'It's true' said Aunt Mildred 'you can feel the trees waking up, look at the way they are tossing their leaves in the wind!'
'I don't know about you Mildred, but I can't wait any longer, I am going up now!' And with that Uncle Humperdinck bounded away and started climbing up the ivy staircase on the old oak tree, the one that stood in the big field at the edge of the forest.
Aunt Mildred laughed, she had fallen on love with Uncle Humperdinck and his tree climbing skills many years before, 'mind how you go, bit of a gale blowing'. Uncle Humperdinck laughed, 'all the better for that - nothing like a good ride in a wild tree!'
Free Gnomes (that is gnomes who can live as they like and don't have to stay in human gardens) love nothing better then riding out a storm or a wild wind by sitting high up in a big tree. They love feeling the freedom to sing as loud as they like as the wind roars all around and tosses the leaves and branches.
Sometimes, nimble as he was, Uncle Humperdinck had had to tie himself onto a branch with his scarf and wrap his beard inside his waistcoat, particularly if he was trying to unwrap a mint humbug or snaffle a flapjack. For as he was prone to saying, 'never does to let the mind wander when sitting on a high branch!'
Aunt Mildred pulled her hat over her ears and tucked the ends of her shawl into the band of her skirt. 'Best be on my way if I am going to check on the bluebells.' She hurried off along the path and arrived at the dell just as dusk began to fall.
'Oh my, it does my heart such good to see them!' She stood and being just the right height, sniffed the delicate scent and marvelled at how even the air around her seemed to be filled with a brilliant blue light. 'Perhaps a little sit down might be lovely'.
Soon however Aunt Mildred found herself lying down on the softest bright green moss and gazing up into the nodding heads of the bluebells. 'Just heavenly,' she thought as she gently drifted off into the happiest of dozes.
