Snakes alive

ART
In an effort to do a themed blog this week where better to go than to the guy who creates the art work the guys at Flying Dog.
Ralph Steadman is a British lad born in Wallesey, Liverpool. He sold his first cartoon in 1956 to the Manchester Evening Chronicle after sending in his cartoons to numerous Newspapers whilst doing his National service. Through the 1960's his worked popped up on the pages of Private Eye and Punch.

He's also an illustrator of children’s books '...Lewis Caroll's Alice in Wonderland (for which he won the Francis Williams Book Illustration Award), Robert Lewis Stevenson's Treasure Island in which he forever immortalized his own local pub as the Admiral Benbow Inn and more recently Fahrenheit 451'.
But wait that's not all... here's his biog, makes for an interesting read.
He's on Twitter and Facebook too.

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BEER
Flying Dog - Snake Dog IPA 7.1%
Lovely colour, pleasant fruity (grapefruit?) hop smell that's not over powering. There is a different taste I've not en-counted before in this beer and I'm not sure what it is. I think there is a pine taste and a bit burnt caramel. So I'm just going to drink the beer, not think about what that taste is I'm not sure of and head over to their site to see what it could be. Must be the spiciness that is in the Columbus hops that I am tasting. Either way this is an IPA I've not tasted in any other brewers IPA list. It should be on your 10 IPA lists to try before you reach the next mile stone in your ageing.

Here's a little story about how Flying Dog came to being.
And here they are on Twitter and Facebook

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COVERED IN WEEDS
Snakeshead Fritillaries
After wondering where the Snakeshead Fritillary had disappeared too in my garden this year (The Crown Imperial FritiIlary had already appeared) it dawned on me that I had placed a pot over the top of them!! There they were as yellow as Cadium Yellow. Thought I had properly killed them at the beginning of April, but hey look they are still flourishing!

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There is apparently an argument in the UK about this lovely nodding flower as to whether it started out as a garden flower and then escaped into the wild. Which whilst it was in abundance in meadows before the war it is now a rare site in the wild. So I think when this flower finishes producing seeds I’m going to take a hand full and sneakily, accidentally tip them in an area near me that could do with some wild flower bombs thrown at it, to make it a nice place to sit and watch the ducks swimming and the Longhorn cows graze.

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Calvin and Hobbes. Go check them out!

MUSINGS
Hey guys it's the Bank Holiday weekend again. Make the most of the time you may have off of work and go and explore a part of your County you've always wanted to go, but, never gotten around to it. I will be spending it finishing the plants of seeds, starring into space and chilling my beans. Hopefully at some point we shall go exploring. And if it's raining, probably sleeping after having to run the brewer on my own this week. Beers in the Vat's but there's none left in the cellar! Guess I'll be busy again next week.

Have fun this Bank Holiday what ever you are doing.

As ever I'd love to hear your comments, hints and tips on gardening. Any beers you would recommended or any artists I should take a look at.

Tunes of the week.
Whatever happened to the ..
Longpigs - 'She said'
As it's election month whenever I hear the word manifesto I automatically start singing the rest of this song...
The Sultans of Ping - 'Where's me Jumper'?
We used to love jumping around to this tune on Indie night in the club. My mate would wander over to the other side of the dance floor drop her jumper (she'd specifically bring one - just  in case they played this song) wander off and I would go looking for it. We weren't drunk either lol
And one random song I started singing earlier today – haven't heard it for decades..
Tone Loc - 'Funky Cold Medina' 
Please can I add this one??
The Offspring - 'Pretty Fly (For a White Guy)'
Ooo and I better do one for the ladies (heavy on the men this week)
Neneh Cherry - 'Buffalo Stance'  - where is she now???

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