The 2015 Coven Awards - A Year In Review

 Welcome to the 2015 Coven Awards, and thank you for enduring yet another year at Castlette DeVice.
 Yes, although we've celebrated ten years of this blogging lark, this is only the seventh Coven Awards ceremony due to three rather slack years.

 Yeah! We're looking at you 2011, 2012, and 2013. 

 You may be pleased to know that this year's awards show will not be as drawn out as last year's tedious affair.

 That's what you think!

 Yeah! We got our second wind when creating the award headers and now there are loads of them!

 Oh, dear gods... We'd better get on with it then, I suppose. As usual, I'll recap our blogging efforts through the year.
 And I'll present the various awards.
 Right. Take a deep breath and don't look down as away we go: 

Bertie the Balloon and other books

 Here we are - the final book post of the year. And what a year it's been. We managed to trounce last year's total of 39 books read by an amazing 20 books!

 56. Bertie the Balloon at the Fairground, by Kim Robinson & Aneta Neuman

 OK, yes, this is a childrens' book (and a Christmas gift for Babyzilla), but I still read it, so it counts! And it's written by one of my best friends, so I just have to feature it here.
 It's a delightful little story of a red balloon named Bertie who get's blown away from his home with Clancy the Clown, and has a series of adventures throughout a fairground. At the end of the story, Bertie eventually ends up with a little boy and is ready to start a new adventure.

 The whole story is told in rhyme and is beautifully illustrated. The first production run of 500 copies has pretty much sold out, but Kim's having another 500 books printed, so if you know a little girl or boy who might like Bertie the Balloon at the Fairground, please message Kim at the Facebook link above (or contact me with your request and I'll sort it out for you).

Cromer Crab Cadavers

A collection of crab tails

 In A Witch Wanders Toward Winter, after being presented with only crab claws, Hound asked what happened to the rest of the body parts.

 Well, a few days ago I took another walk on the beach, and - Abracadaver! - discovered the missing pieces of the puzzle:

Stop & Go

 Usurping lx's oft asked question "Did I win yet?" in the comments of the previous Items of Interest post was Dinahmow. And I have great pleasure in announcing that, "Yes. Yes you did win!"

Oh dear. The Ampelmännchen seem to have polished off my decanter of absinthe!

 The Items of Interest were, of course, the Ampelmännchen that lx gave away as prizes here. 

On an absinthe high, the Ampelmännchen hallucinate flying saucers!

Congratulations Dinahmow!

Items of Interest: Crystalline Green...

...and red.

 Blimey! We haven't had one of these Items of Interest posts since January 2011!

 For those of you who are new to this, or have forgotten what to do seeing as it's been nearly five years since the last Items of Interest post (which brought us the infamous "nylon netting shower pom pom on a string thingamie"), the rules are as follows:
 Just guess what these particular photos are of and, if you're very lucky, win a prize (yet to be determined)*. And I don't mean the photo on the left here as that's the logo image (from The Towering Disco Inferno). No. The photos are below (after the jump).

A Witch Wanders Toward Winter

Cancer pagurus cheliped star

 Right. I suppose I'd better publish those photos I promised a couple of posts back. There are a selection from my wanderings in Cromer, Overstrand and Northrepps from the past month or so.

 Oh, and be warned - there are quite a few to trawl through. I did consider splitting these photos up to cover three posts, but decided to bore you all senseless in one go, rather than spread it out. Aren't I thoughtful?

 On with the show, I suppose. After the jump, Cromer is up first:

Cedplop, the Christmas Killer

 Before I post pictures from yesterday's wanderings, I must first bring to your attention a crime so blood-curdling and diabolical, that you may never sleep again: The calculated and brutal murder of the Christmas robin.

 This icon of Christmas joy and glad tidings was mercilessly plucked out of the air and extinguished of life with a neck-snapping bite-n-shake combo.

 What sort of monster could commit such a callous and cruel act, I hear you clamour? 

LCARS preview of North Norfolk witchery

 I had sent my tinfoil mini-Broom, Silverbolt, off on a survey mission to see whether it was worth getting off my backside and heading out for a walk. 

 Here are some of the telemetry data it returned - and in handy-dandy LCARS style, too (see previous post).

 Well, the weather looks OK, and some of my marker sigils are still in one piece, so I think I'll head out. I'll post some photos from my travels when I get back.

 See you all soon!

LCARS Cusp Ship Status

 Yes, I know it's been a while - I missed the first of the month post! I haven't much to report, except that I've been over the Cusp sorting out a few things. Nothing I can share here at the moment, though.
 But, here's a little something the Host knocked up while we were inbetween realities:

 Some of you may recognise certain elements of it - some being more obvious than others. And just in case you didn't know (The Very Mistress MJ, I'm looking at you), the design is based on the LCARS (Library Computer Access and Retrieval System) displays from the 24th century-set Star Treks.
 So, shout out in the comments when you find something that looks familiar.

 P.S. This post brings this year's total to one more than those of 2012, 2013, and 2014 combined! Only six more to go to match the heady heights of 2010's 89 posts.