Hi everyone! I've just returned from a short trip with M to see her parents, and have travelled home with an exciting addition to M's cuddly toy friends! Please note that I didn't say "new addition", as Gordon the pineapple is an old member of the family, who is returning home after a lengthy stay with M's relatives. (Why is a long story, that I shall not bother to tell here!) He's been away for so long that I have never even met him before! I've been wanting to meet Gordon for a long time, as I'd heard all about him from M, and he's a bit of a hero of mine. I thought I'd take the chance to ask him some questions and to interview him for today's blog post. Odd: "Hi Gordon. I feel honoured to meet you at last. Please can you tell my readers a bit about yourself?" Gordon: "Good Afternoon, young sock friend. I suppose that I should first explain how I came into existence, and why I am, rather unusually, a cuddly pineapple." "When M was a student studying at the University of Nottingham, she was in a club called the Munro Pineapple Society. This club was founded to take students up to Scotland to climb the Scottish Munros. Those are the mountains up there that are over 3000ft, as I know that you have discussed in your last book. The word Pineapple in the club's name came about due to a misunderstood shout when two of the early members were scrambling on the spiky "Pinnacle" towers of Crib Goch, in Snowdonia." "M became the club's first "Publicity Officer", which meant that she made posters to advertise the club trips to other students. She drew posters with me on, and then created me with a sewing machine. " Odd:"I went up to Scotland earlier this year, and enjoyed climbing a few Munros with M. Is it true that you yourself have climbed many of the Scottish Munros?" Gordon: "Yes, Odd, I was lucky enough to join the students on many trips up to Scotland, and did indeed climb many Munros with them. Then my felt cloth started to wear into holes, and I had to retire from this exciting activity. " Odd:"Which is the most exciting trip that you can remember?" Gordon:"I think my very first trip up to Scotland is one of my most memorable. We drove all the way to the far north coast, and climbed hills everyday for two weeks, with rain only falling on one of those days. We had bright sunshine and clear views for the rest of the trip, and I was lucky enough to climb on the beautiful, jagged Cuillin Ridge, on the Isle of Skye. I joined the students in climbing the "Inaccessible Pinnacle". This is the hardest Munro summit to reach, and involves a steep roped-up rock-climb, followed by abseiling down the rope for about 80ft to get down again. M, I and most of the other students had never abseiled before in our lives, so we were all very excited!" "Here you can see us all standing on top of the Inaccessible Pinnacle. I'm partly hidden in M's arms. There wasn't much room, so it was a bit of a squash. Both M and I are looking a lot younger, but this was taken 24 years ago!" Odd:"Wow, that does sound exciting! Yes, you do look very young and clean, Gordon. I'd already seen this other photograph up with you on. Would you like to tell us a bit about this day too?" Gordon:"Yes, of course. I'd already retired from hill-walking at this point, but it was a very special day, so I came out of retirement especially. I'm standing with M at the top of her very last Munro, and I felt proud to be there. It had taken her many years, and many hundreds of miles of walking, to climb them all. As is tradition, we were having a bit of a party up there, to celebrate with some of her hill-walking friends!" Odd:"Before we finish, can I ask you how you managed to get so many great clothes, Gordon?" Gordon:"Ah, well, I didn't get them all immediately. In fact I was quite naked for my first trips! I acquired my knitted jumper from an old boy doll of M's. It had been knitted for him by M's grandmother, but he had lots of other clothes too." "M then made my kilt and sporan, then my leather boots and my knitted socks." Odd:"Oh, I see, so pestering M could well be my best way of getting more clothes then. Hmmm.. Well, thanks so much for letting me interview you, Gordon. I hope you will enjoy being back home again." Gordon:"Thank you Odd, I'm sure that I am going to enjoy relaxing and being at home again a great deal." The only other news I have for now is that, due to an error of unknown origin, M and I had to "fire fight" before going away. This was to try to prevent further problems when our free book promotion failed to happen on the intended day. I decided to dress accordingly, which had the rest of the gang in stitches! I'm so glad that I can help to make everyone laugh during a crisis! Bye for now. Love, Odd xxx
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Hi everyone! It's been a very busy week or so, with lots of sewing and writing to do! There was some excitement too, though. This parcel arrived from my lovely friend, Ted! I couldn't wait to see what was inside! The parcel was even bigger than me! There were in fact lots of great things in it. A letter from Ted, a game called "Silly Odd Socks", a new pen, and a beautiful little knitted dress! I had to try my new dress on straight away! This is the first time I've ever been given any clothes (despite lots of hints to M!) I felt as excited as Dobby from Harry Potter did when he got given a sock! M says it's a little bit small for me at the back, but no one will know if I don't turn round! Did I mention sewing? Ah yes, this week I was busy creating my new sister. Here we are, together on Oscar's knee watching the TV. This was our last night together. And here she is again, all excited about getting posted to the USA, to live with her new family. I've also been helping M to format my next book in the Odd Sock Adventure series. So watch this space! Another book should be out soon! And more exciting things arrived in the post today! A postcard from my dear friend, Sally, and M's tickets for our September trip to Lundy Island in North Devon. I've heard M talking about Lundy, and it sounds like an amazing place to visit! I can't wait! Right, better get back to work. Bye for now! Love Odd xxx Hi everyone! This was me a week ago, sunning myself at a campsite in St.David's, Pemrokeshire (in South Wales). We were camping right by the seaside for a few nights, next to this little harbour. M and her husband were there to climb the sea cliffs... Here's M's husband climbing last Tuesday. (M seems to like sending him up first, which seems very sensible to me!) We also managed to go and look at the beautiful cathedral there. Anyway, today's exciting news is that it's time for our BOOK LAUNCH PRIZE DRAW! We were surprised by how many entries we had, and I am feeling in great demand as a cuddly toy at the moment! I wrote all the names onto little pieces of paper, which I then folded in four before placing them into a big cap. I then shook the cap up, and picked out a name. (Actually, one piece of paper jumped out of the cap while I was shaking it up, so I decided that one must be the winner!) For those of you without really good eyesight (or a magnifying glass), the winner is... *drum roll* NATALIE!!! Now I know Natalie told M that if she won she wanted her prize donating to our young author friend Jourden. (Who is recovering from a recent car accident, and who has always been my number one fan!) So WELL DONE JOURDEN!!! Your prize will be on its way soon! (Once I've finished off the more fiddly sewing bits!) (Sorry Pete Bear, it looks like I'm not going to be able to get to do a crafty body switch so that I can come and visit you in Australia.) Bye for now! Love Odd xxx
Hi everyone! I've been away on another adventure, and a new blogpost is long overdue! Sorry about that... If any of you want to win your very own cuddly toy ME, then there is still time to enter our Book Launch competition above. We will be drawing the winner on July 21st. Straight after our Free Book Promotion, I travelled with M to Nottinghamshire, to Sherwood Forest! I was very excited about going there, as I love hearing stories about Robin Hood, and he lived there! First M went to a family wedding, and kindly let me tag along. That was also exciting, as I'd never been to a wedding before! The puddings were incredible! The tables had lots of pretty sweet jars on, which I thought was a great idea! (M only let me bring home one jar of them though, sadly.) I meet this very big dog statue. And I thought this wedding car was amazing! After the wedding, I stayed on with M and we explored the area. We visited several different estates in Sherwood Forest, including Rufford, which is now a Country Park, cared for by the local council. This is the remaining part of the big country house that stood in the grounds there. And this is part of the display in the cellar of the old house. It had been part of an old Cistercian Abbey that stood on the site in earlier times. Rufford estate now has a sculpture park too, so I made friends with this happy gentleman and his very large apple! The next day we went to Clumber Park, which has a wonderfully restored garden area, where fruit, vegetables and flowers for the house were grown. The house itself has sadly been completely demolished now. The gardens were beautiful, and I kept stopping to pose for photographs by different flowers! Later on we popped over to look at Thoresby Hall. This is the only country house still left standing in the Sherwood estates, and is now run as a big hotel. On our final day, we first visited the tiny village of Wellow. M's family used to come from here, and this is a picture of me with the maypole. Then we went to the other end of the Rufford estate, and I finally got to explore Robin Hood's forest a bit more! Buster and I collected lots of new books to read about Robin and the Sherwood Forest estates. (We even got M to buy us a lovely new book of poems!) So now I'm back home again, and planning my next adventures! Billy's big summer holiday will start next weekend, so all of the Top of the Wardrobe Gang are looking forward to spending lots more time playing with him! Bye for now Love, Odd xxx Hi everyone Today I want to do a VERY special blog post for my wonderful young human author friend Jourden. I will let you read the following post from "MotherDaughterBookReviews.com", so that you will understand why this is so important to me, M and the whole of the Top of the Wardrobe Gang. Jourden's accident happened while M and I were in Scotland, and all we could do at the time was to parcel up a friend and a card, and to keep our fingers and paws crossed that she was going to be OK. If you are able to help by entering the giveaway "Rafflecopter", then you will find details of it in the link at the end. You will also find active links there for all web addresses mentioned. (Kids - please ask an adult for permission before entering or purchasing anything.) We LOVE you Jourden, please get better soon! Love Odd xxx Mother Daughter Book Reviews is pleased to be coordinating this Book Blast on behalf of author Jourden Cleghorn who writes under the pen name of Teddy O'Malley. Jourden was recently involved in a serious automobile accident resulting in severe injuries just days after her new book, Destiny and Faith Go To Twincentric Academy, was published in May 2014. The indie author community has come together to support this young author/illustrator during this challenging time. Please read below to see what you can do to help in a small way. About the Book Title: Destiny and Faith Go To Twincentric Academy | Author: Teddy O'Malley | Publication Date:May 11, 2014 | Publisher: Independent | Pages: 62 | Recommended Ages: 6 to 10 Summary: Destiny and Faith are going into second grade and their mom has a great idea. She's going to send them to a school for twins! They're not sure whether to be excited or terrified. Come join them and see what happens! The Buzz "Anyone who's tried to buy a book or birthday card for a child who isn't white will know how few are available. Golden hair and blue eyes rule. I was delighted by Destiny and Faith, who are mixed race/bi-racial, perfect for some children very close to me. However, let me quickly say that this is a story for allchildren. A school for twins is such a great idea and Destiny and Faith's adventures have a universal message about friendship and learning how to get along with each other. This would also be a good book for actual twins as some of the issues that arise in twin relationships come up in the story." ~ 5 Star Review, Mary Josephina Cade, Amazon "I just finished reading this book. I got it for my daughter and decided to read it myself. It is so ORIGINAL and totally ADORABLE! A MUST READ for young children looking to read their FIRST CHAPTER BOOK! My daughter LOVES it!! I highly recommend this book!! " ~ 5 Star Review, radams, Amazon "A great story for young girls, with lots of fun dialogue. Accompanied throughout by black and white drawings. These capture the body language and expressions of the different characters perfectly. Looking forward to more in the Destiny and Faith series." ~ 5 Star Review, M.J. Kinsman, Amazon About the Author: Teddy O'Malley Jourden Cleghorn, who writes and illustrates children’s books under the pen nameTeddy O' Malley, was born in in Saint Louis, Missouri. She has traveled all over the United States and enjoys learning about new things and other cultures. She dreams of visiting a foreign country. She has enjoyed studying Spanish, German, and now Italian as well. Jourden paired her language skills with pictures of puppies to write Tell Me How You Say Good Night, a bedtime story. And a childhood friendship with a biracial girl named Hope influenced Jourden to make the Destiny and Faith characters biracial in her series about twins. Many of her books include a thread about friendship and acceptance of others. Jourden previously worked part time as a nurse assistant helping the disabled and elderly. How You Can Help If you should choose to enter the giveaway below (open worldwide), you will see an option to earn 10 extra entries in the giveaway by purchasing a copy of Teddy O'Malley's latest book, Destiny and Faith Go ToTwincentric Academy from Amazon for only 99 cents. I hope you will consider helping out the author in this small way. On Thursday, May 15, 2014, Jourden was the passenger in a small car when a much larger truck turned in front of them. She suffered severe injuries as a result of this accident including a cracked sternum, punctured lung, broken arm, and broken foot. Unforutnately, the nature and severity of Jourden's injuries have limited her ability to promote her books effectively. I was very moved when I was approached by a member of the Facebook group, "Fun-tastic Children’s Books " (of which Jourden is an active member) to help this young author. This wonderful group took it upon themselves to promote Jourden’s books on herbehalf. They bought, reviewed, tweeted and shared her books throughout social media and are sponsoring (along with MDBR) the giveaway below. Of note, during her recovery, Jourden found the inspiration for another children’s book. It will be about a child recovering from a car crash and having to cope with learning to write with the opposite hand, and other hardships that must be overcome during the healing process. Jourden usually writes with her right hand, but plans to illustrate the book using her left. She wants to show that hardships can be overcome if one does not give up. * $50 Book Blast Giveaway * Prize: $50 Amazon Gift Card or PayPal cash (winner’s choice) Contest ends: July 30, 11:59 pm, 2014 Open: Internationally How to enter: Please enter using the Rafflecopter widget in the link below. Terms and Conditions: NO PURCHASE NECESSARY TO ENTER OR WIN. VOID WHERE PROHIBITED BY LAW. A winner will be randomly drawn through the Rafflecopter widget and will be contacted by email within 48 hours after the giveaway ends. The winner will then have 72 hours to respond. If the winner does not respond within 72 hours, a new draw will take place for a new winner. Odds of winning will vary depending on the number of eligible entries received. This contest is in no way sponsored, endorsed or administered by, or associated with Facebook. This giveaway is sponsored by author PJ LaRue/Fun-tastic Children’s Books and Mother Daughter Book Reviews, and is hosted andmanaged by Renee from Mother Daughter Book Reviews. If you have any additional questions – feel free to send an email to Renee MotherDaughterBookReviews. Copyright © 2014 Mother Daughter Book Reviews, All rights reserved.
Book Link http://smarturl.it/TwincentricAcademy Amazon.com Page http://smarturl.it/Teddy_OMalley Facebook Page https://www.facebook.com/authorteddyomalley Twitter Page https://twitter.com/TeddyOMalley1 Blog http://teddyomalley.weebly.com/ Goodreads Page https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/5758234.Teddy_O_Malley?from_search=true Mother Daughter Book Reviews http://motherdaughterbookreviews.com/ Hi everyone I'm very excited that my new ebook is now officially released on Amazon. I've put a book link to it below. We are running a FREE PROMOTION and LAUNCH COMPETITION, as shown in the poster below! Guess this means that I'd better start practising my sewing again! The other news from yesterday is that I went to watch M climbing, and managed to find a rope that ALMOST matched my ears! I like watching the belaying... ...and I like all the shiny metal gear they use... ...but I'm not so sure about following them up too many steep rock faces... Hmmm...maybe next time! Bye for now Love Odd xxx P.S. Watch out for my special blog post tomorrow for a wonderful author friend. Hi everyone! The Top of the Wardrobe Gang and I have been very busy since I got back from Wales, and have finally sent our latest ebook to Amazon for review. We hope it will be available to buy very soon! Ta dah!! What do you think? This is an Early Chapter Book, aimed at 5-8 yr kids. It is the first in our new "Odd Sock Adventures" series, and has 40+ colour photos from my recent Scottish trip in it. Oh, and, ermmm... it's all about me...(*blushes*) I'm hoping that some of you older cuddly toy lovers will enjoy the story too, but we've tried to make the words simple enough to be enjoyed by younger readers. I'm in every one of the pictures, so I'm hoping that children unable to read yet at this level will still be able to enjoy having it read to them - while searching for me in the photos! I'd also like to say a big thank you to my wonderful friends on Twitter. They have sent me these beautiful postcards from all around the world! Even from as far away as Australia! (Thank you Pete!) I love that this old Cadbury's advert postcard agrees so well with my thoughts on chocolate! The rest of the gang are getting a little bit jealous of me getting so much post, though, and are all starting to want to get their own Twitter accounts now! I also received this special postcard from my friend Mary, who looks after my twin, Violet. It looks like Violet has settled in very well done in London, and it seems that she has taken to wearing Mary's pearl necklace! Last weekend I had lots of fun watching the boats at M's old Sailing Club! I checked out the details of the racing, and the pretty flags used for it. I also checked out the boats, and even found a sail to match my ears! I managed not to fall in the lake and get wet, though. Wet stuffing isn't very good at floating, so this is as near to the water as I got! Well that's all for now. We will be having a free promotion to launch our new book, so will be announcing the details of that very soon. Bye for now Love Odd xxx Hi everyone, Odd Sock here again! Sorry I've not got round to writing my blog for AGES again! I'm putting the finishing touches to a little book about my big Scottish adventure, so I think I'll stop blogging about the rest of that trip now, or I'll never get back up to date! The photo above was taken last week at the start of my next adventure. I'm in Capel Curig in Wales, waiting to get the bus up to Pen y Pass. When M said she was going to be walking up Snowdon (the highest mountain in Wales), I asked if I could join her. She did warn me that this was going to involve a VERY LONG walk, but I was too excited about the idea of setting off on another adventure, and not really listening... The first sign of danger was this warning as we set off up to a jagged ridge called "Crib Coch". I didn't remember Scotland coming with warning signs! It didn't have very good views due to the low cloud up there, but I wasn't too sure I wanted to see all the way to the bottom of both steep sides from that ridge! We finally got to a concrete Trig point (used to mark some summits), and I munched on some chocolate. M then said this one wasn't Snowdon yet, though, and we'd got quite a bit further to walk to that one... So I eventually made it to this even bigger Trig point, which was the top of Snowdon! It was too slippery to sit up on though, so I needed a bit of help! Next I discovered a big cafe up there, and that I could have taken a steam train to the top! Oh well, apparently this sign says I'm nearer to Heaven! I wasn't allowed to take the train down, but at least I tried to make sure M picked a more sensible path... The clouds clear now, and this path looks better, until M insists we drop straight over the steep edge on the right. Where exactly are we heading, M? Apparently we will camp down in a place called Nant Peris tonight, which explains why M seemed to have packed a tent. At least there are a few interesting tree climbs to entertain me on the way down! Finally time for dinner. Perhaps I need to check with M about where we are going... Good job I packed plenty of choccie. Looks like this walk is going to last 3 days, and be a lot longer than I realised. We weren't setting off just to climb Snowdon, but to climb ALL 14 of the Welsh mountains over 3000ft high!! Apparently lots of people do this as a 24 hour challenge walk, but they have support vehicles and don't carry tents! On day 2 I got rudely awoken at 5am!! The next 2 days were forecast to be hot, and there was a long steep climb up to the top of our next mountain. M wanted us to be well on the way up that before the heat of the sun kicked in. This mountain is called Elidir Fawr, and the black heaps in the background here are "slag heaps" of unwanted rock from the old slate quarry near it's bottom. In Part 2 I'll tell you all about the 2nd very long section of this very long walk! I really do need to concentrate more on the details before setting off with M in future!! Bye for now, Love Odd xxx Hi everyone, Odd Sock here again! We woke up on the 2nd day of our Scottish trip to find it was grey and wet outside, so we just moved ourselves north to a campsite near the town of Fort William. M particularly wanted to walk out to a place called "Sourlies Bothy" from near there, and the forecast didn't look too bad for the next 2 days. A "Bothy" is a small building in the hills where you can take refuge. This one was supposed to be in a really beautiful setting. So the picture above was taken before we headed out to Sourlies Bothy! I'm making yummy bacon butties for breakfast! We had to take lots with us, including a tiny tent, as we didn't know what we'd find when we got there - i.e., a load of people, or a hole in the roof! We were heading off into Knoydart - one of the last great wildernesses in the UK. I made sure we packed the essentials, like lots of chocolate! This is me by Loch Arkaig. It took a long time to drive to the end of it, which was where we were to leave the car. The weather didn't look as sunny down the other end, either. The ten mile path to this bothy was pretty boggy, and it had a lot of up and down bits in it. There were lots of streams to cross. At the highest point in the path, we found this small loch. I was surprised to find this sandy beach by the loch! This was the view we finally saw down the other side. We are looking down at the sea loch which Sourlies Bothy lies next to. It didn't look a particularly great place to me at this point! Just a very grey place. Down level with the sea loch, but still no sign of the bothy... M realised I was flaggling, and let me stop for emergency chocolate. Ah ha! Finally we find the place!! Time for a lightweight bite to eat. (Don't start talking to M about lightweight, as she will not shut up. Her stove weighs 7g. This was the first time we tried it out, and she was weirdly proud of it!) And here's our tiny tent for tonight! (Seemed plenty big enough to me, but M's a bit bigger.) Mmmm...hot chocolate AND a bar of chocolate! Glad I packed some decent food! We had a roaring fire in the bothy that night! Oooo...this is comfy! Heehee...I wonder where M will be sleeping! We woke up to a great surprise the next morning...SUNSHINE!! The bothy and sea loch really did look beautiful now! I wandered down to see if this loch had any sand, but just found pebbles and seaweed. M soon had everything packed up and ready to go. I popped in to investigate the bothy a bit more, and climbed up to explore these cool fishing net hammocks! Soon we'd headed off up into the mountains again, with beautiful views down to the sea loch as we went. Thanks for reading my blog post. Bye again for now, Love Odd Sock xxx Continuing Day 1 of my Big Scottish Adventure... After walking along the river for a while, we turned right at this little green hut. I wanted to know who lived here, but there seemed to be no one home! M said it was owned by a Mountaineering Club, for them to use when they visited to climb in the hills. It's quite small though, so I don't think many of them can stay here at once... The sign outside the hut said "Respectez les fleurs". M said that meant "Respect the flowers" in French, so I immediately started looking for some flowers to respect. I found these beautiful tiny pink flowers. They were hidden in the grass. M said she thought they were tiny wild orchids. If you look closely at them then they DO look just like miniature orchids! AS we started going uphill, I found this curious pile of rocks. M said it was a "CAIRN", and that they are built to label paths and mountain summits. This one showed where the path we would take on our way back joined our outward path. I thought it made a great place for me to have my picture taken! Our path zigged and zagged up our first mountain. Sometimes we were looking at other mountains down the main river valley we'd walked in from... Sometimes we were facing what would be our second mountain of the day... I was surprised to see small white patches of SNOW up there! It was May, and at home the snow had gone long ago! Oooo...a mini cairn for my next photo opportunity! Then some rocky bits to scramble up... And FINALLY a big summit cairn to sit on top of! Hard work getting there, but the view was GREAT! Heading along the ridge to our next mountain, I found my first patch of snow! M was busy explaining to me that both of these hills were called "Munros", I just wanted to play in the snow! Sadly she wouldn't wait for me to build a snowman... Oh...a "Munro" is a Scottish mountain over 3000ft high, and there's a list of them that "Munro baggers" try to "tick off" and complete. (How strange humans are!) See M, I WAS listening after all! There were also rocky bits to negotiate on the ridge... And quite a bit of snow along the edge of the ridge. M said we needed to be careful and avoid this as much as we could. (Apparently bits called "cornices" can break off over the edge of the solid ground. You can fall off a long way with them!) It seemed to take a very long time, and it was a bit steep to get to, but EVENTUALLY we reached our second and final summit of the day. Great views in all directions. This one looks down the way we will head next. There was an old row of fence posts up there. It must have been hardwork for whoever put that fence up! We walked down on a muddy path next to this waterfall... Then lots more grass and uneven ground to negotiate... Before finally meeting the bigger path we took on the way out. (I was getting quite worn out by now. I only have tiny legs, and it had taken me a LOT of tiny steps to get that far!) I was so glad to make it back to this bridge, and shortly after to the car! That was the end of my first long day. I got back to the tent very hungry and very tired. I was hoping M planned to cook something yummy for my tea! That's all for now! Catch you later...Love Odd xxx |
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AuthorsThe Top of the Wardrobe Gang: Oscar Rabbit, PD Monkey, Odd Sock, Burton Bear, Terry Tiger (TT), Burton Bear; helped by Melinda Kinsman Archives
October 2018
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