Spring in the Mountain West: Asiago and the soot sprites

You may recall that while in Long Beach I refered to Asiago's antics. Here is the whole story:

We arrived at Jacob's house after a bridge tour. While dinner was being prepared by Janice, we went out back to watch the honeybees in the hives. It was a bit chilly and breezy for Long Beach and the bees seemed agitated. We went back inside. Immediately Totoro and Asiago found the heat register and sat there to warm their tushies that were chilled by that breezy cold wind.

They continued sitting there while we at curried chicken.

Sometime during our dinner, Asiago sneaks out of the house through the letter slot. Afraid he would get hurt, Totoro opened the peep hole window in the front door and he too snuck out, although not without some difficulty squeezing through the slats. Luckily, Totoros can make themselves invisible and he ghosted out the hole.

Totoro arr

ived outside just in time to catch Asiago falling out the letter slot. He asked, "Asiago why are you sneaking out? It is cold out here." Asiago instead ran into the garden and started laughing, singing and stamping his feet. He sang, "Soot sprites fly away, fly away. Little beezies want to play. No honey for you dirty little things." (For those of you who do not know what a soot sprite is, think of a dust bunny that has malevolent purposes. If you touch one they leave soot on you. They also will not endure singing and laughing.) As Asiago sang, Totoro understood why Asiago snuck out. But, Asiago had black soot all over his feet. He got into the japanese water jar fountain to clean his feet. Totoro sat below listening. "I like the sound of water falling" said Totoro.

Later Totoro used his magic to fly into the trees where he and Asiago played on their flutes.

All of this occured with out Jacob and I noticing. We were far too absorbed in our curry and conversations. As I got up to go to bed, only then did I notice the two tricksters were missing. We searched high and low. We looked in numerous book cases (Asiago likes to read), but to no avail. I gave up and said, "We will just have to wait until morning to find those rascals." Jacob then helped me get out an extension cord to plug in the Alaskan Camper to recharge its batteries. Only then, when walking around the garden to get to the truck, did we hear the sound of flutes and see two content friends up in the tree!

The next morning, Jacob was amazed at the transformation in his bees. They were calm and busy getting nectar from the flowers in the garden. Then a little bee came up to Jacob and told Jacob in his buzzy dance language that the garden had been invaded by soot sprites and it was Asiago's bravery that chased those mean little balls of dirty fluff away. The bees then came out as a mass. They sang a song of praise for Asiago and his portly assistant Totoro. They then offered a tub of honeycomb to Asiago which he loves in his milk for breakfast.

The photos below are not in the order of the story. It is your job to sort them out and match the photos with the story line.