Here's Poppy perched on my shoulder. She wants to have a look at you all, She can see you y'know...

This was taken somewhere in Devon, quite a few years ago! I wasn't aware at the time of them all crowding around me in the way they were. Obviously they wanted in on this piccy! A great deal of my inspiration for my cartoon 'Little Moo' comes from photos like these of these gentle bovine creatures. I hardly ever eat beef or in fact any meat these days...

Back again, after a bit of a long break. I've now managed to set up my mobile so's I can send my phone piccies to this blog.
This is a rather nice one of the Waterfall at Dyserth. It is just a few miles from where I live, and boasts a wonderful little tea shop which do delicious baked potatoes, toasted sandwiches etc, and a very splendiforous variety of home made cakes... and you can even go and get to enjoy your tea and cakes sitting by the waterfall...

This is my fave rock on the Island of Iona. Pictured here with a lone seagull enjoying a moment of solitude! The coast of Mull can be seen in the background on the photo.
Iona is a traffic free haven, and largely tourist free except for between about 10am to 4pm. The reason is that it takes so long to get there from the mainland, and the little ferry only operates from Mull at certain hours of the day, at least it used to. In winter the last ferry crossing to Mull was about 4pm if the sea was safe!There are various ways of staying on the island, and probably any websearch on Iona will give info about that. So, to anyone coming to visit the UK I'd recommend taking a trip to Iona. Give yourself a day to get there from Oban(mainland) and a day to get back. Nobody hurries up there...wonderful!
As you can see Iona was a place of much inspiration for me.




Don't know what the yellow splodgy bits are on the photo, they're not actually on the photo, which means they are probably on my scanner which probably needs cleaning!

Here's something which might appeal to all you quilt artists out there knowing how much you love zany designs! This is of course an aurora. This was taken from a farmer's field at the back of David Russell Hall of residence in St. Andrews,(East coast of Scotland fifty miles northish of Edinburgh) sometime between 11 pm and 3 am, sometime around the very early 1980s !
it was taken by my friend Owen Brazell who is well known in Astronomical circles. if any of you are interested in Deep Sky objects you might want to go and have a look at the Webb Society, http://www.webbsociety.freeserve.co.uk/committee/brazell.html
I'm still waiting to see my first Aurora from North Wales! I think I'm in for a long wait.

I think perhaps I ought to mention the fact that it is St.David's Day today, 1st March, being in the Hills and Valleys of Wales....and as I'm typing this, it is in fact snowing, and outside is a blanket of white, under which my car has disappeared! The strange thing about this is that a few miles down the road, it is not snowing! Every village seems to have its own weather system here.
So a happy St. David's Day to everyone!

...and talking of Iona, here's Fingal's Cave. This is actually part of the isle of Staffa which is just off the Isle of Iona. Of course it is best known for the inspiration of Mendelssohn's Hebridean Overture. Approaching this cave surrounded by the vastness of the ocean, it's easy to see why!

This is a drawing of an inquisitive sheep I met on one of my visits to the wonderful Island of Iona.(Just off the Island of Mull and one of the Western isles of Scotland for those who are not familiar with Scotland)
Here's a photo of the rest of the little flock!
As you can see I drew this little chap facing the other direction. Can't remember why I did that now...For some reason it seemed easier at the time!