Back to the storyline

Originally published May 7, 2010

This firmly establishes the gulls as being at the top of the pecking order in this strip, mainly because of their ability to peck.

Seagull on a stick

Originally published 29th March 2010

The carved wood seagull on a stick is one of my favourite tacky souvenirs out of the many that are available on Hastings' seafront. No mantelpiece is complete without one. They mainly sell to tourists who don't have to deal with the ASBO breed of gull that we get around here on a daily basis.

Perch

For a more positive take on seagulls than I usually manage, why not take a look at Piers Baker's wonderful Ollie and Quentin.

Patiently...

I'm using the time honoured third-person interior monologue device here, as used by Snoopy in Peanuts and Garfield in, um, Garfield. As ever the war between cat and seagull contunues, and as ever the seagull wins.

Away from the strip, today's the day Linda and I will be welcoming Billy and Annabelle, two new rescue kittens, into our home. I'll have photos up as soon as they get here. In the meantime here's their back story...

Billy and Annabelle are brother and sister, they're five months old and they're black with white flashes on their nose, chest and socks. They come to us courtesy of the Blue Cross rehoming centre in Northiam. They were born to a feral mother who found a big converted oast house in the countryside, walked in through the cat flap and made her nest in an unused room. Believe it or not, it was five weeks before the mother and her kittens were discovered! This makes me ask two questions - did the owners of the house not have noses, and who lives in a house so large they don't notice a strange cat wandering about feeding her kittens?

The kittens have been at the Blue Cross since they were discovered (mum vanished as soon as people turned up) and the good people there have been gradually acclimatising Billy and Annabel to human contact ever since. On Friday, they come to live with us. They're still rather nervous around people, but they're gradually learning to trust us. Billy's the more outgoing of the two, he's not sure he likes being stroked yet, but scratch him on the head in just the right way and you will be rewarded with the loudest purr ever. Given the choice, Annabel will just be a shape underneath a blanket, we'll be sure to make sure she has one when she gets here, so she can emerge in her own time.

Aaaaak!

A sequel to a strip from a month ago - the one that started the train of thought that led to this set of strips...

Room for a little one?

You'll see a lot of this swan in the future.

The inland seagull

This is more a memory of my Tunbridge Wells days, waking up in the morning and finding an overcast sky and a back garden awash with seagulls. When they turn up thirty miles inland then you know you're in trouble.

Mmmhmmmmmm

I wish seagulls did just hum. They make wonderfully evocative noise when you're just a visitor to the seaside - a noise that conjures up memories of sun sand and sea. But when they choose to roost on the roof of your house during the summer, and they tend to join in with the dawn chorus in a most raucous manner, that's another matter.

PS. Happy Birthday to me. I am now officially old enough to know better.

Day of the Seagull

One day I will write a horror book called 'Day of the Seagull'. Paperback only, published by New English Library, in a pre-thumbed edition that falls open at the most violent bits. A bit like those schlocky pulp novels like The Rats and Night of The Crabs that were so popular in the 70s. Though it must be said, this seagull looks a bit too friendly and gormless to be really frightening.