Wooden Donkey Club

At least a decade ago I used to have stacks of visitors from all over the World stay at Chateau Coombes. One of the crews that came through a few times were The Wooden Donkey Club, from Ireland. Their president was a fun dude called Jay Doherty, a.k.a the Jay-bone, a.k.a The Swan. He'd come over on sleazy jet with Bruce the Ox and Rich Gilly Gilligan. They were usually armed with nothing more than skateboards, a huge bundle of energy and enthusiasm to skate anywhere or anything. They were always kind enough to bring gifts like fanzines or videos for me but on their first trip over Jay brought this Wooden Donkey. Apparently he sat it next to him on the plane. I've treasured it in my garden ever since as a memento of his fun spirit. I've had to paint it a few times to try and protect it from the elements. This year the Wooden Donkey is sporting a bright aqua colour.

Thanks The Swan for the smiles and the inspiration.

Snow-tastic 2. Spunk from the sky

After even more spunk from the sky (snow) on Saturday night,  Sunday saw me head back into Wales. All the main routes were blocked so I made use of my cycling knowledge of the back lanes in the countryside. After a while I found a safe parking area, sorted my backpack supplies and hiked out on the deep snow covered roads to see what I could find. In parts the snow had drifted and covered the road to at least 6 foot deep. Eventually I found a field with drifted snow down one side of it that had formed all kinds of rollers, kickers and a natural quarter pipe for at least 50 metres. I also did a few higher hikes up the deeper powder and made tracks with the snow being so dep I was able to cross from field to field going over gates and fences. I had so much fun and I'm that easily pleased that I spent about 8 hours out in the snow..........the really shocking thing about it all was that I didn't

even draw any cocks or build and snow cock and balls. Shit, I hope I'm not growing up.

Snow-tastic

It is getting towards the end of March and the weather went a bit crazy and it snowed like crazy for a couple of days. I went off into North Wales to check it out and ended up being on Channel 4 news being interviewed and snowboarding for a few seconds. Here are a few snaps from my days out, I had to dig my car out twice, drove along snow covered roads in the hope that I didn't slide off the road, I saw sheep and baby/lambs that were so cold they came to me for some food. There were a few cars totally buried in snow and some epic snow drift formations. I had so much fun in the isolation of a solo snow mission. Not quite as epic as Half The Kings of Adventure (Seth Holton) check out Vermontbmx on flickr, but I'm trying to keep it Adequate.

Wanksey not Banksey

The Gentlemans Pistols song, 'Sherman Tank' is inspired by this bit of art I found someone had drawn on a wall. Spunk canon!

Ships and boats and ferries

I rode along the banks of the Mersey the other day and there was an aircraft carrier docked so there were alot of people about the prom to check it out. It might be of interest to some but I don't think it is anywhere as impressive as these two dudes who have built a pirate ship out of the driftwood, along with all the Mersey Trout, they find washing up in New Brighton. Public art. The local scallies haven't even tried to smash it up or burn it down yet.

Ride Journal

It's the trip that keeps giving coverage. The new issue of The Ride Journal is out now and features the ride from Seattle to SF. Really good issue of stories and thoughts on cycling. Wordy and aesthetically pleasing. This just a small sample of the article.

Annual Posting