Erato, Thalia, Criss, Lil' DD, ToriCat, Innocent Waif, Brittany of narnia, JsBabe, WsBabe, Lady Songbird SK Elf, Melinda, Dusty Rose of Narnia and Des

Greetings all! Last week our spring cleaning of the Jesters' closets proved so successful, we decided to bring along a number of intriguing objects that Erato found while rummaging among a pile of goodies that mysteriously appeared following the annual clean-up of the Muse Quarters.

It was up to our guests to suggest which Sister might have left the object and what she might have used it for.

The first object was a purple mushroom container (Sunset Sprite's Shroom Carryall) which sparked all kinds of interesting ideas: a container for Fred (as it smelled a little fishy); a container for fish food; a container for cat food (plug your ears Fred - assuming fish have ears); a Bon Bon container (good for smuggling them into Quarters!). One guest remarked that since it was purple and smelled like socks it might have been left behind by Caelum during one of his visits. Dear me!! Other theories included a mage present to Mother despite (or perhaps because of) the odd colours. Apart from the Mother-blue stem, neither purple nor orange polka-dots are Mothers' favourites, but mages are colourblind according to one guest.

The next item was a pretty "pink" purse. That is to say, although it was unquestionably pink, which suggested it had been a present to Erato from Carnation Mage (!!), Erato stuck by the story that it was actually a faded red purse, having been forgotten in the sun by our sister Terpsie.

The 2004 Official Hallowe'en Basher sash sparked all kinds of theories: it had been worn by Urania so Onyx could find her in the dark (!); it had seen better days, i.e., before it had been used to clean the pond and/or all the smashed pumpkins following a spirited (so to speak) Muse Hallowe'en party (dear me!); or a checkered flag to wave between squabbling Sisters. My goodness! Theories aside, it was fun to reminisce about the time Mother dressed in pitch black robes and chased her daughters around the Muse Quarters in the dark, on one memorable Hallowe'en night .. <G>

The enormous mocha ice cream cone prompted more than one guest to have a taste - and although there were several ideas about who might have left it, the general consensus was that it belonged to Mother, who probably sits down to a large ice cream after we are all in bed (even though, perfect angels that we are, we never give her a moment's worry.) Nevertheless, as one guest pointed out, 5000 years of looking after nine daughters means that solitary, midnight quiet-time ice cream cone is very well earned indeed!

To me, the glorious row of sunflowers that Erato pulled from her bottomless pockets fairly sang of our baby Sister Poli - golden, carefree and youthful. However, our guests dreamed up a somewhat darker yarn - one that whispered of a sunflower-sheltered meeting spot for Melpy and Sunshine Mage, that he left to her upon his departure to the mountains. But the brokenhearted Melpomene could not bear to be reminded of their painful parting and so discarded them in a vain attempt to forget him. "There she weeps by night and day ..." ... There wasn't a dry eye in the Parlour, I tell you.

If there were tears prompted by the little Jester stool that was next, they were born of laughter, since clearly, it had been left by the Jesters in one of the many unsuccessful attempts to make it over the gate of the Muse Quarters. This was tactic number two, given that their earlier strategy (tunnelling beneath the gate) had introduced them to Mother's wrath (and her handy pocket anvil). We could not but help speculate that a single stool would not be enough of a boost for the likes of Riff Raff, TinBot or (heaven forbid!) Diaper Demon anyway.

With that it was nearly time to hang up the Robes for another week (upon Passion Fruit's antlers in Erato's case and Foamy's in mine) so we bade our guests a fond farewell with Melpomene's tree and an invitation to join us next week in the Morpheus Rose Garden East at 4 pm WAT for merriment in the Parlour!