They're back! My lodgers are back!

Birds and other small critters have their own agendas, their own views on property and territory - and they aren't the teensiest bit interested in ours. Well, I've had starlings nesting under my eaves every December in all the time I've been in this house. I'm sure their ancestors had nested there for years and years before I appeared on the scene.

Then last year - nothing.

None of that distinctive scrabbling noise, no insistent chirping as the baby birds demand money with menaces from their parents. I even missed the cacophony when they'd all wake up in the middle of the night squawking furiously because someone had probably trodden on someone else's head and then retaliatory action had ensued. I could always hear the goings-on very clearly, and as my loft hatch is only a couple of feet away from where their nest is, it was always very easy to stick my head through and tell them to shut up. Which they would. For about ten seconds, before the furious squawking started up again.

But this year ... yep, I was woken up this morning by that scrabbling noise followed by that oh-so-familiar cacophony of little cheeping voices ... they're back!!!!

Illustration Friday - Pioneer!

Neptune was a pioneer in the 'Alternative Uses for Sharks' Fin' league

Dear Agony Auntie,

Auntie's Brainwashing & Laundery Service,
123 Forget-Me-Now Lane,
Loose Thoughts Folly,
Lower BrainStem,
Herts.

27th September 2008


Dear Auntie,

I am writing to thank you for the appointment for me to avail myself of your brainwashing service, but my problem is not one of having dirty thoughts but rather the lack of them. Or any action in that department whatsover.

I have come to this conclusion having read through the entire stock of pornographic literature you lend me (your reading list) and not being able to understand any of it.

And who is St George anyway?

Yours,

The Lady in the Cartoon on here dated 26th September 2008
xxx

Illustration Friday - Undone

The work of even the safest saver can be undone by unscrupulous Borrowers ...
(OK, earn ten points if you actually recognise these horrid little characters)

Dear Agony Auntie,

I think I may be on the verge of finding true love and romance. I met this nice man in a colonic irrigation parlour and he bought me a cappucino with sprinkles. In a coffee shop, not the colonic irrigation parlour. He wants me to get his name tattooed on my arm as a token of my love for him. His name is Bonky Chinkakronk (or so he says). Should I do it?

Yours,

The Lady in the Cartoon on here dated 26th September 2008
xxx

Illustration Friday - 'Hatch'

Hatching, cross-hatching, whatever ... there's lots of it in this piece!

For the sake of tidiness ...

Please would someone else sign up to follow my blog? 20 followers would look very neat; having 19 means it just looks as though I've lost someone!

This is one of the thingies I've sent to the Shrewsbury Cartoon Festival

Last year, when I was doing my 'bits', I'd finished a painting which had taken several hours and was about to add the hand lettering - when I lost my nerve. I added the text in Potatoshop, sent them as digital files to a commercial printer, and the original remained totally unsullied by foolish words.

However, these days I am made of sterner stuff, and I finally plucked up courage to do the lettering (in gouache) on my painting which I'd spent several hours, yes, painting! It wasn't as scary as doing a whole load of hand lettering (in gouache) in the travelling Moleskine, though.

If you're not sure what I'm talking about, it's this

Merry Christmas to all readers who aren't on my Christmas Card list!

And I'm sure none of you will be getting legless over the Festive Season!