Dino Stroll. Here’s a sweet little family scene. Mrs. Dino and her young daughter Lilly have gone for a wee walk and met the ineffable Shub-Niggurath rambling upon the hills and brooding in the forests and being permanently unhappy, as it’s Her wont. Mrs. D. never misses an opportunity to give wise counsel, whether solicited or not, so here she is telling the Shubby to chill out and relax and smell the flowers. It’s all very well, though, for the laid-back saurian to give such advice; she has a nice Mr. Dino back in the swamp, who helps with the cleaning and tidying and the communal babysitting, and only one nipper, so far. Whereas the poor old incomparable Black Goat of the Woods has 999* Young -all very badly behaved and inclined to rioting at a drop of a hat- no mate to help with the rearing and education of said juvenile yahoos and hardly ever a babysitter -which is not surprising as She tends to eat them, bless Her monster socks. I do do the odd stint as Young-minder when I can see that She’s getting really stressed. The Wee Worms chip in and that gives the Ineffable One a chance to piss off to beautiful Lake Hali for a long weekend. In exchange for the respite She tells me “things”. Give and take, that’s out motto.

*999 because one of Her Young took off some years gone to travel the Void and have adventures and, most significantly, to stay away from music lessons in general and flutes in particular, with which he had a thorny relationship (basically he broke them). Young 753 as he then was (now renamed Oops by Lavinia, the Hyper-Penguin) is doing very well and dutifully writes home regularly -which doesn’t stop Mother from grumbling about filial ingratitude. Cría cuervos… She mutters now and again. Secretly, though, She’s dead proud of Her intrepid and enterprising offspring.