We've been living with my wife's dragon for the last seven weeks

When its head arrived, it looked like it belonged to a huge dog - and not a particularly scary one at that. My wife's task was turn it into an evil, fire-breathing dragon so it could star in our church's Patronal Festival, which took place yesterday. St Michael was an archangel who - according the Book of Revelation - defeated the dragon in battle:

And there was war in heaven: Michael and his angels fought against the dragon; and the dragon fought and his angels, 

And prevailed not; neither was their place found any more in heaven. 

And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world: he was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him.

(I'm not in any way trying to convert anyone - and, in the unlikely event I was, I really wouldn't start with this apocalyptic masterpiece - but If you haven't read John the Revelator's book, it's a mind-blowingly powerful and beautiful work: the King James version can be found here.)

Here's the dragon heading across our local green for St Michael and All Angels. My wife, in addition to the head (she had fun doing the ears and the teeth), also created the wings, the tail and the pointy bits. A large number of children turned up at the church on Saturday with their parents to "dress" the dragon, which accounts for all the splendid bling it's wearing. And after the service, the children - dressed in appropriate outfits - clustered around the beast and gave it a jolly good duffing up (but not too violent, because it's due to reappear next year - the devil's like that):

The dragon has been found a permanent home at the church, which is a relief, because it means we get our dining table back and I no longer have to worry about knocking bits off the damned (literally) thing.