The bluetits have returned. There is a sizable squadron of fluffed up, yellow-faced fledglings twittering away in the garden. I saw the piebald blackbird on my way home from work the other day, his whole head is white and the rest is black so he looks like a tiny Bald Eagle.

On Friday Thom (who happens to have started a nice new blog which you can find here) and I went down to Newgale and we found a dead badger washed up on the beach. At first we though it must be some kind of dog but then we recognised the remaining tufts of fur. It was probably the most disgusting thing I’ve seen in ages. I went back to Newgale on Saturday with my mum. No badgers but we did find a three legged Starfish (which I guess makes it a Mercedes?).

Scott Hansen (ISO50/Tycho) has created a poster to support Barack Obama’s political campaign and I really, really want one. Unfortunately the store is only open to residents of the USA. Gutter. I’m hoping it may yet appear in Scott’s own web store. Oh, and just in case you haven’t seen it, Shepard Fairy made one too.

Speaking of both twittering and Obama, I found this article quite intriguing.

I was watching the Young Ones the other day and spotted the Protect and Survive poster in the kitchen. I had a quick skeg on eBay for a print but no luck (I can’t even find an example online to show you). I did however find this website which has full scans of the accompanying booklets which were issued in 1980. I love the diagrams. These then introduced me to Raymond Brigg’s, “When The Wind Blows” (which I now really want to see – Raymond Briggs is amazing).

If you watched the extended edition of The Culture Show on Friday night you will have seen an animation called, “Procrastination,” by bright young thing, Johnny Kelly. I’m pasting up a link here in case you missed it because, if you did, you missed out (you’ll have to let me know if the video doesn’t work since I don’t currently have either Windows Media or Real player so I can’t test it out).

I imagine if you’re into your 20 inch bicycles then you’ve probably already seen this Nigel Sylvester ad but it’s definitely worth a second look. I’ve been wondering for a while why people don’t use monochrome footage more often? I don’t mean just using desaturated video, I mean punchy black and white.

Any other business… Even the least observant of you will have noticed the new site layout. I wanted to make something a little more streamlined and that acted as a better background to display my photos. I tried to make the typography friendly in case the black was too severe, I hope you like it. Be warned though, I haven’t quite finished tweaking yet.

I’m still missing a links page but I’m hoping to sort that out asap though I may be delayed by the fact that after two years of saving, I’ve finally made the switch from PC to Mac. I’m now running a 24-inch iMac (3.06ghz with 4gb RAM for the geeks) but I’ve yet to sort out software. I still need to pick up Photoshop and something I can use to make webpages.

The screen is fantastic, it’s the best TFT/LCD type display I’ve seen and it really brings photographs and video to life. Any kind of image looks good and to make the most of it I’ve been trawling through lots of photo-based websites. At the moment I’m digging Rural Bicycle and Curb Detritus.

All that’s left to say is; shout out to Jam Factory, thanks for your help dude. RIP theshovelload (nah, I’m sure they’ll be back) and where’s my brake bolt Kirkby?! (That last link is to Tom’s new blog as I think Agenda has gone belly up – though I’m not sure if it’s dead or if it just ate a big dinner and has gone to sleep it off).

Once again I must apologise for my prolonged absence but i hope the extra long blog entry helps to make up for it. Toodles.