Showing Off One's Purple Ring

 

 Following on from the last time that I displayed my rear, may I present the current state of affairs here at the DeVice Mansion:
 Yes, it's a garden update in preparation for The Very Mistress's 9th Annual Garden Photos Event!
 Above are my pineapple lilies, Eucomis comosa "Sparkling Burgandy", lounging about on the paysho.  I bought one in 2014, which has produced a new bulb every year since then (those of you who can do maths will know that I now have five!).  To the right are the seven foot sunflowers, and below, the rest of the rear garden.

 Oh, and so as not to shock you, the purple ring - you'll be pleased to hear - is not mine.  All will be revealed with a stroke or two of your scrolling finger(s)!

Saturday Swim: Silhouettes, Sundials, and Seals. Oh, my!

 Here are some very similar photos to a plethora of others found here on my blog.  I am nothing if not consistant.  Except for when I'm not.
 Anyway, these are from this morning's drift down to the beach (where I managed to have a swim without being disturbed by people or seals).  First up, some groynes in silhouette (almost):

Ships Ahoy!

 Just a few photos from this morning's saunter along the sands, with a rather surprising something lurking off the Cromer coast...

Oh, what's that on the horizon?

End-of-the-Line Update #2

 This is the End-of-the-Line as of yesterday.  As you can see by comparing it to last month's update, the hungry sea has eaten away enough of the collapsed cliff to enable one to walk behind the revetment to get to The Other Side!!!
 I was going to post some "before" pictures here, but I can't be bothered, so you'll just have to click back and forth between this post and the previous update (if you could be bothered to click the link, that is) to make your comparisons.

'Dialled Up To Eleven

My first sundial at 10:42

 It has been over a week since my last post, and over three weeks since I brought back some photos from the beach, so it's about time I remedied that.  And what better remedy than a besundialed groyne?!
 With today being one of those rare Thursdays where plans haven't been made for me, I found myself down on the beach (after I'd hung the washing out, of course) hoping for a swim.

End-of-the-Line

GROYNE!

 Due to a combination of a cool wind, only very intermittant sunshine, and people, the swim didn't materialise, but I did find something else to do...

Freakin' Green Elf Shorts: Where Are They Now?

 I spent the weekend in a bit of a panic about this month's Blog Map Challenge.  Most of Saturday found me slaving over a hot Apocalypse Oven to create a meal so blue as to appeal to a Klingon Chancellor, only to have that cow Delilah Smythe appropriate it for a recipe book she's not going to write for 274 years!
 So, when Sunday dawned, I was already fretting about having used up half the weekend, and no further on with my proposed map, which still exists only in the form of brief notes in my Blog Notebook, and a vague idea in my head.
 However, I had a sudden, last-minute inspired solution as to how I was going to get a map finished by the end of July, and a recent comment on an old Freakin' Green Elf Shorts post shows that this solution is warranted.  And here is that solution:

 Yes, it's an update to the Freakin' Green Elf Shorts Travel Map - Now with a double helping of Ms Scarlet!!!

 For those who need a reminder, please visit Rimpy Rimpington's Continuing History of the Freakin' Green Elf Shorts!

::

 I still plan on creating a new map for this month's Map Challenge, but it will be exceedingly late, because I think it will hinge upon my write-up of our impending adventures over the Cusp, which my crystal ball gives vague assurances will occur in a month or two.

 Probably...

It's A Faaaake! Not The Art Of Star Trek - Blue Food

 After my Klingon Drag Queen tied for first place in last month's Star Trek Art Challenge, I had some vague thoughts about a food-related theme which I shared with the other winner.
 "Food related sounds very intriguing" s/he said "there are lots of possibilities. Food has been important in all Trek series. Kingon Gagh, Romulan Ale, Tilly making snarky comments at the passive aggressive food slots... there's no shortage of scope."
 "All I can think of now", I replied, "is Tilly muttering 'Shut your food slot' in the manner of Scotty's 'Up your shaft!' to the Excelsior's turbolift in Star Trek III: The Search For Spock.
 "If we do go for the food theme, shall we leave it quite open, such as food from any Star Trek era or race to give it that wide scope you mentioned?"
 "I think keeping it broad would be a good idea, yes. From Aldebaran Whiskey to Zylo Eggs: Food in the Star Trek Universe!
  "I found this page which could be useful, if people want some idea prompts: https://memory-alpha.fandom.com/wiki/Foods_and_beverages"

 So, with that in mind: It's dinner time!

This month's Art Challenge we're exploring the food (glorious food!) of the Star Trek Universe. There's a whole galaxy of possibilities on this one, from figuring out what might be on the drinks menu at Quark's, to recreating Will Riker's terrible omlettes!

As long as there is a Star Trek connection of some kind, I'm happy to see where people's creativity takes them.

 And that creativity took me here (as if you hadn't already suspected, what with the last post's Sperm Whale Plastique à la Bleu):

 Below is a screenshot from the infamous blue food scene in Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country which directly inspired my efforts (as well as Delilah Smythe's).

Plastic Baby Sperm Whales...

 As well as the blog map challenge, I've been thinking about what to do for this month's food related Star Trek Art Challenge, and a couple of ideas* have sprung to mind, but I've been too busy and hot to do anything about them.  As I don't have any plans this weekend, and the traditional Great British Summertime is due to reestablish itself with a vengeance (temperatures in the bearable low 20s, with lots of rain and storms), I'm hoping to ensconce myself in the kitchen and work on them.

 In the meantime, I've discovered that that diabolical cow Delilah Smythe (who had been uncharacteristically quiet of late), has emerged from her cryogenic freezer and reinvented herself as a 23rd century Andorian for an ill-advised comeback...

 Delilah - or, should I say, Delila - based this whole book on the infamous blue food from Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country (featured here [sixth paragraph], with sperm whales mentioned here [in the fourth paragraph down]), which she claims to have created in her seventh autobiography, TV Dinners.


* Cup-and-Saucer-section cakes, TOS Food Cubes (bleeurgh!), and the aforementioned blue food.

The Makings of a Map

The middle of the month has come and gone, so I thought it was about time that I made a start on my cartographic canvas for the July Map Challenge, as proposed here, by Ms Scarlet, and seconded here, by Dinahmow.

 I had an idea for the map as early as 16th June, but that's been superseded by another idea that popped into my head on 9th July (the 16th June one would have been rather derivative of the map which started this whole shebang, my Star Trek treasure map from May).  This latest idea incorporates a premonition I had on 2nd July (which involves our next adventure over the Cusp - apologies in advance to all concerned), and an update to another map which has previously graced this very blog (amongst others).
 Below are some more clues, both subtle and gross*, in case the teaser image above has you flummoxed.

* No, not that sort of gross.

End-of-the-Line Update #1

Cormorant!

 I popped down to the beach yesterday afternoon for a bit of ancient groyne action-

Because The Very Mistress hasn't been pulling her weight lately...

Urrgh... Yuck!  Not that kind of groyne action, as well you know!

Heh heh.

 Anyway, I needed to get away for some Me Time before the Hoards descended upon the DeVice Mansion for tea, and thought I'd take some photos of what the poor, squashed End-of-the-Line looks like now.  A progress update of how the sea is removing the huge chunks of cliff from around the battered groyne, if you will.
 So, here they are:

 It's taken a month for the sea to scoop out enough of the fallen cliff from behind the revetment for me to be able to stand there and take these photos.  The steps have been uncovered, too - Not that there's another side to go down.

Birds of a Feather

A magpie in its watchtower

 There's not much going on here, so I thought I'd dump these photos of various birds that visit the gardens of the DeVice Mansion onto the blog.
 The avian visitors are overseen by a magpie (right, who is sometimes harried by a couple of crows), and include a family of great spotted woodpeckers, a pheasant couple, no end of chaffinches, blue tits, great tits, coal tits, long-tailed tits, greenfinches, and goldfinches, one or two robins, a jay, a couple of collared doves, and some wood pigeons.
 There was also a partridge on the front lawn once, and a grey heron did a very low flyover not long ago, pursued by a couple of seagulls. 

Great spotted woodpecker

Water Sports

 I've just got back from Indescribable's minus my right arm and shoulder, so this will only be a brief post.

 You might be asking how I managed to lose an arm, and if it hurts (it does sting a bit).  Well, it's all down the hazards of witches having an ill-conceived water fight...

 Count Podgkinson started it by picking up the hose and looking into the spray attachment, then the Little Witch turned on the water...  Much hilarity ensued until we lost Inexcuseable for a while.  However, she managed to reincorporate herself and, together with her husband, dissolve Indescribable.  I made it back inside the house and ran upstairs to the bathroom where I filled an empty shampoo bottle from the tap, opened the window and squirted it onto an unsuspecting Little Witch.  She got me back after I'd come back downstairs and opened the kitchen window to throw a jug of water over Vom Smallhausen.  I didn't see the Little Witch crouched under the window ledge, and when I opened the window, she got my arm and shoulder with the hosepipe!



 Needless to say, the dissolution of their "responsible adults" meant the kids were having the time of their lives.