More ponies having fun in paddling pools

This week another five minutes of fun activities with Emma Massingale, some of which probably come under the umbrella of don't try this at home unless you have some amenable ponies and plenty of room.

The pony who didn't like being bathed, shows how it should be done

Today, I want to introduce you to someone who loves ponies. She's called Emma Massingale and she has 11 miniature ponies. When she couldn't take them to the beach during lockdown, Emma decided to get a paddling pool.

Check out the video to see how they did - or didn't - like it. And who got the wettest...

Things are not always as they seem - in a lot of different ways

Here are Jesse and Mike getting it all wrong on video, but in an entertaining way.

What's the lesson? 

Answer: Don't feed gummy bears to any kind of horses.

And what's the link between Jesse and Mike's shenanigans and Megan and Amy's? 

Answer: In an odd kind of way, there are quite a few links and once you get to read what Megan and Amy get tangled up in, you'll see just where Jesse and Mike got things wrong. 

Almost time for lift off

I have been counting up for 28 weeks* now, and although it's not quite time to start counting down, I've decided it's time to stop counting up. Here's why:

The first draft of Horse of the Same Colour is nearing completion.

That doesn’t mean it will be published next week or anything. There is still a lot to do. It must be polished up until it shines. Then it will be thrown to the fearsome editors at Fantastic Books Publishing who will kick it about and try to break it (that’s their job). And after that it will go into the mysterious process known as ‘production’ whereby a raw manuscript gets sucked in at one end and a shiny new book pops out the other.

We are getting closer to the point where it will be given a publication date. You’ll hear the champagne corks pop when that message arrives.

----

*It seems to be 28 weeks but I'm prepared to be caught out if anyone has been counting closely.

Have you ever met someone with the same birthday as you?

Image by Clker-Free-Vector-Images

Have you ever been in a group of people and discovered that someone else shares your birthday? Does that seem like an amazing coincidence? 

Not so, it’s just chance. 

In any group of 23 people, there is a 50-50 chance that two of them will have the same birthday. Click the link below for an explanation of why.

https://betterexplained.com/articles/understanding-the-birthday-paradox/

 

Week 23 of the countUP

Week 3 - a sneak preview of Megan and Amy's favourite game

Megan and Amy find themselves entangled in trying to keep a secret that they're not even sure they know, but in between times they like to relax and play board games - sometimes they allow mums and dads to play, sometimes they don't. 

Their current favourite is The Gorgon's Loch.

This is a real game. It's due to be out shortly before Horse of the Same Colour, and you can get yourself first in the queue for a copy by heading over to the project page and signing up. It costs just the same whether you buy now or later BUT Megan advises you to buy now because there are some really cool add-ons that won't be available later.

Go and take a look on THIS LINK and leave a comment to say what you think.

3

Here's a cool fact about the number 3: Somewhere between 3 and 4 is the mathematical constant, Pi. It can be defined as the ratio of a circle’s circumference to its diameter, and is approximately equal to 3.142 but you can keep those decimal points going forever.

For an explanation of why this is a countUP and not a countDOWN, CLICK HERE for the New Year post 

The secret of the unicorn

**Happy Festive Season to one and all**

After Jack the Horse got things underway many weeks ago  and Professor von Puppet made initial introductions, we have met almost all the new cast of Horse of the Same Colour.

As to who else will be joining Megan and Amy in their new adventure, you can be sure that Naylor O'Neill and her gang will push their way to centre stage. Their long-standing teachers will do their best to keep things under control; fearsome Mr Connor, Miss Blanchard, the new teaching assistant, and the absent-minded Mrs Linstead who turns out to have hidden depths. And the traveller family who join the school for the autumn term also make quite an impact, in particular brothers Menowin and Patrin and their little sister, Rosella.

Here’s a quick reminder of the characters who have been introduced over the past few weeks. Have you decided upon a likely favourite? If so, please leave a comment to let us know which one.

Oh yes, the secret of the unicorn ... I'm afraid I'm not allowed to divulge that. It will all come out when Horse of the Same Colour is published in 2021.

Ellie 

Snowy 

Starlight Piglet 

Smirf 

Ossie 

Polo 

Rainbow 

Jazz 

Jasper 

Flo 

Mischief 

Fmelodie 

Solo 

Tristan 

Koby Blue 

Custard 

Spice 

Peanut 

Zack 

Nutella 

 

Introducing Nutella

The person who knows Nutella best describes her thus: “Totally a foodie.”

Now if you’ve been monitoring the unfolding introductions of the cast, that description might have elicited a disbelieving laugh. Is there a single one of them who is not wholly consumed by thoughts of food and how to snaffle it from under the noses of its rightful owners?

Well, no, there isn’t, they’re all obsessed with food, how to track it down and how to grab a share, but of all of them, Nutella is the worst. There isn’t a single task, no matter how important, that Nutella won’t interrupt in the pursuit of a tasty snack.

Nutella's favourite snack would look something like this:

Introducing Zack

Zack is the youngest of the bunch who are in on the secret. He is small and chestnut in colour, with a very cheeky face.

Zack’s role model is Jasper, but he always rushes to Flo when he’s in big trouble.

This is Snowy with her ‘Oh no, what now?’ look as she watches Zack race into the barn.

Introducing Peanut

If you’re a toadaphobe, look away now.

Peanut isn’t a toad but he has toad eyes that he can put to good use if the gang need to have someone distracted. And the gang often want to distract someone, especially if the someone is guarding a stash of food.

Peanut creeps up on people and peers at them through some handy obstacle like a hedge, then he opens his eyes W-I-D-E. For a second, they think they’ve seen this:

And if they are bufonophobic, they will run away and leave their picnic unattended.

Introducing Spice

Spice is friendly and loves chatting with people and ponies. He’s very discreet, though, and you won’t learn any secrets from him, which is a pity as he’s one of the ones with a BIG secret to share.

Unfortunately, Spice doesn’t like being photographed, but here he is just after he was talking to a person and a pony.

The arrow shows where Spice just vanished to.

Introducing Custard

Custard has a key role to play in the secret of the unicorn but his efficiency is sometimes blighted by his overwhelming desire for crisps. His dive-and-grab manoeuvre has been perfected after much practice and, if Custard is near, a heap of crisps can go from this:

to this:

in the blink of an eye.

Introducing Koby Blue

Koby Blue is a member of a very secret society – so secret that I’m not allowed to say, but everything will be revealed in the book (that’s a clue, by the way).

Koby’s special trick involves the colour of iron and a swishing tail. He learnt it from his parents. In fact, Koby is one in a long line of Blues who have been perfecting this particular trick for generations. 

With a single flick of a tail, this cupcake will fly from its owner’s hand and vanish into the mouths of the waiting Blues as if by magic.

Introducing Tristan

We have already met Tristan briefly. He’s a good friend of Solo. 

Tristan’s love of sticky circumstances (lakes of honey, bags of sweets, pots of treacle) gets him into sticky situations with certain types, such as angry bees, indignant cooks, and people who aren’t keen on sticky footprints everywhere.

As soon as Tristan goes by, this will become an empty hand, and Tristan will find himself in yet another sticky situation. 

Introducing Solo

Solo is quite a character who loves nothing better than a good scrap. 

He is definitely the one to have on your side in a sticky situation, as his friends can tell you. 

When Solo's good friend, Tristan, stepped in a fruit pie, things got very sticky very quickly - in more ways than one; the owner of the fruit pie wasn't pleased. It was lucky all round that Solo was on hand to get his friend out of trouble.

Introducing Fmelodie

Fmelodie is the one that the Prof said sounded Fmiliar. Ha ha. See what he did there?

Fmelodie is quite a character but her real accomplishment is something you’ll never see, because she’s a masterof disguise. Here is a cat wondering what woke it up. Of course it was Fmelodie but she’s so fast that the cat is looking in the wrong direction.

Fmelodie’s skill is really useful in certain circumstances to do with unicorns, but that’s all I’m allowed to say about that because the secret of the unicorn has to remain secret (it’s what Amy would call a Top Priority secret) until it gets revealed by Fmelodie and the gang in the book.

Introducing Mischief

Some of the gang like to have names that mislead, such as Flo not minding being called Slow Flo, but there is nothing misleading about Mischief’s name.

‘Mischief by name, mischief by nature,’ Snowy has been heard to murmur, when even she can’t keep Mischief out of trouble.

Mischief’s party trick is the concealed nip. If a pony suddenly bucks for no reason at all, look around and see if Mischief is anywhere near. Snowy says she sometimes thinks Mischief is no more than a set of teeth and a pair of eyes looking for ways to make trouble.

Introducing Flo

How many creatures, human or otherwise, are in the photo? Flo’s there, of course, but we can also see two separate legs and one hand, so that could be three different people. Oh yes, and there’s a horse’s head, too, so that makes five.

Sometimes Flo gets teased for being slow, but it’s not that she’s slow, it’s that she keeps stopping to snack, which often makes her late.

Introducing Jasper

Jasper is a born leader who takes the whole gang to where they need to go – and a lot of times to where they really shouldn’t go. They don’t mind that Jasper leads them into trouble so often because they all know that if he didn’t, then they’d all get into trouble on their own and have no one to lead them out of it. 

Jasper is especially fond of grass, but he knows his gang prefers fancier treats so he doesn’t take them to empty meadows, he takes them to popular picnic spots where he can eat grass while they make nuisances of themselves in and around all the picnic baskets.

Introducing Jazz

Like most of the gang, Jazz has a lazy streak, but if you find Jazz lazing about, say upside down on the couch when he’s really not supposed to be in the house at all, he will tell you he was practising his special skill and just happened to doze off.

It’s hard to argue with that because Jazz’s special skill is to do with upside-down-ness … and running water. It’s a useful skill particularly to the unicorn (but of course that’s part of the secret that we’re not allowed to talk about yet) so Jazz is usually allowed to lounge about as long as he’s upside down.