Back on the Blocks

Working through it

Having to take a few days off work with a downturn in my health, I spent the day playing Lego and witing an introduction for one of my favourite books... 

A Lego Space Odyssey

10th Armada Ghost Book

1978. The year I started Comprehensive school. The school handed out regular book catalogues selling books at a discount to encourage reading. And that is where I first came into contact with Armada Ghost Books.

To say I loved this book would be an understatement, and I also like the idea that the school was sanctioning the reading of ghost stories. :)

Peter Archer is again credited as the book's artist, and he has certainly upped his game with the interior story illustrations:

With a fantastic book cover and scary interior illustrations, the set list of supernatural stories really rounds off what I still consider the best in the Armada Ghost Book series.

Two stories, in particular, stand out amongst the selection. The first is The Sinister Schoolmaster by Rosemary Timperley. Who could resist reading this tale after seeing the genuinely scary cover art illustrating it? The thought of encountering a ghostly mystery whilst on the way to school was appealing beyond words to me as a child! 

The other tale that stuck with me was Mousey by John Halking. Now, I had a pet mouse myself at the time of reading this story, and as soon as I realised this tale was about a boy who took his mouse out and about with him, I cringed. My only hope was that I was reading a children's book, so hopefully, the mouse would make it to the end alive. But Armada was canny with their athologies and often slotted in darker themes in with with their more lightweight offerings!

9th Armada Ghost Book

Continuing my collection of Armada Ghost Books from the 1970s and early 1980s, it time to show off the 9th book in the supernatural series:

Peter Archer takes the helm as the book's illustrator, but the the inside drawing detail non-scary scenes from the ghost stories, which is disappointing.

The cover art for the book, on the other hand, is up there with the finest in the series and the book shifted enough copies to keep the series going for another x6 anthologies!

Mammy's Day Visit to Penclawdd

Popped down see my mum for Mother's Day and could not help but stop to photograph the stunning sunset over the Burry Estuary:

GNS Lego Time Again

A Sudden Flush of Pink

A Change of Protagonist

Struggling with my own deadline, I have decide to turn the second draft of my Guy N Smith themed story from a 10k story in a 1k rewrite by changing the narrator of the first person text. It is the only option if I'm going to get the tale ready in time for the Guy N Smith zine...

Morning Eclipse

Tree Shadows

 These tree shadows spreading over the houses on my journey to and from work each weekday have been catchin my eye lately:

Time 2 Play

I guess it's that time again...

Norther Lights over Swansea

Set for Sound

I put the last day of my holiday to good use by dragging my x2 CD shelves up to our bedroom, complete with our CD player.

It has been a nice long weekend. I have got a lot done.

Out of this World!

Lovely day off,

with another day off tomorrow. At peace 😎

A Day in the Garden!

A rare day off work combined with in ever rarer warm, sunny day. Which meant just one thing - a day in the garden!

Come In

I have finally completed the first draft of my Guy N Smith. It ended suddenly, out of the blue and took me by surprise. I just need to tidy the thing up now...

Furry Paws

Trying to work on an introduction to one of my favourite reads.

Gardening

I finally managed to clear the chicken coop from the garden today! 

Whilst I was dismantling and burning the construction, Mrs E busied herself by adding a small wildlife pond to the garden:

The oustanding plant of the moment has to be our cherry tree, both in is large and bosai forms: