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In this bedtime story you explore the garden as a minature version of yourself
Suitable for all ages.
Narrated by Lucy Roslyn
Written by Tamer Asfahani
Music by Michael Hodgson
Produced by Magdoos Media Limited
© 2023 Magdoos Media Limited - All Right Reserved
★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★
Suitable for all ages.
Narrated by Lucy Roslyn
Written by Tamer Asfahani
Music by Michael Hodgson
Produced by Magdoos Media Limited
© 2023 Magdoos Media Limited - All Right Reserved
Creators & Guests
Host
Composer
What is Kids Bedtime Stories?
Relax and unwind with classic bedtime stories for kids. One of the best free bedtime story podcasts, perfect for those long trips and journeys with your kids.
British Podcast Awards Finalist 2024
Grounded
Snuggle down and cosy up, for tonight you explore the world of Grounded.
You wake to find yourself in what seems to be a cave of sorts. You're not far from the cave's mouth, which allows a strong beam of sunlight in, illuminating the interior. You can feel its warmth as you get up and make your way to the opening. The light is so intense it almost blinds you, and you find it hard to make anything out beyond the cave's mouth. As you step out of the cave and into the sunlight your eyes quickly adjust and the blurs of colour start to take form.
You are surrounded by very tall flat and thin green leaves. There are massive smooth rocks around you and recognise some of the plants you can see - but they're all very, very large. You're very confused, and for a moment think you're on an alien planet. You realise you are in a garden, but you are tiny. The tall green leaves are in fact blades of grass, and the smooth rocks are pebbles. You notice the massive plants are in fact weeds and you're able to identify the dandelions, nettles and thistles. You know, at normal size, these plants would be painful, so you make sure you are careful as you approach them.
As you're so small, you realise the thistles pose you more danger. They are very sharp and very strong. If you were to walk into them, you'd graze and cut yourself.
You walk away from the thistles, past the nettles and towards the dandelion. You want to climb up to get an idea of your surroundings. The grass gets much denser no matter where you look, so getting a high vantage point might give you some idea of where to go or what to do.
The dandelion is further away than you initially thought. You're thankful its flower is so big and bright, acting like a beacon amongst the undergrowth of the grass. There are other dandelions too in different stages of their growth cycle. You can see a puff-ball dandelion, one that you used to blow and watch the seeds disperse, like daylight stars in the warm summer sun. You make a note of where the puff-ball dandelion is and as you get closer you notice it sits close to the yellow flower of the dandelion you're heading towards.
You approach the base of the dandelion flower and marvel at its size. It's as tall as a tree, with the leaves growing from the ground up, cascading one on top of the other, creating a stairway to the bright bloom of the flower. You are tempted to climb up straight away, but you think it would be wise to just make sure the leaves can take your weight. As you lean on the first leaf, you hear a rustling sound and quickly turn around. You know, at this size, all insects could be a threat. What may usually be harmless - like a beetle or an ant - could pose problems. You hope, that by staying calm, you're able to deal with whatever comes out of the grass. You wait patiently, listening carefully. Before long some feelers come poking through the blades of grass, followed by what seem to be large gardening shears. Through the grass you can hear more shuffling before a huge head pushes out. You're terrified. It has huge crab-like pincers coming out of its face, huge white and black eyes and it's hairy! Your brain tells you it’s an insect! You had no idea insects, other than bees, had hair or fur. You stay perfectly still, holding on to the first leaf of the stairway with a tight grip, ready to climb to the top if you are threatened. You remember that this is not your world, but the insects' world and you must respect the garden and their habitat in order not to disturb the fragile ecosystem.
As the insect fully emerges from behind the grass curtain, you recognise it’s a ladybird. These beautiful creatures are one of your favourites. Their spots and colours vary and you’ve always known how important they are to gardeners as natural predators of pests. You take comfort in your knowledge, but you're still nervous. You've never seen a ladybird the size of a bull before so you are still cautious. You slowly climb the dandelion until you're standing higher than the ladybird. It continues walking, and you can hear what seems to be chatter as it passes. It pauses, its feelers scouting the air, before bumbling along. You realise it means no harm and you know it's looking for aphids or greenfly as that is its primary diet. At your normal size, ladybirds look so elegant and peaceful, but at this size you notice they're more clumsy than you thought, bumping and knocking into everything in their way. Now you're not threatened by the ladybird, you sit down and watch it disappear into the grass. It's a beautiful ladybird, with three spots on each side. It has a deep red colour, and the spots are as black as the darkest of nights. You can clearly see the dividing line down its back that houses the delicate wings. And the shine from its shell is incredible as it walks through the sun-drenched garden; its reflection is as clear as the stillest water, and you notice there’s a slight glitter to it. It's mesmerising and you stare until it disappears back into the forest of grass.
You continue climbing the dandelion and you reach the top with ease. To your surprise, the puff-ball dandelion is a lot closer than you had first observed, and it blocks your view of part of the garden.
Not far from where you are there is a structure that seems to have neatly, and perfectly straight, pieces of grass poking out, as if protecting it. And just over the top of the blades you think you can see smoke... but it can't be; it must just be dust being kicked up from the insects wandering about the garden. But it's black smoke, not tan or brown as you'd expect from dirt and dust. Although it looks close by, you've understood that things are not as close as you perceive them to be, especially as you are now so small. You know it will take you some time to walk there. Then you remember the puff-ball dandelion. You know, from playing Grounded, that you can use this as a glider of sorts. Luckily, you know that the dandelion stem is hollow, but has a very stringy outside. You can see that there is a thistle almost touching the stem. You know that the stem would be easily pierced. You rock the dandelion back and forth, hoping not to knock too many of the seeds off the puff ball until the thistle pierces the dandelion's stem. It's now stuck, so you gently push the stem, trying to saw through it enough for you to potentially snap it off. You want to get it hinging before you use it to glide across the grass-tops.
After a little while, you succeed in getting the dandelion puff-ball dislodged enough for you to use. Although you've been working to this goal, you suddenly realise that you're quite high up. You had not noticed this until now, and all of a sudden you feel queasy and nervous. You forget, at your size, that even if you did fall, you wouldn't injure yourself in the same way as if you were your normal height. You remember learning about this in school, how the smaller you are, the greater your air resistance - which means you don't fall as fast. This, you've been told, is why insects are fine if they drop from a great height. Even though you remember this, you're not convinced, and don't want to test the theory.
You continue to hesitate. You know you would take this risk in a game, but you are not as confident as you thought you would be. As you contemplate your next move, you can feel the air around you vibrate. It's a weird sound, and feeling, and you start to feel it in your body. It reminds you of the feeling and sound a helicopter would make as it flies over. Before long you feel a breeze picking up, and the sound is getting closer, but also it's starting to sound more and more like a buzzing. You turn around to see a huge wasp making its way around the flowers that surround you. It won't be long before it heads your way, and there is no way you're going to wait for it to come near you - it's the size of a car!
You grab the dandelion stem, run and launch yourself into the air. You close your eyes as you leap, expecting to feel a fast drop down. Instead, you feel a slight swaying from left to right. It doesn't feel like you're moving other than the swaying motion. You know you're not on the dandelion anymore as your feet aren't touching anything. You slowly open your eyes and notice you're soaring above the grass and away from the wasp - towards the smoke you saw earlier. With the gentle breeze, you are being dragged a little bit off course, so you lean to one side to adjust your trajectory and find that it's quite easy to manoeuvre this natural glider. Your weight is enough to keep it stable, and give you the pull you need to slowly descend to the ground. As you notice yourself losing height, you observe what seems to be a fence of grass blocking whatever is making the smoke. The closer you get, the more you notice, and before long you land next to the camp.
You follow the grass fence around to a small opening and squeeze through.
The grass fence surrounds and encloses the small clearing you find yourself in. You're amazed to see an open fire burning underneath a leaf shelter. Next to it are what appear to be beds made from twigs and lined with dried grass, topped with the softest moss you've ever seen. Looking to the other side you notice a huge weblike structure, before realising it is, in fact a web. Under normal circumstances, you'd be worried about a spider's web so close to you, but you know from playing the game, that this web is a dew catcher that would have been built by whomever had built the camp. It's heavy with dew and the spider silk looks as though it's going to snap any moment - but you know it's very strong.
You start to recognise other elements in the camp, like a number of chests that are probably used to keep resources and tools. You also notice a workbench and a number of pebbles, bits of grass and grass rope messily lying around. You realise there is something cooking on the fire and it's close to burning. Instinctively you quickly take whatever is cooking off the fire before it turns to cinders. It’s hot, and heavy, and you don’t know how long you can hold it for, but there is nowhere to put it! The ground is strewn with planks of grass, grass rope, pebbles and is in general disarray. You know that this mightn’t be how the campers left it – after all, the camp is exposed to the elements and gets messy when no one‘s around to clean it.
You remember you're still holding whatever was cooking and it’s getting heavier. You notice a clean blade of grass at your feet and pick it up quickly. Wrapping the food, you put it to one side, next to the fire so it's easy to see.
You decide to tidy up the camp - you're not sure when the campers will be back, but hope they appreciate a clean camp on their return.
You begin by collecting the pebbles scattered on the floor and they’re heavier than you anticipate. You also notice a few shoots of weeds poking through and pull them out with your bare hands. They’re as thick as saplings and pulling them out requires great effort. Luckily there are only two or three, and you make quick work of them.
After collecting the grass, rope, pebbles and taking up the weeds, you pile your hoard neatly by the fire, make sure the drier pieces of grass are further away so they don't ignite.
The last of your jobs is to collect the water from the web - and a good thing too as you're thirsty. You know how important it is to collect water here, so you're grateful there is enough for you to be able to quench your thirst. Before you start, however, you admire the perfect shape of the dew drops and the way the light playfully sparkles through, creating shadows and rainbows within the droplet itself.
You carefully collect the dew drops - each one big enough for you to immerse half your body in - and slurp the rest directly from the web. The water is unbelievably refreshing and sweet and you are satisfied and content.
The camp is a lot neater now and the resources are safely collected and you know you'd be happy with coming back to a nice camp. You contemplate exploring further, but your legs and arms are heavy. The day's adventures have seen you wake from the dark, climb to the light and fall back down to the ground again. You've experienced insects up close and in a whole new way. You’ve discovered the majesty of the garden ecosystem walking amongst the incredible insects as if you were one of them.
You notice a soft patch of moss, unused, by the grass fence behind the fire and between the pile of pebbles you'd collected earlier. It's inviting. You make your way over and make yourself comfortable, hoping you can stay awake long enough to meet the builder or builders of this camp. You lay back and recount the day’s events, as the sky supports a sagging sun as it retreats to the horizon.
You're tired now.
As the sun drops, your eyes drop with it - it's hard to resist the urge to keep them open. You slowly close your eyes and drift away, awaiting your next adventure.