I’m awake

Hello? What? I’m asleep!

Well, I was asleep.

Hello Baby!

Wouldn’t you like to lie down next to me for a bit, and I’ll just have another snooze?

No? All right, I’m getting up.

I suppose you think it’s breakfast time, eh?

Just give me a minute to get dressed. I know the badge that I need for today.

I wonder if there’s any food in the house.

We can always open a tin. Condensed milk, the very thing.

No, Baby, don’t lick the lid! It’s sharp!

Tasty, eh?

Now Baby, where’s your Mummy? She might like to have something to eat too.

I hope I haven’t been asleep too long.

Um! Um! Are you awake?

I wonder where she is.

Oh well, I’ll have a quick look at the post. I saw a lot of mail on the doormat when I got home last night. Or whatever night it was.

A pizza ad. A letter from the doctor. A letter from the Council. Another pizza ad.

A postcard from Viol Teddy!

I think it’s a picture of a Black Welsh cow, but the background looks more like Pakistan, or maybe India. So perhaps it’s a Black Indian cow.

Oops, better save Viol Teddy’s news for later.

I’ll find something safe for the Baby to play with while I put those scraps together again.

Please, Baby, let me have the bits.

It seems to have a picture of the sun… and a bird.

That reminds me that I completely forgot to say hello to our Stork when I got home from my trip. Or to the cuckoos. Well, it was the middle of the night.

I’ll go now and… Oh! They’ve gone!

The Stork isn’t on his hook,

and the cuckoos aren’t in, or on, their clock.

Of course, the weather is getting a bit cold now. I suppose they’ve flown off to a better, warmer, place.

The Stork said that he migrates to Mali every winter. I expect it’s lovely and warm there now.

When I was away, I couldn’t remember whether I’d said goodbye to them before I set off on my travels.

So I sent them one of my first postcards.

Let’s see what this letter says.

Oh Baby, have you eaten some of it?

Never mind. I think we’ve still got most of it.

Speak of the devil! Here’s a picture of the stork and the cuckoos flying off to the sunshine. Then they fly back to some daffodils.

I think the teddy is meant to be me. I see that the writer of the message rubbed that bit out a few times, probably trying to get a better likeness.

Lucky it’s not written in Bambara, or Songhay, or Syenara, or Tamasheq, because I wouldn’t be able to read that.

But I can understand this. I think it means “We’re off to the sunshine now, see you in the spring”.

Oh, Baby, what are you doing! Come down!

It’s up on the Stork’s hook. How ever did it get all the way up there?

I really don’t think I can climb up to get it down. I’ll put something soft underneath, that’s all I can do.

I’d better leave the rest of the post for later.

I know what we’ll do.

I’ll find the seashells that I brought home for my friends, and the Baby and I can go and deliver them.

Come on Baby, we’re going for a walk!

I hope its mother will have woken up by the time we get back again.