Ralph Underhill Saturday cartoons – first and last

Ralph writes: I just wanted to say thank you to everyone that has followed my cartoons over the years, even the person who presses the dislike button every single week without fail! It has been a great opportunity and I am incredibly grateful to Mark for giving me a platform to try and hone my…

This blog (4) – the photographers

Peter Cairns: has had plenty opf his images used on this blog in a guest blog, in other people’s press releases, in news about SCOTLAND: the Big Picture but also this image of a damaged landscape which I have used many, many times. Thank you Peter. Oscar Dewhurst: Oscar Dewhurst was 18 when he started…

This blog (3) – the cartoons

Over the last decade this blog has featured the work of many artists who could be regarded as cartoonists. Ralph Underhill: Ralph has contributed hundreds of cartoons for a regular Saturday morning slot – his last offering, and some words from him, will appear on this blog tomorrow morning. But here are a few to…

Normally…

This is one of those familiar x-rays of a shot raptor – see the pellets? I’m not at my best when identifying dead birds from x-rays but this is apparently a Red Kite. And Gloucestershire police would like anyone with information to step forward… I noticed that someone commented on this subject that they wouldn’t…

Fantastic Mr Fox’s wood and Natural England

Following Dominic Woodfield’s guest blog here last week, a High Court challenge has been issued over HS2’s felling of parts of Jones Hill Wood under licence from our very own statutory, ahem, nature conservation agency. This reminds me of nothing so much as : It is horrifying that we have to fight our own government…

An important half a sentence…

It’s not exactly a headline election promise, but on page 56 of the SNP manifesto for the Scottish Parliament elections in May you will find; All that campaigning leads to that half a sentence – hard won, and only a start. But if I had the opportunity to quiz candidates in this election I’d be…

This blog (2)

Things that happened during the last decade: 2011: First blog here First guest blog here by the still unknown-to-most-people, Mr White – the first of nearly 400 guest blogs published to date (this blog will still accept guest blogs) I travel across the USA and then come back I start writing a monthly column for…

This blog (1)

If you visit this blog a week today, on 22 April, you won’t find a new post here as this blog is downsizing for 6 months – and then I’ll decide what to do next. If that comes as a complete shock to you, as it has to a few people I’ve spoken to over…