When we moved to Wales, I thought people were overplaying the ‘Wet Wales’ remarks. It turns out they weren’t wrong. Hardly a day has gone by in the last six months when we haven’t seen some form of rain whether it’s a fine mist that frizzes your hair, or torrential downpours that leave the river USK bursting at its banks. It’s so bad, I’ve resorted to doing my own anti-rain dance.
When asked the above question by @OFFLIFE_comic for tonight’s #quickdraw theme, I figured a band of well trained monkeys couldn’t hurt! We were given an hour to draw a response…this was my quick effort.
Just a little sketch I did recently after I found myself in the middle of a leaf tornado. It happened so suddenly that I was unable to get my camera out to capture it. Instead I drew it – one of those unadulterated joyous moments that make you want to laugh out loud and spin around like Julie Andrews in the Alps.
On a windy day, I love to watch piles of colourful leaves come alive and race each other down the road. Tumbling, twisting, turning, clacking and tapping on the tarmac then taking off and dancing high into the air. Since my tornado moment, few leaves remain – they are either a soggy, slippy mulch or they’ve been hoovered up by the city council’s cleaning trucks. I shall miss them.
Excerpt from holiday diary 1st July:
“Parked at the National Trust Car Park at Frogmore (157516) and made our way down to the coast at Lantivet Bay. The sun was out and the sea was a beautiful turquoise, you could almost imagine you were in the Mediterranean. On arrival at Polruan, we hopped on a water taxi to Fowey to join the throngs of German tourists and to tuck into a delicious smoked Mackerel and Beetroot Bagel from the delightful Lifebuoy Cafe. We tried to take our usual “lunch with a view” photo (we have a series of these taken on various walks around the country) when a seagull swooped down from nowhere to grab my bagel.”
Excerpt from holiday diary 2nd July:
“Windy and drizzling today – what a contrast to yesterday. After a few false starts we end up on the way to the North Coast. First stop, Rock. Well, the Rock pier car park for a loo stop. Rock is a rather posh village on the other side of the estuary to Padstow (you can cross from Rock to Padstow on a foot ferry). The village is dotted with high end clothing stores, restaurants, bistros and cafes…
…I was unimpressed by the drive to Polzeath – we didn’t really have a destination in mind. The Bee Centre? Vineyards? Cider Farm? We finally decide on Lanhydrock where we’ve been before, but in the dark on an impromptu ghost hunt with mum and dad.”
Except from L’s holiday diary entry, 24th June:
“Up on to Dartmoor today via several stops for Amy to gawp at horses and take photos. We a parked at the Postbridge information centre to start the rather boggy walk up to some standing stones with picturesque views of the moors. We ended up meandering around a peat bog for a bit before giving up and following a wall to the obligatory water feature challenge of the holiday…” NB. We often find ourselves traversing fast flowing water courses on our expeditions.
My response to L’s diary entry:
“I think L has underplayed The Bog. We were walking for 8.5 miles and for at least 5 of those miles we were ankle deep in bog. At one point we found ourselves lost in the middle of a vast expanse of moorland (as far as the eye could see) with no visible path in sight. I was secretly calculating our water rations in case we started to sink into the stinky, relentless bog and had to wait for rescue…”
I must mention that today is my mum’s birthday. Happy Birthday Mum!
Excerpt from the holiday diary 23rd June:
“We’re sitting in the Pilchard Inn, a tiny pub perched on the edge of Burgh Island, home to a posh hotel where you can stay for a mere £400-600 per night. If you want to come by helicopter, there is a convenient helipad in the grounds. The ‘Rif Raf’ are welcome on the island but only if they walk across the sand bar when the tide is out or catch the giant sea tractor…
We walked from Ringmore along the SW coastal path dotted with flowers and pretty grasses. The winds were high but they blew the forecast showers over our heads and inland. L has become adept at simultaneously pointing out wildlife and dangerous obstacles…”
We recently returned from a great holiday in Devon and Cornwall. Not usually ones for taking a summer holiday in the UK (due to unpredictable weather) we decided to risk it this year and it paid off. Clear skies, turquoise seas, belting sunshine, rolling moorland, white beaches – If you could always guarantee weather like this, who needs to go abroad, there is so much to see right here?
As always we kept a running commentary of the holiday by way of a diary and this year I aimed to draw a cartoon a day to supplement the entries. For the next few days I’m going to share a few short extracts from the diary and a quick cartoon. Don’t expect beautifully penned, Wordsworth-esq, descriptions of the holiday. Sadly, I lack the vocabulary to paint a picture, instead, I draw cartoons.
I think I saw it! I think saw that golden orb in the sky – radiating light, warming the earth, sending birds into a frenzy of nest building, tempting the buds on the trees to burst into bloom.
With that tiny chink of sunlight, Britons up and down the country tore their clothes from their bodies (despite the temperature only just creeping into double figures), donned their sunglasses, ran for their BBQs and hoped for a prolonged spell of bright, warm weather! Alas, no sooner had the flip flops had time to flip and flop than the sky returned to its familiar dull grey. We are left wondering, was that just a figment of our imagination? Then we reach for the bottle of vitamin D.
This cartoon was inspired by my recent trip to Canada, but seems equally appropriate for the UK at the moment. I’m certainly unused to extreme cold weather and although it was a relatively balmy -14 degrees Celcius in Canada, I suffered from chill blains on my fingers and frost nip on my legs.
Every morning we discussed the temperature over breakfast then dressed accordingly. The mere act of getting dressed for a day out in Canada is a process in itself, and there is something to be said for an organised approach. It wasn’t until the third or fourth day of the holiday that I realised you need to have all your essentials ready first. Then and only then should you get on with the business of donning your outdoor gear. Even when I’d mastered that element, it was another day or so before I learnt to avoid expiration by putting my had, scarf and coat on last. Yes, I’m slow!
Big Hair Metamorphosis 