Buster's Claws Old Jack's Boat

Hello, there. How are you today?

Salty and I have a tale or two to tell you about this beach

and the rock pools

and all the magical things that have happened here.

# Come with me, we're off to the sea

# To where I used to play

# Looking back when I was a boy and the fun we had each day

# Over the cobbles and through the streets

# Playing in the sun

# Friends to meet with games and treats

# Adventures just begun

# Stories from a magical world Washed in by the sea

# Meet the rockpool creatures there It's amazing what you see

# Looking back when I was a boy

# Shrimps and starfish Crabs and snails

# In twinkly Rockpool Tales

Ha-ha-ha-ha!

# Those lovely Rockpool Tales. #

TOOT!

Oh, hello! Look at Salty.

You are looking a bit untidy, Salty.

You need a haircut. You're starting to look like a hairy monster.

Ha-ha-ha! Yes!

I'll tell you a story about a time

when my friend Ernie looked like a hairy monster.

Yeah. It all happened when I was a boy.

In a twinkly time, long, long ago.

Ha-ha!

I used to run down to the beach as often as I could.

Meeting up with my best friends, Little Ernie and Little Sailor Sue.

One day, Little Ernie had a stick

and he was drawing something in the sand.

-Who is it?

-It's me.

You need some curly hair.

Then Sailor Sue had a good idea.

She scooped up some clumps of seaweed and she arranged them

around the smiley face in the sand.

"Now you've got hair, Ernie."

And we all laughed,

because the drawing of Ernie looked a bit like a sea monster.

Ha-ha-ha!

And then Ernie picked up some seaweed and chased us.

"I'm a sea monster!"

And he gave a sea monster roar. "Rar-rar-rar-rar-rar-rar!"

Ha-ha-ha-ha!

Oh, yeah, that woke you up, didn't it? Yeah.

With a hoot and a holler,

we dashed off to the rock pools with Ernie chasing us and laughing.

And when we got there, we settled down beside a pool.

And as we gazed deep down into the glittery waters,

a magical world appeared before our eyes.

Sally the Starfish and Andrew the Anemone woke up

to find lots of pebbles and sticks

scattered all over the sandy bed of the rockpool.

And seaweed, lots and lots of seaweed, washed in by the tide.

Bertrum popped his head out of his home and looked around.

"Been a storm last night," he sniffed.

At that moment, a piece of seaweed landed on him.

"Bertrum's got a moustache," laughed Sally.

"That is not funny," said Bertrum,

as he slipped on a piece of slippery seaweed.

And, whoosh! He landed in the sand.

Andrew and Sally checked to see if he was all right.

"I'm fine," replied Bertrum.

"We need to clear up this slippery seaweed

"before there are any more accidents."

Well, Sally and Andrew looked at each other and decided

that it was best to go and see Reginald the Great Wise Limpet.

He would know what to do with all this seaweed.

So off they went.

Just then, Bertrum heard a familiar clicky sound.

Clickety-clickety-click!

Can you remember which rockpooler makes a clicky sound?

Can you remember, Salty?

Yeah, that's right, yes. Buster the Crab.

Well, Buster looked around at all the pebbles

and the sticks and the seaweed.

"Can I be of any help?" he asked.

"Yes," said Bertrum. "Could you pick up some pebbles?"

"Gotcha," said Buster.

And he clicked and clacked away to pick up the pebbles.

But every time he tried to pick up a pebble in his big claws...

Bing!

..the pebble whizzed out and landed in the sand.

So he clicked and clacked back over to Bertrum.

"Is there anything else I could do?" he asked.

Bertrum thought for a moment.

"How about gathering up sticks?"

So Buster had a go.

He clicked and clacked over to a pile of sticks

and tried to pick them up in his claws.

But, with a snap-snap-snap, they kept breaking in two.

By the time he'd finished, oh, dear,

there were more sticks than when he'd started.

Buster sighed.

"With these snippy claws of mine, I'm not much help, am I?"

"Mmmmm," said Bertrum, who bustled away to tidy up.

Meanwhile, Andrew and Sally had travelled through

the long, floaty fingers of seaweed

to find Reginald the Great Wise Limpet.

But he was looking very, very different from usual.

"Huh-blee-blop-blup-blee-blobble," said Reginald.

Yeah, I know, I know, Salty,

it doesn't sound like the normal Reginald, does it? No, it doesn't.

Well, there's a reason for that.

The storm had completely covered Reginald in seaweed.

CHILDREN GIGGLE

He looked like a hairy, green sea monster who really needed a haircut.

"Reginald, are you all right?" said Andrew.

"Huh-blee-blop-blup-blee-blobble," said Reginald.

It was very hard to hear him under all that seaweed.

Andrew and Sally took this to mean, "Please get this seaweed off me."

So they splashed over to Reginald

and they each took an end of seaweed.

"Hold tight," said Andrew.

They gave an enormous tug.

"Huh-blee-blop-blup-blee-blop!"

They both fell backwards.

"It's a really slippery problem," said Sally.

So they tried again.

But with a mighty, Jup!

they flipped up in the air and flopped into the rockpool.

Splosh!

They sank all the way to the sandy seabed

and landed right next to Buster.

"Hello," said Andrew.

"It's looking a bit better down here now.

"Did you help Bertrum tidy up?"

"I couldn't. These great, big claws

"are no good for anything apart from snipping.

"They're good at snipping.

"Does anyone need a snippety-snipper in the rockpool?"

That was when Sally had a good idea. A really good idea.

"I know somebody who needs a haircut," she said.

So Andrew and Sally took Buster to the surface of the rockpool.

"Huh-blee-blop-blup-blee-blop," said Reginald.

Buster smiled.

"No problem at all," he said.

Ha-ha! And he set to work.

He snipped at the seaweed with his claws.

Snip-snip-snip, they went.

"Buster's giving Reginald a haircut," laughed Andrew.

And with a final, Snip, snip, pop-pop-pop-pop,

Buster finished the job.

Reginald smiled a great, big smile.

"Thank you for my haircut," he boomed.

"Those claws of yours are extremely useful."

Well, Buster beamed with pleasure.

Just then, Bertrum popped up.

He looked at all the pieces of seaweed

from Reginald's haircut floating in the water.

"Oh, dear, more seaweed to clear up," he said.

"Not to worry," said Reginald.

"I think the rockpoolers can gather up the seaweed to play hairdressers.

HE CHUCKLES

And that's exactly what they did.

And Buster snipped away, giving them crazy, seaweedy hairstyles.

Whoo!

Buster smiled and smiled,

very happy with his extremely useful claws.

Ernie looked up from the rock pool.

Do you know what?

I'm going to give that sand drawing of mine a haircut.

So we all hurried away from the rock pool

and went to find Ernie's drawing on the beach,

but the tide had started to come in

and Ernie's drawing looked very different.

The seaweed's been washed away!

The sea has given you a haircut!

"I know," said Ernie.

"Let's go and draw faces further up the beach,

"away from the water."

I think we'll use pebbles for hair this time.

So we left Ernie's drawing to be slowly washed away by the sea,

and we played and played until the waves came in

and covered the rock pool like a great seaweedy blanket.

Right, come on, Salty, we'll go for a run around the beach

and then we'll get you booked in for a haircut.

Why don't you join us for some more Rockpool Tales next time? All right?

Hm-hm-hm! Goodbye.

Come on, girl! That's it! Come on!