… However, she can swim, but the sea in the West Highlands is much too cold for swimming and turns people blue.
5. Algy’s assistant reads poetry and likes playing with old-fashioned toys 🙂
6. Free extra fact: Algy’s assistant loves all Algy’s (and her own) wonderful Tumblr friends xoxo

Algy loves to read all your own “random facts” too. So he is going to cheat and “tag” all his friends who have not recently published five facts about themselves. He would love to know more about you ;-))

This morning, a wee bird told Algy that PWS photosworthseeing are celebrating their 1st Tumblr birthday today! So Algy posed in the wet grass beside the last of the summer wildflowers, to create this special birthday card for everyone at PWS – his favourite photo blog and the home of some of his sweetest Tumblr friends.

CONGRATULATIONS and HAPPY BIRTHDAY PWS!!

May your second year on Tumblr be even better than your first, with plenty of Sunday Selfies, No Edit Fridays, and of course many wonderful photos on every day of the week. You do an amazing job, and Algy loves you :-)) He sends lots of especially fluffy birthday hugs to you all xoxoxo

https://www.tumblr.com/audio_file/adventuresofalgy/98319488576/tumblr_ncf2pa2HSl1rruorh?plead=please-dont-download-this-or-our-lawyers-wont-let-us-host-audio

Listen to the sounds of the bumble bees buzzing around Algy in the hydrangea bush.

There were still some bumble bees buzzing around the last of the summer flowers, so Algy decided to conceal himself in a hydrangea bush in order to get a closer view of his fuzzy friends.

Listen to the sounds of the bees buzzing around Algy.

As he watched a pretty bee going round and round in front of his beak, Algy reflected on the recent upsurge in the number of his Tumblr followers. He guessed that his Adventures had been featured as a “Recommended Blog” for a couple of weeks, although he really wasn’t quite sure. In any case, everything had returned to normal now, except that he had lots of lovely new followers. If you have started following Algy’s Adventures very recently, Algy thanks you kindly, and offers you a warm and very fluffy welcome. He hopes that you will stay in his world awhile :-))

Algy couldn’t help wondering what it would be like to become really famous, and he was inevitably reminded of Emily Dickinson’s short poem:

          Fame is a bee.
          It has a song—
          It has a sting—
          Ah, too, it has a wing.

This post is dedicated to the mysterious Tumblr god(s) who helped Algy find so many new followers, and also to his special Tumblr friend in Australia veganmarley who loves every kind of creature and wants to know more about the West Highland bumble bees xoxo

[Algy is quoting the poem Fame is a bee (1788) by the 19th century American poet Emily Dickinson.]

Autumn had come to the West Highlands, with its subdued, watery light. All the world was hushed, except for the cries of the sea birds calling to each other on the shore; it was a perfect afternoon for quiet contemplation. As Algy perched on a rock by the silver sea, watching the slowly ebbing tide, he thought about all his friends around the world, and especially of those who lived a long way inland – far, far away from the ocean that he loved:

          A thousand miles beyond this sun-steeped wall
              Somewhere the waves creep cool along the sand,
              The ebbing tide forsakes the listless land
          With the old murmur, long and musical;
          The windy waves mount up and curve and fall,
              And round the rocks the foam blows up like snow,—
              Tho’ I am inland far, I hear and know,
          For I was born the sea’s eternal thrall.
          I would that I were there and over me
              The cold insistence of the tide would roll,
              Quenching this burning thing men call the soul,—
          Then with the ebbing I should drift and be
              Less than the smallest shell along the shoal,
          Less than the sea-gulls calling to the sea.

[Algy is quoting the poem Sea Longing by the early 20th century American poet Sara Teasdale.]

https://www.tumblr.com/audio_file/adventuresofalgy/98077077611/tumblr_nc9m4qF66z1rruorh?plead=please-dont-download-this-or-our-lawyers-wont-let-us-host-audio

This is the sound that Algy heard while he was sunbathing on the rock beside the burn.