Jemima climbs the Calla

Today is another warm and sunny day. Jemima's birthday bouquet has wilted long ago, but Drora's purple pansies are blooming as lovely as ever. A grey neighbour's cat is jumping around on James' flower boxes again, trying to catch the butterflies.

Jemima has invited two of her girlfriends. The little lamb is called May Schaefer. Jemima asks her to make up the first game. 

May says the Periwinkles' green grass is a wild ocean filled with hungry sharks and the spaghetti tree is their ship. Squealing, they follow May up the trunk of the tree.

This is Freya Sylverson, a little koala. Jemima asks her to make up the second game. Freya decides to play hide-and-seek and they even include Jemima's stuffed animals in the game. Sally, Jemima's little pink rabbit, "hides" with the daisies in Cutata's walnut basket.

When it is Jemima's turn, she invites her friends to visit the Calla at the far end of the garden. It's a beautiful plant with leaves much larger than the children and enormous pink flowers shaped like trumpets.

They climb up and up and finally May lays down to rest on a large leaf. 

"Where is Quackie?" Freya suddenly asks Jemima. "Uh oh, I forgot her in the house on the sofa..." Jemima says. 

For those of you who do not know Quackie - she is Jemima's favourite toy, a yellow rubber duck, and she is very cheeky and jealous. I believe Jemima is in great trouble for forgetting Quackie on the sofa, and she knows it...

After a while, they hear a wheezing sound. It's the sound of Quackie's breath as she is dragging herself up a leaf of the Calla.

"Uh oh... look at her face... Quackie's gonna be real mad..." Jemima whispers into Freya's ear, as Quackie moves closer and closer towards them, panting like a sickly old grandmother and looking very grim. 

"Tell me goodbye, Freya. It was nice being your friend. Goodbye to you too, May!" whispers Jemima. May gets up from her leaf and glances at Jemima with a look of concern.

Very suddenly Quackie jumps on top of Jemima. Jemima falls onto her back and feels a wet kiss on her face! 

"Fi-nal-ly! I found you!" Quackie pants sounding extremely relieved and not at all cross. 

The three girls are glad that Quackie didn't lose her temper and they continue playing in the trees until the sun goes down.

HAVE A LOVELY DAY !

The Periwinkles' Garden

Dear Readers,

Have you seen the Periwinkles' new garden?

James and Jemima are looking at the flower bouquet Jemima got for her birthday in May. 

As you can see, James has used the sea shells we received from Emily in Dandelion Creek to decorate the lawn. I love how they look! 

Molly and Pip, the two kittens, are having a staring contest with a red squirrel.

This is what the garden looked like on the day of Jemima's party. 

Do your Sylvanian villages have spaghetti trees? Riverside has a few, and one of them is growing on the Periwinkles' lawn.

Jemima invited her very best friends to come over and play, and her favourite toys were allowed to sit on the bench and watch. Hans (a teddy bear), Pink Sally (a stuffed rabbit) and a cute little dog named Button, who had gone lost for a looong time and who somehow found his way back to the Periwinkles. 

(I don't suppose anyone remembers, but Santa got him for Jemima at the Christmas Market and he was included in a single story and then never seen again! I wonder where he was during his absence and whether he experienced any adventures...)

Here you can see James' beloved collection of watering cans. Don't they look like a family? Mother, father, two siblings and a baby.

This is the photo James took of Jemima and her friends. If you are a regular reader you might have noticed a new face... It is a little grey hippopotamus standing in between Toby Babblebrook and Fudge. She is called Hippolina and was given to the Riversiders for adoption from Fudge's former mother, Birgit. 

Welcome to Riverside, Hippolina!