A mole's patience is rewarded at last

At first, the mystery just deepened as we followed Mr Duckington's instructions and went to the hardware store. We handed the note to shopkeeper along with the money we'd been given, and in return, we were given a large box. We raced home to see what was in it. You should have seen the mixture of amazement and disappointment on the little mole's face when out came a small shiny bin! As he was staring at this bizarre item, I looked inside the box and saw that there was another smaller container and a little book of instructions. I opened the book and read out aloud "Turn your waste into valuable garden compost with the aid of our easy to use Wormery". At the mention of that last word the mole immediately perked up and got very excited. "Read the rest! Read the rest!" he squeaked. So I carried on and we read all the instructions. All you have to do is put left over lettuce leaves and such stuff in the bin in layers and then add the contents of the other box - some special, very hungry worms! Then sit back and wait and the worms will multiply, eat all the waste and create quality compost for the garden. All this seemed foolproof apart from the word "wait". Needless to say we now have an empty box and a very happy mole. We had to trundle straight back to the shop to buy some more worms, but he's the happiest little mole you've ever seen now, bouncing along singing his favourite Girls Aloud song. Can you guess what it is?

Ducktastic News!

At first, when it started to rain, the molebabe got very excited, assuming that the worms would immediately rush to the surface and surrender in huge numbers. Unfortunately, it seems that worms have more patience than moles. After a couple of minutes the little chap started to snuffle and whimper about getting wet, and how his Mummy had warned him about catching a chill. Things were not looking good at all, when along came Mr and Mrs Duckington. They are a very nice family of ducks who have recently moved into the area. The smaller Duckingtons were playing at a friend's pond, but mum and dad were out for a walk, and they had umbrellas. At least this way the little mole could watch the ground for worms and stay dry.

It was no good in the end, though. I think it rained too hard, as the ground ended up all muddy and we didn't see a single worm. But, just when I thought that we were facing another big disappointment, Mr Duckington said "I know a place where you can find worms - absolutely guaranteed". He wrote an address and some details on a piece of paper and gave the little mole a five pound note! He's a most generous duck - so we said thank you, borrowed an umbrella and rushed off to the address on the note - which turned out to be a hardware shop. Surely they don't sell worms at a hardware shop?

Bring in the experts

Well, we did what the Grunts suggested. We went along to see the chickens and asked for their advice. Apparently, there is a special technique to be used when finding worms. You patter your feet up and down on the earth and the worms think it's raining and come to the surface. That's the theory at any rate, so we sat and waited to see what would happen. You'll never guess - it actually worked! There was only one small flaw in the plan, though - the chickens scoffed all the worms before the poor little mole could get near them. After ten minutes all we had was a 100% worm-free patch of grass, and a completely empty molebabe!

Never mind, I told him, it looks like it's going start raining for real any moment, and I've got some other friends who will help us out, and can be relied upon not to eat the worms. We just need to take some bread...

Never judge a book by its cover

Oh dear, I made a huge mistake, assuming that all pigs like to do is roll around in mud all day, snuffling about and saying hello to a load of worms! When we met the Grunt family, they turned out to be the cleanest, neatest, most fastidious bunch of creatures I've ever laid my eyes on. I don't think they were very impressed with my suggestion that they could help me grub up a few wrigglers for my little black chum. However, they were very nice about it, and put their heads together to try to think of a solution. After a while, Hugh Grunt came back and announced "We've had an idea, but it probably won't work. You see, the creatures that we've most often seen scratching around in the dirt for wriggly things are chickens. But where on earth could you even one chicken around here?". If only they knew!

Playing hard to get

Finding worms is not as easy as you might think! I went out into the garden with a trowel and a bucket, and I thought I'd be able to fill the bucket with tasty (for a mole) worms in no time at all. Well, after about half an hour of hard but entirely worm-free work, my little friend was getting rather restless. He looked at me with his bright little eyes in such a imploring manner that it was almost possible to ignore the loud rumbling noise from his tummy. Then I had a brain wave! There's a new family of pigs called the Grunts who have moved into the village. I haven't actually met them yet, but everyone knows pigs love rooting about in the mud and getting covered in muck generally. I'm sure they must come across plenty of worms in the process that they would be happy to share with a hungry little mole. I gave him a chocolate digestive to keep him going and set of for the Grunts' house.

Bobby to be a burrow surveyor?

I've had to do some funny things since I arrived at Sylvania, but this just about takes the biscuit! It all started when I went over to Rose Cottage, to visit my friends Bruce Koala and Rebecca Rabbit. When I arrived, the whole house was in a uproar. Snuffles, the little molebabe had disappeared! Of course I helped with the search, and after turning the whole place upside down, we finally found him hiding in a big basket. We asked him why he was in there, and he answered "Oi was gurtly hungered, and oi thought oi moight find some wormers in ee big basket". Goodness knows why he though there would be worms in a basket, but what was clear was that he had a very hungry little mole on our paws. Moles, as you might know, are nothing if not single minded, and so we realised that we had better find him some worms quick. So we decided that we'd better get out into the garden and get searching. Who'd have thought that I'd spend my day peering into holes in the ground - but how hard can finding a worm be?