During the week, the post bird brought Algy a most exciting parcel wrapped up in brown paper, which had flown to him all the way from Regensburg in Germany. He opened it eagerly, and found that it contained a beautiful German Advent calendar card and a packet of his favourite lebkuchen – not to mention some very pretty Christmas paper napkins 🙂

In the short, dark days of December, Algy will have a happy time munching his lebkuchen and opening the tiny windows in his calendar, so he sends his fluffiest thanks and lots of fluffy hugs to his very kind friends in Regensburg. He is extremely grateful for such kindness, and thinks that he must surely be the only fluffy bird on Tumblr to receive such gifts! Thank you so much xoxo

Source: adventuresofalgy

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At midwinter, in the shortest, darkest days of the year, the Atlantic gales continued to rage. Algy took cover in the shelter of the rocks and watched the sea seething and churning all around him. The air was thick with mist and spray, and the world had turned entirely grey; it was hard to remember the lovely colours of spring and summer now. For many weeks past, the wind had almost never stopped howling, and the rain had almost never stopped pouring – if you can call water travelling horizontally at high speed “pouring”.

But Algy knew that the world would turn again, and if he could just find a sufficiently sheltered spot to protect him from the excesses of the winter storms, the days would soon start to get longer and lighter, the flowers would begin to peep out from among the grasses on the dunes, and eventually it might even stop raining and blowing quite so vigorously…

Happy Midwinter, everyone, and if you should happen to live in a stormy place, as Algy does, he hopes that you have a nice, warm, cosy spot to shelter in xoxo

photosworthseeing:

PWS – Selfie Sunday

Dear friends, I could not let a PWS Selfie Sunday go past without participating 🙂

In these dark and stormy December days, I have been spending a lot of time in the shelter of the woods, where all is calm and peaceful. I wish you all a calm and peaceful Sunday xoxo

Thank you for your terrific selfie submission, Algy! And thank you for your wonderful words. We love it!

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

Algy loves the PWS Selfie Sunday events, and he sends his fluffiest thanks to his kind friends at @photosworthseeing for allowing a fluffy bird to join in with all the “real” photographers 🙂

A few days ago, the post bird brought Algy an exciting envelope from Germany. He was astonished! But he was even more surprised when he opened it and found that it contained a beautiful, traditional Advent Calendar card! He was thrilled to see that it had tiny windows to open every day from 1st December until Christmas Eve, and a picture of the Christkind and little angels preparing presents for all the children at Christmas. Algy has never had anything like this before, and he thanks his wonderful German friends @hedminreg and @bk-fundstuecke very much indeed for thinking of sending him something so lovely to brighten up these dark December days. He sends you both lots of specially fluffy hugs xoxoxo

It was a dreich late December day, cold and damp and gloomy, and Algy was feeling cold and damp and gloomy too. He decided to fly down to the Mill burn, to perch in one of his favourite spots in the old alder tree which overhung the water.

As Algy gazed at the water gurgling around the tree’s roots while it passed by on the final stage of its journey to the sea, he thought about his crowdfunding campaign. The wonderful kindness of those friends who had already contributed made him feel warm and fluffy, but he was worried about the progress of the campaign. Of course he was determined to publish his stories for children no matter what happened, but the lack of adequate funds was concerning. Algy realised that some of his friends simply couldn’t spare any money (although one or two of those had very kindly contributed regardless!) – but it seemed that other friends who followed his adventures regularly, and who he was sure could spare at least the price of a cup of coffee without noticing the difference – were apparently not interested. This was disconcerting for a fluffy brain, and Algy felt discouraged and sad. Perhaps they didn’t really like his Adventures after all…

Algy felt especially perplexed by his American friends (with a few notable exceptions!), because he had always believed that Americans were generous people, and so many of his American friends had expressed enthusiasm for his Adventures. As he understood it, crowdfunding was actually an American invention, and a common and popular way of funding projects in the USA. And yet only seven of Algy’s numerous American friends had so far made any contribution to his project, while many more friends – and strangers – in Europe and elsewhere (who were less accustomed to crowdfunding) had responded generously and enthusiastically. Had he made a trans-Atlantic faux pas? Of course it was a dark and gloomy day, and everyone in the northern hemisphere was feeling depressed at this lowest point of the year, but it was all very puzzling and worrying…

So if you have not already contributed – and if you enjoy Algy’s adventures on Tumblr – please take a moment to consider whether you couldn’t spare a little loose change to help a fluffy bird in the wild West Highlands of Scotland publish some of his Tales from The Adventures of Algy... Every single contribution, large or small, really does help and is truly appreciated!

Algy’s crowdfunding campaign runs until the afternoon of 7th January 2015, on the British crowdfunding site Sponsume.

In case you missed Algy’s cute campagin video, which was published at the start of the campaign in November, he will reblog it immediately after this post 🙂

Thank you xoxo

The weather had been exceptionally wet. On some days it rained all day without pause; on other days it paused for a moment… and then started raining again. Everything was utterly sodden, including Algy, and he didn’t like it at all.

So, as he leaned back against a cold, damp rock, watching the millionth wave of rain sweeping in from the Atlantic, Algy resolved to spend his Christmas holidays under cover this year… He wondered whether his assistant would like him to help her with the Christmas decorations…

Another gale was blowing up, and the north-westerly wind was strong and horribly cold. In a bright interval between the battering showers of hail and sleet, Algy searched for a sheltered spot low down among the rocks, and found a cosy corner where he could keep his head down and put his feet up… Even there, the wind continued to whistle through his feathers, and he was reminded of a poem by William Blake:

          O winter! bar thine adamantine doors:
          The north is thine; there hast thou built thy dark
          Deep-founded habitation. Shake not thy roofs
          Nor bend thy pillars with thine iron car.

          He hears me not, but o’er the yawning deep
          Rides heavy; his storms are unchain’d, sheathed
          In ribbed steel; I dare not lift mine eyes;
          For he hath rear’d his sceptre o’er the world.

          Lo! now the direful monster, whose skin clings
          To his strong bones, strides o’er the groaning rocks:
          He withers all in silence, and in his hand
          Unclothes the earth, and freezes up frail life.

          He takes his seat upon the cliffs, the mariner
          Cries in vain. Poor little wretch! that deal’st
          With storms, till heaven smiles, and the monster
          Is driven yelling to his caves beneath Mount Hecla.

[Algy is quoting the poem To Winter from Poetical Sketches of 1783 by the English poet William Blake.]

All was peaceful again, for the time being, and Algy began to relax. But as he gazed out at the deceptively calm expanse of water and sky, he wondered what the next storms would bring…

Algy was feeling very much happier, because at last he was in touch with all his friends again. The weather was calm for the moment, and as he relaxed on the battered bracken in the hazy winter morning, he imagined that the wide path of light across the water was connecting him with all his friends out there in the great, wide world :-))

Algy has missed you all very much, and he is truly delighted to be back xoxoxo

Algy was feeling battered and exhausted by the recent “weather bomb”, although his spirits were improving now that the storms had passed for the time being. As he leaned back on the rocks in the bitter wind, gazing at the snow-capped peaks of the Isle of Rum in the distance, he thought of all his friends around the world…

Algy misses all your lovely images on Tumblr, and wishes very much that he could keep in touch with you all again… But alas, like many other households in this storm-struck area, Algy’s assistant’s house still has no internet or phone connection, and his assistant can only visit the virtual world very briefly each day, at a friend’s house…

So in the meantime Algy sends you all lots of extra fluffy hugs, and hopes you are keeping warm and happy xoxo

p.s. It seems that not all Tumblr messages are getting through. If you have sent a message to Algy and not received a reply, please try the email link on Algy’s menu icons instead.