Holes with stones around them...

... and other seaside somethings.

  From my various perambulations along the beach here, I bring you a selection of seaside flotsam and jetsam that I deigned fascinating enough to bring home.
  The thing is, all these pocket-fulls of stones and fossils and glass and shells are building up so that the interior of Chateau DeVice is slowly transforming into a beach... 

Foiled Again?!

[image via]

 No pressure, but we've received the first entry for this year's Tin Foil Hat Competition!  

 No, it's not "Sea Urchin" as constructed and modelled by Sir David Attenborough on the right here:
 (We had to disqualify his submission as he had "help" from NASA)

 You now have five days to submit your tin foil hats for entry into this illustrious competition (six, if you include the rest of today and a little leeway for the early hours of Friday morning to allow for time-travel nincompoopery).

Closing date for entries is midnight on Thursday 24th August. 

Fourwarned is Fourarmed (or fourhatted...)

Yves Saint Laurent adds the four-
millionth (and final) layer of
tin foil to the fourth hummingbird
gallstone decoration that will adorn
my own Tin Foil Hat masterpiece
(I may have to widen the brim somewhat...)
[image via]

 You lucky, lucky people can breathe a sigh of relief: I've extended the Tin Foil Hat submission deadline by four working days (or thereabouts) to midnight on Thursday 24th August!  Mainly because I haven't had time to construct my own shiny chapeau yet, due to unexpected/unannounced/unnecessary visitations from Indescribable, the Little Witch and Grumplestiltskin; plus the eventual birth of Inexcuseable's first spawn on Monday morning: Spider-Monkey (because that's what he looks like at the moment). But also because some of you have resorted to time-travel to try and eke out a few more days of construction time...

 This means that the Gallery of Hats will open on Saturday 26th August for a week of viewing and voting, with the winner being announced on Saturday 2nd September. 

 In case you're new here, or you've had a sudden attack of amnesia, the theme for this year's Tin Foil Hat Competition is "Four" (with or without a rubber duck). How you interpret this theme is up to you: You may wish to make four hats (sounds like too much hard work to me); take four different photos of one hat (that's a bit better); fashion your hat into the number four; adorn it with four items of decoration (or four rubber ducks); or go for something more subtle (or downright obscure), such as the four stages of metamorphism of the superorder Endopterygota (good gods!).

 Remember: to enter, you must fashion a tin foil hat (with or without rubber duck/s), take a photo of yourself wearing said chapeau (or, if you are camera-shy, put it on a melon or other head-sized object) and send me the photo (email address is in our profile) along with a short technical description of the hat's functions (and what, if any, purpose the rubber ducks serve - if you included any), and/or a tale of fancy to go with it.
 The winner will be whomsoever garners the most votes from you, the voting proletariat masses select, and displayed on this here blog. There will also be a (yet to be determined, but you can guarantee it'll be cheap) prize, or prizes.

 Right. We'd all better get on with our hats then, hadn't we?! 

 

Dandy Horse Distraction

  Mago showed us his - and after a modicum of light pestering - I'll show you mine:

Unveiling the Velocipede

  For those occasions when taking Broom out is not an option (i.e. in daylight, mostly), I can't be bothered to walk, and I can't justify a relatively short trip in Car (i.e. to Indescribable's temporary woodland abode), Bike is summoned to transport me, if not in style, then at least in relative efficacy.
 

Bike hadn't even gone half a mile before stopping for a rest! Lazy...

Not bad for a 30odd year old bike, though.

  There. That's that out of the way so you can get on with crafting your "four" themed Tin Foil Hats (with or without rubber duck/s). There's only one week left until the submission deadline (19th August), remember! 

Clifftop Calamities II (New! Butterfly flavour!)

 Again. As with the last post, not really any calamities... And remember to click to embiggen!

(To release the butterfly flavour, just tear open the tin foil pack and allow to stand for a minute or two. Then, to prevent waste, use the foil to craft a hat or four!) 

Remind you of anything...?

There's loads of these, so take a deep breath and ensure your scrolling finger has had plenty of rest.

Clifftop Calamities* (with added Cormorants)

 I took Broom out for a daytime spin the other day- 

I know, daring, eh?

 Well, it was a bit. Anyway, we went for a spin and managed to get a few snaps-

When Broom wasn't wobbling alarmingly - and on purpose, too!

Quite. Anyway... these snaps may please Dinahmow, but add to the concern of Mago and Hound, and cause some vexation to Ms Scarlet (although she seems to have moved on from cormorants to cover fields instead...).

Because cormorants are so last year!

 Anyway... We "enjoyed" a rather white-knuckle jaunt down the coast a little way, skimming the cliffs of Overstrand and Sidestrand as you can see here:

Overstrand village as seen from Sidestrand (Chateau** DeVice is hidden in the trees behind and to the left of the white building on the far right)

End of the Line as seen from space quite high up, actually.
Hang on a minute... What are those little blobs...?

Oh. It's you lot.

It's A Faaaake! Not The Art Of Star Trek - Walk Like An Egyptian

  As promised at the end of the last post, may I present: Yet Another Star Trek Art Challenge Post!

  Witchface did mention that this post would entail a trip to Egypt, but that was quickly recanted. And even if it wasn't, you should know by now that I barely leave North Norfolk (bloody work forcing me to go to Norwich...) never mind leave the actual country! Besides, Broom would have forty fits if I suggested travelling overseas...

  Anyway, on with the post. Here's the challenge for July - as set by the June challenge winner - which explains the Egyptianess:

The theme for this months art challenge is Egypt. I was thinking long and hard about a couple of ideas for this month's theme, but ancient Egyptians, pyramids, mummies and hieroglyphs have always fascinated me since I was a child. It's just something that inspires me and I love to dabble with. I hope you agree that it's a broad enough theme for everyone to work in.

Maybe you can show us how the Borg would build their ships if they were Egyptians. Maybe you can reimagine familiar Treknology as Egyptian “steampunk” tech. Or maybe you'll let us see how Kirk & Spock beam down to a planet with a civilization strikingly similar to ancient Egypt. The possibilities are virtually endless.

8th - 14th July
  Unlike last month, I got started on this challenge straight away with a list of ideas including: incorporating the various Egyptian gods hats & headgear into a Starfleet uniform; making the various animal-headed gods into Trek races; hieroglyphs as an alien language; the Egyptian ankh or Eye of Horus as an alien logo or emblem; sandpaper pyramids (as background scenery); USS Nile - a Danube-class runabout; the Eye of Ra as a starship's saucer-section; and possibly something involving Pteppic and Ptraci from Sir Terry Pratchett's Pyramids...

16th July
  Nearly a week later, I decided upon one of those ideas, which was to construct a golden Cardassian Hideki-class ship and give it an all-over livery reminiscent of Tutankhamun's mask. However, knowing that a 3D cardboard model would have taken me ages to make (not least because of all the procrastinating I'd have to fit in), I thought I'd try a flat 2D one instead and started hacking away at some gold cardboard:

The larger, detailed, half-Hideki was going to be the basis of the 3d golden card model

July Round Up

  Please bear with us; we just have a few photos from some of mid-late July's daydrifts to dump here on the blog, then in the next post, we'll be travelling* to Egypt!

13.07.2017

This is what the End of the Line looks like when the tide's in
(and, yes, I did get wet getting up there)

As I couldn't really go past the End of the Line without getting more wet, I decided to sit down...

Classic British Summertime

  It is nearly the height of summer here in Britland, so why don't we take a look at a typical summer's day - i.e. today:

Tin Four, Rubber Duck!

 After much prodding and needling-
  "Much"?!?
 Well, some, then. 
  Savvy brought it up and Ms Scarlet may have mentioned it in passing - I'd hardly call that prodding and needling. Not even a modicum thereof!
 Oh, OK! After a gentle enquiry and a passing mention, we have decided to hold another Tin Foil Hat Competition. (You're particularly mardy this evening.) Our fourth, in fact. So, what better theme than one of "Four".  
  Christ! That's lazy theme-thinking-of. And I'm not bloody mardy!
 Really? Look, why don't you bugger off and decide what you're going to do for this month's Star Trek Art Challenge before it's too late? All that procrastinating has left you in a vile mood. I need to get on with this before we lose the audience.
  Fine! 

 Right. Now that the Host is otherwise occupied, let's get on with this shall we?

Welcome to...

The 2017 Tin Foil Hat Competition!

Prelude to a Hat...

Death on the Beach

 No, not my death (again). 
  Although we would forgive you for thinking it as we haven't been around much lately.
 Death. You know, tall chap, on the gaunt side, wears black and carries a scythe? Well, anyway, him.
 As it happens, I haven't actually seen him down on the beach myself as he's not really one for sunbathing, but is very good at skinny-dipping- 

Emaciated-dipping, more like!

 Well, yes, but I know he's been around lately - and not from coming across his rather distinctive footprints in the sand - rather coming across other evidence.
  But before we get to the macabre, lets have some triffids and such:

An array of Common spotted orchids (Dactylorhiza fuchsii) growing on the cliffs in Overstrand

The tide's in