Archibold and Stephanotis were practicing their yodelling and bird song imitations whilst paddling their little boat into the river - suddenly Archibold pointed to the bank, 'Look over there Stephanotis - can you see the blackberries are already on the way? We must tell Hortensia'.
Archibold was feeling ecstatic about being on the scent of an adventure, he was also proud of having discovered a new patch of brambles with so much fruit beginning to ripen. Usually as they collected the soft berries, gnomes always made sure that they left lots for the birds and other animals, so finding a large patch meant a bumper crop for them - enough for some of Hortensia's precious preserves and cordial - and of course a day of berry crushing and general messy fun.
Berry crushing was one of the highlights of the year, with carefully washed feet, the gnomes would take turns to dance and stomp around the large wooden tub full of berries, crushing the purple blue fruit with their feet - though no matter how much they scrubbed them afterwards, their hands and feet always stayed blue for weeks afterwards. Hortensia made her utterly delicious bramble pie with a lattice pastry crust and of course they celebrated afterwards with dancing and lots of singing.
As he daydreamed about hot blackberry cordial, Archibold forgot to steer and suddenly the little boat was nudged to a stop by bumping into a half sunken log. Stephanotis leapt up and grabbing a branch, tied the boat to the trunk of a tree, which though half submerged, still grew on the shore of a small island. 'Time for a picnic Archibold?' and with that Stephanotis leapt along the tree and onto the shore.
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