Our Pea Green Boat

Ulla Thynell

I’ve been thoroughly enjoying this year’s Inktober, and thought I’d share some of the inspiring illustrations I’ve come across during the past few weeks.

As a general rule, it’s the black & white artworks that tend to be the ones that catch my eye (perhaps it’s the sketch-like, quickly inked, responsive nature of them that seems so in keeping with the spirit behind Inktober that I like about them), though you can see a little colour creeping into a couple the pieces I’ve selected. They’ve made me realise that a splash of colour can, however, make all the difference!

I’ve not had the chance to take part this year, but I’m determined to give it a go next time. PS. I do love the list of prompts for this year!

 

From top left: Kate Slater; Debbie Tung; Meredith Dillman; Inktober

SaveSave

SaveSave

SaveSave

This Owl managed to secure a pre-order of the Nintendo SNES Classic Mini way back when they were first announced. I was actually walking through Birmingham at the time, and I managed to get one as I was walking. I was lucky, as they pretty much disappeared (until yesterday, launch day), with silly money exchanging hands just for a guaranteed pre-order. Pussycat has been most amused at how much I have been looking forward to this coming out, and my frequent showing her how ‘cute’ it is.

I previously managed to get a NES Classic Mini too, at the time no one really knew how rare they would become and despite being tempted to sell it for megabucks, I have so far resisted. The NES Classic Mini was quite disappointing, it looked nice, but it only came with a single pad, and that pad was constrained by a ridiculously short cable.

The SNES is a different beast. There’s more games that I am fond of, which helps, but the major factor with it is it comes with two pads bundled with the system, and those controllers have slightly longer cables. The first game I played was the one I was most looking forward to playing again, after many many years. Super Mario Kart.

It was amazing how quickly you get back into the swing of things mostly from muscle memory! 1st in all the Mushroom cup races on my first attempt! After that, a bit of Street Fighter 2 Turbo (still terrible at it), first level of StarFox (its still amazing) and finally a level or two of Super Mario World.

Going forward, I’m really looking forward to playing (and finishing) Zelda: A Link to the Past (A game that I never really got into the first time round), and Donkey Kong Country (A game that I finished with more than 100% complete – still proud of that!) and controversially, Super Mario World 2: Yoshi’s Island – which I think is better than the original. Even now, it still looks incredible. I still remember looking at it 1996 when it came out and thinking the graphics were amazing. Of all the SNES games (bar the excellent Unirally, RIP) I still think it looks incredible.

Time will tell if the hype is all that for the SNES Classic Mini, and I say this as an Owl who has almost permanently had a Dreamcast hooked up to the TV since 1999 and never owned anything past the Xbox 360.

 

 

 

When Walt Disney opened his ‘Magic Kingdom’ of Disneyland in 1955 he uttered these immortal words;

To all who come to this happy place; welcome. Disneyland is your land. Here age relives fond memories of the past…and here youth may savor the challenge and promise of the future. Disneyland is dedicated to the ideals, the dreams and the hard facts that have created America…with the hope that it will be a source of joy and inspiration to all the world.

Whilst our little blog probably doesn’t deserve such grandiose introductions, the spirit of that introduction rings true for us. This blog will be filled by our musings, as we sail the world in our (metaphorical) pea green boat. We’ll bring you things from history, stories from the present, and visions of the future yet to be. We are the owl, and the pussycat, and both our monikers (and the title of this blog) were inspired by the Edward Lear poem.

Either way, I hope you enjoy this little corner of the internet.

Hip hip!