STAFFORDSHIRE SEA-SERPENT SIMULACRA

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   SCARY: Miriam Bestford's image of the 'Loch Ness Monster'.
   
   
   
   http://www.thisisstaffordshire.co.uk/saw-Nessie-trip-lake/story-16456249-detail/story.html

DAVEY CURTIS: The Pedro Mountains Pygmy Mummy of Seaham on Sea

Dear Jon,

It seems like the Hawkwind-invoked plesiosaurus that was living in my Lava Lamp was on a short-term lease. We now have the Pedro Mountains Pygmy Mummy of Wyoming in residence! I don't know; you turn your back for one minute and another Crypto Critter moves in. Maybe I should ask him for a bond or two weeks rent in advance.


Regards
Davy. C

SIMULACRA: Enter the Dragon

Yesterday we posted a slice of YouTube video that shows a gorgeous cloud formation in the shape of a bird. Today our old friend Matt Williams writes:



My Dragon cloud taken whilst flying...

can you see its head wings and legs... you may have to stare a bit but its there...

Matthew

Magnificent bird simulacrum

ANDREW HOPCROFT: Bo(w)ne Head

I once happened upon the simulacrum of a hag amongst the tussocks of Hags Glen beneath the summit of Carrauntoohill; principle peak of MacGillycuddys Reeks and the highest mountain in all of Ireland. I once searched long an hard for a wriggly, wiggly serpentine simulacrum on the banks of Loch Ness, wherein whose cold brackish waters supposedly swims a great wriggly, wiggly wyrm, but to no avail. However, I stumbled upon this stone 'bone head' halfway up Bow Fell in the Lake District of northern England.

Charles Fort [Wild Talents Chapter 18] was greatly intrigued by the appearance of forms and images produced by nature, especially so when people attributed them with significance. Fort's world is an organic entity of which we are very much a part, a world shaped by our desires and imagination - reality conditioned by the human will!

I held a notion that this jumble rocks upon Bow Fell formed a resemblance to the skull of the Bowhead Whale, but alas, I can not make comfortable the comparison with this grinning stone saurian! Mountains, including those of the Lake District, are often described as similar to the dark hull of an upturned boat or akin to the back of a whale - 'whaleback.' Deep in the depths of nearby Windemere dwells the whale sized Bownessie, named for the village Bowness-on-Windemere, (note: there is a 'ness' in that name!) This creator of bow waves is said to be eel-like and up to 70ft in length, I think perhaps, a few years ago, I met its skeletal likeness on the slopes of Bow Fell.

LIZZY CLANCY: Laying for England!

It is always nice to be able to introduce you all to a new guest blogger. Possibly the nicest thing about the CFZ bloggo is that it is a living, breathing community, and new people arrive on a regular basis. I can't tell you anything about Liz, apart from the fact that she bought some books from us at Uncon, briefly spoke to Richard, and had a charmingly old-fashioned habit of referring to me as `Mr Downes`, when everyone else calls me `Jon` or `Hey You` (or sometimes something more scatological), until I told her not to.

She is also the author of a charming and very elegantl;y written fortean novella called The Second Level which I strongly urge you all to buy at this link:



http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/offer-listing/095601156X/ref=dp_olp_new?ie=UTF8&condition=new

She is obviously one to watch, and she tells me in her latest e:mail that she is getting "addicted" to writing for the CFZ bloggo.

Back in 1941 when Patriotism was still okay and our men were off fighting world war two, support back home abounded, often from surprising corners.

According to the Rochdale Observer, in August of that year, Mr J. Herbert of the Spotland area (who, incidentally, had previously been a Rochdale Association footballer) was tending to his chickens and came across the remarkable egg shown in the photo.

The V for Victory Campaign had begun earlier that year in January when Belgian refugee Victor Delavelaye suggested on BBC radio that the 22nd letter of the alphabet become the emblem of the allies against Nazism. The idea was, according to Mr Delavelaye, that "by seeing this sign, always the same, infinitely repeated, [the German] will understand that he is surrounded, encircled by an immense crowd of citizens eagerly awaiting his first moment of weakness, watching for his first failure."

I do hope Mr Herbert’s patriotic hen was commended for her brave effort in support of the allied movement, or at least given an extra portion of feed. Sadly such gallinaceous gallantry in the Spotland area is unlikely ever to recur since the only chicken within a one-mile radius is minced and waiting to be fried in one of the many kebab shops we have to choose from.