"Go Up Against Fanny Unprepared and She'll Eat You Alive!"*

 This is not the continuation of When Worlds Collide and a Pair of Striped Tights - I might pop that up at the weekend.  At some point.  Maybe?

 No, this is the third quarter's worth of stuff I've read, watched and listened to.

 Strap in!

Read

∘  Some more of Little, Big, by John Crowley - No, I still haven't finished it.  I'm convinced pages, nay, entire chapters get added when I'm not looking!

∘  A Prayer for the Crown-Shy (A Monk and Robot Book, vol. 2), by Becky Chambers - Just lovely and warm and thoughtful and wonderful.  A tonic for these trying times.

∘  The Guncle, by Steven Rowley - as recommended by The Very Mistress.

It did cheer me up, and it has replaced Bridget Jones' Diary

Re-Read

∘  Beyond Uhura, Nichelle Nichols - The great lady's 1994 biography (more from her later).

Watched

∘  Ghosts, S4 (BBC iPlayer) - Best thing on TV (even better than Star Trek)!  This clever, funny, heartwarming - and also quite sad in some places - sitcom about a young couple sharing a house with a load of bickering, but mostly well-meaning ghosts, has cemented itself in my heart since I discovered it at the start of this year.

Over the Cusp and Addressing the List

Continued from A Realm Beyond Comprehension and a Shortish List...

 

 "Oof!"  I struggled to extricate myself from the surprisingly prickly rose bush I'd fallen into following a - some would say unnecessarily dramatic - flinch due to a passing sparrow (which had since alighted on the fence and was looking at me with an expression of curiosity).  "Oh, it wasn't Beaky after all.  Where has that dratted bird got to?!"

 

 It had been unnervingly quiet here recently.  Beaky, my terrifying - and extremely annoying - blackbird familiar, had seemingly vanished from the expansive grounds of Hexenhäusli Device, but my survival instinct had yet to dial itself down.  Brushing the muck and bits of rose bush off myself, and sucking on a couple of thorn-inflicted scratches, I headed across the paysho and into my gingerbread mansion to see if the postman postwoman had been.

 "Oh, it's just another cease-and-desist letter from RHS Rosemoor.  They've obviously got the wrong person as I've never even been to-  Hang on..."  But this one contained something that the other three hadn't: a still image seemingly taken from a security camera video - and it didn't paint a pretty picture.  Lurking amongst the azaleas was a witch.  Or, more accurately, someone dressed as a witch.  And rather craply, too, with a parsnip for a nose, and an old measuring funnel for a hat.  "That's not me!  My nose doesn't look like that!"

Well, depending on the light...

Oh, shut up!

 I squinted at the photo for some time until, eventually, I relented with a 'hummmph!' and grudgingly went to fetch my reading glasses in order to make out the details.

 "Aha!" (No, not that one) "Got you!"

Enough Moping - Time For Gardening!

While I dried off, this stone spiral 'happened'

 After a week of moping and mourning, this weekend's wet and blustery turn was rather a let down.  So, instead of dwelling on that and before we get to the gardening bit, here are some photos taken last weekend when I ventured down to the beach for a swim.

My sea swim spot

: : :

 

Nine For A Kiss - AKA: Arse & Artichokes

 I had quite a few titles in mind for this post, and couldn't decide between the magpie rhyme reference and the title of Gordy Ramsbottom's Delilah-baiting cook book (thank you, Ms Scarlet) so I went with both.  The runner up was "Smile You Twat" from, well, scroll down and you'll see.

This Mischief of Magpies delights in clattering over the roof of Hexenhäusli Device and its neighbours, making an incessant racket as these photos from 29th August illustrate!

 

A litle later that morning I went up to the allotment to see what needed picking: