Dear readers,

Our preamble will be brief, since we’re attempting to disempreambulate our writing. There has been much posted to Facebook/Twitter since our last blog post, far too much to cover here, much of it delightful and entertaining. There have been many art discoveries that probably merit another post or two, notable Disney things, new hats, and many dozens of other fascinating things of great note we’ve written about elsewhere. One notable thing was the discovery of old family photos from WW I from an ancestor in the 151st Flying Hedgehogs.

Also, here are a couple of the hats.

Rather than bore you with with catching up on all that (which you still can catch up on by visiting Facebook/Twitter), we’ll just begin our story with a picture with words under it.

One day, very recently ago, Princess Pricklepants was sitting in her room chatting with Monkey.

“So Monkey, what are we going to do today?”

“Ooh ooh, ah ah”

“Blast it! I don’t want to do music lessons!”

Her Highness was not entirely pleased to learn that she had to practice music. While she enjoyed many things, her time with music practice wasn’t always one of those things. Nevertheless, duty called.

She set out her flute and music stand and started off into space, hoping she might be able to just stand there for a while and somehow call it done. Surprisingly, this didn’t work.

“Princess, time to get to practicing.”

Her Highness decided to hide under the desk and hope nobody would find her until such a time as everyone forgot about music practice and she could enjoy a nice cup of tea and read Hedgehog Art Through The Ages once more, since it somehow got better every time she read it. Surprisingly, this didn’t work.

She decided to stand and sniff the flute, thinking this might constitute practice. Boris dropped by to offer some words of encouragement.

“Your Highness, are you familiar with the Myth of Sisyphus?”

“No.”

“It’s the story of a man condemned to push a rock up a hill every day only to find it back at the bottom. It’s a metaphor for the… Something. It’s about why we have to do tedious things we don’t like. Be like Sisyphus and press on.”

“Those were not words of encouragement.”

“Perhaps it’s a metaphor for punishment and suffering then.”

Jane the Cow Accountant and Bessie the Generic Cow came in to give a pep talk. Her Highness attempted to sneak off to return the lovely space under the desk. She crouched so that she would be invisible.

The crouch of invisibility seemed to work since she also ran very quickly. Under the desk everything made sense. It was the best of all possible spaces under a desk. She tried to crouch a bit so she could continue to be invisible while lingering in sublime sub-desk perfection. Puzzlingly, she was still quickly discovered.

Back in the practice room, Jane and Bessie blocked the way to the desk, which Her Highness looked at forlornly. The alluring space under the desk still beckoned to her, like destiny calling.

“Do you suppose I could sit quietly and read a Music History book instead? Dr. Petunia Pricklebottom’s ‘Pointed Notes: A History of Hedgehog Music’ is highly acclaimed and would be quite edifying to a young hedgehog princess’s musical education.”

“No.”

“Say, I think there might be something under the table. I should check into that. Could be important.”

“Ignore it. Just practice.”

“Oh, but it’s… There is something there. This is just too important.”

She checked under the table. There wasn’t much there, but it was still very lovely to be under any furniture, and it brought her closer to the Desk of Wonder. Unfortunately along the way she inadvertently tipped a cow, Bessie, who was distraught.

Back in the practice room there was much discussion of the value of practice, the importance of persistence, and the inappropriateness of tipping cows. Her Highness listened, and agreed, and tried very hard to practice. Unfortunately, she had an idea.

She realized that if she were to crouch low enough, then she would be invisible, which was exactly the thing she needed to reach the desk.

It seemed to work pretty well. Very hard to notice.

But for some reason, it didn’t take long before she was noticed. The cows attempted to stage an intervention.

Jane explained that all this escape artistry and delaying was just wasting time since she would have to practice at some point.

Bessie explained that crouching did not make one invisible. Also if cow-tipping were to occur again there would be Consequences.

In the practice room, Her Highness decided to spend a short while beholding the bust of J. S. Bach in order to gain sufficient inspiration.

She was inspired to check in the corner where the somewhat objectionable lamp was.

She then decided to check under the music stand, in case there was any inspiration there. She didn’t find any.

She returned to the lovely, inspiring, alluring spot under the desk. This was the place she truly wanted to remain forever. A small amount of cow tipping occurred on the journey, but she hoped it wouldn’t be noticeable.

Unfortunately, the cow tipping was noticed, and Bessie, the tipped cow, fully blocked any possible exit, leaving her forced to face the flute.

And so, after a few minor distractions, she got to practicing Bach’s Flute Sonata in E Minor, which was lovely. Once she got playing, it was really quite fun. After she’d played for an hour and a half, it was time to practice calligraphy. Her Highness was not entirely pleased to learn that she had to practice calligraphy. While she enjoyed many things, her time with calligraphy wasn’t always one of those things. So she decided to hide under the desk.

Stay tuned, Princess Pricklepants and Somehow More Hedgehog Art Through The Ages will be coming soon to a blog near you. While we enjoy many things, our time with blog posts isn’t always one of those things, and there is the great distraction of that alluring space under the desk. But we’ll try to get to it soon.