Bramley the Apple Snail

Well, here he is, in his first photograph - Bramley, our Apple Snail. He was the size of a pea when I bought him a couple of months ago. He is now the zize of a walnut. Though I'd grab a pic of him in his temporary home while I clean out his larger tank: 

Power to the People

After finishing reading the novelisation of the 1970's TV comedy series, Man about the House, which I thoroughly enjoyed, I thought I would continue the light-hearted nostalgia theme with another 70's comedy series novelisation.

Where there's Smoke...

 The 🔥🔥 spreading round the UK during this heatwave appeared very nearer the office this morning. Here it is, from my office desk window:

Eclipse

 Took a half day in work as I was particularly stressed beta testing the new AI system being worked on there. Still in the midst of the glorious heatwave, we decided to head down to Gower early for the eclipse.

I have never seen Rhossili Cliffs so packed with people but, as we we early arrivers, we had time for a meander and a pint before finding ourselves a nice spot at the edge of the cliffs overlooking Worm's Head.

The eclipse itself was great, but could not be captured on a mobile phone camera. Here it is though, on maximum exposure on my bridge camera, shot on long telephoto through a solar filter. Not too bad, eh? 

When the eclipse was over. we headed slowly back to The Worm's Head Hotel for a chilled pint, the setting 🌞 calling us back every few steps or so to watch the spectacular end to the day.

Cat Bites

Spotted the neighbour's cat jump in this box this morning, where he immediately began nibbling at cardboard, biting out a semi circle with the ease of a leaf-cutter 🐝 When I went outside that afternoon, I was shocked to see just how much progress he had made. I hope this isn't a sign of stress in the beautiful pwscat:

Another Sunny Weekend

A Dreamy Kind of Day

Me, SA1

View from our Attic

View from our our attic room, looking west:

Ch-ch-ch Changes

As mentioned in my previous post, I think its time to make some changes.  I am in my 60s now - time to discard some belongings that I no longer have need or space for and to shake off old habits and activities that aren't really bringing me as much joy as they. I need crack on with matters that hold more interesting prospect going forward. 

Whilst I have lapsed in my creative work recently, I started the year rather strongly.  2026 has delivered me 3 decent websites just waiting for me to spark to life thank to the work I put in during the first four months of the year - See Gower, See Swansea and See Glastonbury. These 3 sites will draw much of my attention from September. I really want to focus on adding more information and interest to these websites and get the fb and instagram pages for them more text-heavy. I've already made a start on See Glastonbury, adding written content to many of its images . I will be devoting my free time to bringing See Gower and See Swansea up to the content standard I feel is already taking good shape on See Glastonbury. The small, written, posts will then be used to drive traffic to their social media satellites. Work on this will commence this coming September. 

Whilst I have already laid much of the background work on the web gallery shops for these sites, I still haven't tied up all the loose ends on these yet. What I have promised myself is that all 3 galleries will be public-ready by the end of the year - with the first item on each shop site being a respective 2027 calendar. 

My fiction writing is taking up far less of my time and interest of late - the demise of my drive in this department most probably a result of now having an office job where I literally write for a living. By the time I clock off my paid employment, my interest in continuing writing page upon page in my own time has deteriorated. Whilst I am happy to let the rest of the year play out with no new fiction published, if the desire to produce a new book before 2026 resurges, it will probably be the reworking/update of one of my old photo-zines. we'll see...

Catch Up

Last day off work for a while and I've nearly used up all my annual leave until March 2027!

Creativity-wise, I have taken a bit of a break. My. ADD symptoms definitely knocked my confidence, offer at I thought was my last edit; the GN53 book left over 50 typos uncorrected. All sorted now. Thankfully. 

That was several months ago and I am still not ready to  plunge back into writing or zine work, though I do feel the urge now and no and again.

Mrs P. L recently took voluntary reduncy and is currently looking for a new job. With money upper-most in mind, and the uncertainty of an income levels going forward, I decided to break up my Guy N Smith collection and build up a bit of a nest-egg to ensure the last item on my bucket list gets ticked off next year. 

I must have mentioned before that I really want to be able to pay for my children to come with us to South Spain next year to witness a total eclipse of the sun. And to do that I have to secure the necessary coin. 

Whilst it been kind of  sad seeing my Guy N. Smith collection dwindling, my savings for the Spanish Total Eclipse of the Sun has been fed handsomely with some great prices had to ease my losses:

Deat Meat £60 

Hangman's Hotel £57.02 

Nightmares from the Black Hill £57.02 

Deadbeat £100.29

Deatbeat £150 

Killer Crabs-The Return £90 29 

Psalm 151 £150 

Sabat 5 - Wistman's Wood £250 

The Night of the Crabs £56 

Night of the Werewolf £25 

Crabs Omnibus £130 

The Slime Beast £30 

The Last Train £85 

Nightspawn £95.48 

Spawn of the Slime Beast £150 

The Eighth Day £133. 

The Resurrected £114.71 

Carnage £114.71 Bamboo Guerillas  £100 

The Reaper £79

The Island £55

Limited Edition £99 13 

Hunting Big Cats £60 

Creature Feature £50 

Bamboo Guerillas £100.29 

At the moment, the money is outweighing the loss of the individual books, but I know, from personal experience and the other Guy N Smith fans, the regret felt later once the money side of the equation has been spent and you hit upon happier financial circumstances.

Anyway, the sun still shining again today,  so after a walk to the post office to send off another ebay sale, I sat out on the patio, continuing my reading of Man about the House.  There, that's about everything of concern  updated, I think. I think, maybe, this might be the first post I've published here without an accompanying photo or two, or 12. Perhaps there is even more change in the air...

Sunday Sunshine

The summer heatwave, still in full sway over sunny Swansea, let me into the garden for the day:

Slowly, but surely, this regular garden visitor is realising I'm a nice guy to hang out with. He used to be so timid when I came out into the garden, and now look at the furry fellow: