Songs: A Horse with No Name

I've been rewatching Friends and I rediscovered this song:

Art: Prints by Ell

A while back I bought myself some prints, done by my lovely sister-in-law-to-be, who is a very talented comic book artist. Here's the link to her Etsy store if you fancy getting some for yourself: https://www.etsy.com/uk/shop/EllJWalker.

These are what I was mostly after. Ell did dragons through October for inktober. She then made them up into postcards to sell and I bought a bunch. I would have bought more if she'd put more of them up! Excuse the bad photo, but follow the link if you want to see them in all their glory! I think they're really creative and beautiful.

At the same time I treated myself to a couple of her very funny little zines. The first one is from another annual drawing challenge, hourly comics. You draw a comic every hour of the day you're awake to show what your day was like. Her little comics about everyday things are my favourite things that Ell draws. I think they're really cute and funny. The second is a comic about Paul Hollywood eating The Great British Bake Off contestants. It's also really funny and well done.

 

I bought this print as well. I just think it's cute. And who doesn't love a unicorn.

These Ell doesn't actually sell these anymore, but she had some spares and let me have them. Confusing advice from mythical creatures. I think these are hilarious.

Yay! Thanks Ell!

Songs: Walk Off the Earth Songs

In tribute to the wonderful Beard Guy who died over the holidays, here are some lovely Walk Off the Earth songs:


Here are some of their original songs:

And one of their covers:

Sleep tight, Beard Guy. :'(  Thank you for the music. And the laughs.

Books: We Didn't Mean to Go to Sea (spoilers!)

As previously mentioned, I like to revisit childhood favorites every now and then. This book isn't actually one I read as a kid, but I loved the series. It's the 9th book in the Swallows and Amazons series, which I've been slowly rereading. It follows the accidental adventure of the Walker children (the Swallows), who sail across the sea to Holland by themelseves. At the start of their holidays they meet a man who agrees to take them for a trip on his boat. Unbeknownst to the children he has an accident while on land getting supplies and is delayed. Meanwhile both a fog and the tide come up. Their anchor chain is too short to hold them in the high water, and because of the fog they don't realise they're drifting out to sea until it's too late. Because of bad weather and treacherous rocks, they decide that the safest thing for them to do is to keep sailing on until the weather changes, and in the morning they find themselves in Holland. They also rescue a drowning kitten from the sea on the way. Luckily in Holland they meet their father who is on his way to England and he helps them sail the ship back to England safely.

I really enjoyed this book, and the whole series so far. The circumstances in which they find themselves sailing to Holland are written in a very believable way. The story takes palces over a much shorter timescale than other Arthur Ransome books, making it much more intense. The long, anxious night, the struggle against the storm, the seasickness and the struggle to stay awake are really gripping. And, OK, the end is a total deus ex machina, but I don't mind that. Like the whole series so far, it's a great read.