Like many of the other birds at this time of year, Algy has been so busy appreciating the arrival of spring that he missed the announcement that Reply is back!

Hooray!! Thank you Tumblr staff! Algy doesn’t know why you had to take Reply down, but he is so glad that you have brought it back again. Algy isn’t quite sure how the new reply feature works yet, but he’s certainly going to find out! He is so happy that he will be able to make comments on his friends’ posts again 🙂

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It was a beautiful spring day, and although the temperature was only a few degrees above freezing, the sun was shining and the birds were singing. Algy hurried down to the beach, and perched on a lichen-covered rock, gazing out towards the hazy islands in the distance while the skylarks ascended over the dunes behind him, singing their wonderful songs to the sky.

If it had not been for the bitter chill of the north wind, he would have believed himself inside a picture postcard. On a day like this, it was hard to remember the dismal months of smothering grey Scotch mist, the constant rain and the battering winds of the West Highland winter. Now the world seemed bright and calm and full of colour – and Algy hoped that it would stay that way, for a while, anyway…

At last… Algy is making his debut on a range of colourful merchandise and prints at Redbubble!

Algy hopes to add a lot more images of himself over time – both illustrations and photographs – but he thought he should start at the very beginning, and this is how he arrived in the land of his adventures 🙂

See Algy adrift in Jenny’s new Redbubble shop

Is there any image of Algy you would like to see made available to buy? Just send Algy a message and he’ll see what he can do 🙂

On Easter morning the sky was black and the rain was pouring down, sometimes mixed with large chunks of icy hail. Everything was awash, so Algy stayed under cover, impatiently waiting for a chance to go and search for Easter eggs. He wondered whether it was even possible for the Easter Bunny to bring eggs in such incredibly wet conditions…

Eventually, after many hours of watching the rain, Algy was delighted to see the sun burst through the clouds. He rushed out of the bushes and started flying here, there and everywhere, searching, searching, searching… Suddenly, he noticed a patch of unusual colour under a clump of daffodils, and dashed towards it. There was the bunny, relaxing on the sodden grass in the sunshine, and around him were several brightly-coloured eggs…

Algy wishes you all a very fluffy Happy Easter, and hopes that the Easter Bunny brought you something special today too xoxo

Algy has been horribly shocked and deeply saddened by the terrorist attack in Brussels. It is impossible for a fluffy bird to understand how some human creatures can be so heartlessly violent and cruel. But as he perched beside the sea, wondering – like so many of his friends – how such things could happen, the sun suddenly emerged from behind a black cloud and lit up the dark rocks. In the burst of light and warmth, Algy thought of all his wonderful friends, and realised that the majority of humans were really good and kind. So Algy sang a fluffy bird song, praying that the good and kind would triumph and there would be far more fluffiness instead of violence in the world…

It was the vernal equinox. Algy leaned back on the soft sand in the centre of the Big Beach, and gazed at the scene in front of him. Just like the West Highland year, it was divided into two halves: the beautiful bright blues of spring and summer, and the lifeless beiges and browns of autumn and winter. But today the good half of the year was about to begin, and Algy knew that very soon the sun would climb high into the sky once again, the light would last long into the evening, and the world would be blessed with new life and colours…

Algy wishes all his friends in the northern countries a very Happy Spring 🙂

Where did that frog go?

Algy hopes you will all enjoy a happy and peaceful weekend, and be able to perch quietly by a pool or stream and watch for frogs 🙂

Readers of Algy’s books will know that Algy is very fond of frogs. So when he saw a distinctive shape crouching by the edge of a wee pool in the quiet burn, he hurried over to talk to it, but just as he fluttered down to land by the side of the pool, the frog jumped into the clear water and swam away beneath the weeds, being too busy with its own business to stop and chat just then.

Algy perched on the grass at the edge of the water and gazed into the depths, trying to spot his frog friend at the bottom of the pool. As he stared at the new spring growth of weeds, he was reminded of a short poem by Goethe:

A big pond was frozen over;
The little frogs, lost in the deep,
Were not able to croak or hop,
But they promised themselves, half dreaming,
That if they could only find space above,
They would sing like nightingales.
The thawing wind came, the ice melted,
Now they paddled and landed proudly
And sat on the banks, far and wide
And croaked, as they had in former times.

Ein großer Teich war zugefroren;
Die Fröschlein, in der Tiefe verloren,
Durften nicht ferner quaken noch springen,
Versprachen sich aber im halben Traum,
Fänden sie nur da oben Raum,
Wie Nachtigallen wollten sie singen.
Der Tauwind kam, das Eis zerschmolz,
Nun ruderten sie und landeten stolz
Und saßen am Ufer weit und breit
Und quakten wie vor alter Zeit.

[Algy is quoting the poem Die Frösche (The Frogs) by the early 19th century German poet Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, and his own translation from the German 🙂 ]

Each year on 17th March, Algy dyes his hair green in honour of St. Patrick’s Day, as many of his friends are at least partly Irish 🙂

As he dozed happily on top of the dunes, watching the Quiet Burn down below winding its way slowly across its sandy bed to the sea, Algy noticed that all the winter-brown grasses had turned bright green too. He dreamed that he had flown across the sea to the Emerald Isle, which was not so very far away, and was reclining on the green grass there, watching the Irish skylarks dancing reels in the sky as they sang their lovely songs in Gaeilge…

Algy wishes all his Irish and part-Irish friends around the world a very Happy St. Patrick’s Day today xo

Algy had a terrifically exciting birthday, thanks to the kindness of all his wonderful Tumblr friends, but after it was over he felt exceedingly tired. Fortunately, something very odd had happened to the weather: the wind had dropped, the sun was shining, and it felt positively warm! Algy knew that it could only last for a few days, so he hurried down to the sand dunes and laid back against the dry Marram grass, soaking up the sun. The sky was a lovely blue, and the sea was even bluer: it was undoubtedly a beautiful day! As he dozed happily in the sunshine, Algy suddenly heard the lovely voice of a skylark singing high above his head, for the first time this year. It was spring 🙂