Splat

Originally published 20 September 2010

Growing up around the apple orchards of Kent, I sort of got used to this. In Hastings the equivalent problem is seagulls.

Blackberries

Originally published 17 September 2010

I love blackberrying - I’m lucky enough to have a wood riddled with brambles on my doorstep. In good blackberrying session I can collect several kilos of the things. In fact we still have blackberries in the freezer that I collected last year. The one drawback about blackberries is that if they’re very ripe, they will burst as you try to pick them, and you’ll be left with mauve fingers for a couple of days.

Therapy

Originally published 15 September 2010

I know it sounds simplistic, but this is good a way of getting rid of the blues as any. Given the voice between a session with a psychiatrist and a pile of leaves I’d say the pile of leaves wins hands down any day.

Fall

Originally published 7 July

The relentless cycling of the seasons is a theme that I keep returning to, something that was especially true in this first year. This was published on the 9th of July, so we’d just passed over the hump of the year, and the nights were very slowly starting to draw in. There are some people who can’t just live in the moment though - the dog days of high summer are just a harbinger of the chill winds of winter to cone. Some people call it Autumn, other just see the Fall.

Autumn

Actually, the leaves are still on the trees at the moment, something which is particularly amazing considering the storm that blew through here last week.

Sorry this went up a bit late - I've had a bit of a hectic few weeks and I've now got some serious catching up to do with the cartoon.

This what I've been up to... Guys and Dolls with The Hastleons at the White Rock Theatre, Hastings.

I'm the one on the right playing Nicely Nicely Johnson, along with Chris Eyre as Benny Southstreet (left) and Rick Baker as Nathan Detroit.

The show itself was spent in a fug of cold medicines, as I battled a sore throat that suddenly appeared during the dress rehearsal, and developed into a cold. But all seemed to go well, though by the last night I was exhausted.

This week's strip was drawn backstage inbetween scenes. Luckily, the scanning has tidied up the art on the last panel a lot, but on the original you can see the smudges where my sweaty hands picked up the ink and spread it all over the page.