a tough challenge, but also Christmas

I meant to have an easy day yesterday.

But there are always things that have to get done.

How did I manage before I retired? There’s never time to fit everything in.

I have a major task facing me today.

My bean is getting too big for the little pot that I planted it in.

Madame Cholet and Reindeer have kindly brought round an enormous flower pot.

Also a bag of earth, and a stick for the bean to climb up.

I must put the earth in the pot, and the stick in the earth.

I’ll certainly need my superpower t-shirt today.

Luckily I have a gardening badge I can wear.

But I suppose I should say hello to the cuckoos first.

I’m using music to communicate with them.

Today I’m going to play them Beethoven’s sixth symphony on my triangle.

There’s a cuckoo in the second movement.

In my head, it sounds like this.

(Sorry – if you’re reading in an email you may not be able to hear the beautiful music. Try the website instead: https://vulnerableteddy.com/my-blog/)

Of course if the cuckoos don’t know the piece quite well, they may not recognise the triangle line. But I hope they do.

It’s a long symphony.

Beethoven expects a lot from his triangle players.

It’s difficult to make a note carry on for four whole bars.

I’m worn out now.

I’d better have a cup of tea before I think about re-potting the bean.

First I need to move the earth and the flower pot away from the front door.

It’s going to be hard, without anyone to help, but it’s dogged as does it.

Then I’ll have to get the earth into the flower pot.

I’m not sure how to do that.

I’ll mull over the problem, while I do some tidying.

I haven’t made much progress with sorting my box lately.

But now I think I really have taken a step forward.

I’ve found a box for the thimbles, and a box for the necklaces.

This thimble says “EAT BERMALINE BREAD”. That’s something I haven’t done for a long time.

And now I’ve had an idea about moving the earth.

I see that what I need to do is set up a pulley system.

But what can I use as a bucket to hold the earth?

A tea-cup is too fragile. A box wouldn’t hang straight.

It needs something that I can attach the cable to in several places.

I’ll have a look in the kitchen.

The very thing.

Modern Christmas puddings come in little plastic buckets.

First I’ll have to eat the pudding.

I missed the real Christmas, because I was in the cupboard in December.

So I’ll have a summer Christmas instead.

Lopsy’s the expert on Christmas. I’ll give her a ring and ask her advice on how it works.

Well, this isn’t what I was expecting to be doing, when I got up this morning.

Let’s see if I have the ingredients for a good Christmas.

Yes, I found the tree.

I’ve put it under the cuckoo clock, because the cuckoos may have missed Christmas too, if they were busy migrating.

I’ve hung paper chains on the cuckoo clock’s chains.

There’s a present under the tree.

I don’t know what it is.

I shut my eyes, and pulled something out of my box, and wrapped it up as a surprise.

Now for the pudding.

Lopsy’s right. The mouthwash does have alcohol in it.

It will add a cool fresh peppermint flavour to the pudding.

No, the mouthwash seems to be too wet. It won’t burn at all.

What about hand gel? That’s definitely got alcohol in it.

I hope it will make a beautiful blue flame, like brandy does.

Oh. It did burn very well, but with an invisible flame.

When I held my paw over it to check whether it was burning, it burned my paw.

But the pudding is delicious.

Now we’d better open the present. I wonder what it will be?

I hope it’s something that’s easy to share.

The cuckoos don’t seem very interested, but the stork has been waiting to find out what’s inside.

Well, that’s lucky.

It felt quite a boring shape, but the contents are perfect.

A bar of chocolate.

Twelve little rectangles, three for each of us.

The stork flew up with six pieces for the cuckoos, and now he’s taken his share up to his hook.

It was good chocolate.

I think I can now face the difficult task.

The Christmas pudding bucket is just right.

This is working very well indeed.

The bean will soon be in its new home.

And I hope that I’ll soon be in bed.

It’s been a long hard day.

Though of course quite merry.