adventuresofalgy:

Today the Tumblr gods worked some of their amazing magic, and Algy suddenly found that he had a large number of new followers from all around the world. He was utterly astonished and delighted, and so naturally he immediately had to do a special Happy Dance 🙂

Algy wishes all you lovely new followers a very warm and fluffy welcome, and he hopes that you will enjoy his adventures in the West Highlands of Scotland.

And of course Algy also wants to share the Happy Dance with all his kind followers and sweet Tumblr friends who have been following his adventures so far.

So – dear followers, old and new – please stop whatever else you may be doing, and join Algy in this special Happy Dance today :-))

Algy loves you all xoxo

Algy has been surprised to see that his Tumblr friends don’t seem to have realised that today is Leap Day…

So Algy is reblogging this GIF from some time back to make sure you don’t miss it 🙂

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The moon shone brightly on the calm waters of the quiet loch, and lit up the clouds as they scurried across the cold night sky.

Algy perched on a branch near the water, just listening to the lap lap lap of the water on the stony shore, so different from the noisy pounding of the ocean waves on his own sandy beach. It was peaceful beside the loch on such a beautiful night, and Algy was thinking of one or two of his special friends who celebrate their birthdays this weekend. He sends them extra special fluffy birthday hugs, and hopes that they will have a truly happy time 🙂

Have a peaceful and happy weekend, everybody xoxo

After a thoroughly dismal weekend, Monday morning dawned bright and cold. It was wonderful to see the sun, but the bitter north-west wind was less welcome, and it felt very chilly. Although it had rarely dropped much below freezing, it had been persistently cold for many, many weeks. The spring flowers were late this year, but Algy could see that the snowdrops in his assistants’ garden had opened at last, and their heads were nodding prettily in the wind. So he crawled in among them, on the damp mossy ground under the dry, coppery leaves of the beech hedge, and stretched himself out happily in the sunshine, hoping that it would last for a wee while…

Algy perched on the grassy banks of the Mill Burn, dangling his toes carelessly over the edge. Despite months of almost perpetual rain – not to mention the frequent hail and sleet – the water was surprisingly clear. It was fun to peer through the pattern of swirling bubbles on the surface to watch the flow of the water over the pebbles down below, and the dance of the sodden grasses and bits of weed that had been carried down the stream and were now caught on the trailing branches of the alder trees. But although he looked very carefully, Algy failed to see any fish. Perhaps the burn flowed too rapidly at this point; the fish were probably sheltering in quieter pools further up the burn. Algy wondered whether he should fly up the hill to look for them, but the bitter north-west wind was so cold and strong, and it was much more exposed up there… he decided that it was a better idea just to sit in this pleasantly sheltered spot, and watch the water flow.

Algy hopes that you will all have a very happy weekend, with plenty of time to sit quietly and watch the water flow 🙂

Algy decided to inspect some of the other burns in the area, so he flew down to a pleasant spot on the Mill Burn, where a pair of old alder trees grew out of the bank, with their toes in the water and their lichen-covered branches sweeping low across the stream to the other side. The water in the burn was quite deep, and at this spot it swirled round and round in circles, in a way that Algy loved to watch.

So long as the winter sunshine lasted it was positively pleasant just perching on the bank, looking at the water, but although the sky was a spring-like blue and white on one side, it was entirely black on the other, and Algy was sure that another battering shower of freezing hail and sleet was approaching rapidly.

The few days of cold sunshine quickly passed, and the weather reverted to the norm. For a while the landscape was obscured again by dense Scotch mist driving horizontally across at gale force speed, but on Wednesday the skies cleared at times, and between the sudden showers of rain mixed with battering, icy hail, there were some pleasantly bright intervals.

Algy perched on the banks of the Blue Burn, and watched the water swirling quickly past him on its way to the sea. After a winter of almost perpetual rain and other precipitation, he was amazed that it was not more flooded. The land was exceedingly soggy, and pools formed spontaneously every time that it rained again, but the water drained rapidly away through the peat bogs, into the burns and away to the ocean. Algy guessed that this landscape had thoroughly adapted to excessive water over the course of many, many years of constant rainfall!

photosworthseeing:

PWS – Selfie Sunday

This very special Valentine’s card is especially for all Algy’s wonderful friends at PWS, who do so much to make life on Tumblr so enjoyable and rewarding for all the rest of us!

Algy sends you all lots of surprisingly fluffy Valentine’s hugs and kisses xoxoxo

@adventuresofalgy

Thank you for your fluffy and vers special selfie submission! We love it!

PAFBWS – Photo(grapher)s And Fluffy Birds Worth Seeing

Algy wishes all his amazing Tumblr friends a very Happy Valentine’s Day – he loves you all and sends you all lots of surprisingly fluffy hugs xoxoxo

On Saturday morning, Algy paid a visit to his assistants’ house. He was surprised to see that a large pot in a dark corner of the garden had undergone a sudden transformation… Algy was thrilled to see the little flowers glowing in the February sunshine, and as he gazed at them in wonder, a tiny wren started to sing in the bushes behind him. The ground was hard with frost and there was ice on the puddles, but Algy knew it was the beginning of spring 🙂

Algy wishes you all a very happy weekend, and – if you live in a cold, northern country – he hopes that spring will reach you very soon xo

The weather continued to get brighter and colder, and suddenly the world was full of colour again, and the light was so bright that Algy’s eyes could hardly adjust to it after months of gloomy grey half-light. He set off into the sunshine, and flew over to a high point on the north coast, where he found a fine spot to sunbathe which was sheltered from the bitter north-east wind. The sea had turned deep blue, and he could see for miles in every direction. It was a truly glorious late-winter afternoon!

There had been a sudden change in the weather, and although a bitterly cold north-east wind was howling across the sea, there were periods of bright February sunshine that almost felt a wee bit warm, if you could only find that most sought-after of Scottish locations, a sheltered spot out of the wind…

So Algy flew a little way inland, away from the biting wind, and found himself a mossy perch in the peat bog. Everything was still exceedingly wet, and he could hear the ground squelching to itself all around him, but he paid no attention to his soggy tail feathers, for his mind was on other things. As he leaned back in the welcome sunshine, Algy was thinking of a children’s rhyme he had learned:

Mix a pancake,
Stir a pancake,
Pop it in the pan;
Fry the pancake,
Toss the pancake—
Catch it if you can.

It was Shrove Tuesday! Algy thought that maybe he would hurry over to his assistants’ house, and see if there were any pancakes to spare… perhaps with some maple syrup, banana and homemade vanilla ice cream…

If you are having pancakes today too, Algy hopes they are delicious 🙂

[Algy is quoting the children’s rhyme Mix a Pancake by the 19th century English poet Christina Rossetti.]