Return of the 52-Week Illustration Challenge, Week 50

Week 50: Party

"Surprise!" Sketch in finepoint and metallic Sharpies on watercolour paper, with highlights in watercolour and dayglo yellow marker.

Update:

Week 50: Party II

Party balloons in coloured cartridge papers, collaged onto Quill glitter-finish Galaxy card.

There's something in the woodheap...

Today is a very good day to go to the movies, I think. Anything to avoid a day of letting Jack in and out of the back door.

My Jack Russell terrier, Jack, has spent the last few days patrolling the backyard, and under both side gates, with his nose glued to ground level, relentlessly following the unseen path of some invisible creature, which has obviously been passing through with some regularity.

In the past, we've suspected a possum, cats and/or small garden skinks, and it often has been the latter. I have also spotted blue tongue lizards (Jack's cornered two of these in the past, flipping one over on its back), and there was the famous ferret sighting - not to mention large water skinks at Zena's and my red-bellied black snake encounter down at Penrith railway station. Nor will I mention the near-tragedy of the baby blue tongue lizard at my aunt's last year.

Who knows what monster is lurking under the woodheap (the remains of the old balcony decking boards)? But Jack did finally see it under there twice this morning. "Bark, bark, bark" etc.


"Where is it? Where is it?"


On the topic of monsters, I've recently had a curiosity about the fate of Peter Jackson's "Son of Kong" movie, which he'd promoted in the bonus DVD features of his "King Kong" remake (2005). I haven't heard a thing about the sequel, which was going to star an albino progeny of "Kong", in ages; in fact, not since seeing the bonus features of the DVD, now that i think of it. Today it was time for that Google and IMDB (Internet Movie Database) search, and thus I discovered this comment in a review of the Jackson "King Kong" DVD:

For those that fell victim to the joke (I did) about "Son of Kong", there won't be a "Son of Kong". That was an April Fools joke.

Really? Now I feel silly.

I must admit, watching the DVD bonus features, I thought it was a weird move for Jackson to do such a sequel when "King Kong" itself had had a less-then-impressive performance at the box office, but I was equally surprised when the recent media seemed to be totally ignoring the progress of the (seemingly elaborate) sequel. The bit about Kong's son growing up to fight Nazis should have been the give away. Gosh, I'm slow.

You know, Peter, it was a great joke, but I'm still not looking under my woodheap.

Nocturnal disturbances

Jack, my Jack Russell terrier, has been "giving me evils", to quote Vicky Pollard, ever since I arrived home this afternoon. He really, really wanted to go-for-a-walk. (I'm sure Jack thinks it's just one word; my Dad's dog used to respond just to "go-for-a", when we purposely eliminated the W A L K word from the McLean family vocabulary.)

It was way too hot at 5 pm to go-for-a-walk but, finally at about 10 pm, the temperature had cooled down sufficiently. When Jack locked eyes with me, for what must have been the hundredth time, I said the magic phrase.

Nothing terribly eventful tonight, but the neighbourhood dogs do have a habit of being overly protective of their yards, and their whole street's privacy, when Jack walks by, no matter what time of day. So we regularly create lots of late-night canine ruckus on our 20 to 30 minute jaunt, and tonight was no different.

I heard yesterday that the drought has brought out the snakes here in Penrith, with several large brown snakes and red-bellied black snakes being spotted in my street. One Jack Russell has succumbed to a poisonous snake bite, I've been told, and - knowing Jack's fondness for seeking out all things scaly and slithery - I'm trying to keep away from the obvious snake havens that we pass along the route.

I encountered a huge red-bellied black snake just beside Penrith railway station two years ago. It must have just emerged from hibernation, and I'd been there with Jack only a matter of minutes earlier. The snake crossed my path while I was retracing my steps on my way to Penrith Plaza. Had I still been with Jack on the lead, he'd have been out in front and would have met the snake long before I'd noticed it. It was a close call; one I'd rather not repeat.