Much to Algy’s surprise, the next morning was full of colour and light. It meant that the wind had returned, of course, but Algy realised that one can’t have everything … There wasn’t any real warmth in the sun at this time of year, but it was cheerful and bright, and the view from the dunes was very fine. A wee bit of sunshine makes such a difference to a bird’s spirits! So Algy got out his book and read his favourite children’s rhyme to the world at large, and especially for Amy, far away in Italy. Algy realises that there might be some places in the world where a rhyme of this kind seems like nonsense, but that is certainly not the case in the West Highlands of Scotland 🙂 He hopes that it will help to lift your spirits too:

          The Man in the Wilderness asked of me
          “How many blackberries grow in the sea?”
           I answered him as I thought good,
          “As many red herrings as grow in the wood.”

          The Man in the Wilderness asked me why
          His hen could swim, and his pig could fly.
          I answered him briskly as I thought best,
         “Because they were born in a cuckoo’s nest.”

         The Man in the Wilderness asked me to tell
         The sands in the sea and I counted them well.
         Says he with a grin, “And not one more?”
         I answered him bravely, “You go and make sure.”

[The author of this old rhyme is anonymous, and its origins are obscure.]

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After all the excitement of opening Amy’s pictures and exhibiting them – not to mention the effort of his tussle with the folder – Algy felt in need of some quiet rest and relaxation. So, at the end of the day, he flew down to the sea and sat quietly on a rock, to watch the reflections on the swirling water at sundown and listen to the soothing sounds of the ocean.

Algy would like to thank everyone who made such kind comments on his adventures with Amy’s beautiful pictures, with special thanks to LuxLit for the reblog – and above all extra special thanks to Amy for making and sending the drawings. Fluffy hugs for you all xoxo

Algy was so excited about Amy’s pictures that he wanted to show them to all the other birds and animals. Fortunately it was an unusually calm day, although very grey and damp, so Algy decided to create an art exhibition by pinning the pictures up in a small tree where all the creatures could see them.

Algy needed to make sure that he could keep the drawings safe when he took the exhibition down, so he asked his assistant whether she had something he could use to put them in. She helpfully provided a very smart folder intended for storing art work, but somehow it didn’t quite work out as Algy had hoped. It seemed very much as though the folder had ideas of its own…

The following day it rained and rained and rained, right through the day, and Algy didn’t dare get Amy’s beautiful drawings out to look at, because he knew that the rain would spoil them. So he had to wait another day… but eventually his patience was rewarded, and the rain stopped for a while. Algy quickly took the drawings out of their envelope and found that they were all different – there were some very fine portraits of him, two drawings of a beautiful princess, and a lovely full-colour drawing of a gorgeous female eagle. That was the one which Algy loved most of all, and he wondered whether it was a picture of Amy :))

[One of the drawings of the princess puzzled Algy’s assistant for a while, but Algy could of course see at once that it was a portrait of the princess doing her yoga, viewed from the back!]

It was a dreary sort of wet kind of dismal type of day, and by the late afternoon Algy was getting very fed up indeed – until the post bird arrived to deliver the mail. To Algy’s surprise, there was a very exciting-looking letter for him, with an Italian stamp on it! Algy quickly found a comfy perch on the damp moss, and opened his letter eagerly. It was from his little friend Amy – a young lady, six and a half years old, who lives in Italy. Algy was so excited! Amy had sent him some drawings which she had made especially for him! Thank you very much, Amy – Algy sends you lots of special fluffy hugs and kisses xoxoxo

Unfortunately it started to rain again as Algy was looking at Amy’s pictures, so he quickly put them back in the envelope to keep dry, and decided to save looking at the rest of the drawings until tomorrow…

[For a better-quality version of this GIF, please visit Algy’s own web site, as Tumblr would not upload the high-quality version.]