Systemagic

  Because I've got loads of pots coming to the boil, but none of them actually cooked, I only have time for a quick YouTube assisted post.

  First up: Goldfrapp and their new single Systemagic. Previous Goldfrappery can be found a month ago, here.



 Witches. The lot of them!

::

  I've also just discovered that a clip/trailer called The Portal - starring the delicious Tahmoh Penikett - that I first watched three years ago(!), finally has a completed series. So, instead of finishing blog posts, artwork and the like (plus all the day-to-day drudgeries that need doing), I shall inevitably be watching the Riftworld Chronicles (as The Portal is now known).

Messy Maths

 I've just heard from The Mother that after Indescribable, The Little Witch and Babyzooky came to visit us over Easter, they went to see Indescribable's husband's family. And guess what? Both of his brothers along with a couple of others (wives? children? other family members? - I wasn't paying attention) got the two bob bits!

Thankfully, I don't have any
photos of her other end!

 Indescribable mentioned that Babyzooky had been off her food for a few days and had produced some astoundingly messy nappies (diapers).
 Two and two were put together and the resulting four looks an awful lot like that toxic little scumdrop, Babyzooky, was almost certainly the cause of our Game of Porcelain Thrones over Easter. She is Patient Zero. Our own little Typhoid Mary.
 Indescribable is so proud!

Garden Photos Event preview

  Somewhat coincidentally, I've just been out in the gardens of Castlette DeVice taking some photos of some of the blooms and new growth, and what do I find upon opening up the blog to deposit them all in? A timely reminder from The Very Mistress for all of us Infomaniac Bitches to prepare for her Seventh Annual Garden Photos Event!

  Well, without further ado, may I present a much more comprehensive (and better, in my opinion) selection of triffids and such than the last lot.  And, may I say, the ferns are not quite as scary/vulgar-looking as Dinahmow's cyclone-surviving ferns...

Gorgeous new growth colour from a fern behind the lake pond, in the shady area. The name of which I don't know because I couldn't be bothered to bend down and look at the label.

Another fern at the back of the garden. This one I appropriated from the woods behind the Castlette a couple of years ago.

Game of Porcelain Thrones

 Oog.  There's a reason I haven't been around much this Easter: Food poisoning!

§

 On Thursday, Inexcuseable and I prepared a birthday tea for The Father (it was his birthday on Wednesday, but we were both at work late on the day). It was a bit of a rush job, as I was out with Indescribable all afternoon house hunting (some of the larger ones can get up quite a clip, and the smaller ones are a bugger for finding once they've gone to ground) - she's looking for a place up here on the coast as she's got a new job. 
 When we got back to Castlette DeVice, I bunged a load of potatoes in the oven to bake, then set about decorating the cake I'd made that morning. Meanwhile, Indescribable returned to The Parents' to collect them, The Little Witch (née Babyzilla) and Babyzooky. Inexcuseable then arrived to sort out all the trappings to go with the potatoes (cheese, tuna, salad etc.) and try and wake her husband (who'd been at work since ridiculous-o'clock and, upon returning, immediately fell into a sleep deep enough to inspire a maleficent fairy spurned from a royal christening, or something).

The view west from the clifftop at Trimingham - That's Sidestrand in the distance. Indescribable and I looked at a couple of houses near here.

Mind your step!

Snippets from the garden

  While I'm waiting for that infernal washing machine to eat another of my socks, I thought I'd have a look at the photos I took of the garden at the weekend. I obviously wasn't paying attention to my pointing and clicking as they were a mess, and with terrible composition and lighting. Certainly not fit for human consumption.
  So, after an awful lot of cropping, I was left with these:

Beautiful red tulips. I'm not a fan of tulips but I do quite like these.

Primulas in the shady patch behind the lake pond.

"Quickly Brad, there are thousands of lives at stake..."

... On second thoughts, they're only Redshirts.

Who knew Richard Dreyfuss could be so callous?

[Original Close Encounters poster via]

Twisted Gulls and Groynes

  So. I've been whittling the rest of my photos from Thursday's beach walk down for a while, and the following are those that I'm vaguely satisfied with.
  As you can see, Camera loves a groyne or two (don't we all?) - even the bent ones!

This is the view east towards Sidestrand from the Overstrand beach by the Coast Road promenade...

... and the view back west, having walked a little way

A groyne with a wet end

Flotsam and Jet Sharks

  Well, perhaps not an actual jet-propelled shark, but it made you look, didn't it?!

A smallspotted catshark. Maybe?

  A surprisingly warm and sunny morning had me yearning for a beach walk to make up for the disappointly overcast one last weekend. In a moment of ibuprofen-fuelled charity*, I rang The Mother and asked if both she and The Father would like to come with me.

  They said "Yes".

  Bugger.

  As it happens, they only made it as far as the third groyne before they'd had enough, and went back for a cup of coffee at the Cliff Top Cafe, leaving me to soldier on alone.

  Yay!

Jets. Not Jet-sharks. Unless...

Not a Shag to be had

 Poor Dinahmow has been subjected to Goldfrapp and Redshirts, but all she wants is a shag on a groyne.

 It's not too much to ask, surely?

 Well, apparently it is. 

 I popped down to the seafront this morning to find only the barest glimpses of groynes and definitely no shags.

 Or cormorants.