The beaten path

Well, summer seems to have ended abruptly and my landscaping adventure has yet to reach the driveway. But, as a former boss of mine would say, its back is broken.

I usually get about 5-6 feet of the path laid most Saturdays. It starts with a trip to the landscaping place. I go out back, ask for a pallet and start poking around the picking pile with a few other amateurs who also don't really know what they're doing.

I carefully select from the flagstone pile. If it's too thin, it won't settle properly. If it's too thick it'll be a job to make it level with others. I get a few that I can barely lift and the rest are medium to small pieces that I use to build around the big ones. I put as many on the pallet as I think my vehicle will hold and flag someone down to weigh it for me. Usually it's the same person: a gruff lady with little patience for landscaping newbies.

The first time I went through this process, she raised the pallet from the scale and shouted at me over the grumbling forklift, "Where's your truck?"

"Umm, it's the Golf down there," I said pointing towards the lot.

"A Golf!" She laughed out loud. I totally made her day. I laughed too.

Usually she deals with guys with giant pick-ups. She raises the full pallet above the back and wiggles the controls until all the rock clambers into an overflowing pile into the back. Not with me though. She drives to the lot, climbs down from the forklift and passes me pieces which I lay gingerly throughout the back of the car. If it's a big load, I put a few on the front seat.

She knows me now. I show up and she just brings me a pallet. It's like walking into your favourite bar and the bartender places your pint in front of you as you're settling into your seat. She's still a bit gruff but when it comes time to load up the car, I see a smile creep across her face.

Skull-A-Day

Quite some time ago, I came across the Skull-A-Day blog but didn't exactly delve into the site. Like most internet meandering, I probably glanced at a few pictures, read a headline or two, judged it and moved on. But last week at Chapters I picked up a copy of "Skulls" by Noah Scalin: a collection of his skull-a-day art endeavours and I remembered the site. It's a great little book but it only scratches the surface of the material at Skull-A-Day, which now includes user submissions as well as Noah's own work. It's a wonderful reminder that creative efforts can come in any form. Even peach pits. And push pins. And leaves. You name it: Noah probably made a skull out of it.

Before and after

Ahoy! This is another image from the paper. I was about to upload it a few days ago but I thought the original pen and ink looked a bit bland so I added some colour and texture in Photoshop.

St. John's Regatta

The latest doodle for NL Press.

Sick building

Rats

Sometimes the drawings for the paper served simply as illustrations and not cartoons. Like this for example.

Wonky weather

This one never actually ran in the paper at any point... can't remember why. It was regarding the closure of the weather office in Gander... the only one in the province. After much public outcry, it was reopened. But our weather didn't get any better.

Saltwater Cowboy

Rustlin' icebergs.

Cash landing

This one accompanied a story on the money spent here by the American military when they stopover in St. John's.

The Optimist

More aliens

I presume this went with a story relating to the kerfuffle over the Memorial Dominion store development back in 2005. A bit crudely drawn but it made me laugh.

Newfoundland abduction

How do you illustrate a UFO sighting in Newfoundland? Like this of course! This was my first cartoon for the paper. Truth be told, it was the first cartoon I ever did. When the editor asked me if I could "do that sort of thing" (cartooning, not abducting) I said "You bet!" and forged ahead.

Silly season

Oh, poor blog. So neglected.

I don't feel one bit bad about though. I decided a few months ago that that guilt and stress no longer have any place in my life. And I've got to say, it's been a good couple of months.

So, in the summer months I think blogging will have to go on hiatus while I'm pursuing activities of a more summery nature. On the upside, the garden's coming along nicely. The veggies are growing like crazy, the raspberries are just about ripe and my first landscaping project for the year is underway. Maybe I'll do few posts on that.

Everything's good.

I've got a few little art/doodle projects underway but nothing to share yet.

Back when I was working in newspapers, my buddy always referred to the summer months as the "silly season". It's the time when the news seems harder to dig up because the newsmakers and those connected to the newsmakers all seem to be on vacation. I suppose that's why the traditional media outlets resorted to "Great Summer Reads" sections and the like. I guess this newfangled internet is changing all that too.

Anyway, I thought instead of ignoring the blog in the coming months I'd post some old cartoons from the paper. Oldies but goodies. Well okay, they're not bad. Oldies but not baddies. I'll start with the first couple I ever did. Some of them may need explaining as they originally accompanied stories.

Happy silly season.

Organic beef

The paper was doing a story on an organic beef farm on the island and for whatever reason, we couldn't get a photo so they asked me to do an illustration. This is what I brought them. It got a lot of blanks stares from my colleagues. We ran it anyway. My wife laughed her butt off. It's all good.

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Just as an aside, an FYI if you will, an organic beef tree is self-fertilizing.

Strike averted

The latest for NLPress.

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Not a lot of creative action these past few weeks. I'm settling into a new job, my rotten house is being deconstructed/reconstructed and our short Newfoundland gardening season has just kicked off so my hands have been full with various things... but not with art implements unfortunately. Soon though.