Wednesday wallpaper: Bee

Today's wallpaper is a photograph of a bee gathering pollen from a lavender bush. I was quite pleased with how well this image turned out since it proved that my rather small inexpensive camera could take reasonable close-up photographs. The image is available in a variety of sizes, so just click on the link for the one that matches your screen dimensions and set it as your backdrop on your desktop.

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I am Kloot

My first exposure to the bitter-sweet music of this Manchester based trio was on the equally bitter-sweet BBC situation-comedy Early Doors, written by Phil Mealey and Craig Cash (of Royle Family fame). John Bramwell , Peter Jobson and Andy Hargreaves formed I am Kloot in 1999 and released their debut album, Natural History, two years later. Since then they have released three more LPs on different labels but have failed to convert critical acclaim into commercial success.

Nevertheless, the band have a loyal fan-base (especially outside their native Britain) which may well grow through word-of-mouth acclaim. I know that I for one enjoy introducing friends and associates (and now, the readers of this blog) to the black humour of Manchester's best kept secret. As such I present the video for Proof, taken from their eponymous 2003 LP, which features actor Christopher Ecclestone (Dr Who, Heroes).

Check out the band's official website for more information, and see Tony Naylor's article on the Guardian blog: "Why isn't this band huge?" (a very good question).

Wednesday wallpaper: abstract two-tone tiles

This week I present another set of images suitable for tiling either on your desktop or on webpages. Although these swirling psychedelic images may not be to everyone's taste.

Again I have various versions of the same image in different colours. If you would like this image in certain shades then leave a comment I will try to create a suitable version.

Wednesday wallpaper: Groucho tiles

This week's selection of wallpapers are of comedy legend Groucho Marx. These images are designed to be tiled on the desktop, web-page or anywhere else you wish to use them. If you do use them on your web-site it would be good of you to provide a link back to Stepterix Rants. Also if you would like the image in a certain colour and do not know how to change it yourself then leave a message and I will see what I can do.