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My brother, Ben, is a charcoal burner. During the summer months he can be found at his woodland camp in West Dorset, happily carbonising timber - or, in layman's terms, making charcoal. He supplies local farm shops with the stuff (for barbecues) as well as doing the Bridport street market. He asked me to design a new motif for his charcoal bags - luckily, I had a bit of appropriate folklore to hand... Back in the 19th Century, the adder, our only venomous snake, was a common sight in the woods of England. The charcoal burners of the era believed it to be a powerful charm or talisman, and some even kept the snake as a 'pet'. These shy and increasingly rare reptiles have fascinated me ever since I was a boy, so what better way to celebrate Ben's charcoal burning enterprise than with Vipera berus. Below, is a shot of the carved and inked block, ready to strike!

Just spent a wonderful day with multi-talented David Squirrell - book-binder, musician, tree-man, sailor and printmaker - on our first block-printing workshop of the year. Not only did he design beautifully, transfer efficiently, carve dextrously, ink carefully and print like a pro in one day, but he also polished off a large plate of veggie curry in just 20 minutes whilst being bombarded with questions from me... Wow.