I just rewatched the Shining. If you've been living on Mars and not seen it because you've just arrived I'd recommend not reading on as I am going to SPOIL IT ALL for you.

Stick on the right there has suffered a double knee capping but is doing well. Other sticks are in fine health. Bout of stick plague seems to have passed. New ivy and brambles arrived today and not too soon!

On a more serious note the following private message was intercepted on the back of a leaf but we are still trying to ascertain its precise origin, it was annotated in inky footprints by a ladybird from freezing cold outer tank. It was seen flying off earlier today when we attempted a conversation in 7 dots (their language). We suspect there is a stick in our midst who has developed a taste for stick knees! And this is of some concern:

"What's got you stumpy? Oh a bit of kneecapping never did anyone any harm.

I couldn't help it anyway you were lying across my mandibbly bits! What did you expect would happen? 

They needed pruning and they're 99% ivy anyway.

I do know everything - I may seem tactless insensitive and inexperienced but I've heard it all in my inter-kneecap-interviews-and-research-of-utmost-discretion (discretion is upheld at all times except on wednesdays, saturdays and anytime after 11am in the kitchen). And I've read the blog. 

It wasn't my responsibility to make you feel welcome and safe here, it was orders from the boss. We're very close you know.

Oh you thought I was in charge? Well yes, I am. 

No, I know some of you call it anti knee capping, but that's just a tank wide code for nibbling a bit myself while cunningly diverting attention away onto others who have probably lost their eyesight and can't tell the difference between a leaf and a knee. It's got better recently but I just -
they are so awfully tempting.

It is my real job.in the real world, not this pesky tanks for small sticks. I am a stick in service of grater things - like potato peelers, :scoff: and it makes sense when you realise that Anty is my title! I am Anty. I actually work for a wider network of superior sticks, called Anty Knee Cappings Incorporated. Didn't you know?

​I'm so innocently savvily skilled at it that I'm in charge of recruits.  Now that you do know you should be careful of your elbows. I have my eyes on them and won't hesitate to sway on over and SCRONCH."

It is most troubling but we will either perform a mass evacuation or continue to monitor with a view to countering these attacks. Will update you soon.

Please go to the special website set up for Lawrence's dream-like story, This is only Chapter one, so once things get settled in the New Year (am making some major changes for a while) I will pick it up again!

Here is a readable version. This is my wish-fulfillment comedy take on the inevitable difficulties family obligations lead us to face at christmas! 

Don't get the wrong impression. This is a performance in emptiness: stability and capacity, for defending yourself, not attacking.

Click on the image to see a larger version.  Updated /vert-no12.html(3 Aug: new and improved for added legibility!)

As always click on the image to view full size...

The last couple of weeks I have been working on this little gem written by Patrick Scattergood for the Dignity in Hope Anthology in aid of Marie Curie Cancer Care. Pat was one of the first reviewers of Longship and soon after asked me to contribute to his anthology. He has kindly given permission to publish our pages here in order to spread the word and hopefully raise a few donations. Patrick has a blog over at Curiosity of a Social Misfit.

 Please donate to Marie Curie Cancer Care for whom this was drawn. 

More about this:
Moses was hatched from an egg left by Duck-duck and Oscar who got eaten by a fox or stoat some  2 months ago - so he was quite special. Elmera the peking pheasant chicken still sits on a nest of three chicken and three duck eggs, so there is hope yet. While Merlin's had his head bitten into by something with canines and a jaw large enough to envelope his skull, (only a few days previously he was in a fight that left him bleeding from his neck). His left face is slightly paralysed from some sort of brain swelling. But the vet shaved his head cleaned him up and gave us anti inflamatories. So while life is fairly idilic it still has its fair share of dramas, not so much late for work again as who's in need of emergency care now?