The next day there was not the slightest change in the weather, and the Scotch mist continued to smother the land with a drenching grey blanket; the lost world seemed to do nothing but drip, drip, drip, drip, drip…

Algy lay back in the branches of a fir tree and watched the droplets of water falling all around him. One slim, bare branch above his head was curved in such a way that droplets formed only at the lowest point of the curve, each one growing until it could hold on to the branch no longer, and then dropped, to let the next drop of water follow its example. The process was fascinating and apparently endless, and Algy rested there for some time, just watching the droplets form and fall, form and fall, form and fall…

He was reminded of a haiku by Kobayashi Issa, although his own drops were rather more leisurely than frenzied:

in morning mist
a frenzy of drops
from the tree

.朝霧にあはただし木の雫哉

Algy hopes that you will all enjoy a leisurely, happy and peaceful weekend, whatever the weather in your part of the world 🙂

[Algy is quoting an early haiku by the 18th century Japanese master Kobayashi Issa, translated by David G. Lanoue.]

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Tucked into the heart of a cherry tree, Algy gazed at the beautiful white blossoms as he listened to the birds singing all around him. He was reminded of a haiku by Issa:

peace to the world
from time immemorial…
cherry blossoms

.天下泰平とうに咲桜哉
tenka taihei tô ni saku sakura kana

Algy hopes you will all have a very happy and peaceful weekend 🙂

[Algy is quoting a haiku by the 18th century Japanese master Kobayashi Issa, in a translation by David G. Lanoue.]

Something miraculous had occurred in Algy’s assistants’ garden. It happened once a year – and only once – and each time it delighted Algy as though it had never happened before. He perched among the blossoms and watched the bumblebees buzzing around each flower, while the newly arrived warblers flitted about among the branches of the other trees which had not even got their spring leaves yet. As Algy buried his beak in the beautiful white blossoms, he remembered a haiku by Issa:

the cure for
this raucous world…
late cherry blossoms

.騒がしき世をし祓つて遅桜
sawagashiki yo wo oshi haratte oso-zakura

[Algy is quoting a haiku by the 18th century Japanese master Kobayashi Issa in a translation by David G. Lanoue.]

Although a menacing bank of mist and cloud was hovering over the sea, it was a fine spring day for the moment, and almost warm providing you could find a place out of the wind… Algy tucked himself down into the shelter of the Marram grass and gazed at the sky, watching the skylarks as they fluttered up from the dunes into the blue and back down again, singing their beautiful songs. He thought of a haiku by Issa:

lovely –
the sky where a noon lark
is singing

.うつくしや昼の雲雀の鳴し空
utsukushi ya hiru [no] hibari no nakushi sora

Can you see the lark singing? Follow Algy’s gaze to the little black dot just visible in the sky on the right-hand side 🙂

[Algy is quoting a haiku by the 18th century Japanese master Kobayashi Issa in a translation by David G. Lanoue.]

Algy leaned back against the trunk of the tree that hung over the burn, and listened to the different sounds of water all around him. The burn itself made the most noise, but if he listened carefully he could also hear the sounds of the persistent light rain and the dripping bushes all around him. It was cold and wet, but it was pleasant to hear the many sounds of water; they reminded him of a well-known haiku by Issa:

          Winter seclusion;
          listening, that evening,
          to rain in the mountains.

[ Algy is quoting the a haiku by the late 18th/early 19th century Japanese master Kobayashi Issa. ]

Algy found a perch in a bare willow tree, and looked out through the veil of lightly falling snow towards the craggy ridge. His little world seemed strangely transformed, and Algy thought of a haiku by Issa:

          Just by being,
          I’m here –
          in the snow-fall.

This post is especially dedicated to Algy’s sweet friend tinktastichana, who is about to end her annual visit to her home in Japan to return to her home in New York. Algy sends Hana and all his friends lots of snowy fluffy hugs xoxo

[ Algy is quoting a haiku by the 18th century Japanese master Kobayashi Issa. ]

As he flew home from the oak woods, Algy paused by the wayside to inspect his own wee waterfall. This miniature water feature only appears when there has been plenty of rain; in dry weather it vanishes entirely, so that a casual passer-by could never guess that it existed. Algy loves to tuck himself in to a sheltered hollow among the grasses and ferns that grow beside a tiny cave which the water has carved out of the rocky hillside over the years. Just as in many grander and more famous water features, the water falls down vertically across the mouth of this cave, like a fascinating, ever-changing curtain which partly obscures the mysteries within.

Algy made himself comfortable, and sat there peacefully for some time. While he gazed at the flickering waterfall and listened to the gentle, trickling sounds that it made, Algy thought how lucky he was to be living in a place where there was a never-ending supply of clean, fresh water – and where it took so many beautiful forms! He thought of all his friends in drier parts of the world, and hoped that the rain would continue to fall wherever it was needed.

Listen to the sound of Algy’s waterfall. Algy hopes that for those of you who need it, the sound will help to encourage the rain :))

It was almost spring now. As Algy watched the water tumbling gently down in front of the tiny cave, he was reminded of a haiku by the Japanese master Isha:

          Early spring –
          stream flows
          toward my door

[Algy is quoting a translation of a haiku by the 18th century Japanese master Kobayashi Issa.]

Algy found a comfortable perch in the old oak tree, and looked down into the peat bog below. He thought he could see a frog making its way through the sodden grasses of the bog, and he remembered a haiku by Issa:

          while croaking he jumps –
          frog in the rainy
          grass

Algy found his way back down to the river, where he paused to rest on a young beech tree growing out of a niche in the the rock and perilously overhanging the water. He noticed a tiny insect on a leaf in front of him, and thought of a haiku by the Japanese master Kobayashi Issa:

          O flea! whatever you do,
          don’t jump;
          that way is the river.

Algy would like to take this opportunity to thank all his lovely Tumblr friends for your great kindness in welcoming him back, and for your many notes and messages over the past week. He is so happy to be back among you all again xx

Algy was exploring an area which he hadn’t visited before. The trees grew taller and straighter here, and beneath them he found lovely thick carpets of soft green moss to rest on. The clouds were still hanging low over the hills, and everything was dripping wet, but the wind was beginning to change; it was veering round to the north, and Algy knew that colder, brighter autumn weather was on its way. He leaned back against a mossy tree trunk and thought of a haiku by the Japanese master Kobayashi Issa:

           water splashed
           on the stone, on the tree…
           autumn wind

 .水打し石なら木なら秋の風
mizu uchishi ishi nara ki nara aki no kaze

[Algy is quoting a translation from the Japanese by David G. Lanoue, from his extensive online collection of the Haiku of Kobayashi Issa.]