If you have a yeti, and you have snow in Crystal Palace Park, then you have to make use of them!
Besides, it’ll be great material for the Alien Moon trailer…
News
International Book Giving Day
This is a lovely thing, taking place on February 14th.
I’ve seen that Viv Schwarz and Clara Vulliamy have made lovely book plates to stick inside the book you donate – so I thought I’d do the same!
There are also some great ideas for book giving over on the Playing By The Book blog!
Here’s Harold the Hamster, being all giving. Click on him for a hi-res version!
UPDATE: And now you can also download with a dedication and border. Click for biggie!
Coppicing with the cutest little tractor
It’s that time of year again. On Saturday we donned our long-johns and trekked to our little slice of forest for a spot of planned coppicing and clearing.
Taking on a piece of woodland means getting involved in a very hands on way. It’s the only type of environment that actively benefits from human involvement, so the more work we do to thin the trees and clear the brambles, the better it is for wildlife and wild flowers.
We’ve been opening and clearing this ride on and off for the past two years. The ride (trackway) is edged by dead hedging (you can see us laying it in the photo below), which serves a double purpose: it’s a great a place for creatures to nest, and also acts as a barrier to stop deer getting at new growth on the coppiced tree stands.
These sorts of things take time to achieve – cleaning up the wood is a ten-year plan, at the least – but we’re already seeing new wildflowers and more butterflies than ever before.
And one of the benefits of working in the woods is that I get to ride on the cutest little tractor ever.
Merry Christmas!
Here’s to a very lovely Christmas break, and here’s to the first glass of Port for the year!
See you all in 2012. I’m certain it’ll be a good year.
Alex
Angry yeti Halloween Pumpkin!
It is Halloween, so I had to, didn’t I?
Yeti Shop Poll!
I’m in the process of making a shop of all things Yeti and Mythical 9th Division. And so I’m looking for some feedback on what you’d most like to see in a Yeti shop.
If you can think of anything else, please say in the comments. Thanks, you lovely people!
Arrietty, the new Studio Ghibli film
Anyone who’s ever met me will have heard me go on about Studio Ghibli. Watching Laputa was the one defining moment in my life that made me want to create stories. So, as you can guess, the appearance of a new Ghibli film always excites me.
Arrietty, based on the Borrowers, is a traditional Ghibli film in the nicest of ways. When Arrietty walks through the grass with a leaf held above her head, it felt like Totoro at its loveliest. The hunt for the sugar cube (was it just me, or was the fridge white noise the same noise as that in the airships in Laputa?) was as exciting and atmospheric as anything in Laputa or Princess Mononoke. And the artwork! Boy, the art is probably the best I’ve seen in any animation.
As for the story, it was lovely, even though the narrative drive and ending were unconvincing and unnecessary. I really didn’t understand why the housekeeper hated the Borrowers, which was the lynchpin of the film. But there we go, it’s never a great idea to question why things happen in a Ghibli film. They just do.
And then there’s the language issue. I watched a dubbed version, which is always a bad way of seeing a Ghibli film, but this one was okay. It was far better than most. I actually think Mark Strong was really trying to sound like a Ghibli character, which is a step forward in translating the pure Japan-ness of the films. And the fact that we got a British (no American actors) dub helped.
So where does it rank in all-time Ghibli films of note?
It’s not up there with a Miyazaki film, but I think it’s definitely a film from his stable. The elegant little details, and the three or four scenes of greatness show that Miyazaki’s influence is there in spades.
As for its standing amongst Ghibli films, I’d put it alongside The Cat Returns (which I like a lot, even if the ending is mental) and just below Kiki’s Delivery Service. So, a minor masterpiece that’s far better than most films out there. And it’s definitely one to see at the cinema.
In-between things
Over the coming few months I’m finishing off the 4th yeti book, and that means, you guessed it, I’m about to start something else. There are lots of projects I’d like to attempt, including umpteen potentially exciting stories sitting in my ideas folder, but today I feel a bit like this about all of them.
And while I’m here, there really is nothing like getting out a paintbrush and going crazy on a huge sheet of A1 paper with paint/ink.