Little Miss Greenfingers

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It was a lovely spring day and the sun shone down on Daffodil Cottage,

set just at the edge of Blossomtown. Little Miss Greenfingers was busy in the garden, as usual.

"Goodness", she said "there is always such a lot to do at this time of year."

Little Miss Greenfingers finished cleaning out the last of her many pots, ready for planting with her favourite flowers, herbs and vegetables.

As you can perhaps tell by her name, Little Miss Greenfingers was an avid gardener. And everything that she tended grew magnificenily. Litfle Miss Greenfingers' blooms positively bloomed. Her herbs were truly aromatic. Her vegetables were a sensation. lt was absolutely the case that Little Miss Greenfingers had green fingers that worked horticulturar maoic.

Little Miss Greenfingers busied herself with her seed packets. She popped some compost into five big pots and watered them well. "Now then", she said to herself and the friendly robin that sat on her spade handle, "what would they like best?" Each year Little Miss Greenfingers gave her neighbours a pot of their favourite plants.

"A lovely tub full of marigolds for Little Miss Cheerful, I think". Mr Forgetful had a pot with some bright blue forget-me-not flowers. Litile Miss Greenfingers wasn't sure if they helped, but it certainly could do no harm to try, she thought. After that she finished off with some Busy Lizzies for Mr Busy (of course), a pot of strawberries for Little Miss Greedy and some nice, calming camomile for Mr Worry.

Little Miss Greenfingers' neighbours were delighted with their garden gifts and looked after them carefully all summer. The pots grew beautifully, even though Mr Forgetful wasn't always too good at remembering to water his flowers. "lt's the magic in your green fingers" he said to Little Miss Greenfingers.

Summer turned to autumn and it was soon time to tidy things away and to protect the tender plants by bringing them inside.

Little Miss Greenfingers continued to potter about in her greenhouse.

That winter was the coldest that anyone could remember (except for Mr Forgetful, who really wasn't sure what last year's weather had been like).

Each day, Little Miss Greenfingers would go outside and clear the paths, brush heavy snow from the branches of her shrubs to stop them breaking under the weight and to ensure that the robin had some treats in the birdfeeder.

Little Miss Greenfingers was so busy that she hadn't noticed that her fingers had slowly turned blue. Very blue.

In fact, so blue that even warming them up in front of the fire had faileo to change them back to green.

Once again it was spring and the first shoots of green were poking up through the cold soil. "Right" said Little Miss Greenfingers, "time to get planting". She smiled as she opened the greenhouse door.

Little Miss Greenfingers, now green fingered in name only, took out a packet of seeds. "Some tasty radishes will grow well in here" she said, lifting down a seed tray. Crash! The tray fell to the floor. Little Miss Greenfingers picked up the pieces and fetched another. She tore open the seed packet and it ripped down both sides. "Oh bother!" she exclaimed, as the seeds poured out onto the floor.

That spring, Little Miss Greenfingers squashed her seedlings. She overwatered her herbs and accidently pruned all the flowering shoots off her magnolia.

"Bother, drat and blast" she huffed. "l'm just no good at gardening anymore."

By late May, even Mr Forgetful was feeling that something was missing.

Eventually Little Miss Greedy, who had been hoping for strawberries again, enquired about her pot.

"l'm sorry" said Little Miss Greenfingers, shaking her head. "Nothing has grown at all this year". lt was Mr Worry who had spotted the blue hue to Little Miss Greenfingers' hands. He had worried himself silly for a few days, before mentioning it to Little Miss Cheerful. The neighbours had a long chat over their garden fences before settling on a good idea. Mr Busy dashed straight off to the garden centre, busying himself in the accessories section and settlino on the perfect solution.

Little Miss Greenfingers heard a 'knock, knock' on her door and opened it, to find her neighbours on the doorstep.

"Hey Presto!" said Mr Busy. "We think these will return your magic". He handed over a pair of bright green gardening gloves. They fitted nicely And sure enough, Little Miss Greenfingers' gardening successes resumed.

That autumn, Little Miss Greenfingers had an outstanding crop of onions and a lovely line of leeks. She made big batches of soup and shared this with her neighbours, in front of a roaring log fire.

After they had gone, Little Miss Greenfingers fell soundly asleep, dreaming of peas and beans and pots of pepper plants - all green, of course. There was a wonderful spring took forward to once more.

THE END

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By Mrs Smith

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