Guys and Gals - it's that time of the year again, and for once I am going to be relinquishing my self-appointed task as WW blogger in chief.
Instead, it is my pleasure to hand the task over to the lovely Mrs Downes who is doing the job with her usual aplomb and flair...
Preparations
Thursday night
Friday, August 17, 2007
Sunday, July 29, 2007
what a week!
Dear Friends,
It is a shock to realise how long it has been since I made a proper posting on this blog, and how much longer it has been since I made a post that wasn’t either a re-hash of a CFZ press release, or something appertaining to my then forthcoming wedding.
Well. We have done it. Corinna is now Mrs. Downes, and furthermore she has made an honest man of me. Stop that sniggering in the back row.
As everyone who reads Corinna’s blog will know, the day after the wedding we went to The Eden Project, where we saw the Dirty Pretty Things and The Pet Shop Boys. The first band were slightly disappointing, despite a strong and varied debut album. I have a sneaking suspicion that in a sweaty little club they would have been magnificent. Dwarfed by the splendour of The Eden Project, they were less so, although Carl Barat claims that he and his compadres have spent the summer hanging out in graveyards writing new material, and that the second album will be released early next year. I am quite looking forward to it, but regretfully admit that I don’t think that either Barat or Doherty are any where near as good separately as they are together, and I hope that The Libertines will eventually forget their differences and make a third album.
The Pet Shop Boys, however, were magnificent. There can be no better start to married life than an evening of high camp and gay disco. Much to my surprise, unlike the Dirty Pretty Things, The Pet Shop Boys’ performance was majestic and suited to what was essentially a festival crowd perfectly. But enough of this. If you wanna read someone’s ramblings about contemporary music there are far better places to go than this blog.
What is happening with the CFZ, I hear you ask? What is new in the world of monster hunting? While you were poncing around singing along to ‘Left to my own Devices’ what was happening in the world of cryptozoology?
Well, Bernard Heuvelmens once wrote that there are lost worlds everywhere. This is an assertion that I have always believed to be true, but even I was somewhat taken aback when I discovered that there is a potential major cryptozoological mystery on our own figurative doorstep – OK, in an area of thick woodland at Huddisford – a mile or so from the village.
This is where things begin to get strange. Avid readers of Corinna’s blog (and here I would like to take grave exception to her verbal assertion to me only a few minutes ago that I only persuaded her to write a blog so I didn’t have to do it so often) will know, only a few days before the wedding Corinna, Richard and I spent an evening at Huddisford on the track of an eight foot black cat. She told the story better than I possibly could, and there is no point in repeating it here. However, the implications of the sightings at Huddisford are immense.
Yes, sightings – plural!
Over the past few years there have been a whole string of sightings in the region. Interestingly, some of them are of a powerful black creature, but others describe a smaller brown one, with thick set shoulders and a nasty mastiff like face. As regular readers of this blog will know, this is getting dangerously close to the animal postulated by Di Francis. I wonder how many more times this year I will have to use my blog space in eating humble pie and apologising for my previous cavalier attitude towards Di’s theories. The further I go in my descent into British big cattery, I become more convinced that to dismiss Di Francis’ theories out of hand would be both unscientific and unwise.
Also in the week before the wedding, we finished work on Nick Redfern’s delightfully nutty new book – Man Monkey a British Bigfoot. This will be available in the next few days, and looks set to be a massive success. It is the first dedicated book on British BHM phenomena and furthermore tells the story of the quest from Nick’s delightfully idiosyncratic perspective. Even I turn up in one chapter as my 2003 encounter with the Beast of Bolam is put under the microscope.
Next out of the starting gate is Karl Shuker’s impressive update of his 1990 book Extraordinary Animals Worldwide. Extraordinary Animals Revisited will – we hope – be available in the next couple of weeks.
Before the end of the summer we have the Weird Weekend, issue 41 of Animals & Men, two more books, issue 2 of Exotic Pets, and even some sort of a honeymoon.
Dudes, the future is so bright that it is good job I don’t have hangovers any more, ‘cos I would then be forced to wear shades, and that would just look pretentious.
Onwards and upwards.
It is a shock to realise how long it has been since I made a proper posting on this blog, and how much longer it has been since I made a post that wasn’t either a re-hash of a CFZ press release, or something appertaining to my then forthcoming wedding.
Well. We have done it. Corinna is now Mrs. Downes, and furthermore she has made an honest man of me. Stop that sniggering in the back row.
As everyone who reads Corinna’s blog will know, the day after the wedding we went to The Eden Project, where we saw the Dirty Pretty Things and The Pet Shop Boys. The first band were slightly disappointing, despite a strong and varied debut album. I have a sneaking suspicion that in a sweaty little club they would have been magnificent. Dwarfed by the splendour of The Eden Project, they were less so, although Carl Barat claims that he and his compadres have spent the summer hanging out in graveyards writing new material, and that the second album will be released early next year. I am quite looking forward to it, but regretfully admit that I don’t think that either Barat or Doherty are any where near as good separately as they are together, and I hope that The Libertines will eventually forget their differences and make a third album.
The Pet Shop Boys, however, were magnificent. There can be no better start to married life than an evening of high camp and gay disco. Much to my surprise, unlike the Dirty Pretty Things, The Pet Shop Boys’ performance was majestic and suited to what was essentially a festival crowd perfectly. But enough of this. If you wanna read someone’s ramblings about contemporary music there are far better places to go than this blog.
What is happening with the CFZ, I hear you ask? What is new in the world of monster hunting? While you were poncing around singing along to ‘Left to my own Devices’ what was happening in the world of cryptozoology?
Well, Bernard Heuvelmens once wrote that there are lost worlds everywhere. This is an assertion that I have always believed to be true, but even I was somewhat taken aback when I discovered that there is a potential major cryptozoological mystery on our own figurative doorstep – OK, in an area of thick woodland at Huddisford – a mile or so from the village.
This is where things begin to get strange. Avid readers of Corinna’s blog (and here I would like to take grave exception to her verbal assertion to me only a few minutes ago that I only persuaded her to write a blog so I didn’t have to do it so often) will know, only a few days before the wedding Corinna, Richard and I spent an evening at Huddisford on the track of an eight foot black cat. She told the story better than I possibly could, and there is no point in repeating it here. However, the implications of the sightings at Huddisford are immense.
Yes, sightings – plural!
Over the past few years there have been a whole string of sightings in the region. Interestingly, some of them are of a powerful black creature, but others describe a smaller brown one, with thick set shoulders and a nasty mastiff like face. As regular readers of this blog will know, this is getting dangerously close to the animal postulated by Di Francis. I wonder how many more times this year I will have to use my blog space in eating humble pie and apologising for my previous cavalier attitude towards Di’s theories. The further I go in my descent into British big cattery, I become more convinced that to dismiss Di Francis’ theories out of hand would be both unscientific and unwise.
Also in the week before the wedding, we finished work on Nick Redfern’s delightfully nutty new book – Man Monkey a British Bigfoot. This will be available in the next few days, and looks set to be a massive success. It is the first dedicated book on British BHM phenomena and furthermore tells the story of the quest from Nick’s delightfully idiosyncratic perspective. Even I turn up in one chapter as my 2003 encounter with the Beast of Bolam is put under the microscope.
Next out of the starting gate is Karl Shuker’s impressive update of his 1990 book Extraordinary Animals Worldwide. Extraordinary Animals Revisited will – we hope – be available in the next couple of weeks.
Before the end of the summer we have the Weird Weekend, issue 41 of Animals & Men, two more books, issue 2 of Exotic Pets, and even some sort of a honeymoon.
Dudes, the future is so bright that it is good job I don’t have hangovers any more, ‘cos I would then be forced to wear shades, and that would just look pretentious.
Onwards and upwards.
Thursday, July 26, 2007
Monday, July 23, 2007
And more....
The bride and her mother
The rain stayed off just long enough for everyone to be photographed in the garden
The bride, the groom, and the boys (and girls) of the old brigade
Bride, groom, sisters, brothers, neices and nephews
Bride, groom and brother/padre
The bride's mother (R) and the nearest thing the groom still has as a mother
The lovely bridesmaids (Shosh - left; Olivia - right) and their lucky menfolk
Bride, groom, both brothers, and both sister-in-laws
And here is a Wedding Announcement.....
We are Happy to announce that
Jonathan and Corinna
were married on the
21st July 2007
at All Hallows Church,
Woolfardisworthy, North Devon
Saturday, July 14, 2007
How do I love thee? Let me count the ways........
1. You let me keep amphibians in the kitchen
2. You wanted a broadsword for your bithday present
3. You rule over the ever changing circus that is my life like a benevolent empress
4. When there are 23 people staying the night you don't bat an eyelid (I do, but you don't)
5. You understand chickens
6. You indulgently put up with my silliness
7. You (only two nights ago) drop the dinner plans and rush out with me after big cats
8. You think that hunting for a giant earwig is a jolly good idea
9. You have even more extreme tastes in music than mine (and you once saw Henry Cow)
10. You have a mind that can think of chickens dressed as plankton
11. You are a far better novelist than me
12. You like my friends
13. My friends like you
14. You understand my madness
15. After two and a half years you still never fail to surprise me (and I expect it will be the
same after 20)
16. You have given me a family
17. You were magnificent at my father's funeral
18. You uncomplainingly do what needs to be done, even when there is a crisis
19. You love me
20. I love you
21. We are getting married on saturday...
For various reasons the wedding is for family and quasi-family only. But if at one in the afternoon on saturday you remember us in your prayers, or hoist a pint to us, that would be wonderful...
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