Smells of death.

(apologies to the readers, I've had a rum swizzle)

For the last couple of days, our house has smelled of death. Much more so than usual. Every time we had the front windows open, a wretched smell wafted in that was so bad we assumed a rabbit or rat or something had died just outside. Sadly, it wasn't one of the World's Angriest Yapper Type Dogs that live next door... we checked.

This morning, we both put on our mental Haz-Mat suits, grabbed some shovels and rakes and other implements of destruction and went outside to look for the offending article of dead animal. At first, we thought the smell was originating from the bushes just in front of our house, but as I wandered out on the lawn towards the street, I realized that the stench was equally potent.

After Chris confirmed this, I looked round to see where else a dead thing could be hiding.

All I saw was a big tree, full of beautiful white flowers. Flowers that smell... like something died. You know that big flower, you hear about it every couple of years, the one that smells like rotten meat and only blooms for like two weeks every three years? Okay, these flowers don't smell as bad as that thing but it still smells pretty bad. We've decided that we can deal with it, as long as we know it's not a dead thing, but damn.

(Many thanks to Jeff Smith, creator of Bone, for this beautifully drawn little gem. You should check him out.)