With the compliments of the season ...

Illustration Friday - Excess

Guvverment Departments are increasingly relying on e-mail, and this has led to an excessive build up of  traditional post.

There's only one more of these subversive cartoons left to appear on here, and I'm hoping to get that all done and dusted very soon.

Here's another one ...

This is the second of a series of four.  Bureaucracy is causing me serious concern at the moment ...

Yet another ... erm ... mistake on the part of Guvverment Offishuls

Personal details of 25,000,000 people fail to arrive and are lost in the ether... the best we can hope for is that they've ended up in one of the rooms full of unopened mail which are another feature of guvverment departments!  Merging the Inland Revenue with Customs to create another unwieldy, overcentralised bureaucracy was a bit of a master stroke, but then getting 
rid of 25% of the staff required a level of genius worthy of Lewis Carroll!  Well done Gordon Browntrousers!

Anyway, I'm getting increasingly alarmed at the prospect of ID cards and am therefore fighting back in the way I know best;  here is the first of a series of postcards I'm designing for the NO2ID Campaign:

Illustration Friday - Superstition

Cecily was always very careful not to step on the cracks between paving slabs.  Someone at school had told her that the bears would get her if she did, and they may well have had a point.

Just a quick rant before I start thinking about Illustration Friday

On the ward at the hospital.  Art group going well.  Nurse comes up and says that the patients would like to do some Christmassy stuff in the coming weeks, and she's made a list:  paper chains, Christmas tree decorations, and can the cookery group make mince pies?  Great stuff.  I think up a few things of my own, too, and visualise a really fun display where the patients can participate, with all the benefits which this entails; and can see the results of their labours, with all the positive self-esteem which this entails; and all the team work which will really help them when they go back into the community.  Lovely jubbly.

Had meeting this morning with Head of Nursing Staff, who wanted to know our ideas for stuff we could do on the wards.  When I raise the above, she responds ' I'm not a party pooper, but' ... (had you noticed that when people say things like 'I'm not a stupid w****r, but ...'  THAT'S EXACTLY WHAT THEY ARE BEING?) Health and Safety won't allow that ... burble ... burble ... mutter ... mutter.  I'm waiting to hear back what won't be allowed by this dysfunctional organisation which has banned more activities than the Taliban ...

In the meantime, I've a good mind to get the patients to paint on the wall something along the lines of 'I hope you like this colourful display because that's all you're getting in the way of Christmas cheer because of the painful jobsworths at the HSE'.  I can see that some of the patients would probably enjoy the activity.

Ok, now who do you think REALLY has the mental health problem here?

P.S.  It's not me, now I've got that out of my system!

Illustration Friday - Scale

The musicians are practising their scales,  much to the horror of the robbers lurking inside the house.  (They sort of decrease in scale, too).

What do YOU call this game?

In the cartoon below, 'Jehovah's Agnostics', the characters are knocking on someone's door AND RUNNING AWAY.  When I was a kid, we called this game 'Knock Down Ginger';  Valerie Walsh has referred to it as 'Doorbell Ditch' - but there must be loads of regional variations.

So, all of you who are acquainted with this annoying practice (and, indeed, may have done it yourself!) - what do you call the game of knocking on the door and running away?

Illustration Friday - Hats

Here are some recent headlines:

'Heads roll in cost cuts at BBC'
'Heads roll in wake of US meltdown'
'Heads roll in Spanish finance scam'

All these rolling heads have led to a number of homeless hats. Here Francine is building up a collection.

Continuing to explore issues of religion and spirituality...

It's a very serious place, Puflet Palace. A place for in-depth political comment. A place where the future of the planet is fleetingly taken into consideration. And, above all, a place where the myriad paths to spiritual enlightenment can be explored ... stumbled upon ... you get a stone in your shoe ... etc.

Anyway, it can be useful to express these themes in a visual way, and so here's a picture:

More stuff that's been in the news ...

Further to obesity being as big a threat to the planet as climate change, I heard today that the population of the UK is growing at a rate which will endanger food supply by 2050.

My first response to the information that the population was growing was along the lines of 'Well, this isn't really news, is it, because the population would have to grow if we're to achieve our target of 50% obesity by 2050'. But then I realised that I had misinterpreted the message. Not that the population was growing, but that there would be MORE PEOPLE. And that there won't be enough food for them all.

But surely won't that solve the obesity problem ...?

(I cannot bring myself to use the term 'obesity time bomb' as the mental pictures this conjures up are too horrifying to contemplate.)

Illustration Friday - Trick or Treat!

The famous sculptor, Jack O'Lantern, is here shown crafting his ideal woman.  Now, is this a treat for him, or a trick designed to mislead his arch rival, Hal O'Weenlantern?

There is no truth in the rumour that he was inspired by the activities of Chris from the Raven Madness blog, who spends much of his time crafting ideal women.

This is what I dun at the weekend

I went to Audley End House with Chichi and Clare, whose links can be seen on the right hand side. The house is rather tremendous and they've got great gardens up there too. You can only see the house as part of a guided tour, and we got there ten minutes before the last one started. It was full. Actually, that was OK as there were so many people in the same situation that they fitted in an extra one. That was the good news.

However, it being the end of the season an' all that, they were 'putting the house to bed'. We were given a special tour of parts of the house not normally accessible to the public - servants' quarters and suchlike. Usually when you see rooms like this, they have furniture in and a 'mock-ups' of what the original places would have looked like. Not this time! No furniture, wallpaper hanging off in sheets, huge damp patches and large areas of missing plaster - in fact it looked semi-derelict. We did have a little chuckle about it - they might as well have
advertised the dustbins, skips and septic tank as bits that the public didn't normally get to see. It did make you realise what a mammoth task the maintenance of these properties must be, though.

Anyway, here's a pic of me and Chichi, taken by Clare, shortly before we were metaphorically kicked out the greenhouse!  (For those of you who have never met me, I'm the bigger one with the redder hair!)

Woo-hooo! We're starting to hit the streets!

This piece has been bought by Oxford Daily Information, which was quite nice because I've only just started sending this sort of stuff out to strangers, and this was my first 'shot'!

Right - onwards and upwards ... got some more very silly stuff to do ...

Illustration Friday - Grow!

Willie Winkie was really committed to personal growth;  here he is undergoing Cognitive Behaviour Therapy.

But the words of wisdom here expressed by young Willie originate from the (Vauxhall) astral traveller himself.

Unitarian Minister 'e say 'Yeeeeah'!!!

... so the cartoon below will be appearing on their website.  I'm wondering where their administrator will put it though ...

He's also interested in producing a set of six postcards/greetings cards along this line, which seems to me to be a rather healthy thing for a (notionally) religious organisation to be doing.  I have to say that researching all this stuff has been great fun;  one of my favourites is 'Unitarian Jihad'

Here's a quote from it:

Greetings to the Imprisoned Citizens of the United States. We are Unitarian Jihad. There is only God, unless there is more than one God. The vote of our God subcommittee is 10-8 in favor of one God, with two abstentions. Brother Flaming Sword of Moderation noted the possibility of there being no God at all, and his objection was noted with love by the secretary.

At Puflet Palace, we look at life, the universe and everything.

'A Unitarian very earnestly disbelieves in almost everything that anybody else believes, and he has a very lively sustaining faith in he knows not what.'

(Somerset Maugham)

This is a cartoon I have just sent to the Minister of the Unitarian Church at Kingswood, to put on their website.

Eek! And yike! Even scarier news ...

Listening to Radio 4 does nothing to help your feelings of being at one with the universe (or even at half-past-one with the universe - thanks Keith!).

Gordon Brown is now saying that he's turning his attention to dentistry.  If previous government initiatives are anything to go by, getting dental treatment really will be like pulling teeth ... and this against a background of people extracting their own molars with pliers, and sticking back errant crowns with superglue ... or maybe it's an initiative to abolish obesity by ensuring that nobody's able to eat on account of not having any teeth ...

Scary News

I heard on the news today (It was Radio 4, so it goes to show how serious it was)  - a guvverment announcement that obesity is now a greater threat than climate change.  They reckon that by 2050, half the adults in the UK will be obese.  Sorry ... but as big a threat as climate change? (You'd have to be VERY VERY obese to be that big!)

I can't see what function announcements like that have, other than to encourage overweight people who already have problems with self-esteem to feel even worse about themselves.

And, besides - what is the nature of the threat?  That the obese 50% of the population will sit on the other 50% and squash them?

Illustration Friday - Extremes!

Incy-wincy spider was very small, but her wide web was very effectively dominating the world!

This is a picture of my desktop

I've been tagged by Paula;  this time the purpose of the tagging, rather than revealing the secrets of your underwear drawer and other eccentricities, is to provide a screenshot of your desk top. And share it on your blog with the rest of the world!

To do this, you go to :  Print Screen (next to F12 key)
Open Potatoshop or other picture editing software
Paste the image
Save for web
Publish in normal way on blog.  If you like, you can offer an explanation as to why you have a picture of a Patagonian killer rat or exotic surgical equipment, or even so many icons that there isn't room for a background.

I'm offering no excuses or justifications for this one.  

Then you go and tag 5 friends;  mine have been chosen on the basis that they're likely to have interesting images:

Chichi Parish
Shaky Mouse
Fidget's Widgets
Widget's Seedpot
Raven Madness

Illustration Friday - OPEN

Well, maybe more along the lines of cyber anti-social behaviour, maybe.

The continued battle against cyber-crime ...

Illustration Friday - Blues

Cedric has already amassed a collection of blues;  now he's about to pick some complementary oranges.

How crime makes life INEFFICIENT

Sometimes I reflect on how much of my life is spent on security - you know, just making sure things are locked an' all that, because actually you can't trust your fellow human beings to leave you alone.

Computer security takes you to dizzying new heights of paranoia, though.  Again, I spend so much time deleting spam from my inbox;  I've got the 'message rules' bit set to dump these messages in the plop bucket.  I then end up checking the 'Deleted items' anyway, just in case something I need to see has been put in there.

A while ago there were five Trojans lurking in my virus vault, and I was obliged to seek advice as to their care.  Luckily I stopped them before they started working ...

And I've downloaded various bits of software which are supposed to protect you from Armageddon,  at which they are quite effective - by stopping any Interweb connection at all.

Anyway, to celebrate all these happenings, I'm starting on a series of illustrations. Here's the first one.

Illustration Friday - Juggle

It was a misread recipe for jugged hare which incidentally launched Gilbert's circus career.

This is what I've been doing today

I can't claim credit for the concept of being addicted to cold turkey;  no, that accolade belongs to a mad, bald Geordie with a blue Vauxhall Astra (with a guitar in the back).  The rest of it's mine, all mine though!

Apart from that, I've been preparing for an interview as an Occupational Therapy Technical Instructor.  They wanted me to prepare a timetable of activities for patients - who would be people with mental health problems, in an acute ward.  I sent my ideas to a friend of mine, who has lots of experience of this sort of thing (as an OT rather than a patient), for feedback.

One of my proposed items is spiritual practice, but by means of guided meditation rather than Bible readings, which aren't likely to be very helpful to any non-Christians or atheists.  She also pointed out that you never know how many Jesus Christs you'd already have in the room anyway!  

I'd forgotten how surreal working with this client group can be!

Blugger is trying out New Adventures

Is anyone else having this problem with Blogger?  It seems to have changed selected items in my profile into German.  It states my astrological sign as 'Krebs', which, if I remember correctly, is actually 'Cancer' rather than 'Scorpio'.  As a dedicated Scorpio, with Scorpio rising and Mars and Pluto also in this rather scuttly sign (nice to have an integrated personality I always think) I am somewhat perturbed about this, especially as the option to change it seems to have vanished.

Still, I guess that we're dealing with the unholy world of cyberspace so anything could happen ...

Illustration Friday - Wedding

The theme for this week is 'wedding', but due to a typographical error this one has come out as 'Weeding' and is a bit of a warning about remembering to wear strong gloves when you're weeding.

Plants can be very dangerous - this has been celebrated in literature by such works as 'The Day of the Triffids' and in music: 'Be Careful of the Flowers cos I'm sure they're Going To Get You', but you can see very clearly from this illustration that lots of planty-type things will bite back, given half a chance.

Certainly, when I trim my pyracantha hedge, it's usually a 1-1 draw, and it takes approximately the same length of time for the bits I've removed from IT, and the bits it's removed from ME, to grow back.

As a concession to the original theme given by IF, this pic at least has lots of white in it.  Sorry.

Today's the Day ...

An air of expectancy hangs over the neighbourhood.  Some have gathered together their worldly goods and placed them carefully in front of their dwellings at sunrise this morning;  some did so under the cover of darkness last night.  Offerings from gardens take their places beside the detritus of everyday life.  Recent happenings are recorded in newspapers and journals, yet these too are sacrificed.

The grey sky and total lack of wind add to the impression of stillness.  Yet this is not a tranquil stillness;  those who would flee the area have already done so.  Those who are not yet prepared are nevertheless aware that all routes from here may be blocked by the huge, all-consuming vehicles belonging to THEM - and shudder!

Yep, today's the day Worcestershire County Council send their recycling lorries round!

Falafel in the bathroom

Climbing radiators is a strangely pointless activity, but one which has brought pleasure to at least one small fluffy critter.  This is how it goes:

1)  Find a radiator.  Preferably a REALLY COOL one, or you burn your paws.



2)  Climb up the back of it, bracing yourself between the rad and the wall:



3)  Emerge



4)  Maybe one day I'll find a way out of this dratted bathroom, even if the climbing doesn't work:

Mervyn's taken up Ceroc!

Mervyn has graduated from Morris Dancing, where, to be honest, his inebriation did not cause him to stand out from the other practitioners.

He now appears at Ceroc classes.  'Hello', he will say to any lady newts who have not passed out through the alcohol fumes. 'Is thish yor firsht time here?' 'No!' the lady newt will reply. 'I've been here every day for the last six months, and danced with you long enough to have my nail varnish removed by the alcoholic fumes of your breath!'  'Oh good', he will respond.'Sshfootworkssh really tricky with thissssh one isshent it'.

Those of you familiar with Ceroc as a dance form may misinterpret his pose as a 'signal'.  It isn't. He's just trying to locate a wall against which he can lean, in order to look cool.  At least cooler than he would flat out on the floor.

Propaganda Machine

Falafel is a master of spin, and here's a picture of his propanda machine.  I thought you might be interested to see how his merry-go-round of a life actually functions.   Actually, he's in the bath at the moment.  
When I say this, I hasten to add that the bath hasn't actually got any water 
in it right now, but it does have his toys and things to play with while his storage crate is being cleaned out.  When I say storage crate, this is because he lives in a customised one rather than a cage.  He doesn't really do cages. Not the way they're meant to be done;  he would cheerfully spend all night gnawing on the bars given half a chance.

I don't use sawdust in his crate because it gets stuck in his long plumes;  shredded paper is much better, and this is a very good way to use sensitive information which might be useful to people who want to steal my identity.  If they really want to go through my bins and then stick together bits of paper generously laced with hamster wee ... well they're nearly as mad as I am, and are probably entitled to my identity.  I also found it was a strangely symbolic use of old tax returns.

I've done a website!

Yes!  I now have my very own website, with pictures and a history of me on and everything! Interested parties - who haven't already been pressured into 
checking it for bugs and fleas - can take a look here.

It was great fun and games building it, not least because I was obliged to do it all through Internet Explorer.  On my computer IE likes to shut down to have a cup of tea and a nap at regular intervals - usually when I'm in the middle of doing something which needs a lot of concentration.

I thought I might go out to play last weekend but then realised that if I did, I would go around obsessing about the ****** thing, so I might as well get on and finish it.  I find that I can get as hooked on things like this as lovesick people do on the object of their passions!

The Nursery Rhymes are finished, Keith Donnelly is off making the music to go with it, I'll have to write a covering letter with proper worms in, and then it's off!!!

Right, I'd better get on with clearing up the chaos I call a studio ...

Oooer ... I've been tagged ... twice ...!

Firstly, by Penny from Natural Attrill, and, secondly, by Chris from Raven Madness.  Links for both of these appear to the right.

I have to tag 8 other people. This is not compulsory, and if I have chosen you, and you don't fancy joining in, that is fine. Here are the rules:

1. Let others know who tagged you.

2. Players start with 8 random facts about themselves.

3. Those who are tagged should post these rules and their 8 random facts.

4. Players should tag 8 other people and notify them they have been tagged.


Anyway, my random facts are as follows:

1.  I used to do a lot of dancing and am still flexible enough to bite my own toenails.

2.  I am a stationery fetishist - I particularly like stripy paperclips.

3.  I HATE custard.

4.  I feel very uncomfortable when handling aluminium foil.  It makes my teeth jump.

5.  In shops at Christmas time, you get stands with lengths of tinsel in different colours draped over them.  I like to stroke these, surreptitiously.

6.  I am a size 10 gym-bunnie.

7.  My hamster has chewed a hole in his expensive, posh water bottle and I can't replace it.

8.  There is honey fungus in my garden.

Right ... off to pick my victims ...

Illustration Friday - Captain

The captain, or head honcho, of this army is none other than the Grand Old Duke (or god for short) of York.  His physique suggests that he feeds on a diet of soldiers rather than merely leading them.

Anyway, he's a very good argument in favour of socialism.

Wow! Doesn't time fly ...

And not just time, but here's a picture of some blackbirds flying:

 
This is also the chief explanation as to why it's been so quiet on here recently.  All my energies have been taken up with controlling characters like this:


Which at times has felt a bit like this:



And has been ...



... uphill all the way, and it's all the fault of:



But very soon, a dummy version of:



will be on its way to someone who will send it to someone else who might want to publish it.  

But I've got a couple more spreads to do first.

All good clean fun, but so consuming of time and little paint brushes.  And thanks to everyone who's been on here in the last month or so ... please don't go away!

This is how Falafel's doing, these days

Falafel's plumes are coming along very nicely;  they quickly turn into dreadlocks if I don't brush him every day, but otherwise he's very proud of them.  I hesitate to take photos of him, because he gets upset by the flash - I caught him mid-wash here, but he still doesn't look very happy about it.

Illustration Friday - Geeky

This is a doodle inspired by Leonard of Quirm, who features from time to time in the Discworld novels.  Actually, I suspect that Leonardo da Vinci bore more than a passing resemblance to Professor Braynstawm ...

Some of this would be funny if it wasn't true.

I've just been reflecting on the craziness and absurdity of recent events ... imagine being the traffic warden who towed away the car packed with explosives because it was illegally parked.  Poor guy - I wouldn't like to be having his nightmares - but if this incident had happened in a Tom Sharpe novel it would have been hilarious.  To me, it has the same absurd quality as the condemnation of the shooting of Juan Carlos di Menezes on the grounds of Health and Safety legislation.

I see that 'The Satanic Verses' has recently hit the headlines again.  I'm not qualified to judge whether Rushdie should have been knighted on literary grounds.  I will say, though, that I am the only person I know who has read 'The Satanic Verses' from cover to cover.  When it was first published I was so effronted by the demands made by (a few) Muslims that I wrote to the then Home Secretary about the issue of free speech.  Then I read the book.  I have to say, it isn't an easy read, and it took some doing.  Never one to quit,  I ploughed on regardless.  

The supreme, supreme irony in all this is that the main themes are the problems faced by migrant communities, and I ended up feeling very compassionate towards well, not only Muslims, but all immigrant communities to hit these shores.  I certainly hadn't anticipated this!!!

The point is that any controversy is not about the book - very few people seem to have read it, and many of the people involved in the riots of the 1980's were illiterate anyway -but more about the clash of two value systems.  And while both sides are 
convinced that they are 
right while the other is wrong - the clash will continue.

And look - Blugger was obviously starting to get bored with this post and has decided to do its 
own thing with the layout - just for fun!

Ignore no-mobile-phones notices at your peril; the coloured version.

This piece is actually for the Cheltenham Illustration Awards (thought I'd better make that clear, cos if I put CIA this may be misleading), and the brief was 'Cautionary Tales'.

Well, I finished the piece, scanned it and then tried unsuccessfully to print it out last night.  The printer obliged with the top 2" (approximately), and then printed out loads of gibberish, similar to those spam emails you get from Eastern Europe, on the next few sheets.  Until I removed all the remaining pieces of paper before it could get to them.

However, the noble printer obligingly obliged, this morning.  Then I heard there was a postal strike, so I ended up taking the stuff down to Cheltenham myself.  Problem is, once it gets into the postal system it could stay there for 30 years, for all I know, and there's no guarantee that this illustration would be relevant to future themes when it eventually gets there!

Though there is a lot going on here, and I dare say it could have tenuous links to all sorts of things ...

Following on from the 'Cars' post ...

I heard on the news today that there are thousands of drivers out there, ostensibly with full licences, who are actually NOT QUALIFIED TO DRIVE.  This is because they have hired criminals to sit their tests for them.  Some of these criminals have taken 200 tests, impersonating someone else;  apparently one of the reasons for this scam is that lessons and tests are so expensive these days  that it's actually much cheaper to hire someone to do the test for you.

I have several reactions to this.  Firstly, there are drivers out there with totally bona fide licences who are B****Y dangerous, and shouldn't be let loose near anything with more than one wheel.

Secondly, I am filled with admiration for the criminals.  All the blood, sweat and tears which went into me passing one test (I'm not telling you how many goes it took.  Suffice to say it took more than one.  And if you're supposed to have one driving lesson for every year of your age, I'd have been drawing my pension for years and years.)  But these people have passed 200!!!!! I think that's something of an achievement in itself.

Anyway, I expect some of these characters feature in my illustration below ...

Illustration Friday - Rejection

Cripes - it's been a long time since I put anything on here.  Basically because I've had a life transplant in the last couple of weeks!

Anyway, here's a picture to persuade to you not to use mobile phones in prohibited areas.  They have your best interests at heart, these warning signs!

Cosmetics gone mad!

People on the web have been noticing that cosmetics have got strange ingredients in them, which, on the face of it, have nothing to do with their purpose.  Some are listed here.

Amazingly, look what I've managed to find!  The existence of a preparation containing roast marmoset and charcoal, as detailed in Elizabeth's Journal, does seem a bit far fetched.

But did you realise that you could get this stuff at Somerfield?  You might need to click on the image to see it clearly!

I'm not sure if it's meant to make you look like a meerkat.  Maybe the charcoal is to give you the dark bits round the eyes.

Illustration Friday - Cars!!!

It can be very dangerous when dogs chase cars, and this brave police sergeant is doing his best to stop the mayhem ...

Another reconstruction drawing of Avebury

As you will have noticed, the people on this one look rather different to the ones on the first reconstruction.  This is because their culture is slightly later, but not much.

Some text will be going into the empty space at the bottom.

Sketchbook thingies - sketches, even.

I'm getting concerned about the lack of posts on here.  Chris from Raven Madness has kindly sent me the script for the travelling clock you will have met on here, but that doesn't really count.

I'm working on another Avebury reconstruction, but although it should be finished tonite, I can't scan it until tomorrow on account of not having an A3 scanner.  (note:  don't try to scan A3 artwork on an A4 scanner in two bits and then try to join them together.  It'll make you cry.)  It's in colour, but just to whet your appetite, here are sketches of some of the characters in my latest pic.

If you're not sure whether the last thing - the one with four legs - is a 
sheep or a goat, this is entirely appropriate because they were very very 
similar in neolithic times. 

New Look Blog!

I've always been meaning to explore the 'customise' bit of Blogger, which is quite good fun because you can change all the colours and stuff, and it's much easier to add links.

However, there's always a down side.

It's like with cameras.  I used to have a Samsung AF1050 Zoom.  It was brilliant - loads of manual overrides, you could take multiple exposures and do all sorts of messings.  This was in the days before I had Photoshop.  I lost this camera in a burglary, and it was replaced by the 'up-to-date' version, which had none of the versatility of the supposedly inferior one and I've never got on with it.  It was a great relief to get the digital camera.

The downside with this new, user-friendly version of the Blogger layout is that it won't accept the HTML which I used to put in to create the really tacky, hot-glittery headline which greeted visitors to this blog.  I feel rather put out about this, but I'll survive.

In the meantime, you might be interested to know that the headline is done in a font which I created myself.  It's called 'Herbert' and if you look closely enough it does indeed appear to have been nibbled by a hamster.

Falafel's Plumes

Falafel isn't sure whether he's a long-haired hamster or not - he's always been really fluffy, but he's recently started growing these really luxuriant plumes.  Some of them preserve his modesty, but he's also got two really nice tufts which grow from his flanks, which you can see quite clearly here.

Personal Trainers

When I go to the gym, which is very frequently, I am always struck by the number of posters around the place which advertise 'Personal Trainers'.

I thought that people might be interested to see my personal trainers, and here is a photo of them.

The white markings document the process of painting my studio white (it had previously had two different types of wallpaper - not bad for a room measuring approximately 2'6" x 3'6"!).  These can therefore be viewed in the same spirit as the spatters in a Jackson Pollock masterpiece.

You will also notice that the toe bit on the left one is parting company with itself.  This is where it gets caught on something in my car when I take my foot off the clutch, which is something I do even more frequently than going to the gym in the first place.

I'm not sure if 'Personal Trainers' are supposed to put up with a lot of grief and punishment, but these guys certainly do ... many thanks to the pair of them ...

Putting together a REALLY LARGE rockery!

Here is a sort-of reconstruction drawing of Avebury!  We know very little about these people, which is why I've made my piece look a bit spaced out.  I have seen reconstruction drawings with really terrible figure work, which purported to be 'deliberately stylised, to show how little we really know about them'.  I felt that it was nicely symbolic that this piece should have been finished today, being Beltane an' all that, but I'm too tired right now to think of 
anything to put at the top.  In any case, it will only be a short paragraph - the end result of weeks and weeks of research!

And I see Blugger has ideas of its own as regards my layout - as usual!

Oh, and by the way, I've noticed that Falafel is getting plumes - I hope to put a picture up here soon, as they're getting more and more spectacular!

Anybody know what the builders of Avebury looked like?

Apparently the inhabitants (or rather, the dead people) in a nearby long barrow had long skulls, high cheekbones, almost Amerindian in appearance.  Archaeologists reckon they were more likely to be dark than Nordic, so here's my first go at an Avebury sort of person.

Anyone recognise him?

Here is a picture of my new hamster

This is Falafel;  I bought him from a pet shop, and I don't trust these people to be able to tell boys and girls apart.  I chose a unisex sort of name on purpose, but this little fella was in a cage marked 'Female Syrian Hamsters'.  Later, when I saw him carefully licking what were definitely male naughty bits, I realised that my lack of confidence was totally 
justified.

I combed his fur with a toothbrush before taking the photo (not the same one that I use to clean my teeth, I hasten to add), so he looks all neat and smart for the camera.  He was very well behaved while I did this;  Herbert would not have tolerated this kind of treatment in a million years, so it was just as well that she had short hair.

(By the way, for any readers not familiar with my hamsters, Herbert was a female hamster sold to me as a male.  I wonder if pet shop staff know where babies come from ...)