A,B, + C becomes A,B,C +D.

ENTER THE G.Y. DRAGON.

“Dragons appear in the Mythology of every nation, except Egypt,… who have Anubis, a cousin to the various Dragon Species” Stephen Charles Shepherd.

“Whaddayamean, you don’t believe in Dragons ?!?” cried George and Chen together “Are you Blind” From a Conversation at the Mill of Bliss.

All kids get familiar with the concept / mystery of Dragons at an early age, which a bit later begs the reality question. For me that occurred whilst chatting with Sgt Grantham of t’Otherwith. During my 20’s, Aunt Alice had told me a dragon tale about how our family had been instrumental in advising Hans Holbein for his famous Cloth of Gold Painting. She also told me about our connections to the founding of the Westminster School, and of it’s memorial to the WW2 Fallen - an oaken carving of St George and the Dragon.

Eventually…. at the Kingstown Boathouse we came on the idea of mounting a twelve foot spooky mechanical Dragon, to scare away night-time young vandals from the site. Sensors would trigger moving heads, glowing eyes, groans and belching smoke, from either or both mouths. We collected materials, and I produced working drawings, and attended a course on willow weaving for a lightweight structure covered in wet strength tissue paper. Waterproof paint was donated by a friendly factory….. Enough for 200 dragons.

Then Nasty Nigel persuaded Harry Pee to sell him the Boathouse site, quite illegally. Not having the money to fight the legal battle, we moved truckloads of stuff to the Mill of Bliss. A friend of the Boathouse who was also in the admin for the U.K.’s Olympic Torch Route 2011, asked if I could still create the sculpture, but at double the size and mounted on a car carrying trailer for the procession.

WOW !!!

I bought a 5.5 meter trailer the next day, for an 8 meter Dragon. The size and time restraints precluded the animations, but what the heck….. Ready in the nick of time, accompanied by a bunch of disabled kids dancing inside of a Chinese Dragon costume, we had a great Olympic day out, which led to attending a number of other events around Yorkshire, and a creative writers group producing lovely tales, Not about the Sculpture, but about the very real Dragon on which the sculpt was based. These stories were subsequently performed when the authors gate crashed the Humber Mouth Literary Festival. All participants were promised that their work would be published, one day. For nearly a decade the stories have been added to. That promised publishing starts now - with this introduction.

Another result was that a few of us creatives attempted to buy a Church to establish an international Art Gallery in Withernsea (a.k.a. t’Otherwith). The Diocese were willing to sell St Nicks to a community group for just One Pound, subject to certain conditions. We set up a “Not for Profit” and a Friends group, but after 18 months of fund raising, negotiations, architectural surveys with full plans drawn, we realized that the remaining barriers were too much for us…. Reluctantly we withdrew, out of pocket, but with good lessons learned. However the project has since been reborn in another format as Rise Island. More on this tale another day.

Over the ensuing period, Adie J., and I created another large sculpture - Clarence the Rescue Cat, eight feet tall on a Victorian Bicycle, to compete in the Tour DifFrance across Yorkshire. Clarence happily joined G.Y.D. on trips and adventures around the county, more stories were written, soon to be published……. En-route I was surprised at the number of conversations generated on the theme of Dragon Reality - - - 60+% of those interviewed said they were believers (I suspect that a few of these good folk were speaking “tongue in cheek”). Then my sister gave me an incredible book on the subject which gave many intelligent reasonings to support an actual existence. On showing the book to G.Y.D., both heads declared it a logical set of near-Truths…. but the I guess he does have a vested interest.

Then of course, Some people will disbelieve anything….. here are some profound examples….. 1). Brexshit is good for you. 2). The Earth is round. 3). Trump is a menace. 4). The Climate will kill us soon enough…… Which brings me to a salient point on Suzanne Taylor’s campaign to save the world. People I kid ye not !! Suzanne’s visionary concept Could Work, Really. Please take a look, comment, endorse if you can, share, restack and importantly Ask Your Readers to Do The Same. Whaddaya got to loose ?? er, apart from Our Planet…… Peace, Maurice. Here’s the Links

https://suzannetaylor.substack.com/p/an-essay-contest-its-january-1-2050 or try https://suespeaks.org/how-we-saved-the-world for which the password is myessay

Lastly, here is a good thought, that relates to resolving the serious issues we face today., perhaps putting them into an actionable and clearer perspective

Thanks for being here, thanks for your time.

NeXt Climate Article, Sun 28th Jan. Affordable Ecohomes.

NeXt Inspirational Episode, Weds 31st Jan. The Kingstown Boathouse, Right now.

NeXt t’Otherwith Tale, Weds 7th Feb. Big City Boy.

Further Climate Article, Sun 11th. T.B.A.

See you soon, Peace, Maurice