X is for ... X Files

You all know I am mad keen nature/ wildlife photography. Okay so I may not be the greatest at IDing things yet, but I am getting there ... I don't really care, it's all part to learning curve to me!

What you may not know I have a life long interest in the paranormal. I remember when I was a kid staying at my Aunties in Dudley. My cousin, Simon, had a book shelf stacked with books on UFO's and the like. These obviously had an impact on my young mind, because before you knew it I was buying my own books out of my pocket money. I remember a Hamlyn book on the strange being given to me one Christmas by my parents, full of illustrated stories of sea serpents, monsters and strange visitations from other worlds. I loved it. It's a shame I haven't still got it, as I except it worth a few bob now!

I am not sure when I was introduced to Fortean Times magazine, but it was during my early time at Clariant/ Nipa Laboratories. It has to be about seventeen years ago. I know I subscribed a year or so after that. I have never subscribed to any other magazine anything like that long. The best thing is, it is still as much a mind bending enjoyable read now as it was back then. My only regret is why didn't someone wave it under my nose in those early years at the start of the eighties. The magazine had already been going for four or five years by then.

To bring this entry full circle, this month's edition contains a picture I used as a blip back on the 3rd June; the simulacrum of the Queens head in the log. I had an email saying I would receive a free gift for getting my picture published. I honestly just expected a mug, but it turned out I got a goody bag, with the book, pen and mouse mat picture here. I was dead chuffed, and it made the rainy day at the Hay Festival even more worth it!

By strange and a slightly Fortean coincidence almost one year ago to the day I appeared in Bird Watching Magazine with Dawn. It's the kind of happy synchronicity Charles Fort would have loved ....