Wimborne folk festival

Wimborne folk festival was a great success. Thanks to all who had their caricatures drawn and those that bought artwork...Much appreciated! It was great weather for it too. ( apologises for the shirt, photos by Siouxsie, Ta! )

My next Public Caricaturing is near Alton, Hampshire at the 'Departure Lounge cafe' on Saturday 20th June for the day.
I shall also have some limited edition prints and coasters with me.
Come along if you can- for details see link:
'the departure lounge cafe'
Its a craft show and i think there is a garden centre there also.
cheers,
al

Green Lizard on the Overcliff

I was so pleased to get my own shot of one our local green lizards! While walking the dogs last night on the Boscombe overcliff (secret location!), we spotted this green lizard basking in the late sunday sunshine. He was almost posing for me. I couldn't get my camera out quick enough, there were cases and lens caps flying everywhere! Anyway I was quite pleased with the result, you can so clearly see the scale pattern (click on pic to enlarge). Apparently some pet lizards were set free along the cliff tops years ago and they have bred since, along with the wall lizards. I shall have to send it in to Springwatch!

Hengistbury Head

Having a very photographic day today!
Heres some pics I took on my cycle trip to Hengistbury head this afternoon.
Very warm!

Blue tits and Great tits

I took these photos outside my kitchen window this morning. The garden is great at the moment, all green and secluded. I have about 7 or 8, Great tits and Blue tits flying around my bird feeder, with parents feeding the fledglings a mixture of fat balls and insects that they are pecking from the russian vine. A loveley sight to see! Quite unusual, as in the past I have struggled to attract birds to my garden as there is quite a few cats in the neighbourhood....The rspb is a great site for identifying birds in your garden.
Its definately great tits and blue tits I have at the moment.

click on the images to see them larger.

It would be good to see your photos of wildlife if you have any.

an alternative interior...

This is Neil Taylor, a very talented bepoke wooden stool maker from the craft circuit. A great interior to his long LWB Iveco! Wood burning stove included!

An 'H' van weekend - camp

What a great collection of H vans!...and not forgetting the 'Velo Solex Bike' with a motor,- I've always wanted one of those, so you couldn't get me off it, a buzzing around the campsite!
After an early evening 'Caricaturing' at a very nice wedding in a beautiful setting near Henley on Thames on Saturday, then I headed back to 'Sixpenny Handley near Cranborne where I enjoyed a couple of beers and enjoyed the next day of the H van camp. Loveley weather in a great setting. Very well organised Keith and Lee!

Finished the 'Moomite' Van!

'Treated to a rainbow at the end of our work'

Well here it is!... The interior, of the 'Moomite' van. After visiting the new forest 3 or 4 times a week for quite a few weeks its finished, and looks pretty good if I might say so myself.
Keith has been a real trooper working away through tooth aches, bad backs, working his garden and allotment and putting up with my scrutineering!... , and Lee has been fantastic with the sandwiches. Keith has obviously done most of the work with me as an assistant. Altough I chipped in with the sanding, finishing and did all the varnishing,...quite a few coats of interior silk then exterior gloss I'll have you know! It has been a bit of making it up as we go along as modifications and changes inevitably appeared along the way, (Sorry mate...) but at the end I think its been worth getting it exactly how we wanted it.
Just a table to do, a box for the leisure battery, a top for the cooker, and a couple of extra lights, but its finished ready for my craft show this week. All plumbed in for water & gas, fridge and cooker- and leisure battery, fuse box and split charge relay installed, all tried and tested!
Just had to pull it all out again today as the fridge flue needed securing again and to fish out the fridge 240v power lead and varnished one last door.

Its just how I wanted it, a small area for washing cooking and drinking and a nice pocket sprung mattress made as a bed permanently, rather than having to balance on the bits of foam that converted into a seat in my previous van (sorry 'PUF', hope u r keeping well!)
So:) many thanks 'Swampy', aka keith.
Its amazing what you did with 4 sheets of marine ply, a jig-saw, drill and my dad's 1973 electric screwdriver!

Not quite a converted horse box lorry but my own little home from home!

So heres the pics, make of it what you will!-not quite like my original sketch!- all comments gratefully received.
alx

...getting there.

This is the artwork that will be inserted in the fridge door!...
The build goes on. As you can see, DOGS are not getting involved!
Photos taken here at various stages so far. Basically the marine wood cabinets and bedbase are cut by Keith using a hand saw and jig saw with me hovering around him, getting in the way, or I like to think I'm here in a consultancy capacity!
Starting off with those little triangular things to hold pieces of wood together we then went onto 1 by 1 timber which pulled the corners together tighter.
I have been more involved this week with my sanding and varnishing skills (don't laugh!).
Next week its cutting the doors out in the bedbase and then its the big assemby job, fitting all the water pipes and gas etc.
Watch this space!


Yes, and I'm not sure what's happening to poor Jod's legs. I think she might be getting a bit of arthritis.

...now the interior

Carpet is down and the mattress arrives Saturday. We did have a small 'snag', quite literally. The drill picked up a bit of the carpet and 'zzzzzz...' the carpet ran!..towards the middle of the van! but we stopped it before it got to the other side. The carpet is turning out to be not the highest quality expected!..never mind -onward..I was planning on a rug for the door area anyway. A swivel has been installed on the passenger seat and the door step is finished off with aluminium. Keith's doing a stirling job despite being dogged with tooth ache, (If he doesn't hear from the hospital soon, we may tie 'tuth' to my big back doors mate and slam shut..ouch!) At the weekend I picked up tubing and pipes for the gas and water, hopefully not too much else to buy. Keith is now cracking on with making units for the cooker and fridge, so I'm not attending today, which gives me chance to catch up on my 'cocktail-cow' commission which is nearly finished.
S0 let sleeping dogs lie! (J Odd Eye seems to have found her niche in the new van.)

Swampy and Hoppity lay the floor

Well now those seat rails or girders, as I like to call them are removed, it comes to filling the space where they once resided with wood offcuts, glued together by myself and taped down to level the base floor and then we laid a wood laminate floor (very posh) and then a new anthracite coloured carpet...mmm nice, A great platform or blank canvas for Keith to weave his magic ... and me to use my little sweepy brush!


... and those little bits of wood show where the bed comes too.

NEW Interior for the Green Machine

Well here we go... the start of the refit. My dog doesn't seem too impressed...first job we have is to remove the seat rails,...they really are in the way. Don't want to be stubbing my toe on these things.
(VW seats and seat rails for sale!.. probably stick them on ebay)
No work today though, my poor old chum Keith has horrendous tooth ache...get better soon Keith!

Shedding a tear for PUF

Parting is such sweet sorrow...
...Whats wrong?.. you can get emotionally attached to a vw camper you know!

Certainly over the last 8 years there certainly has been ups and downs, but it was time for PUF to move on to pastures new.
It was a good week, collecting my new van on a monday and selling PUF on the following Monday.
Both local, even though both bought and sold on ebay!
Anyway PUF's gone to a good home, a fellow Vdub fan who's previously owned a splitty and I shall still see PUF buzzing around the town, I expect.

Moving on... .I've got my new VW T4 to enjoy now and I've just discovered power steering!...Just have to fit an interior to it!
Heres where this one came from, Great church doors on the back!
(Its not this colour in real life-less turquoise more green - still haven't named him yet any suggestions? - 'the green meanie?')
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=350154972779&indexURL=4#ebayphotohosting

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b57aYTJEZbI

Inside the back of a van?

Thought you'd find this amusing! Trying to work out the inside layout for sleeping in!

Traveling against the tide, An Aircraft Carrier and an Abba Tribute Band?

I had a booking last night to caricature on board the HMS Illustrious. A two hour drive to Portsmouth in rush hour traffic which felt like there was a mass exodus out of Bournemouth, like there was a hurricane coming or something!
On arriving at the Naval Port I wasn't allowed in! Do I look shifty, in my wooly hat and camper van?... Anyway I was held there for an hour while the guard entered every spelling of 'Hayball' into the system, and yet..." No I'm sorry sir. You are not on the list. (Compuer says no!)". Supervisors were called, a queue formed, men and women in combats, a football team in their kit, ladies in evening attire, and there was me at the front of the queue keeping everyone waiting. I can appreciate they have to be careful as apparently some reporters sneaked on to one of their ships recently.
Eventually, an officer was called up from the otherside of the dock, who cycled over to sort it all out. A very nice man, so I put his bike in the back of my van and we drove over to the 'Illustrious'. In the end the evening went well and I drew lots of caricatures and eventually left when the Abba tribute band came on. Not my usual venue, but a most impressive ship and the officers were a great bunch of people.
I thank them for making me feel most welcome.

Very sad that so many perished in world war 1.
You see here my grandad getting married. Previously he was wounded by a spent bullet in the battle of the Somme. It went in his leg.
Weird to think if it had have been fatal, I wouldn't be here writing this now.