'Boring' hedge turned into dragon in East Rudham

22 May 2014 Last updated at 14:31

A 75-year-old man said he spent 13 years crafting a "boring" hedge into a 150ft-long (45.7m) giant dragon.

John Brooker sculpted the mystical creature out of the 10ft-high (3m) privet alongside his rented farm cottage in East Rudham, Norfolk.

The topiary features bulging eyes, flaring nostrils and a crested back.

Mr Brooker said: "I was standing at my kitchen sink one day and thought the hedge was boring so decided to do something with it."

The design could have been inspired by his time in the Far East, where John Brooker met his wife

He spends up to three days every two to three weeks trimming the fairytale design back into shape and compared the task to painting the Forth Bridge.

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The retired fan maker has got through four electric hedge trimmers and has to climb a pair of 6ft-high (1.8m) stepladders to sculpt the top.

"The farmer here is horrified when he sees me perched on top of the ladders," said Mr Brooker.

'Army days'

The hedge is by a public footpath and has attracted attention from walkers but Mr Brooker is modest about his eye-catching creation.

"My wife is the gardener, I just cut the lawn and do the hedge," he said.

Continued

Wife orders husband to sell 65ft dragon living in back garden

Wednesday 9 Apr 2014 12:35 pm

Game of Thrones obsessives looking to bring some more fantasy drama into their lives just might be interested in this unusual sale item.

Season four of the award-winning show has already got fans hooked and this unusual sculpture might help keep you entertained in between episodes.

Owner Steve Fletcher has been ordered by his wife to get rid of the 65ft fibreglass dragon, nicknamed Pugin, which has lived at the bottom of his Cardiff garden for the past five years.

He bought the item in a ‘moment of madness’ after hearing it was about to be scrapped, he told Wales Online.

Continued

Australia's science agency apologises after failing to create dragon eggs

Australia's national science agency has apologised to the nation for failing to invent "a dragon or dragon eggs" after a seven-year-old girl, Sophie Lester, wrote a letter asking the scientists to make her a dragon.

"I would like it if you could, but if you can't that's fine," she wrote, after begging her parents for a baby dragon for Christmas.

In the letter, addressed "Hello lovely scientist", Sophie promised to call the dragon "Toothless" if it were a girl, and "Stuart" if it were a boy.

In a response posted on its website, the agency, the CSIRO, said it was proud of its work since 1926 but regretted that it had yet to create or observe a dragon "of the fire breathing variety".

Continued

Giant steel Dragon Bridge in Vietnam breathes fire

Vietnam has unveiled a new steel bridge shaped like a dragon that literally shoots fire from its mouth.

The 1,864-foot-long bridge is designed with steel arches that serve as the body of the dragon, which is modeled after one from the Ly Dynasty.

At night, the Dragon Bridge is illuminated by more than 2,500 LED lights and can launch giant plumes of fire and jets of water.

The Dragon Bridge was unveiled on the 38th anniversary of the North Vietnamese forces capturing the city during the final days of the Vietnam War. During the war, it was home to a significant air base used by U.S. and South Vietnamese forces.

The six-lane bridge is in the Vietnamese city of Da Nang, cost about $85 million to construct and was built by the Louis Berger Group, a New Jersey-based construction and architecture firm.

Read on

Real Dragon Fossils on Display in China

Some fossils, named the “China dragon fossils”, were recently exhibited in the Xinwei Ancient Life Fossils Museum in Anshun, Guizhou.

When archeologists first stripped the clay off the fossil, they found the dragon had a pair of horns above its head and the shape of the dragon was very like the legendary animal often described in books and stories.

Dragons have often appeared in Chinese legends. The dragon with two horns on its head is regarded as a totem. The totem was first invented by Chinese ancestors and worshipped by the Chinese people. Therefore Chinese people are also called the “descendents of the dragon”.

For a long time, scientists thought that the dragon was a fictional animal existing only in stories.

The dragon fossil was found in Guanling County, Anshun City, in 1996, and has been kept in a good condition. It is measured 7.6 meters long. Its head is 76 centimeters long and the neck is 54 centimeters long. The body is 2.7 meters in length and 68 centimeters in width, and the tail is 3.7 meters long.

The dragon’s head is in a triangle shape. Its mouth is 43 centimeters long. The widest part of the head is 32 centimeters long. The horns project from the widest part of the head, and are symmetrical and 27 centimeters long. They are a little bit curved and tilted, which makes the fossil look very much like the legendary dragon.

The China dragon was a reptile animal living in the ocean in Triassic Period about 200 million years ago. It was an amphibian. It spent most of its time living in water, although sometimes it walked on land. It also laid eggs on land. The animal lived on fish and small reptile animals.

This is the first time that China found a dragon fossil with a pair of horns. Its discovery provides some evidence to prove that dragons might really have horns. The fossil provides important scientific information for people to trace the origin of the Chinese legendary dragon.

http://www.weirdasianews.com/2007/06/29/real-dragon-fossils-display-china/

'Year of the Dragon' Cloud UFO Filmed in China (Video)

A "cloud" UFO was filmed in the skies of China over the weekend which looks like a dragon twirling through the sky. The quality of the video is barely good enough to make it out, but there's no doubt that something unusual is dancing in the heavens. What is it?

The news report is in Chinese, but it's obvious what is being said. Any translation would be helpful, but it appears the reporters are talking about video showing a weird cloud formation in the sky, somewhere over China, and behaving very strangely.

Normal cloud patterns are random, even if they move swiftly, propelled by wind. But no cloud moves like the one in this video.

The UFO cloud shape is dancing in the sky, in the traditional manner dragons are supposed to fly, twirling back and forth, seemingly intentionally directed.

Unfortunately, the quality of the video is too low to compose an enhanced screenshot, but playing the video in full screen mode clearly shows the dragon-like unidentified flying object dancing madly in the air.

Here it is:

http://news.gather.com/viewArticle.action?articleId=281474981182258

'World's smallest' dragon sculpture unveiled

An artist in Taiwan announced his latest creation of what he claims to be the smallest dragon sculpture in the world to welcome the year of the dragon in 2012.

The sculpture in only half an inch in length and has been displayed on top of coin to emphasise its tiny size. A magnifying glass attached to the sculpture's glass case helps visitors to see the miniature.

56-year-old miniature artist Chen Forng-shean from Taiwan said that it took him three months to make the dragon.

He added, "the hardest part about making this dragon is the sculpting for the limbs and the claws, these are the most delicate parts, and also its open jaw and the whiskers, those whiskers are very thin. After the dragon was completed, I have to pay attention to its body so it looks like the dragon is above the clouds, that's the dragon's spirit".

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newsvideo/weirdnewsvideo/8871886/Worlds-smallest-dragon-sculpture-unveiled.html