Something to cheer us up in the post Christmas and New Year slump.

Here’s the New Year – now what will it bring?
Apples in autumn, bluebells in spring,
Pussy-palm soft as a grey kitten’s fur,
Poppies a-dancing then summer winds stir,
Yellow-clad fields where the butter-cups gleam,
New little ducks on the chattering stream,
Eggs in the hedgerows, lambs skipping by,
Woods full of primroses, little and shy.
Yellow bees droning in summery heat,
Early nuts ripening, blackberries sweet;
All these and more the New Year is bringing –
Really, no wonder the blackbird is singing!

(Write out this poem and then underline the first letter of each line. Read them downwards and you will find there is a message for you from the blackbird.)

Taken from Enid Blyton’s Book of the Year (1950).