Land Of The Moose...

Staying in Canada, you can’t help but notice that it is the land of the moose. There’s moose everywhere. And with good reason. What a fine looking horned animal it is. It’s a great one to imitate too. Simply find moose statue, put hand to head in horns motion, and scream “moooooooose” at the top of your voice. It’s a moose therapeutic pastime.

Ice Ice Baby...

So, here I am publishing some beautiful statues from around the world, constructed from some of the finest materials that statue builders could wish to construct their statues with. We’ve had statues made from stone, statues made from bronze, statues made from marble, statues made from iron……hang on a minute…...where are the statues made from ice I hear you say?! I do hope you can forgive me for this unforgivable oversight….

Anyway, sticking with the animal theme of recent times, I give you this stunning ice statue of a tiger. Stood By His Ice Tiger is none other than SwissToni, giving it a seriously chilly tiger growl. Grrrrr! I do believe he was growling away deep in the Canadian rockies somewhere. Fine work Mr Swiss, and not the first time you’ve been spotted alongside a ferocious looking animal. Grrrrr!

I understand that it may be a little tricky for you to see an ice statue against a backdrop of, well, snow, so I’ve attempted a little bit of graffiti below to give you an idea of the outline of this ferocious beast :)

Stand By Your Shrubbery?

Have you ever seen a hedge like this before? Some superlative trimming has been undertaken on this particular plant. This is a particularly rare breed of elephant known as a hedgephant. This species is unfortunately close to extinction*, and like its elephant brothers, is in need of much love and affection from the human race.

I stumbled upon this amazing piece of greenery in the beautiful palace gardens of Bang Pa-In, which is near to the ancient capital of Ayuthaya in Thailand just north of the current capital, Bangkok. Ayuthaya itself is stunning, with the remains of the many historic temples scattered all over the town, which has been declared a UNESCO world heritage site. An intrepid traveller here has posted some more beautiful pictures of Ayuthaya, including a few of the elephant conservation centre situated there, of which I have been unable to find much more info to share with you, unfortunately.

*although, if you look closely, you can also see in the photo a rare picture of a baby hedgephant in its infancy, stood proudly by his mother. I'm sure in the years to come this baby will also mature into a fully grown hedgephant.

A Gigantic Gobbler...

Have you ever seen a finer statue in your life I ask you?!

Yep, it’s a huge whopping great turkey – the largest in the world apparently. Many thanks to Lynne Wilson for sending the photo in (seen here stood by her giant turkey alongside her dad). The big bird stands proudly on top of a hill overlooking the town of Frazee in the farming state of Minnesota in the US.

This big turkey, known as “Big Tom” to the locals, is actually the second such huge great turkey statue to be found at Frazee, as the first Big Tom burnt to the ground in a calamitous accident involving a blowtorch!

A Story of Fish and Beer...

I’m going to stick with the animal theme this week, beginning with this fishy shot. Giving it some great gills is housemate John outside a fish restaurant in Prague.

And what a fine city Prague is eh? Full of the most beautiful cobbled streets and squares and towers and bridges and buildings to explore, following which you may wish to unwind with the drinking of some of the finest beer in the world. You may then want to continue with a bit more exploring, or you could just continue to sit around and persist with enjoying the most gorgeous beer that you could ever wish to taste. Following that you could then jump on a boat on the river or hit a nice little jazz club, or you could just continue to rejoice in the fact that the beer you are drinking is the finest beer in the world.

After all the joyous occasions of all the drinking of the delicious beer, you may then want to find a fish and stand by it and flap your gills, or maybe not. I would like to give you a fish restaurant review, but, despite the obvious attraction of the big fish outside, we didn’t go in ‘cos both housemate John and I are vegetarian, so there wouldn’t have been much on the menu. We could have stopped off for a mouth-watering beer I suppose…

All this talk of drinking in Prague and I didn’t mention absinthe once. Tsk.

Monkey Mac...

Fresh from a recent trip to South Africa is this huge great monkey. That’ll be my friend John Mac :) And what a fine piece of monkey magic he has produced. I love monkeys.

I love chimps too, although I wouldn’t vote for one...

Gorilla Games...

This week we return to the primetime pastime of imitating statues and this particular shot of my primate brother, Bob, standing by his Gorilla. This particular gorilla is found at Berlin Zoo. Whenever I have seen gorillas, I have always been captivated as to how similar to humans they are, perhaps more so than any other animal, which is a little uncanny, because whenever I have seen Bob, I have always been captivated as to how similar to a gorilla he is! Just kidding, he’s more of the cheeky monkey type…

Thumbs Up From Newquay...

This is my mate Mick, stood by his plaice in Newquay!

SwissToni's Alter Ego...

You’ll never guess who this chap is called? There’s even an arrow pointing to him in case you can’t work it out…


(although some of you may know him better as SwissToni)

Big Bad John...

Meet John, my housemate, standing by a portable John in Chicago. He’s a right transportable chap really – bung him in a suitcase and you won’t notice.

Right, have to go, as I need to spend a penny…

He Ain't Heavy...

Meet Bob. He’s my brother. When we were travelling around Brazil, one of the main fast food chains was called Bobs. So here’s a picture of Bob Stood by his Bobs.



Here’s another one.



And another....!

I’m thinking you may all be suffering a little from statues overload a bit by now, so this week I’m going to go off on a slight tangent and publish a few photos of folk stood by their namesakes.

Of course, if you were to end up eating a bit too much at Bobs then you could end up being accused of being a bit of a…

Big Up To Bobo...

It gives me great pleasure to introduce you to Bobo, seen here enjoying the sun, sounds and sites of Adelaide in the summer. May I be the first to pass on huge gratitude to Bobo for interrupting his hectic travelling schedule to embark on a spot of statue imitation for us. And what a superfine piece of imitation it is too!

Here he has taken time out to imitate one Colonel William Light, founder and planner of the city of Adelaide in South Australia. Many thanks to Bobo’s travelling buddy, Siôn Williams, for sending this photo in.