Beetles in the attic

TJ and Frank, and the beetle who hasn't been named yet

Frank Styles, a mate who is an amazing graffiti artist, created this mural on TJ's wall. You should have seen the look of horror from Two-Heads when I told him I was having graffiti on his immaculate plasterwork. But even he agrees it's fantastic, and not at all what he expected. Frank was totally up for the job; he specialises in spray painting butterflies, ants and the like, with his own embellishments. So when TJ asked him for a beetle, he was over the moon. There is, in fact, a second beetle in the attic, which TJ will be able to see from his bed. He's a happy chappy to say the least. Every middle class home should have wood burning stove in the living room, a cement mixer in the library and beetles in the attic. Frank is available for commissions, and you can find him through my Facebook friends. I'm planning more art work commissions by friends who's work I adore.

Fire engine and soggy skip

Meanwhile, I got a frantic phone call Tuesday night from my neighbour Carol to say she'd called the fire brigade because someone had set fire to the skip in the alley. When I got there, I was told that a number of skips nearby had been set alight. Carol had put a hose on it as soon as she'd seen the smoke; she'd a good 'un. I think there was only one wooden pallet on the skip, the rest was rubble. Now it's soggy rubble.

Two-Heads stripping in the hall

Yesterday, as well as the murals, work cracked on a pace elsewhere as Two-Heads started to strip the horrid embossed paper off the hall, Brewie and his brickie Stefan made sterling progress on the kitchen and I did lots of glossing in the attic. And help is on it's way as my big sister Mel is coming up from Manchester today for a few days.