Douglas

The Tremendous Trampoline

The Tremendous Trampoline

Three weeks ago, Kit and his younger sister Kaolin had read about a competition in the Horsmarlonerpool Trumpeter newspaper to see who could send in the best story. It could be about anything, so they’d both planned out an exciting adventure about a family of octopuses who lived deep in the Albion Sea. Kaolin had typed it up, and then they’d e-mailed it in on their pooter. I mean their computer.

Then, just yesterday, there was an announcement in the newspaper saying that they’d won first prize. And TODAY that prize arrived outside their house in a big truck. It was an enormous trampoline.

The Bewls Behind The Waterfall

The Bewls Behind The Waterfall

Over the last few days and weeks, the warm and sunny summer had been turning to a chillier and much wetter autumn. But this didn’t mean there was less fun to be had outside. In fact, Leah and Felix had enjoyed it raining very much - and had a special reason for doing so.

See - their favourite place to go exploring was Sprivers Wood, and they especially enjoyed trying to make their way along the banks of Sprivers Stream that flows through the wood and empties up into Crystal Mist Reservoir.

The Rescue From The Stink Sand

The Rescue From The Stink Sand

Sophia and her brother Sandro’s favourite place to explore, and to camp overnight in their own tent, was Sprivers Wood.

No matter how many times they visited - and Sandro and Sophia had visited Sprivers more than a hundred times - they would always find somewhere new to investigate, or a new game to play.

Sprivers was guarded by The Bewls, tiny little creatures no bigger than your finger, who looked after the wood. But they weren’t harmful unless you were doing something to hurt Sprivers. And besides, Sandro and Sophia had made friends with them one night then they’d shared their meal at the campfire.

The Hats That Had Ideas

The Hats That Had Ideas

Colorado and Adora love exploring the Old Town of Horsmarlonerpool.

And one of their favorite places to spend the afternoon is Cherrypie Arcade. The arcade is two rows of very small, and very old shops on Cherrypie Street, about ten of them on either side of the road - so twenty in all. And all painted in dark red paint, and all of them being under a glass roof that crossed the street so if it’s raining, you can walk outside from shop to shop, or cross the street, without getting wet.

The shops on Cherrypie Arcade might all look quite similar, all being so old, and so small, and so red, and all having small doors and small windows, but in fact they are very individual and different inside.

The Mystery Mine of Little Fisher

The Mystery Mine of Little Fisher

Shampoo, one of Horsmarlonerpool’s three engines, was taking his train of three red carriages to the Pastures, out to the west. There is only one station on route, the small village of Little Fisher. And the station itself is so small that the platform can only fit one carriage So Shampoo made sure that any passengers for Little Fisher were all sat in the first coach as he pulled in.

As he sat waiting for the doors of the first carriage to open and shut, he noticed a set of points on the line in front of him. Points are where one train track spilts off from, or connects to another train track. He’d never noticed these points before because the second line was so overgrown and rusty, compared to the shiny, well used line that stretched ahead, that it almost made it look as if there weren’t any points there at all. To the left of the points, a very old piece of track went away into the undergrowth.