WARNING! CONDITION GREEN! This is Your Garden Photos Event Final Reminder

 Prepare yourselves!  The Triffids will be released on Hallowe'en to clear the way for the 16th annual

 

I N F O M A N I A C

 

GardEN  PHotoS  EVEnt

 

which begins on the 1st November.

 We have received photos from six of you already (thank you, you heedful half-dozen!), but there's still time for the rest of you to get your garden photos in. 

 

  As always, the Infomaniac Garden Photos Event is open to all - you don't need to be an Infomaniac Bitch or a regular reader/commenter here at Inexplicable Device, you don't even need a blog!  All you need are captioned photos of some sort of flora that you've taken care of this past year (or at least not tried to actively kill...), whether it's an expansive garden, a pot-filled balcony, or an indoor plant or two.

 And for those of you with plant corpses on your hands, perhaps you'd like to photograph them (the plant corpses, not your hands...) and submit them to the Terrifying Triffidery sideshow which will be held on 31st October, just before the main event kicks off.  Also acceptable - nay, encouraged - are bizarre plants, unnerving close-ups, filtered frights, and those blurry, odd-angled monstrosities that are the result of being drunk in charge of a camera.

 

 Your Triffids MUST reach me by midday on Friday 30th October in order to make it into the Terrifying Triffidery sideshow.  Any late comers will be doused in seawater and dissolved so as not to be on the prowl during the main event (see, there is a reason why I live on the coast...).

 You have another week or so to submit your non-triffids & photo captions for the main event.  Ideally, I'd like your photos in my in-box by Sunday 8th November, but the sooner the better, please.

  This blog's email address can be found by clicking on my profile at the top of the Sideboard on the right.  For those of you with The Host's personal email address, please 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!

 
 And with that, I shall say cheerio until Hallowe'en - see all of you and your Triffids then!

I'm really sorry there are people in it

 This post is just an excuse to dump some recent photos that I didn't think deserved to languish in my hard drive (and that didn't make into the previous Four Photos post).  It also contains a couple of new tunes I rather like.  And a cormorant!  Can you spot it?

All these sunrise photos are from 25th September

 

 Here's the music selection (I wanted to get it in before the jump break): The lovely Howard (looking like someone's dad, but I still would) and Take That with the bright and pop-y "Higher"; and the sophisticated and arty Haute & Freddy with "Film Noir":

 

Four Photos: Sea Sky

Well, whatever is going on here, then?

 

Don't worry, we'll reveal all at the end of this post.

 

 

Sunrise, 25th September

 

 

Cormorant!  And Bitey, 1st October

 

 

"Oh, I do like to stroll along the prom, prom prom..."

 

 

It may surprise you to learn that we did not get wet during the taking of this photo.

Fortunately.

As you can tell - if you cock your head to the right - the title image has been cropped from the top right of this photo.

Which is why it doesn't count as two separate photos allowing this post to only contain the requisite four photos.

We've said "photo" too many times now.

Prepare yourselves: The GPE is only a month away!

Yes, the

2026

I N F O M A N I A C

Garden Photos Event

 

                 commences on 1st November (after Terrifying Triffidery at Hallowe'en), so you only have one month to curate the photos you've been snapping during your gardening season/s (which you've all been doing, of course), select the ones you'd like to feature here (be they one or two of a prized pot plant, or an array of all and sundry), and email them in to me so I (well, The Host) can prepare your posts for publishing throughout November.  Details at the end of this post.

 

 To get your sap flowing, here are some photos of some plants blooming in the Hexenhäusli Device gardens right now (I took these photos this evening):

 

Salvia 'Amistad'

 

Salvia 'Cherry Lips'

Where The Very Mistress Fears to Tread

 

There's something wrong with this sign at the pool I frequent - can you spot it?

 

 

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

 

 

 In Blog Feed / Sideboard related news, I have just removed the 's' from the https in all your blog addresses and my Sideboard has updated!  Well, except for the Wordpress sites.  Blogger would have us believe that dear Mago hasn't posted for two weeks or more!  In fact, his latest Sunday Music was published only a few days ago - on Sunday, funnily enough.

"I realise it's confusing 'cause I'm inside a boy..."

 Before I explain the post title, I must first address Ms Scarlet's concerns from the previous post:

"I can't see the Kingfisher - will you show me where it is in your next post? Is there a prize for those who do spot it?"

 Well, yes, I will show you (see below), and no, there isn't a prize (unless you count not receiving my sister's worn crocs).  And the people not receiving used crocs through the post are Jon and Dinah as they found the kingfisher.  Well done you two! 

 

 

 And now for the title explanation.  Just watch this: 

 

 

 Yay!  The Ghosts of Button House are back next month!! 

Terror on the Norfolk Broads!

 Oof!  Here we are!

 

 So, what have we been up to since last our paths crossed?  Well, we'll show and tell you.  Mostly show because The Host can't be bothered with a lot of typing...

 

 The day after our previous post, it was The Mother's 80th birthday and a couple of days later (on the Bank Holiday Monday) we had an all-day boat trip on the Norfolk Broads to celebrate.  We were all there: both my sisters - Inexcuseable and Indescribable - and their families (and Indescribable's dog), The Father, but not The Mother.  She decided she'd much rather stay at home with Bitey and have some peace and quiet.  I don't blame her - I wish I could have done, too.

 Anyway, here are some photos:

 

Amongst other things, the Broads are famous for their windmills.  This one's having a bit of work done.

 

We startled a cormorant!

Hexenhäusli Device Garden Update : August

 Here's a quick update from the gardens of Hexenhäusli Device.  There's not a lot to see at the mo, but there are one or two feature plants still going through the drought.

 

Eucomis comosa "Sparkling Burgundy" on 7th & 23rd August

 

 

Allotment and garden foxgloves still doing their thing on 20th & 22nd

Eclipsing the Foo-Foo Valve

 It was a bit of a damp squib here on the eastiest part of the country (I'm sure Ms Scarlet had a much better view over there in the west), but here are some photos of yesterday evening's partial eclipse which followed me & Bitey on our walk and spent some time sniffing around his foo-foo valve* 

 

As we walked up Madams Lane, the eclipse made it's way across the field parallel to us.  The landowner has put up 'Private Land - No public right of way' signs, but they obviously don't apply to celestial phenomena.

 

 

At the base of Skylark Hill the eclipse, having made its way over the trees, descends towards Bitey.

Your Number's Up

 I keep looking at the shelf of mostly alphabetically ordered (by artist) CD singles I've accumulated over the years (above*) and thinking that I should play some of them, or at least save them onto a memory stick/card/whatever, but I just can't be bothered.  Besides, I can barely make out the artist/song on the spine of most of the brittle plastic cases and it's quite difficult to wheedle them out as they're packed in quite tightly**, so I might end up pulling out a single that I have no interest in any more (because I'm sure my tastes have changed over the years).

 I thought about randomly selecting a few to listen to, but knew the selection wouldn't be random as if I didn't like one I'd just pick another instead, so that's where you and your number picking came in. 

 

* Before you start counting and/or clicking to embiggen, the photo above doesn't show all my CD singles.  Goldfrapp's and Erasure's are with their respective albums on the shelves above, and there are two or three others languishing on other shelves that I can't squeeze back in this one (but they have been counted).

** Remember this.  It will be important once you've listened to/read the final pick. 

 

Anyway, here the results of your efforts: 

 

#73 Ms Scarlet : Pepe Deluxé - "Before You Leave"

"Before You Leave" - by Finnish band Pepe Deluxé - was released in 2001 and got to number 20 in the UK charts (but #10 in its native Finland).  I still really like this track but haven't listened to it, never mind heard it, in years.  I don't have any more singles or albums by Pepe Deluxé (who last released an album in 2024), so they're a one-hit wonder for me.

Pick A Number

 As Peenee laments in his latest - anniversary - post (happy 19th blog birthday, mrpeenee!),

"There are times when I sit down to write my latest hilarious blog and I discover I have absolutely no idea about what to write."

 The same is very often true here, so I just slap up a few photos that I've taken recently and call it a day.  But not today.

 Today we're going to play a game.

Well, we've thought of a game to play but whether any of you join in is another matter.

I'm sure they will.

 Anyway, it's very simple, there's no strenuous activity, and you don't really have to use your brain.

And we'll get two blog posts out of it!

"What about prizes?" I hear you ask.  Well, there are none because this game doesn't have a winner or loser (except, possibly, the Host's dignity).  Instead, the second results post is the 'prize'.

 Plus, if you like it, you can play the game on your blogs too.  It'll be different for everyone, so there'll be no boring repetition - well, it's very unlikely that there will be.

 

 Right.  Are you intrigued?  Or at least a little curious?  Or bored enough to take part in whatever the hells this is?  Good.  Then we'll begin: 

 

 All you have to do is pick a number between 1 and 108 and leave it in the comments.  In a couple of days time, I will return with the consequences of your chosen numbers.

 

☙❧

 

 Just in case anyone feels this is all too unfamiliar, discomforting, and too much to take in, I'll just slap up some photos I took from Thursday's visit to the Old Vicarage Gardens in East Ruston (last seen back in 2025, although I have been several times this year):

 

Inside the Diamond Jubilee walled garden

An Evening Out

 I toddled off to Cromer for an evening out with a few friends last night.  It's not really post-worthy as nothing much happened, but I did get a few nice sunset snaps from the pier where we had our first couple of drinks.