i needed all my reserve and chucked him over the ledge with all the other unwanted goods.  here's an action shot.

he then lay there all jolly whilst i chucked other stuff down on top of him and his friends (the rest of whom are in the paper bag in the foreground).

we were a great team in our day, but life goes on.  they were too chewed and gnarled to be of use to anyone else, so it was best it ended this way.

i seem to have had a thing about glove puppets

as ever, clowns are there to frighten us.  this one has crucifixes for eyes.  who thought that was a good idea

this cat had lovely dur, although a bit stratchy for cuddling

poor old panda has let herself go in the years in the loft

and who ever really knew what this strange thing was.

the only non glove puppet i had was this womble.

note this far away eyes and chewed nose.  he also had a bald patch on the back of his head where i must have rubbed him with my fingers whilst chewing his konk.

sooty was as tight lipped as ever

and the puppets had no hangups (but perhaps should have)

anyway, it was great to have the old gang back together.  we chatted about old times and hung out for a while.  but it quickly became clear they were just shadows of their former selves, and they were better as memories than real objects, so for one last time they went back in the bag and off to the dump ...