Rubble Club 18th April 2008

Hello pet rock fanciers, your little friend Madge Dumpling here again welcoming you to another meeting of the world-famous Rubble Club. Spread your pet rocks out in a row in front of the computer screen so they can read what's going on. That's it. Hello Rockies! You are looking every bit as lovely as I remember you my darlings....pampered, petted and proud of your owners, and getting all your own way too, I see. It's good to see you have found yourselves someone loves you as much as me.
For those of you who did not attend, we had a lovely sentimental ancestors' day last Saturday. Bigger crowds than ever, all weeping, watching the sun go down together over the shimmering horizon of the Blackpool sea remembering the olden days of the ancestors. Last year we all stood on the edge of Undergrowby pond in a weed patch in the middle of nowhere. No wonder more of us turned up this year. More of the ancestors turned up too, judging by the spectacularly twinkly sky ( where they now live, of course, in High Heaven with the angels and other Invisibles). I think they are going to like us being in Blackpool now, because with all that sky, they can really spread out. They can sit on the edge of the clouds in the sun and watch the holidaymakers playing with their pet rocks on the beach. I can't help wondering if this move to Blackpool might be a heavenly ancestral retirement plan, as much for themselves as for us here down below.
Anyway, having paid our respects to the ancestors, they will send us fabulous great good fortune in the year to come, as they always do. We Growbies and our magic pets are very lucky creatures by nature, and now you, who are connected to us in the world-famous Rubble Club can be sure you will be lucky too, as long as you join in all the magical happenings, like my lucky club competitions for instance. So watch out for the next one, Rubble Clubbers!
What's the weather like for you and your wonderful little pets, Rubblers? If your pet rocks are living indoors all the time, they will be missing the changes of weather that they once knew when they lived in the wild, and you might be wondering what to do about it. Well, when you have a collection of pet rocks as big as mine, you can't fit them all on the windowsill to watch the clouds roll by, so you have to be creative in your thinking. My tip is this...paint them a few little pictures of different sky weather patterns and stick a different one on the wall next to them every day, like I do. Deep down they will know it's not real, but it will show you understand what they are going through, and are doing your best to make them happy.
They will be having little guessing games with each other about what the weather will be doing tomorrow. They call it 'the weather forecast game'. There's no need to worry that it might encourage gambling, Rubble Clubbers, because they have no money after all. If they had, they would save it for a rainy day, like the wise little creatures that they are. I have noticed, however, that they are very fond of those tiny shells used to decorate their sandcastles. No sooner do I stick them in place, I find them dropped off onto the floor of the sand-pit in a heap. Perhaps they are being used for counters in some game they have dreamed up. They are such clever little chaps, aren't they?
My parlour is getting very full today. There are faces I have not seen in long time, no doubt they had their consciences pricked by the Ancestors' Day remembrances last week.
I might have to abandon the Rubble Club entrance in a minute and catch up on the gossip from Wanderella Windmeddler, chief wand-maker of the Magic Wand Factory of the Wandmakers' Forest. There isn't much in the way of trees here in Blackpool, so the Wandmakers' Forest has turned out to be more like a shrubbery. She has been planting tree seeds as fast as she can but none of them have sprouted yet. I wonder if she has found herself a new apprentice yet? She's been looking for as long as I can remember. My daughter Minnie had a go at being her apprentice but she couldn't stand the racket from all those cuckoo clocks Wanderella has. She'll be very lucky if she finds anyone mad enough to stay there.

Yoo hoo! Wanderella! How's little Runey Runerock? Let me introduce him to some new little friends over there on the mantelpiece. He's looking for a new brother, I can tell, or perhaps a sister, or an auntie? Leave him there while he thinks about it, and come and have a nice rock bun and a cup of gravel tea with me while we catch up.

Well, Rubble Clubbers, I'm off to mingle with the membership. I'll speak to you again next week. I wish you and your little darlings a very happy, super-lucky week.
As ever, I am your faithful friend, encyclopedically knowledgeable pet rock expert and chairman, Madge Dumpling.