McGonk Meets the Easter Bunny

In Search of the Missing 'Beag' McGonk



Beag McGonk



As you all know, my favourite little 'Beag' McGonk went missing in action a few weeks ago, completely vanishing without trace. A search party was deployed on several occasions without success and now, with the onslaught of this Siberian Spring, heavy snowfall has brought the searching to a temporary halt.

 

McGonks love nothing more than to explore, so we're hoping that Beag simply wandered off and forgot he was supposed to return home to Thrift Cottage. They can be very, very forgetful little creatures but they can also be very naughty, especially the diminutive micro-McGonks! Beag disappeared after a trip to Torhouse Stone Cirlce, when he was last seen heading towards Wigtown, Scotland's national book town.

Hooter McGonk

Earlier today, a little visitor arrived in the shape of Hooter McGonk,  a nosy wee character who was adamant that he go in search of his wayward cousin as soon as possible, despite the weather conditions. Much debating went on until we could debate no more and off he scampered, out into the snowy lands of Frugaldom to begin his own investigation into the mysterious disappearance of Beag. What he hopes to achieve in this weather is anyone's guess, as he's barely visible himself when wading through the chilly white carpet provided by Mother Nature. He doesn't care how high or how low he has to search, but search he will until he discovers the whereabouts of his cousin, 'Beag'.

 

 

Following the invisible Sneach

Through the snowy fields he clambered, climbing drifts and exploring icy tunnels and igloos made by the Sneach - a clan of seemingly invisible, white Mcgonks of the north who over-winter in Galloway. They're normally quite easy to spot, as we don't usually have this amount of snow, but to our human eyes these snow McGonks are undetectable during times such as these. It was amazing to watch Hooter communicating with them, chattering away, following in their footsteps. We could see their tracks, but it is impossible to spot a Sneach even on such a glorious day as today.

Climbing the tree

The Sneach McGonks led us all a merry dance, poor Hooter was exhausted by the time he got back to Thrift Cottage. First they suggested he climb as high as he could to survey the snowly landscape. Up he climbed, higher and higher, his little nose getting redder and redder. Several times he had to scuttle for cover under gnarled branches, as passing blackbirds kept mistaking his nose for a juicy red berry they'd overlooked on the Hawthorn! What a to do that would have been, losing Hooter to a scavenging blackbird!

 

Poor wee Hooter - he climbed as high up the tree as he could possibly go and then the mischievous Sneach McGonks closed their eyes and disappeared from sight, camouflaged to perfection against the glistening snow! Even Hooter was having trouble spotting them, but he could still hear them chattering away, calling out instructions to him and making tracks in the snow for him to follow.

 

From his viewpoint, far up the tree, Hooter could see so many tracks in the snow that he didn't know which to follow. The Sneach were everywhere and nowhere to be seen, but there seemed to be a great deal of trampling and stamping coming from the direction of the burn, very close to the home of the Trolls!

 

Carefully, Hooter picked his way back down the tree and headed towards the deep, dark, watery cave, convinced that the Sneach wouldn't lead him into danger. They may be cheeky and impish, but they certainly weren't evil or cruel.

The Trolls' Cave

The mouth of the cave looked spooky, the banks were slippery and cloaked in deep snow and there was a whispering, gurgling echo coming from deep within the tunnel.

 

Hooter crawled over the bridge and gingerly stuck his head inside to call out to the Trolls, asking for their help in finding his lost cousin. The echoing whisper that rushed from the cave mouth was unmistakable, audible to all around, incuding the multitude of Sneach that had surrounded the area - if the footprints were anything to go by, that is!

 

"Speak to the Easter Bunny!" the voices murmured, repeating the same command over and over again...



Avalanche alert!

Great commotion broke on the embankment, with a flurry of snow as the Sneach scurried to help Hooter back from the water's edge, leading him along the lane at top speed, back along the path they had previously come. It was tough going for Hooter, he was slipping and sliding all ways, trying to balance precariously between snow drifts, ruts and ridges.

 

Suddenly, he felt the ground move beneath him! In a panic, he became rooted to the spot, feeling the tremors rippling underfoot. He expected to feel himself plunge through chasms of icy darkness at any minute, disappearing throught the deep snow, never to be seen again.

 

What a predicament to be in, out on his first major search and rescue mission only to find himself in need of rescuing! That's when he suddenly realised that the Sneach Clan members were rolling about the ground like tiny snowballs, giggling and laughing uncontrollaby.

 

How curious!

 

"Look down," they yelled in glee, "look down, now!"

 

Peering carefully downwards, Hooter soon saw the reason for such myrth - he wasn't clinging for dear life to an icy peak waiting to be swept into  the snowy abyss by some ground-shaking avalanche...

 

Hooter had woken the Easter bunny, who had been sitting by the wall, like hare waiting for tortoise, enjoying a little nap before his very, very busy weekend arrived!

 

Shrieking with delight, Hooter slid to safety and apologised profusely to Easter Bunny. He quickly explained his predicament and told the bunny how the Sneach had led him to the Trolls and how the Trolls had sent him in search of the Easter Bunny.

 

To all of this, the bunny responded with one word ...

 

"PATIENCE!"

 

Whatever could he mean?

McGonks and Fabulous February

FURBULOUSLY FRUGAL!

What an exciting start to the new year we  have had - it threw all sorts of weather our way, from bright sunshine to rain, hail, sleat and even snow in this little corner of southwest Scotland where it seldom usually ventures. But mostly it has been raining... gallons and gallons of the stuff falling incessantly, to the extent that the surrounding land has been flooded on numerous occasions, to date. Getting out and about hasn't been easy, but McGonks are resilient little critturs and soon find a way.

As you already know, some of the McGonks are going to be heading to Fort Willliam, where they will be attempting to climb Ben Nevis. But let's not forget that there are many more McGonks who won't be making that trip.

Indeed, several others have already set off on their great adventures, including Duncan McGonk, who seems to be spending his time lapping up the sunshine while climbing olive trees in Egypt - what a lucky McGonk he is! I'm told his Arabic is coming along slowly, albeit with a Scottish accent.


Never mind, back here in Frugaldom we have plenty going on and there's always someone or some place new to see.

The arrival of the snow for a few days brought great excitement to Clan McGonk, as this was the first they had ever experienced it, since settling into Thrift Cottage. A few fluttering flakes had passed in the pas,t but none had stuck around long enough to cover the ground, far less enough of the stuff for building a snowman! Beag McGonk was the first to venture out - I knew he was an adventurous wee chappie as soon as I laid eyes on him! Here he is, proudly showing off his first attempt at building a snowman.

Now we need to fit in some serious training for the climb up Ben Nevis in May, so some of the McGonks decided that they would try a bit of snowy hill climbing.

This corner of Scotland isn't renowned for its hills, although we do live within 25 miles of the Galloway Hills. Here in the Machars area we have a few fells and the occasional 'trig' point.

Trig points are triangulation points, usually marked by pillars of some description, set at the top of hills and used in the Ordnance Survey. Did you know that the "roots of Ordnance Survey go back to 1747, when Lieutenant-Colonel David Watson proposed the compilation of a map of the Scottish Highlands to facilitate the subjugation of the clans following the Jacobite rising of 1745"? (You can read more about it here.) Our photo shows Ruaidhri McGonk along with Beag and one of the hairy Haggis McGonks sitting atop their first ever trig point, surveying the white surroundings that are seldom seen in these parts. What an exciting day that was!

On 25th January each year, many of us celebrate Robert Burns' birthday here in Scotland. In fact, it's celebrated by Scots the world over - he as quite a famous poet by anyone's standards!

Traditionally, we eat haggis with tatties and neeps - a frugal dish if ever there was one, as the haggis is 'offal' bulked out with oatmeal and served with potatoes and swede. To celebrate the event this year, we invited the Haggis McGonks to join our happy clan by taking up residence in Thrift Cottage while preparing for future travels.

This is one of the Haggis McGonks, the self-same one spotted atop the trig point on top of East Barr, in Wigtownshire. He's a happy wee haggis chappie who'll be staying with us for a while, as he has volunteered his services to go up the mountain in May.

Today, the Haggis McGonks have won a runners up prize in a competition! They can't decide if it's a good thing (winning) or a bad thing (the competition). You might ask why this could possibly be? Surely it has to be fun receiving free gifts through the post? Well, I'll leave it for you to decide!

The accompanying letter requested that we upload a photo onto a website to enter into a prize draw, so here is our entry... in case you can't see what the label or the wording on their prize badges say, it's 'Eat Haggis'.

You'll have to find them and catch them first!

Don't forget that if you spot a McGonk anywhere, get a photograph and add it to the gallery on our McGonks page at www.facebook.com/McGonks Share your McGonk tales with the world as our Scottish furry friends multiply and spread out throughout the world.

Mad March isn't so far away and that's when we shall see off our first high flying McGonk, as he takes off with the skydivers! More on that, soon. In the meantime, you can help McGonks support their local charity, the Port William Lifeboat, by visiting www.mcgonks.com and following the progress of their Port to Fort Challenge to get to the top of Ben Nevis. Likewise, you can gift donations through Paypal by emailing it directly to nykmedia@aol.com where funds can be transferred to the charity. Event details are included on Facebook and on website.

www.mcgonks.com




McHaggis McGonk's ADVENT-ures

A Gingerbread ADVENTure for McHaggis McGonk

As Christmas approaches, the McGonks have all been getting more and more excited! They couldn't wait to get the tree decorated and then all crowded around to have their photograph taken.

Excitement is probably too tame a word to use at this festive time, as there have been so many things happening, some of them HUGE!

Several McGonks have now left on their Christmas travels and we've sent one to Aberdeenshire, where one of the relatives seems to be partying just a bit too much!

Shortly after the above photo was taken, little 'Beag' disappeared! He is such a naughty micro-McGonk! We searched high and low, until we finally found him in the most obvious of places... Beag loves to climb trees!

The biggest international McGonk news is that 'Duncan McGonk' (#I) has set off on his exciting adventure that will lead him to EGYPT!

The name 'Duncan' derives from the gaelic word meaning 'brown warrior', so I do hope he behaves himself and doesn't get into any confrontations with camels or the like.

Duncan McGonk

Duncan McGonk is going to live in Egypt, so watch out for future tales of his trips along the Nile or visits to the Pyramids, Imagine that! A little piece of Scotland all the way out there in Egypt, by way of a Galloway McGonk. How exciting!

But that wasn't the only excitement of the past week or so, oh no, not by a long chalk!

We also saw the arrival and departure of McHaggis McGonk, a rather dashing chap who received news of his mission earlier this week.

The gingerbread Nativity

McHaggis McGonk has, since, been whisked away to Wigtown, Scotland's national book town. This is him standing guard over the beautiful gingerbread Nativity, during his big ADVENTure. McHaggis has gone to live in the Manse and will be helping *Renita* with her storytelling and entertaining the local childen. Hopefully, he'll be introducing them to 'Frugal Fun' in Febrary 2013...

Well, that was the simple plan, but then we were alerted to a rather alarming misshap that had occured while McHaggis was watching all the delicious gingerbread making and decorating! He decided to go for a swim in the frosting and has had to have a bath and a blow dry! Oh dear! I am so glad we opted to fill him with lovely fluffy stuffing rather than shredded paper, otherwise he could have been trying to play papier mache McGonks, especially if he'd been near flour! We hope he recovers very soon - perhaps he thought it was snow and wanted to go sledging!

Chilli McGonk

As if all of the above wasn't exciting enough, Clan McGonk decided to put their heads together to come up with something unusual for someone local who has a passion for chillies! She kindly brought us a jar of her luxury *Galloway Chilli Jam* ... and we absolutely love it - with absolutely anything and everything!

However, being inhabitants of Thrift Cottage, living within the lands of Frugaldom, the purchase of such luxury items doesn't fall within the reaches of a thrifty spender, so we called upon the help of one firey, Scottish red head - Chilli McGonk! Hopefully, he will be attending the Wigtown Christmas Fair as an ambassador for Frugaldom. Of course, you can guess what this all means! Can't you?

It means that this Saturday, there will be both (Mc)Haggis and Chilli McGonks in Wigtown and that could make for a very interesting combination if the two should happen to meet. Perhaps we'll leave that one for closer to Burn's Night!
(Edited in: Chilli McGonk stayed with us for Christmas, so didn't make it to Wigtown.)

That's it for now but stay tuned for all the latest McGonk news and updates. We've now introduced the new 'About' page along with a 'Contact' page. These should provide any information you require.

Until next time,
Ruaidhri 'the red king' McGonk
www.mcgonks.com

*You can find out how the children and Renita made the gingerbread Nativity by visiting www.facebook.com/RenitaBoyleBibleTalesAndTunes

** You can see the actual Galloway Chilli Jam logo by visiting www.facebook.com/GallowayChillies

Beag's Sunny, Sunday Mini Adventure



MEET BEAG!

In the Gaelic language, the word 'beag' means small. As expected, the way we say the word depends on our dialects and accents, so to make things easy, it sounds quite like 'BUG'. Personally, I think it's a fantastic name for any of the micro McGonks!

This is Beag (Bug). He's grey, measures about 6cm high, has a pink button nose, pink felt 'shoes' and wears a blue tartan Tam o' Shanter with a tiny white pompom on top. Beag McGonks are great, they can be clipped onto almost anything and go anywhere without causing too much of a fuss - handbags, keys, zippers, bicycles...

 

But first, a little bit about Tam o' Shanter:

Tam o' Shanter is the character in a very famous poem of the same name written by Robert Burns. (You can find the poem in its entirety HERE.) Rabbie Burns, as he's commonly referred to, is possibly Scotland's most famous and influential poet. His birthday is celebrated every year on 25th January on "Burns' Night", when all good McGonks eat the customary haggis, neaps and tatties (haggis, turnip and potatoes) for dinner. Official Burns' Supper events are held all around the country and wherever else you find McGonks - I mean Scots! The Tam o'Shanter hat is the flat tartan cap that was often worn by Scotsmen of that time and so-named after the poem's main character, Tam.

 

Today the sun shone and the outdoors beckoned. Beag McGonk couldn't really go for a gallop on his trusty steed, Black Bess, so he donned his Tam o'Shanter, wrapped up against the blustering wind, hitched up the bike and had a wander along the local lanes. The views on such days can literally blow you away, but there really wasn't much to see by way of life - no cows, no sheep, no birds flying overhead, no herons by the stream. In fact, not a soul in sight - so nobody to spy Beag as went secretly exploring.

First stop was a signpost. There was still nobody about, so Beag climbed right to the top to see if he could see any signs of life further afield. Scrambling up, blown all ways by the blustery winds, he almost lost his balance more than once! He finally made it to the top and scrutinised the panoramic views for signs of life. Unbelievably, on such a glorious day, there still wasn't a soul in site, not even the hare that's usually bouncing around the adjacent field! But then he spotted a fabulous, huge tree, leaf-less and begging to be climbed!

 

Back on the bikes, we cycled a little further along the lane until Beag stopped by a prickly looking clump of winter-bare hedging. Off the bike, stumbling through the grass he went, scaling the gnarled, twisting branches with a definite mission in mind. Once he'd reached a particular spot in his chosen 'tree', Beag stopped, looked all around and then peered anxiously downwards. Following his gaze, I spotted the long, slender, pointed looking branch he was eyeing.

Just at that exact minute, I heard a yell and watched as Beag leapt clean off his resting place and then hooked the branch below in one death-defying action. Off he went, swinging along, shouting with glee as he flew through the air, almost as though on a magic zip-wire, sliding his way in a flash to the base of the branch. What a naughty little McGonk he is! If this is the kind of exploits the micro-McGonks are going to get up to then I really don't know how the red king Rory or any of the others are going to cope!

Still, Beag seemed as proud as Punch with his flying trapeze act and was quite happy to settle back onto the bike and come home afterwards. Phew! First mini-adventure over without mishap and we all got some fresh air and exercise into the bargain.

 

Back home, there was a lovely bowl of hot, steaming lentil soup waiting and a room full of McGonks wanting to see the photos of the day's mini-adventure. Sending the littlest member of the clan out as a scout seemed like a good idea at the time, but he didn't quite grasp the concept of surveying the lie of the land. Perhaps next time he'll concentrate more on his mission than playing at swinging from trees.

 

McGonk.