Ed has one more summer occupation...lumberjack (with pictures.)

Here is one more thing that I have done over the summer. On the driveway of the family house we have this massive tree that has never been lopped or cut by anyone since I can remember. Over the years the tree had got a bit cheeky, the roots sneaking underground to next door and sucking on some of next doors water supply. It also shed it's leaves over next door. This tree had to know who was boss. So with a saw, an axe and one more saw we went out to kick some tree butt and give it the hair cut of it's life. Observe as you travel through our journey through massive tree to the finished result of the cutting and the chopping.





As you can see from the pictures, this was a beast of a tree. Also on the left of the picture you might be able to see the windows that I painted.




Here is my brother, my mum et moi standing in the chaotic mass of leaves and branches of our own creation. Two things that I wish to point out here. 1. I am wearing my hat. 2. My brother is wearing his glasses below his googles. 3. You wouldn't know this but as the picture was being taken the tree was shouting insults to us because of what we were doing. As you can see from our happy faces we were doing well at ignoring the tree.




Here is my brother up the tree, sawing another branch off, wearing goggles and glasses at the same time ('Oi, six eyes). You can't see this in the picture but on a roof a pigeon is writing an angry worded letter to the government complaining about the unauthorised destruction of his home.



"Hey Mother! Stop bothering that horse! You should be using that rope to pull down branches!"...I am so funny.



An upper story view of the battlefield.

It was done. We had chopped the heck out of the tree, gone through the fire of sawing stuff and now it was all over. We felt like gorillas or chimps in the forest, surrounded by branches (well I did anyway)and all that was left was to clear away everything to the tip. It took two cars and four journeys for each car to clear everything from the front. Below is a picture of what everything was like when all was finished.



To commemorate this day it was decided that we would take one piece of cut off branch and get someone to carve something. It was thought that the best thing to do was to carve the face of a wizard.

That is it really. It is not long before Autumn, it is the first day of the fall on the 23rd September. CRIKEY!!!

Over and Out.
ED

My brother is a year older, a family gathering and a quiz with curious questions.

I shall relate to you three events in my life in no particular order that I have experienced between this post and the 'I love Interpol' post that came before this.

Yesterday (August 10th) my brother turned twenty two. He has glasses by the way. I am the only male in the household that doesn't have glasses and also the only male that actually wants them...oh yeah and his name is Thomas...or Tom (other nicknames include Astill, Pastill, Ryan Stiles, Harry Potter and T. Whenever we are all watching television, if anyone happens to be wearing glasses or is tall we say that it looks like him...it's why he is called Ryan Stiles.)
My brother is a bit of a boffin know- it- all when it comes to building mechanical stuff so he got a clock building kit (we're all boffins in one particular field in this family).Then there was also a book on cars (I just went into his room and he said that it was in fact TWO car books that he got.) My parents bought him an amazing ukelele shaped like those 'V' shaped guitars that you sometimes see. Oh yeah and he got a nuclear bomb as well but I may just have lied about that one.
He got a Toy Story cake which I ate (this time I ate the cake and the icing at the same time...very unlike me). I then got some Halo X Box action from my brother where he 'pawned me' as non-gentlemen gaming fellows would say.

Once every year my extended family on my fathers side have a golf day in which we all go and play golf and then gather at the house of the winner of the previous year. We even have prizes at the end. We celebrate the event in the name of coming together as a family and to remember my grandparents who brought about an explosion of the Astill family. In our family there are roughly eighty something people who all came from my grandparents. There was my grandparents, who brought my uncles and aunts into the world and then came everybody else. Now we are a massive family that live all around the place, dominating the world...and is still growing.
My twin sister and mother left the house about two o'clock to look after the kids and meet people early. My father, my brother and I stayed at home because we couldn't play golf. My sister was at work at the time. But anyway eventually my sister got back, my dad had a shower or three and we left for the evening meal. A pleasant evening. Every time I go I am surprised to see the children...they all seemed very Aryan, bright blonde hair and blue eyes. I was like that until my body decided that my hair should be brown.

Here is the last event to all who have read this far. Munchy and Dave (who you may know if you were a regular reader) and I went to the local pub of Munchy in order to take part in my first ever pub quiz. A few hours past and we came about seventh in the end. I'm fine with that. I believe the first prize was £10. It was fun anyway and none of us were desperately trying to win anyway. Dave and I went back to the Munchy residence and stayed until the next day, watchng a film and then leaving.

I believe that is it.

Have a goodun as they say.
Over and Out.
ED

Adoration of Interpol.

Originally I was going to write a love letter shamelessly expressing my love of the band Interpol. I may still write one in some sort of tongue in cheek thing to show my appreciation for a band that I have enjoyed since I was short haired, spotty, comb over(ed) fellow in secondary school but I just wish to post this video in order for people to see it. My musical tastes are infinite and ever expanding; some pop to disco and folk and metal to name a few. If you name any song (within reason) there is a chance that I may like it...apart from obvious exceptions.

Anyway here is the video. The normal babble about my life shall continue after this post.
If you have come across them for the first time I hope it is a good experience.

Over and Out
ED

P.S---The video might be dodgy but please still give it a try. Wink.