A Perfectly Cromulent Excuse

I know I haven't been around much lately.  I've been dealing with something...

Show yourself, whoever you are!

Secrets and Rocher: A Delilah Smythe Debacle

 Desperate for some good publicity after the "Marmalised Marmalades" BBC swearing scandal in 1988, diabolical deviant, Delilah Smythe, approached equally desperate (and weak-willed) Royal, Prince Edward, with a "fool-proof" idea: an It's A Royal Knockout rip-off substituting the mid-ranking royals with celebrity chefs.  She'd even roped in Jane Asher, the Swedish Chef and Martha Stewart as team leaders.

A Royal Rocher wrapper??

 However, at a royal charity dinner, the Queen, in no uncertain terms, put the kybosh on Edward's involvement, and without Edward, Delilah's idea was doomed.  As fate would have it, while on her way to pilfer some cutlery during the dinner, Delilah just happened to overhear something she shouldn't when she stooped to pick up a discarded Rocher wrapper near to a hushed conversation between Michele Ferrero, philanthropist and owner of Ferrero SpA, and Dame Christopher Biggins, Official Pantomime Dame of Great Britain and the Commonwealth realms.

Life on the Embankment (with Bonus Beach Scenes!)

In a "Where's Waldo?" type affair, can you spot the deer and three galliformes in this photo?

 We're revisiting the embankment behind Hexenhäusli Device as, since the last time it featured here, I managed to snap some of its visitors and passers through.
 Above and to the right, from 1st May, are embankment regulars: a muntjac deer, the big, bronze cock pheasant, and the pair of partridges (of the red-legged variety).

 From the 30th April (below) is a juvenile sparrowhawk that I just managed to snap as it took off from its perch.

Yikes!