Getting around the issue of dumped shopping trolleys

 

top vintage stuff - a working sewing machine and some duraline

Went to a great garage sale in Caulfield South. Deceased estate advertised in The Age, which meant that most of the good stuff had been snapped up by the time I got there at 10, but I did score some books, some Duraline hotel ware and a fabulous old sewing machine, which weighs a ton and appears to work. I cycled it home on the back of Penelope (the pink bike with the biggest rack on the back) without any drama.

I spend about half my working hours on Arctic Circle. Most of the rest of my work is commissioned. This year I began working for a really nice pharmaceutical company in Australia who are developing an H1N1 flu vaccine. I’m not drawing cartoons for that, but I have been doing some fun stuff on antibodies which takes me back to my biochemistry days. It has been 10 years since I quit clinical research to become a full-time cartoonist and I don’t regret any of it (though I do miss the paycheck and the stationery cupboard).

Anyway… they baked a cake with my character on it. The cake wasn’t actually for me, but I’m pretty chuffed anyway – no-one has ever put my character on a cake before!

The Milton Cake

 

The first Milton leaflet cover

 

This cover would have meant too much green icing

 

A cartoon on who funds and puts out this wacko climate change denying science

For those numpties who thought this cartoon ridiculous, check out today’s article in The Guardian, which describes how ExxonMobil “is continuing to fund lobby groups that question the reality of global warming, despite a public pledge to cut support for such climate change denial.”.

 

In an article on the Guardian website, Ward writes: “I have now written again to ExxonMobil to point out that these organisations publish misleading information about climate change on their websites, and to seek guidance on how to reconcile this fact with the pledge made by the company. I believe that the company should keep its promise by ending its financial support for lobby groups that mislead the public about climate change.”

All commercial bananas come from the same stock, which means they are susceptible to being wiped out by disease or pests. This isn’t funny, but something about the word coined for this possible extinction is…

Howard takes the bananapocalypse seriously

I enjoy the blog postings of Michael Renouf, especially his visual puns. This week he made me feel homesick for England by posting sarky pictures of Eastbourne where I lived before moving to NZ. Eastbourne was the perfect place to live as a newly professional cartoonist – fewer distractions and very cheap…

Under this raised pathway, in front of the bandstand, there is a plaque to an Eastbourne violinist who went down with the Titanic. 

Not on the same day, but we both had the same idea (and since we have to provide Sundays a few weeks ahead of dailies, I’m guessing we had the idea at the same time):

Arctic Circle from 6th June

 

Sherman's Lagoon is one of my favourite comic reads

 

Dip pens from a second hand store in Kallista

Part of our weekend walk in the Dandenongs took us through the lovely little village of Kallista, where, in addition to a fab deli (lunch) and a second hand cookery book store (Richard Mabey’s “Food for Free”), we found a collectibles store. I would have loved to have bought an old suitcase, shoe polish box and cake tin, but I could only carry these dip pens – a bargain at $2 a piece.

 

Remote beaches are still littered.

The boyf and I took the train out to the Dandenongs on Saturday. Did a fantastic walk through mountain ash forest and saw lots of birdlife and evidence of wombats (cuboid poop!). Amazing how far you can get on a $2.90 weekend travel card…

Boyf on Sherbrooke Loop Trail

bird (cockatoos) feeding at Grants Picnic Area

Gallah's eye view

poop near a wombat burrow

Kookaburra

little ecosystem

something to amuse the right of centre readers of this blog - treehugging at the end of the walk

I don’t think I can upload AVIs to this blog, but we also saw and recorded a lyrebird in full song, mimicking kookaburras, blackbirds and other sounds it had heard in the forest. If you want to see really amazing lyrebird footage, check out the BBC’s David Attenborough’s piece on youtube.

Lyrebird in Dandenongs