Yay!

29 Sept 2011

I have been given the Liebster Award by Kelda Crich, the pen name of the lovely Deborah Walker. Thank you!

It's given to blogs with less than 200 followers, and I have to keep the love going round by passing it on to five others.

I will pass it on to the following.

Brenda Stokes Barron, Great writer and all round great person.
M J Fowler, the creator of the wonderful Captain Quasar
A G Carpenter, Writer and sage.
Nathaniel Katz, the man with the hat.
Samuel Mae, The man behind Comets & Criminals.

I have enjoyed reading all your blogs :)

And a photo, because I always do a photo.

Fake Pound Coin 2

25 Sept 2011

The first and most obvious thing about this coin is the state that it is in. It looks like someone has taken a hammer to it. That may be part of the forgery or it may be not.

This is a 1985 coin bearing the Welsh leek. I see these a lot, and many of them seem to show unusual signs of wear. I have wondered if many of them are forged, but it is hard to be sure. However, with this one it seems pretty obvious. First of all the lettering on both sides is not only faint and almost unreadable, it is also fuzzy, fat and indistinct.

The lettering around the edge seems to be normal at first glance, the Llantrissant cross is present, as are all the letters, although many are only partial. The obvious assumption is that the damage to the coin caused the disruption of the letters. However, a comparison of the word 'Gwlad' with a correct coin appears to show a misalignment of both the whole word which is tilted down, and the letter G in particular which seems to be too short and misaligned with the W next to it.

I have to admit that I cannot be 100% certain about this one. But my gut feeling is that it is a fake.

Down by the River

18 Sept 2011

The wonderful people at Brain Harvest have been kind enough to publish my story Down by the River.
I'm very happy.

And here is a picture of a river.

What's inside?

13 Sept 2011

What's inside a laptop?

This is.

And after we put it back together, it worked!

This is the house that Jack built.

12 Aug 2011


This fence is to stop people taking food out of the skips behind a supermarket.
It's their rubbish and they'll be damned if anyone is going to get it.

Autumn

7 Aug 2011


Autumn comes with Lammas.
There are acorns growing on the oak trees. I did take a picture, but it came out fuzzy. So here are some other autumny things.
Especially the blackberries. Autumn tastes of blackberries.

Good Story 3

9 July 2011

I really like this story. The God of the Poor by James Hutchings, in Daily Science Fiction.

Short, sweet and very much to the point.

And here is a picture to fill the space.

Counterfeit Pound Coin 1

29 June 2011

I have a new obsession. Since learning from the TV that 1 in 40 pound coins was a fake I have decided to make a study of any and all counterfeits that come my way.

This is the first; it was obtained, in change, from the local garage.

At first sight it looks like an ordinary pound coin, and the fakers did get some things right. Everything matches. The two sides are aligned properly and the picture on the tails side matches the date on the heads. Both match the inscription around the edge.

So far so good, but a closer look soon shows that it is not a genuine pound but a not so clever fake.

On both sides the impression is poor. The images, and particularly the writing, seem blurred, as though the letters are thicker than they ought to be, their edges less crisp.
Furthermore the stamping has been slightly misaligned. This can be seen on the heads side as a thinning of the edge on the top and a thickening below. There is also an obvious ridge, particularly noticeable at the bottom of the coin. Lastly there is some disruption of the circle of raised dots at the top of the coin.

 The tails side suffers from the same problems. Here again can be seen the evidence of the uneven die strike. The ridge is particularly apparent at the top of the coin.

The most obvious evidence of fakery comes on the edge of the coin. Although it carries the correct inscription 'Decus et Tutamen', it is badly printed, the lettering unclear and too close to the top of the coin. When placed against a genuine coin (below) it can be seen that the letters are not spaced correctly, the word 'Decus' taking up more space on the fake than on the genuine coin. It is not clear from the photo, but the top edge also shows signs of filing and smoothing.

Conclusion - Obvious fake.

It was returned to its proud owner and has probably returned to the garage by now.

Such are the cycles of life.

Blue Flower

27 June 2011

These grow in the garden.
I have no idea what they are, but there are a lot of them.
Some have 6 petals, some have 5. This seems strange, but life is full of these little mysteries.

Old Place, Old Photo.

7 June 2011

I was inspired by Deborah Walker's photos of the Hurlers on Bodmin Moor.

So here is Pentre Ifan, It's old, it's in Pembroke and it's made of stone. I've seen a few Neolithic tombs, but this one is the most beautiful.
I don't know why the photo is the way it is. It was taken a number of years ago on a 35mm camera and scanned in. The weird stuff is on the negative. It's probably my bloke's hair, but I like to think it's the ghosts of my ancient ancestors making themselves known.

That's me, standing by the stones, and in the background is the motorbike we rode in on.