Peter the friendly elf closed the front door of his neat little white painted house in the village of Trimble. Picking up the basket containing his home made honey biscuits he set off for Pod’s house. He didn’t have far to go, his friend Pod only lived a few doors away.
Today it was the day of the village summer show and everyone would be going. The village green would be set up with roundabouts and stalls with candyfloss, ice cream and much more. But the most important part of the day was the afternoon when the winners of each show were presented with their prizes beneath the old oak tree. There were shows for everything you could think of, from cakes and biscuits to sheep and cows and there were judges to pick the winners of each show. Peter was putting his honey biscuits into the cake and biscuit show, while Pod had entered Henrietta his white speckled hen into the best hen show.
Peter walked up the path to Pod’s house and knocked on the door. When there was no reply he knocked again, strange, he thought, Pod is always ready and waiting when I call, he hates being late for anything. He must be having trouble, getting Henrietta into her basket. I better go around the back and give him a hand.
When he reached the back of the house he was surprise to find the garden in a mess. There were feathers all over the place and Pod was busy fixing the door to the hen run. ‘What a mess,’ he said. ‘What’s happened? Has a fox gotten into the run?’
‘No,’ said Pod. ‘Someone has broken the lock off and stolen Henrietta.’
‘I didn’t mean that. What I meant was that when whoever it was broke the lock, maybe Henrietta escaped and wandered off.’
‘I don’t think so, I’ve spent the last two hours rounding up the hens and they are all here except Henrietta.’
‘But who would mean enough and stupid enough to steal the only white speckled hen in the village? Everyone knows it belongs to you.’
‘I’ve no idea…’ said Pod, stopping in mid sentence and turning to Peter.
Peter looked at his friend and they both said, ‘Kronk,’ at the same time.
Kronk lived at the other end of the village and he was the meanest and most unfriendly old gnome you could meet.
‘I’ll go down there and demand Henrietta back straight away,’ said Pod angrily.
‘No you can’t you haven’t any proof and beside you know what he’s like, he won’t let you into his garden and he’ll just say he hasn’t got her.’
‘What can I do then?’ wailed Pod.
Peter hated to see his friend so upset, so he had a little think and came up with a plan.
Ten minutes later Pod was outside Kronk’s front gate. ‘Good morning, Mr Kronk, nice day for the show,’ he said.
Kronk who was sitting on his front step, looked up. ‘What do you want?’ He asked grumpily.
While Pod was keeping Kronk talking, Peter had gone around the back of the house and was peering over the fence. Kronk’s hens were in the garden pecking away at the ground but the only speckled hen he could see was brown, not white. Circling back around he waved; Pod finished talking to Kronk and walked away. When he reached Peter he said, ‘Did you see Henrietta?’
‘No,’ said Peter. ‘All of Kronk’s hens were in the garden and the only speckled hen was brown.’
‘Oh dear, what am I going to do now?’ Pod cried.
They searched everywhere but there was no sign of Henrietta and in the end they had to give up the search. Pod was so upset that he wanted to go home. But Peter who was nervous about putting his biscuits in the show, asked him to come along too. Being a good friend Pod agreed. So they hurried down to the green and they were only just in time to enter the biscuits before the judging began. Peter was very nervous as the judges tried out his biscuits. He needn’t have worried, from the look on their faces it seemed as if they liked them. But he would have wait until they gave out the prizes later in the afternoon to see if he had won anything.
Next they went to see the judging of the flower show, the vegetable show, the pig, sheep and cattle shows. But Pod didn’t want go to the hen show so they had a ride on the roundabout and ate some candyfloss instead. Soon it was time for the prize giving so they joined the crowd in front of the old oak tree. Mr Mong the mayor called for silence and announced the winners of the various shows. Pod was please to hear that his friend had won first prize with his honey biscuits, but not so pleased when he heard that Kronk had won first prize with the brown speckled hen.
The crowd cheered and when everyone had settle down the mayor cleared his throat and spoke again, ‘Could Peter elf come and collect his Prize.’
Peter was a little embarrassed, but he collected his prize, a large silver cup. He returned to show it to Pod. But pod was busy staring at Kronk who had the brown speckled hen under his arm and was waiting at the end of the queue to receive his prize. ‘That’s Henrietta, I’d know her anywhere’ he said. ‘Kronk must have dyed her brown?’
‘OK, you watch the show and leave this to me,’ said Peter.
Peter ran home collected what he needed and hurried around to the back of the old oak tree.
Crabby’s Long And Dangerous Journey.
At the seaside, in a large rock pool that can only be reach when the tide is fully out, there live many small creatures. Beneath the surface, the pool is normally a cool and pleasant place to live. Today however all is not well, there is a thunderstorm raging and as the tide comes sweeping in, giant waves pour into the pool. The water swirls and spins and Crabby Crab, who has been caught out in the open is swept around and around. One minute he is upside down, the next the right way up and his claws are aching, with trying to grab onto anything to stop him bouncing off the rocks.
Suddenly he is thrown up to the surface, where he manages grab onto a lump of driftwood and is carried out of the pool and in towards the shore. He hangs on with both of his pincers as the piece of wood is hurled from one wave to the next. Up and down, back and forwards he goes and the nearer to the shore he gets the worse it becomes. As the water become shallow the waves break, throwing the wood forward and pounding it down onto the sandy bottom, only to pick it up and do it over and over again. All Crabby can do is to hang on tightly, until he is thrown ashore many hours later. The driftwood ends up in a great heap of seaweed on the shore and he was so tired by then that he crawled deep inside and fell asleep.
When Crabby woke up it was the middle of the night, the storm was over and the tide was on its way out again. Shakily he crawled out from under the seaweed and scuttled sideway down to the waters edge. He needed to get back to his home pool, but he wasn’t sure which way to go. He could feel soft sand beneath his legs but he needed to feel rocks. He stood still for moment unsure what to do and then scuttled off, following the waters edge to the left. On and on he travelled for a long, long time. Then just when he was about to give up and go the other way, the sand was gone and he could feel rock beneath his legs.
He had found the rocks, now all he had to do was to find the pool. He followed the tide as it went out and within minutes, splash! He had fallen into a pool. It was very dark at the bottom of the pool, but then the moon came out from behind a cloud and he took a look around. It wasn’t his pool so he scrabbled out and continued his search. All night he climbed into and out of pools and was chased by other bigger crabs for invading their territory. In the last one he’d even had to fight off a large, hungry, Moray eel that had been left behind by the tide.
He was wondering if he would ever get home, when he spotted a jumble of rocks ahead. If he climbed to the top of them, maybe he would be able to see where his own pool was. It was hard climbing the slippery rocks and it took him so long that it was daylight before he reached the top. He crouched down for a moment until he got his breath back and then scrabbled over to the edge and looked down. There were three more pools in front of him and while he had never seen his pool from above, he knew that it was the one right at the edge of the sea.
Climbing down the side of rocks, he set off sideways towards the pool and was only halfway there when a large seagull spotted him and came diving down to the attack. Quickly he scuttled into a crack in the nearest rock. There was only just enough room for him to squeeze inside and after the seagull had landed it poked its beak into the opening trying to peck him. He fought it off with his strong hard pincers and eventually the seagull gave a loud angry squawk and flew away. Crabby waited until he was sure it was gone, then ran across to his pool, slipped under the water and crawled into his cave in Crabby Rock. Once inside, he lay down, went to sleep, and dreamed of telling his friends about his long and dangerous journey.
Copyright © Fred Watson May 2008
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The north wind doth blow,
and we shall have snow,
and what will the robin do then,
poor thing?
He’ll sit in the barn,
and keep himself warm,
and hide his head under his wing,
poor thing.
Peter's Honey Biscuits
In his neat little white painted house, at one end of the village of Trimble, Peter the friendly elf was looking through his cupboards. He had run out of his favourite honey biscuits and he was checking to see if he had all of the ingredients to make some more. To make sure he had them all he had written them down on a list andwas crossing them out as he found them.
Peter’s List
Flour
Salt
Butter
Honey
And, oh dear, the most important one was missing, honey, and the one thing you cannot do without when making Honey Biscuits, is honey.
Slipping on his little blue Jacket he hurried next door to his friend Pod’s house, but Pod didn’t have any honey either. Next he tried nearly every house in the village, but no one had any honey. Now there was only one house to try and that was Kronk’s house.
Kronk was the meanest and most unfriendly old gnome you could meet, but Peter thought he would ask anyway. Kronk was busy putting a new lock on the gate to the apple tree – the apple tree really belong to the whole village, but Kronk had built a fence around it, put a lock on the gate and now kept all the apples for himself.
‘Good day, Mr Kronk,’ said Peter, ‘I was wondering if you might have a little honey to spare.’
Kronk gave Peter a mean look and said, ‘Honey? Do you really think that if I had any honey I would give it to you? If I had any honey, which I do not, I would keep it all for myself.’
Oh, thought Peter, he really is the meanest old gnome ever, but all he said was, ‘Thank you, Mr Kronk,’ and walked away.
Peter got up early the next morning, he was going to Dingle market for some honey and it was a long way. It way a lovely morning the birds were singing and there wasn’t a cloud in the sky. On the way to the market Peter was carrying an empty basket and he skipped all the way there. But on the way back there was a heavy pot of honey in his basket and he was getting very tired. The day was hot, he was sweating and his little legs were aching by the time he reached the old oak tree at the edge of the village.
It was no good he just had to sit down and have a rest, placing the basket next to him; he sat with his back against the tree and before he knew it had nodded off. As soon as he was asleep Kronk who had been watching him from behind his hedge, crept out, grabbed the honey and scurried back into his garden. After looking around he decided to hide the pot of honey under an upturned flowerpot, ‘Hee, Hee,’ he cackled. ‘No one will find it there.’
Half an hour later Peter woke up, went to pick up his basket and found that his honey had been stolen. Who would have done such a thing, he looked around but there was no one about. Sadly, with his head bowed, he began to make his way home; there would be no honey biscuits today.
He was so sad that he was half way home before he realise someone was shouting his name. Turning he saw that it was his friend Pod. Peter wasn’t in the mood for talking but he couldn’t just walk away, so he waited for Pod to catch up.
‘I’m sorry Pod,’ Peter said when his friend reached him, ‘I’m not in the mood to talk, someone stole my honey when I was asleep.’
‘I know, said Pod. ‘I was on top of fairy hill and I saw who took it. It was that horrible gnome Kronk and he has hidden it under a flowerpot in his garden. Lets’ go and get it back.’
‘No, that won’t work,’ said Peter. ‘He’ll just laugh at us, besides he won’t let us in his garden. But I think I know how to get the honey back.’
Peter explained his plan to Pod then they went around talking to the villagers. The next morning when Kronk was in his garden, three of the villagers ran past carrying sacks, ‘What is going on?’ he called.’ But the villagers kept on running and soon disappeared over the hill. Shortly afterwards some more villagers ran past and the same thing happened. A little later he saw Pod running towards him, so he stepped out into the road with his arms outstretched and Pod had to stop, ‘What is going on?’ he demanded.
‘Nothing,’ said Pod.
‘Then why have you got that sack?’ asked Kronk.
‘Because the farmer at green meadow, over by Dingle, has a field of potatoes he can’t pick and if you take your own sack, he’ll let you fill it for free.’
At the mention of the word free, greedy old Kronk ran back into his garden, grabbed a sack and went racing up the road. As soon as he disappeared over the hill Peter came out from behind the oak tree and took his honey from under the flowerpot.
‘Come on Pod,’ he said. ‘Let’s go home and bake some Honey Biscuits.’
It took Kronk two hours to get to Dingle, only to find no farmer at green meadow and no free potatoes. Then it took him two hours to get back and wasn’t he surprised when he topped the hill to find all of the villagers sitting under the oak tree, having a picnic with lots of Honey Biscuits to eat.
Copyright © Fred Watson February 2008
If you would like to make some of Peter's honey biscuits get mum to take a look at the Home Cooking page.
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Twinkle, twinkle little star’
how I wonder what you are!
Up above the world so high,
like a diamond in the sky.
Barney’s New Bed.
Barney the cat was fed up, he was sick of his bed in the washroom. Katie had got it for him when he was a tiny kitten and it had little flowers and bows around the sides.
Ugh, he thought, it is so babyish, and I am no longer a little cutesy kitten, I am a big strong cat, a great hunter of mice and I refuse to sleep in that baby bed anymore. I will go find my own bed, a bed fit for a grown up cat like me.
He walked down the path into the back garden and looked around. Now where would be a good place to sleep? He could climb into the garage through the little window at the back. But if someone shut the window he would either be trapped inside or locked out. No, he decided the garage was no good; he wanted to be able to come and go when he wanted.
The greenhouse look promising, there was a small pane of glass missing in the door so there would be on problem getting in and out. He jumped inside and a voice said, ‘Oy! What der yer think yer doing in here?’
It was Rodney and Barney had forgotten that he lived in the greenhouse. Rodney was a very big rat with yellow teeth and Barney knew he could never sleep in the same place as Rodney. Cats and Rats just do not get on together, so Barney jumped back through the hole where the glass was missing and went to look elsewhere.
He decided to go and see Harry Hedgehog. Harry lived under the hedge in the corner of the garden with his mum and dad and he was a very good friend. Maybe he could stay with Harry. When Barney reached the corner he called out, ‘Hello, are you there? Harry.’
For a moment nothing happened, then a pile of dry leaves in the corner began to move and first a small snout, followed by a pair of eyes appeared. ‘Hello, Barney, what are you doing at this end of the garden?’ asked Harry.
‘I’m looking for a new place to sleep and I wondered if I could stay in your house?’ asked Barney.
‘You’re welcome to stay with us, but we haven’t a house.’
‘Where do you sleep then?’
‘Under that pile of leaves.’
‘Oh dear,’ said Barney. ‘I’m sorry Harry, but I don’t think I would like to sleep under a pile of leaves.’
‘Why don’t you go and make a bed in the shed,’ said Harry. ‘You could get in through the hole in the back, like you did last time you ran away.’
‘I can’t, Katie’s dad has blocked the hole up.’
‘Why don’t you ask Rosalind Rabbit if you can stay with her?’ asked Harry.
‘Good idea, I’ll go and ask her now,’ said barney.
Slipping under the garden fence, Barney made his way to the hill where the rabbits lived and knocked on the door of burrow number twenty-two. In a moment or two Rosalind opened the door and said, ‘Hello Barney, what are you doing here?’
‘I’m fed up with my old bed,’ said Barney, ‘and I was wondering if I could stay with you.’
‘Sure you can Barney, there’s a spare bed in my brother’s room, come on in.’
Barney began to follow Rosalind into the burrow, but the farther they went the darker it got, until eventually it was so dark that Barney couldn’t see a thing and he said, ‘Can you switch on the lights, I can’t see anything.’
‘Oh you are silly Barney,’ said Rosalind, ‘rabbit burrows don’t have any lights.’
‘What, you live in the dark all the time.’
‘Yes, that’s because our burrow is deep under the ground.’
‘I’m sorry Rosalind,’ said Barney,’ but I couldn’t sleep down there in the dark.’
With that, Barney scrabbled backwards until he was outside in the daylight. Now where am I going to sleep? I’ve tried everywhere and I don’t like any of them. Then just as he was about to give up he remembered the Magpie nest in the old tree. The magpies had built it last year, but this year they had built a new one in a different tree. ‘Ah,’ said barney to no one in particular, ‘that’s just the place for me.’
Ducking back under the fence, he climbed right up to the top of the old tree and jumped into the nest, after scratching about with his paws he curled up was soon asleep. He slept right through the afternoon and awoke when he heard Katie calling him in for his tea. Quickly he climbed down and went in through the cat flap in the backdoor and ate his tea, it was his favourite, chunky tuna. After he had eaten he went through into the lounge and played with Katie and her sister Rosie until it was bedtime. Bedtime for them that is, there was no way that they were going to get him into that bed.
As soon as Katie and Rosie’s mum said, ‘It’s time for bed girls.’ Barney shot through the kitchen, into the washroom and out through the cat flap, into the garden. Quickly he climbed the tree, curled up in his new bed and it was so comfortable that very soon he was fast asleep. Sometime in the middle of the night the wind began to blow. At first it only blew softly and Barney slept on as he was rocked to and fro, but the wind grew stronger and Barney woke up as the branches began to thrash about. He dug his claws in and clung on as he was thrown every which way.
Suddenly the wind blew stronger still, there was a loud crack, as the branch complete with Barney in the nest, snapped from the tree and sailed across the garden to land with a thump on the lawn. Unhurt, but feeling very dizzy, Barney clambered from the nest, tottered to the backdoor and crawled through the cat flap. Inside he staggered over to his warm, safe, comfortable old bed with its flowers and bows, and was soon fast sleep.
Copyright Fred Watson 2008
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Pat-a-cake, pat-a-cake baker’s man,
Bake me a cake as fast as you can;
Pat it and prick it and mark it with B,
Put it in the oven for baby and me.
Barney And The Cheese
Copyright © Fred Watson 2007
Barney the kitten was having a great time playing in the lounge; he’d knocked all the cushions onto the floor, sharpened his claws on the curtains, and tipped a vase of flowers onto the rug.
Now he had run out of games to play, so he decided to go and see what Katie’s mum was doing in the kitchen.
He jumped up onto a chair and watched as she grated some cheese 
into a bowl. He gave a little meow to let her know he was there and she turned smiling, ‘Sorry, this is not for you, boy, it’s to go on the pasta tonight.’
Just then the doorbell rang and she went to see who was there. While she was away Barney jumped up onto the bench and sniffed the cheese, then he stuck his head in the bowl and began to eat.
Suddenly there was a loud screech, and he was lifted up into the air, carried to the door and put out into the garden, ‘Out you go, you naughty kitten, you must learn not to eat other peoples cheese.’
Barney tried the cat flap; it was locked, so he walked down the path into the back garden.
‘Hello, where are you off to?’ said Rosalind Rabbit.
‘Katie’s mum has locked me out, just because I ate some cheese, so I’m leaving home.’
‘I’ll come too, my mum shouted at me.’
‘Did you eat some cheese too?’ asked Barney.
‘No, I was digging up a carrot and I kicked dirt on the clean washing,’ said Rosalind.
Halfway down the garden they met Harry Hedgehog,
’ Where are you two going?’ he asked.
‘We’re leaving home,’ said Rosalind.
‘I’ll join you,’ mum got mad at me, because I rolled in the mud and went home with leaves sticking all over me,’ said Harry.
‘Come on then, let’s go,’ said Barney.
Barney was pleased that the others were going with him; he hadn’t really been looking forward to living on his own.
They carried on walking until they were as far as they could get from the house. They had reached the very
bottom of the garden.
‘How about under the garden table? It’s got a cover over it, it’ll be like living in a tent,’ said Harry.
‘It’ll be very draughty,’ said Barney.
‘Well, what about the greenhouse then,’ said Rosalind.
‘No, I saw a big horrible rat in there, once,’ said Barney.
‘There’s the garden shed, but it’s locked,’ said Harry.
‘Yes, but there’s a hole at the back, where we can get in, follow me and I’ll show you,’ said Rosalind.
Barney and Harry followed her to the back of the shed and they squeezed through the hole. ‘Are we really going to live in here?’ asked Rosalind, as she looked around at the clutter of garden tools and Katie’s old toys, ‘It doesn’t look much like home to me.’
‘No but there’s a pile of nice soft sacks in the corner, we can go to sleep there, and in the morning we can tidy up and make the place nice.
It was getting dark so they huddled together wearing a sack like a blanket, and had hardly closed their eyes, when they heard a voice calling.
‘Rosalind, It’s getting dark, come in and get your supper.’
‘Coming, mum,’ cried Rosalind.
‘But your mum shouted at you,’ said Barney.
‘Yes, but only because I was naughty,’ called Rosalind, as she disappeared through the hole.
Two minutes later Harry’s mum began to call.
‘Sorry, Barney I got to go home,’ he said
‘But your mum was angry with you,’ said Barney.
‘Yes I know, but I shouldn’t have made all that mess in the house,’ he said, and he too disappeared through the hole.
Barney’s was feeling very lonely without his friends, so when the back door opened and Katie’s mum called him in for supper,
he raced up the garden and into the house, meowing all the way, to let her know he was sorry for eating the cheese.
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