C is for Curiouser and Curiouser said Alice

Who is one of the characters in the Marx Disneykin range, indeed - Marx made her in various sizes. This little lot is a very oddball oddity, if ever there was one and deserving of a closer look, despite them being more of a curiosity than anything else.

I saw them on a dealers table a while ago, and wasn't in a position to buy them, but managed to secure them a few days later as they had gone unsold. The dealer is well respected and has some of the best sources/contacts for old plastics in the business, and on the day had a lot of shop-stock/factory-door product from Marx in the small scales, including a whole - mint - carton of the individually boxed Miniature Masterpiece Cowboys and Indians. I say this to establish the provenance of the lot as being pretty untouched stuff from the early 1960's.

This 'set' consists - at first glance - of nothing more exciting than four header-carded groups of Disneykins in little bags, numbered as No.1 Collection, No.2...(etc...), so far so good, however I'd already noticed that any two 'matching' bags had different contents, which was why I wanted all of them; usually in a situation like this I'd leave the other four for another collector.

Further investigation (I picked a couple up!) revealed that actually four of the cards had the "SET OF 4 UNPAINTED MINIATURES" tag-line stuck-on as little paper slips, a common occurrence at Swansea, where the 'Hong Kong' was often covered with an 'Empire Made' label. It then became immediately obvious that the four with the printed label (upper of each pair in above image) were copies of the four with the stuck-on label (lower of each pair).

Well, your first thought is that these are some modern dealer rip-off, destined for eBay that happened to end-up on a show table, but there are other anomalies; Miniature Masterpieces are usually painted. Why is there no capacity for the whole range in a 4x4 figure issue, why is there no order to the figures at all, half the 7-dwarfs are just not present, Huey, Duey and Louie and in different bags? Why are the contents to two 'seemingly' identical bags completely different? What's with the copies? Why the signs of a third 'missing' staple which is clear of most of the bags - so wouldn't have held them in?

And then a closer study of the cards, stated to make things a bit (and only a BIT) clearer...

 ...the two orange cards were the missing hankie Watson walked past.

Although the non paper-slip cards are copied from the paper-slipped ones, they were copied contemporaneously and printed on the same half-tone three-colour screen-printing machine back in 1950/60-something. We can tell this from two clues;

Firstly - although there is one mark or blemish copied from the original card (double arrow in lower image above) to  the 'clone'; it is an exception, all the other cards have unique wear-marks, and all the other wear-marks on the orange cards are different (that's not the clue!), yet it is clear form looking at all eight that they have roughly the same amount of wear (the first clue).

True - that if someone found them in mint condition (now'ish) he could then produce some pretty good copies which would all age together, but even the very best copies of Corgi boxes and the like are obvious to someone who knows what to look for, or to anyone comparing like for like, but we have the second clue...

...in the upper image the two arrows are pointing in the direction of the Moire Pattens caused by the resonance of Yellow and Magenta as layered by the printer.

If these were modern copies, the lines would go the same way, with the copy's being harder to define with the naked eye. So the copies were printed at the same time, on the same machine, but the artwork (screen masks) were loaded with a ninety-degree offset! Transferring the one blemish, and the exact boarders of the roughly-cut paper slips, and coming out looking identical, but with enough differences to 'do my head in'!!

The above is a comparison between the contents of two blue sets, a comparison between a painted mini 'kin' in a creamy-white, a paint-stripped pure-white (probably a Good Soldiers cast-off) and the rather neutral/grubby white of the eight bagged sets along with the reverse side of the header-cards.

So - to the truth...or my guesstimate of what was likely to have led to this mystery. The cards are probably from sets of painted Disneykins (which may well have had contents larger than four per bag - or card?), in order to produce a factory mock-up for a proposed future extension of the 'kins' range (which had many guises/formats), they then added the typical paper slip, took print-quality copies, ran them through the same printer, but with the artwork arranged differently on the sheets, stapled them to little bags with a few figures from a stillage of product waiting to go to out-painters (which is itself interesting as I'd always thought all the paining was done by ELM in Hong Kong). They were then probably attached (by the missing staple) to a hand-painted shop display card and presented to the product marketing people.

All the above paragraph is only one possible explanation, but what I'm sure of is that these two very different sets of four cards make-up a contemporaneous group of eight. It should also be noted that around 15 or 20 years ago, there was a lot of pre-production 'prototype' stuff kicking around from Marx Swansea most of it using existing production. There were hand painted mini-sets with the Miniature Masterpiece knights; the hand-painted HO monkey/ape set which - I believe - then went into production; 40mm mechanics with a push-&-go dumper truck in a mocked-up box and others.

Anyone have a better idea?!!

T is for Turk, Turkish, Turkic!

If you only have time to view one other blog post in the next few days I would recommend this one;

Turkish Army Uniforms - Early 20th Century

Especially if you are interested in the late 19th/early 20th Centuries, WWI, Turkey and the Ottoman Empire, the Mesopotamian or Dardenells campaines etc...

A really interesting post but don't take my word for it - have a look!

D is for Dispatches!

This has just come back from the front...it's not pretty...

Dragonframe Animation

while night maneuvers are getting pretty explosive over here;

Bright Sparks

And I hate the 'Mail', why do I do it to myself!!

F is for Final Post - on Blue Box WWII...

...for now!! Finishing off the images I took a while ago now, with the last of the Blue Box World War Two figures (50mm Farm and Medieval still to come), These are both small samples, and while it would be nice - for completism - to think there were only three poses in each set, the unpainted officer hints at more.

It's weird; the GI's and Germans are quite common, the Ri-Toys copies of the Aussies and Japs are very common, yet the Blue Box originals of both, along with the ones we are looking at today are really hard to get, doesn't mean they are rare, but they are not that common.

So, the British Infantry and the Russian 'Red Army'; three of each here, with original paint. The unpainted green officer is to be assumed the British officer until someone says otherwise, and points to later unpainted issues as with the US and German figures. He is quite similar to the Russian officer next to him and the Germans had one of their two officers waving a pistol, so clearly a favourite pose of the sculptor Blue Box were using!

The entrenchments (more; 'revetments'!) are interesting, they are copies of the Marx 'HO' [30mm!] copies of the Hillco/Cherilea (?) mouldings, and further evidence the link between Blue Box and Marx I've mentioned before. I think the green ethylene ones in the foreground were the earlier, the later blow-moulded one lies behind.

S is for Supermarionation Supercar!

After looking at the Camberwick Green figures the other day - another set of figures widely held to have been made by the Marx plant in Swansea (or sourced by them from the Hong Kong arm of the global brand) are these characters from the Gerry Anderson 'Spermarionation' TV series; Supercar.

Supercar was the first of Gerry's Supermarionation children's television series, running for 39 episodes between 1961 and 1962 (so these toys are older than me?!!) and set the tone for all the subsequent Anderson puppetry oeuvre - a super sci-fi unit with wacky stuff solving an insurmountable problem (half caused by them) inside 40 minutes with a cool groovy vehicle or two!

 

The figures were supplied with a plastic model of the eponymous Supercar, and are presented here with one figure missing: Mitch the Monkey! He's the idiot who half caused the emergency most weeks (sometimes Wikipedia is actually useful - well!...I wasn't born then!)

Like the missing Mitch; the four other Characters are in a dense creamy-white polystyrene, painted in the style of Marx Miniature Masterpiece or Tinykins, and - from the 40mm figure on the left - represent:

'Aeronaut' Mike Mercury (steely-jawed hero)

Dr. Horatio Beaker (Popkiss's assistant)
Jimmy Gibson (annoying brat)
Professor Popkiss ('Brains' [Geditt] behind this version of the Anderson universe)

The missing monkey being around 20mm and the smallest, I think there was a torso of Mike in the vehicle in a darker paint scheme, the likelihood of my ever having one in good nick to show here is doubtful...but I'm sure it will turn up on Moonbase Central - if it hasn't already!

The carded toy was sold by/issued (distributed) under the title/brand of Cecil Coleman, London, N1. and I've included a paint variant of Beaker and an early mould-release shrinkage variant of Mike below.

F is for Feedback - Triang and Husky

The following post is a complete update of the Triang post I published a while ago ago HERE and the Husky article from a few weeks earlier (link below) and is the result of several months of eMail traffic between Bernard Taylor and myself...emailing which it has to be said consisted mostly of me asking questions and Bernard providing the answers! As a result nearly all the images and most of the information in the text has come from Bernard, for which I am very grateful. As a result this as much his post as mine!

Bernard has a range of railway modelling accessories in various scales HERE and while of limited use to Toy Soldier collectors and Historical war gamers, there is a lot of stuff of use to Sci-fi/Car Wars fans, and anyone looking to populate their games or dioramas with civil bits, while one hopes the odd railway modeller visits these pages! So do please give his site a visit, he's contributed quite a lot to these pages in the last few months.

All above images courtesy of Bernard, showing clockwise from top; the Minic Motorways version of the Industrial Workers in their guise as pit crew, the correctly numbered catalogue image - this is an artists impression and shows some figures who were substantially different when they finally got to the retailers, and three more mint sets - again with the correct numbering. Later the combined Tri-Ang-Minic catalogues would have the figure sets photographed in the Minic section.

So where did I go wrong last time! Well the first mistake was one of a fundamental nature, I had taken the set numbers from one of the catalogues in my run, without checking the others, it turns out that those numbers were actually misplaced in most of the catalogues that carry the figures sets, both from the correct catalogue lists and from the numbers actually printed on the sets! I should have spotted that. So - while the numbers in the original article are correct, they are only correct to certain catalogues, not the 'Factory Door' issued products.

Another mistake (and again a pretty fundamental one!) was to assume, that because I'd seen them in Minic Motorway header bags, they must all have been issued thus, and further to assume that the codes would be the same as the Model Land catalogue codes. Assumption is a dangerous game and not something I'm usually that guilty of, luckily this is a blog and we can produce these corrections, updates or additions and anyone can contribute either through the comments section or by emailing me - so the picture grows whole'r!

Here is the correct numbering;

Tri-ang Model Land

RML.70 Pedestrian Figures Set No. 1.

RML.71 Workmen's Figures Set No. 2. ('74' in incorrect catalogues)

RML.72 Children's Figures Set No. 3.

RML.73 Urban Figures Set No. 4.

RML.74 Industrial Workers Figures set No. 5. (issued in blue overalls, '75' in incorrect catalogues)

RML.75 Road Workmen Figures Set No. 6. ('71' in incorrect catalogues)

RML 74 - Industrial Workers [Minic Motorways ref: was M1709]

Mettoy Minic Motorway

M1709 Mechanics/Pit Stop Crew (RML.74 Industrial Workers issued in white overalls)

Bernard has also sent both the images to the left in the above collage, showing the missing dog-handler from the Husky sets we looked at a few weeks ago HERE, along with a comparison with the Triang Model Land one. I have reproduced the comparison from last time and the Corgi version of the dog handler which is larger.

Another problem which had reared it's ugly head also from the Husky post, is the 'other' dustbin man ('refuse operative' in today's lingo). I placed him with the 'pedestrians' set, as I - again - erroneously felt that if some sets had six figures [Public Servants/Officials and Garage Personnel], and another - most obvious - set [Public Workers/Workmen] didn't contain the figure, he must go in the other!

It now looks as if he was a stand alone figure from one of the Husky, Corgi, or even Dinky (?) dustbin lorry models, but Google has not revealed the correct model. This sort of ties-in with the fact that he is far more common than the other figures. The shot of the Pedestrian set is also from Bernard. We need a die-cast expert to knock this one on the head...John!

Finally, between Bernard's picture of the Triang Model Land lollipop-man ('School-crossing patrol person' in today's lingo!), my picture of the Husky one, the original catalogue artwork and a recent feeBay lot with the Mastermodels metal one, we can see how social history is reflected in the change from square hoardings to round 'lollipops' and how much finer the Triang figure is in comparison with the Husky Hong Kong effort.

Also the artwork from the Husky catalogue which also shows the little road-sign set.

P is for Prickle-Pins

Following-on from the previous post on Hedgehogs I promised some more, and these are they;

A couple of days after the nigh-time encounter covered by your intrepid reporter, this little chap (or chap'ess) turned-up in the middle of the day, rummaging in the long grass, which - I'm sorry to report earned it a bit of a back-kick from Jimijames. that well-known ravager of all things prickly or porcine! No damage was done, a young hedgehog got a lesson in where to go in the human world in the hours of daylight, and having clearly passed with distinction, got a reward of some watered-down milk!

Back in July, I managed to catch this one running across the lawn, and dispersing under the nut hedge.

He or she than appeared up by the pond a couple of days later, scruffling around looking for snails and slugs, two of the few lifeforms to have benefited from a very odd summer...well; very odd year altogether.

It was there discovered and flushed-forth by Frodo, not - as the more astute of you will have realised from the image here presented - a Hobbit, but one with equally furry feet, nevertheless.

Once the hair-ball had discovered that the new kid on the block was not a new playmate, and worse...prickly not furry...and particularly prickly to the nose, he first looked disinterested, then licked his tail, then had a scratch before fixing his gaze firmly on the yellow poppies the other side of the lawn..."What? Me? No, not remotely interested, far better things to do..."

F is for Farm Folk

Starting to work through a few of the smaller offerings from the Marx 'Miniature Masterpiece' range, we begin with the civilian 'crystal box' sets of farm animals and people.

The four larger sets, I have no contents for set 4, and can't tell you what they might be! But the backing card is the correct design. If anyone has a shot of the contents I could Photoshop in, that would help everyone, if anybody has a spare set 4; I have some ACW sets for swaps.

Due to the smaller sizes of the some of the animals, the 'count' tends to be slightly higher than some of the other sets in this range (Wild West and ACW), but the human figure count is down on the ACW sets, at six per card. Glued-in with the same dark brown evostick-like substance as the Blue Box miniatures, there are more clues to the link between the two.

The smaller sets; 1-6, top left to bottom right with 3 missing completely this time! Again - I have a couple of small ACW sets if anyone wants to do a straight swap. When I was a kid these sets were great favourite as take-home gifts from other peoples Birthday Parties and I always assumed they would all line-up with the backing cards matching...they don't! Ah...the dreams of youth shattered on the anvil of adulthood!

These have four human figures and a lower count of animals. The calf at the far end of set 4 is the Corgi calf reduced in size, Blue Box also carried copies of this animal, albeit in a larger size.

 

A few lose bits and pieces, the figures are a bit large for 20/25mm war games (recent comments on another post in mind), but the animals can be utilised. I think the cows above have be 'enhanced' by a previous owner, while the poultry are really fine little mouldings.

The figures are a mixture of copies of Britains Herald, Marx's own larger scale moulding, the Corgi animal mentioned, and other makers stuff...I think the girl with the bucket held low is from the uncommon soft ethylene range of 70mm farm from Elastolin?

Y is for Your recomended reading today!

Gardian does Hornby

A is for Arnold

This was sitting with the far more common Tri-ang tinpalte jeep on Adrien's stall (mercatortrading) at Sandown the other week, and while I kept meaning to shoot the other one as a comparison, I never got round to it. Luckily I could see the quality of this one and shot it immediately, as it sold before the doors opened!

 I'm assuming most of you are pretty familiar with the Tri-ang one as it is to be spotted at most shows (sometimes it seems - most stalls!), it is a nice little tin-plate model, usually adored with an Allied star and...er...that's it!

This on the other hand is absolutely exquisite, and while I have seen one or two over the years; I've never seen one with all three composition crew, the spare and Jerry-can, the windscreen intact etc...Made by Arnold, who went on to make the Rapido range of N-gauge railway stuff when I was a kid.

It is in a different league to the Tri-ang one, and most similar models, I have the Penguin jeep in Vulcanised Rubber somewhere and it too - is crude next to this.

A couple of three-quarter views, I could wax lyrical for a while on this, but I'd bore you, just click on the images and add it to your 'Wants List'!!

Cleaner ones with different crew; Here and Here

O is for Original Orientals

Except these orientals are Germans!! Continuing the slow progress of looking at the Blue Box lose figures, we come to the 50mm German infantry. Six poses including two officers and these are pretty unique - in the larger (50mm) scale there is nothing really quite like them. In the smaller scale however they seem to match the Marx 'Miniature Masterpiece' figures in all but plastic colour and pose, being the same height and style and having the same paint scheme. I wrote on my theory about that at length in 1" Warrior, but that's the small ones and we're really looking at the bigger ones today!

The main point of note is that some versions come with the separate base of the Farm Hands/Zoo keepers, which I ascribed to the Australians a while ago, and which comes as a moulded-on feature with some of the GI's we looked at the other day.

Again - there are better, worse and unpainted runs, and the small scale ones were copied by/licenced to (?) Rado/Ri-Toys, while other HK guys had a go at the mouldings, we'll look at them in better detail when we cover the smaller ones, but I've included a comparison shot above to give an idea of various types, along with a darker grey figure in the 50mm range.

W is for Brimtoy - Wells-Brimtoy

Brimtoy were an early British tin-plate toy manufacturer, who used to work with  Bing, the famous German tin-plate Toy specialists. Founded in 1910, they were absorbed by another UK toy company - A Wells and Co. and became Wells-Brimtoy, whence came these half plastic half metal trucks, in the years immediately before they folded (1965)

There are several military vehicles in the range, a bit bigger than 1:72 they go best with the larger figures of someone like Spencer-Smith.

And the 'military' green chassis of both the push-and-go and free-running versions are used with other bodies, to give a wider range of transport that could be used in a war game in the 1960's, when vehicles for the purpose were thin on the ground. I have the canteen lorry with a green body and it looks very much the part of a YMCA or NAFFI-wagon.

The standard 'box body' came litho'd in a variety of types, these all being the push-and-go version. I got talking to a chap back in the Spring at the early-year Sandown Park toy fair who is publishing (or hoping to publish) a book on these little trucks and he did tell me how many variants there are (excluding body-colour variations) but I've forgotten how many he said...50-something I think.

These were mostly shot at Sandown a couple of weeks ago, with two recent additions (but older purchases) to my collection at the top, and one from the main collection (on the Jean transporter) which used to be on Imageshack and has lost some resolution. I also have the street-lamp mender/cherry-picker, and a cement lorry. There was also - I think I'm right in saying - an articulated version with a low-loader attached to an blank chassis/cab unit

The free-runner has a generic cab design and a smaller bed than the push-and-go design which is larger to accommodate the fly-wheel mechanism and gear-cog. It also resembles my favourite; the Bedford RL or 'Big Bedford'.

The smaller un-motored versions also seem to have the closed bodies, Ambulance, Horse-box, Cafeteria etc...While the motorised ones often have the open back (albeit with nicely turned-back edges to protect little fingers), this may point to the two ranges running contiguously rather than together/side-by-side? If so I wouldn't know which came first, but they were probably quite close together, time-wise.

I knew I'd find a use for 'Contiguous' one day, once I'd met it on my old fragmenting graphic!! We will come back to these one day, as I have quite a few somewhere, and I do like them.

A is for Autumn

The sun setting over the fields behind May's Wood to the West of Enham Alamein Last week

C is for Codeg, Cowan de Groot, Camberwick Green, Censorship and Criminal

An interesting little series tonight and one you won't find in your local definitive list of other people's eBay images reduced to black and white thumbnails! Generally agreed to have been supplied by Marx (Swansea works) and probably made in the ELM factory in Hong Kong, these figures and the accessories that went with them were sold under the Codeg label by Cowan, de Groot, who by the time these came out were a large multinational PLC with a finger in every pie.

Cowan, de Groot was founded by S.D. Cowan and A. de Groot in 1919, and while initially being an importer of all sorts of stuff from around the world (Empire?!), among which were early tin-plate toys from Germany and Japan, they would go on to become one of Britians biggest wholesalers of toys, diversifying into the supply of plastics machinery and non-toy retail such as The Russian Shop in London and - I believe - an International property portfolio.

By the time this range was issued they were known for their commissioning of toys from third-parties to service the TV licences they were establishing with the BBC (Dr.Who/Daleks) and independent production companies (in this case; 1966 BBCTV). More recently they were the importers of Jotastar plush toys and bears from China, apparently ceasing to trade in the early-to-mid 1990's.

The evidence for these being from the Marx stable include both; that some of the larger CdG Daleks and Trumptonshire toys were resplendent with the Marx moniker (despite the fact that Marx had their own ranges (they wouldn't turn down a opportunity to shift product!) both as Marx and under the Combex label, and that while the base mark here isn't particularly a Marx style, the shades of pink plastic are identical to the Marx Miniature masterpiece American Indians and other Marx product from Hong Kong (the 40mm road crew for instance).

The above image is a near complete set of figures (missing the Murphy's daughter) and one of the accessories and should remain here in glorious technicolour for the next thousand years (Google or visit-stats willing!), with a list of the characters by name and other known items in the series below;

Left to right in above photograph;

Roger Varley the chimney sweep [but not much like the original - hat's too short], (the brush is missing the top part)
Farmer Jonathan Bell
Windy Miller
Doctor Mopp
PC McGarry Number 452
Mrs Honeyman and Baby Honeyman
Mrs Dingle
Peter Hazel the Postman
Pillar-box/Postbox
Mickey Murphy the Baker
Mr. Carraway the Fishmonger
Paddy Murphy
Mrs. Murphy

Not shown but known to exist

Mary Murphy
Section of Wall
Tree (almost certainly the Britains apple tree - sans apples)
Street Lamp

Not Shown/Not known to be part of the series;

Mr Crockett the Garage Owner
Thomas Tripp the Milkman
Mr Dagenham the Salesman
Captain Snort
Sergeant Major Grout

Sets;

Set No 1 - Mr. Murphy's Bakery
Srt No 2 - Mr. Carraway's Fish Shop
Set No 3 - Post Office
Set No 4 - Dr Mopps House

- Camberwick Green Village Set [all four buildings, wall, lamp post, pillar-box and Britains tree]
- Camberwick Green Village Folk [all 13 figures and the pillar-box]

Close-ups for identification; The bases are quite distictive with their little hole, the two women with dresses and the piller-box being solid while the rest of the figures have a very light, thin base with little 'overhang' The figures are all between 25 and 30mm with the Piller-box being exactly 25mm and the Dr. Mop (with his tall hat) being an almost perfect 30mil.

For foreign readers it should be pointed out that Trumptonshire is the collective fan-title for a set of three children's TV series from the BBC's 'Watch with Mother' feature at lunchtimes in the 1960's, which consisted of 13 episodes each. Camberwick Green was the first series set in a small English village, this was followed by a series set in Trumpton - the local town, and finally 13 episodes set round the big house/estate of nearby Chigley. They are noted for being among the first colour TV productions here in the UK, and - it must be said - I have fond memories of them myself! "Pugh, Pugh, Barney Magrew...Cuthbert! Dibble! Grub!

And so to the 'Censorship' and 'Criminal' of the title bar!...

Two things came out of the research for this post, firstly; That despite being a major movement in Toys for 70 years and going under long after the coming of age of the Internet, there is almost nothing on CdG to be found other than the odd side-note to an eBay auction or other toy listing, this shows that despite the Internet becoming a more and more comprehensive (if often - still - inaccurate) source for the sum total of human knowledge, there is an undeniable undercurrent of censorship, and it's practised by the rich, powerful and corporate, who will ensure they delete the things they don't want you to know.

The other is the 'one born every minute' lesson; There are several of these figures on FeeBay at the moment, the seller is asking £29.99 for each of them...that's thirty quid folks...60-odd dollars! These things have an intrinsic value of less than 50p and shouldn't be worth more than a couple of quid each to collectors, I've never paid more than 50p-each for mine, yet this person who probably hoovered them up with something else at a local auction-house or car boot sale wants a third of a ton for them?

While someone else has some on his little antique toy site which - while well described - include things that have absolutely no connection to the series whatsoever; An HK Tree, an HK import of a European model railway building copy, a polyethylene windmill by Taylor & Barratt or similar (which has its own value in the correct guise anyway) and some HK dolls house copies of the Britains garden...now, the fact that the descriptions are so good means - to me - that the seller knows damn well he's ripping people off?

But the real tragedy is; the 'one born every minute' are the sharks, there are a hundred born every minute to pray-on; and rich know-nothings will pay those prices! I don't often mention money or value but it incenses me to see such profiteering of mass-produced plastics from the second half of the 20th century, the stuff isn't rare, I keep saying it because it's true; people used to think Giant was rare but a warehouse full of the stuff was sold-off a couple of years ago! Truffle-hunt round the car-boot sales and evening toy fairs and you'll get these for next to nothing, just be patient.

H is for Hampshire Wildlife - August 2012

One or two of you may have noticed I have now imported all the old posts from the gardening and moaning blogs, so from time to time you'll have to put up with the odd bit of wildlife or plant life on this blog from now on. I will try to finish re-tagging the 'Index' (preferably before the final imposition of the 'New Style' blog layout - as it's much easier in the old version) and bring over the last of the links in the next few weeks.

I also have about 30 articles in preparation, some of which I've already mentioned, but there's a lot going on in 'real life' at the moment so they are not going on-line as quickly as I'd like. For now here's some of the visitors to my flat in Enham (Nr. Andover - an old stomping ground from my Army days!) and my mothers garden in North Hampshire.

This little chap - or chap'ess - came calling just after midnight on Thursday and I would have given it some milk but the caterers here had given us yoghurt disguised as milk (for our self-catered breakfast) which I figured would not go down well with a house guest, so I just took some pictures for the visitors book and saw it on it's snail-hunting way.

Creepy-crawlies are always a favourite of mine and these are all from the last 30 days, the slug was even longer, but he started to shorten as I focused, a phenomena I have noticed before with slugs and snails and I suspect they somehow detect the beam from the camera, as you can always approach them (with care) but the moment you press first pressure on the shutter button they freeze up/shrink.

I don't know what the ants were finding so interesting, I inspected the stick after I took the shot and it was a stick...just a stick! The snail was so small yet so beautifully constructed it would drive a simpler mind to religion!

Flyers - after a couple of really good years for butterflies, we have now had two bad ones and this year they have been so thin on the ground (and the Buddleia!) that I try to shoot them whenever I see one. While I continue to fall for moths, who are so much-more pretty than a quick glance ever betrays, their buffs and grays, browns and fawns being actually patterns and designs as complex as any butterfly.

These three little voles came out of a bank on Saturday afternoon and sat around on the grass together, so tame we could stroke them, although they did tend to rush back into their hole after a couple of touches!

It is one of life's undeniable pleasures to encounter wildlife close-up, commune with it (on any level) and let it carry-on with it's day. I'm not sure if a 'Greenie' wouldn't cry "foul" at the stroking of voles, but they were gentle little one-finger passes (these things are about 45mm nose-to-tail-base, and the animals were back out in minutes - so obviously weren't that bothered, I guess you'd be nervous if a 600 foot giant came and patted you gently on the head!