Incoming! GPE at Two O'Clock!

Or is it ten past twelve?

Who knows?  I think Witchface must've been having a moment when this title came to mind.

 Oh, all right.  Forget the time/direction, then.

the House of

I N F O M A N I A C

Garden Photos Event

 

is almost upon us!

 When you say "almost", what exactly do yo-

 Christ!  Shut up!  I'm doing this and I don't need any of your 'help'.

 Well, I just don't want anyone to start panicking because of a misunderstood deadline.

 They should be panicking.  There're less than two weeks to go!

It sounds like you're the one who's panicking...

A few deep breaths later...

 Right.  As I was saying: it'll soon be Garden Photos Event time so I hope you've all been taking photos of how your expansive grounds | bijou courtyard | overgrown wilderness | rampant houseplants | tasteful city garden | impenetrable jungle | potted paradise | graveyard that you frequent [delete as applicable] has grown over the year, as I'll want your carefully curated selections - along with terse or verbose captions - in my in-box by Monday 28th October, please.* 

 And remember also to include a photo or two of a particularly spooky plant in your collection - or, failing that, a rather more mundane plant which has been snapped at an odd angle/close-up/while drunk - for the GPE preview Terrifying Triffidery on the 31st.

 This blog's gmail address for sending your photos & captions into is in my profile on top of the Sideboard over there.  Or, if you have the Host's personal hotmail address, you can use that instead.

 

☙❧

 

 For anyone new to this/with only a few houseplants/concerned about your gardening abilities (etc.) who may be wondering if you can take part: Yes, you can! 

 As you can see by looking back through previous Garden Photos Events (see my handy GPE Page) pretty much anything goes - and the more the merrier!  You don't have to provide dozens of photos - one or two will be fine - and there'll be no judging or negative critique.  After all, in the exasperated tone of the GPE originator herself, The Very Mistress: 

 

May I remind you that the Garden Photos Event is NOT a competition!

 If you have any questions, thoughts, or ideas about the GPE, please sound off in the comments.

  

☙❧

* But, because I am a soft touch, as long as some of you send in your photos by then, the rest of you lallygaggers can have a bit longer.  But not much longer, mind!  I have things to do, and I don't want to be curating photos all the way through November.

(I'll leave it up to you to decide who's going to be in my good books by getting their photos in on time, and who will earn under-my-breath mutterings and a spectacular eye roll come 29th October.  Or later.  Almost certainly later.)

 

See you and your triffids (good or evil) next week!

"Just spun in a web made of moonlight"

  Another clear sky yesterday which means more photos!  And a timely release from Sophie Ellis-Bextor with "Freedom of the Night" as an accompaniment.  Yes, I know: I spoil you.

First glimpse of the Moon emerging from the hazy clouds over the North Sea horizon

Cloudbusting

 Yesterday was the first clear-skyed day for some time, and the last chance to see C/2023 A3, otherwise known as Comet Tsuchinshan-ATLAS or Comet A3, for 80,000 years.  An occasion such as that warranted leaving work early and hightailing it home in order to witness said comet, so I did.

 Having miscalculated the amount of time required to get home, take Bitey out for his evening "movement", and then wander up Madam's Lane with Camera and Tripod, I set out with all three - getting hotter and hotter as I neared Madam's Lane (it had been a VERY warm day for the time of year).

 Once I'd trudged up the not-very-steep-or-very-high Toll's Hill to the Nightship stop (very near boiling point), I gazed around the points of the compass, marvelling at the beautifully clear skies above and to the North, the East, and the South.  And there to the West was my target - obscured behind the only clouds in the sky.  Drat!

The view west from the Nightship stop looking out over Toll's Hill and not seeing any comets.

Where was Kate Bush when I needed her?

 Not wanting to have a completely wasted trip, I thought I'd take some photos of the stars coming out in the west.  But that was scuppered by the Moon which was massive and brilliant, totally obscuring the stars in Camera's sights.  Bah!

 Still, I did inadvertantly get a shot of the light from Cromer lighthouse:

An Argument of Witches

 Well, it has been 19 years since that fateful day 19 years ago...

Did Witchface mean to say "19" twice?

Who cares.  Just let them get on with it otherwise we'll be here all night.

 As I recall, our very first post did not have a title - that came later.  As did the eye.  No, not the one on the Sideboard (although that one did come later, too), the tiny, blue, glowy thing in the 19 year old post.

The Eye

 As blog beginnings go, it could have been a little more spectacular, I suppose.  Having said that, I'm glad it didn't happen like this.  At least, I don't think that's how it started?

 Didn't it?

 I don't know, I was asking you!

 My mind has blocked out the traumatic incident that led to you and your bloody SubC taking up residence in it, thankfully.

Hey!

 Yes: Hey!  And, traumatic?!  I hardly think it was traumatic.  In fact, I'm sure it was wonderful!  You should be grateful I arrived to instill a bit of pizzazz into your life because you certainly weren't doing anything with it.

 "Pizzazz"?  Christ.  No one says pizzazz anymore.

 Oh, pish posh.  Anyway, it's a good job I did turn up - just think how lucky you are that this isn't going to happen now.

 That happened because of you, you silly witch!

Yeah!

 You're the one that cuts the toenails, so it's clearly your fault. 

 If you hadn't been in me then you wouldn't have been summonsed to the future and my great-to-the-power-of-six (or is it seven?) nephew wouldn't have had to travel back in time to stop it from happening!

*Ahem*  We're getting somewhat off topic, here.

What exactly is the topic again?

Who knows?  Some sort of half-arsed anniversary malarkey, I guess.

Well, it's certainly half-arsed.  The time would have been better spent

visiting everyone else's blogs and replying to previous posts' comments.

 That will have to wait until tomorrow as we're in the middle of an argument now!

EDIT: 16:55 10/10/2024

Jon has already provided the link to a similarly themed choon in the comments, so here's a little something else for this post's soundtrack - Donovan and "Season of the Witch"

An Oddity or Two

 You can thank Madam Arcati for this post, for if she had not seen fit to furnish us with her August flowering foxglove, you would be hastily scrolling through/clicking past a Star Trek fan art post featuring a barely clothed Rutherford.*

 Except for the first photo, here are some late blooming floral oddities from the gardens of Hexenhäusli Device this morning:

From yesterday's Bitey walk: A foxglove in the wild.

Sorry.  Please ignore Bitey's fluffy bottom, and focus your attention on the rather lacklustre foxglove.

The Freakin' Green Elf Shorts are on the move!

Yes, there is an update about the Freakin' Green Elf Shorts: 

 

Rimpy Rimpington, Official Historian and Commissioner of Clones, has put up a post with the news.  

 

He's also made an addition to The Continuing History of the Freakin' Green Elf Shorts - which includes news of dear Princess!

 

If you're reading, Prinny, we hope you're well and that you may find time to pop in now and again.

Tails and Orbs and Fairy Rings

 Just dropping off some photos from a couple of Bitey walks (as vaguely requested by The Very Mistress, here): the sun setting over the trees set are from Saturday, and the fairy ring and sea set are from lunch time today.  The musical accompaniment - "Locked Out of Heaven" by Bruno Mars -  is only featuring because it popped into my mind while swimming this morning.

Orb!  Or Camera artefact...

Trail Of Destruction

 Before those Bluer Deckers in the previous post outstay their welcome (if they haven't already), I thought I'd better pop in so that you know I haven't fallen over The Cusp never to be seen again.  I don't have anything to say/show except that Kim Wilde's latest has been an oft played earworm since The Host discovered it eleven days ago.  Oh, and my absence wasn't due to or caused a "Trail of Destruction".

 Right.  I'd better engage in a flurry of visiting and commenting while I have a few minutes.  See you out there!

Bluer Decks

  Star Trek fan art time!  But don't worry - I'll make it quick.

 

  August's Star Trek fan art challenge theme was "Toon Trek":

Take some inspiration from your favorite non-Trek cartoon or comic and draw Trek scenes in the same manner. How about Looney Tunes, Arthur, Calvin and Hobbes, Garfield, etc? Alternately, show us your own unique drawing style.

 Initially I was thrilled because I thought it would be a chance to finish the Ulysses 31 / Lower Decks poster I started last year, but real life got in the way so I had to reduce the scope of my plans.  I didn't think I was going to have time to do anything, but at the very last minute I came up with this Bluey / LDS mash-up:  Bluer Decks

 

From left to right: Bandit Heeler/Sam Rutherford, Bluey Heeler/Beckett Mariner, Bingo Heeler/Brad Boimler, and Chilli Heeler/D'Vana Tendi.

 

 

 The final season of Star Trek: Lower Decks is out on Paramount+ 24th October! Yeah, I know I've already featured this teaser trailer before, but you can never have too much Lower Decks!

Reminder: The Infomaniac Garden Photos Event 2024

If the previous post wasn't enough of a prompt, here's an official reminder:

 

 

the House of

 

I N F O M A N I A C

 

Garden Photos Event 2024

 

is only two months away!

 I hope you've all been snapping away in your green spaces this season in readiness for the event of the year?  If not, you'd better get to it as I don't want to have to get my wand out and turn you into one of these:

☙❧

 

  Let's have a bit of musical accompaniment, shall we?  I've only recently discovered Sophie Ellis-Bextor's cover of Propaganda's "Duel" and, needless to say, it's fabulous!

Lurking Green Old Friends

 With nothing prepared and not much time to conjur up a new post - especially that Garden Photos Event reminder I said I'd do last time (and the time before) - I thought I'd publish this post which has been lurking about unfinished in my drafts since the end of March. 

 I haven't finished it - I was going to add some more photos and a couple more plants but can't be bothered haven't got time.

⌇  ⌇  ⌇

 I can't remember when exactly, but not too long ago - within a year or two, I'm sure (maybe three?) - Jon said something somewhere about plants that he'd had for years having survived/coped with several moves, and I'd replied with some examples of my own.

 Well, after showing my pot-bound bonsai* Acer in the previous but one post, I thought I'd do some research - i.e. trawl through loads of old photographs - to find out just how long that Acer had been if not flourishing, then at least suriving in its shallow, blue-glazed pot.  And find out I did. 

 Along the way I also discovered the origins or early days of a few other green old friends, so I've collected them together here so as not to have wasted all that time and effort for nothing.

* Thank you, Mitzi. 

Acer palmatum: After much to-ing & fro-ing between batches of photos from 2010 and 2011, I can safely say that my Acer has been with me since mid-late 2010 at the earliest or early 2011 at the latest.  I didn't buy it in the blue pot it's currently growing in - I'm pretty sure it came in the usual plastic pot and I then decanted it into a terracotta pot before moving it on to its current home.

 

This is my Acer's first photographic appearance - a cropped & enhanced shot from a set taken on 2 May 2011 at the second Castle DeVice (the one I shared with SP).  I think it must have been drunk on fertiliser as it's staggered over.

Cormorants!

 I know I said at the end of the previous post that I'd probably do a Garden Photos Event reminder next, but I took Bitey along the beach (what little there was of it due to the high tide) to the End-of-the-Line this morning and: Cormorants!