The hours of daylight were reducing noticeably as each day passed, and the nights were rapidly growing longer, darker and colder. Algy found this a very sleepy time of year, and he often had difficulty waking up – or staying awake…

He had settled himself on a soft if somewhat precarious perch on a tussock in a peat bog pool, intending to watch for frogs, but it was difficult to concentrate. The peat bog make strange, quiet gurgling noises all around him, the reflections in the water shimmered hypnotically, and the dry stems of the grasses waved lightly backwards and forwards in the breeze. The combined effect was highly soporific…

Advertisement