Old Knobs and Groynes

 Bitey and I went for a lunchtime walk in the drizzle and found ourselves surrounded by knobs at what's left of the End-of-the-Line.  Bitey didn't seem fussed, but I was thrilled, let me tell you!  And I'm sure at least one of you will be, too.

Before we reached the End-of-the-Line, I tutted disapprovingly at Cliff's slovenly posture.

Hot Chocolate

 Very quickly, here's the latest in my series of Rutherford action figures - from Star Trek: Lower Decks "Parth Ferengi's Heart Place", I give you: 

 

Chocolate Romance Edition Rutherford

 

[The colour's a bit washed out due to the terrible lighting here (storm outside, and indoor lights are useless), so I might have to try this again on a nicer day.] 

 

EDIT 12/12/2024 : Here's the nicer day version ~

There's a Christmas robin at the end

 Don't mind me - Just popping in with a little Star Trek fan art catch up.  

 First up is the adorkable Sam Rutherford from Star Trek Lower Decks.  

 I did this pencil sketch back in September for The Trek BBS's fan art challenge, Alphanumeric Soup:

 

The Star Trek universe is littered with initialisms and acronyms for devices, technology and organisations: GNDN, UESPA, ODN, EPS, PADD, DS9, DTI, MACO. Take your favourite(s) and use them as inspiration for your piece of art. Alternatively, you could coin your own initialism or take one from the modern day and show us how, in the future, it might become the GOAT.

 

 I chose to depict Rutherford from the second season's first episode "Strange Energies" undergoing treatment for falsely diagnosed Synthetic Memory Degradation (SMD).  His friend and science officer Tendi didn't have Rutherford strip down to his undercrackers in the episode (he just had his top off), so I thought I'd correct that egregious error in this piece: SMD with a side order of PADD & LCARS.

GPE 2024 : The Finale

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GPE #11 : Something Old, Something New, Something Borrowed, Something Blue...

 

I D V

 

 No, I'm not getting married.

 

Fatsia japonica flowers from two weeks ago

 When I was trying to decide which of my plants to include in this year's Infomaniac Garden Photos Event, I knew I wanted to show some existing specimens that didn't make it into last year's event ("Something Old") along with my latest acquisitions ("Something New"), and the plants I'd rescued or been given by friends & family ("Something Borrowed").  I've tried not to feature anything that appeared in the previous two years - so no pineapple lilies (Eucomis comosa "Sparkling Burgundy"), no Fuchsia "Blacky", and no Green Gate (the latter two didn't do as well this year, anyway) - but you may spot them in the background of a few photos (and they've already been featured in the GPE reminders leading up to this year's Event).

 As for the "Something Blue" - I'm somewhat colourblind and they look pretty blue to me...

 

Something Old...

 

My potted Magnolia did very well this year, putting on loads of blooms.  Here's a particularly nice one from early April.

The Chocolate vine (Akebia quinata) did pretty well too, but I didn't take very many good photos of it - this one of the (relatively) large female and tiny male flowers (also from early April) was the best of the bunch.

GPE #10 : Savvy is the Idea Person/Supervisor

I will have lots of photos for IDV's Garden Competition* Exposition. It will always be a competition for me. (RIP LX) said dear

 

S A V V Y

 

The MITM is a very enthusiastic by default the gardener (because I'M the idea person/supervisor) and has been doing a splendid job! We'll have more pictures as our container garden grows! (OK, when  HE plants some more.)

 

IDV, I will be submitting all of these and more photos for this year's Gardening Contest**!! Be prepared!

 

However...

Due to emotional fallout from a most unfortunate event involving a lumpen, orange, loud-mouthed oaf, dear Savvy has not been in the right frame of mind to fully participate in this year's Infomaniac Garden Photos Event.  But, she did give me permission to use the photos she'd already posted on her own blog to construct this GPE post on her behalf.  Which was just as well, as I'd already bookmarked the relevant posts should Savvy have reverted to type and forgotten/ignored/got-lost-in-time/fallen-into-an-alternate-universe etc. and not been able to take part.

So, back to Savvy and the results of her ideas and supervision:

From the ROSE GARDEN here!!!

 

GPE #9 : Ms Nations' Bought Her Spider Plant A Mansion

This stop on the Infomaniac Garden Photos Event tour is a reblog of An Occult Apperatus (from Steve. Because 'Steve' is almost as nice a name as 'Paul' was.), as instructed by the blog author herself,

M S  N A T I O N S

 

I live in an apartment, and I don't have a yard. What we do have is a tiny little back patio, and what I've been doing is growing a few nasturtiums in pots out there every Summer. 

 

This is where we hang out and talk shit.

 

 

I never get tired of nasturtiums. You just cannot beat this intricate flower form - and the hummingbirds adore them!

GPE #8 : Maddie, the Mistress Borghese's successful gardening year

M A D D I E

The Mistress was very pleased as to another fairly successful gardening year.  Considering I still don't have much nous when it comes to gardening and when and where to plant things. 

 

GPE #7 : Mitzi can't live anywhere with 'bog' in its name

Dear Mr Device.  

Please forgive my tardiness in sending you my garden photographs, I've been driving down to the south coast every touch and turn looking at properties, hence my blogging absence.  The last house I viewed was in Bognor Regis...  BOGNOR!  It was a nice house but I can't live anywhere with 'bog' in it's name.  I'm away for 3 weeks so I might not be able to thank people for their gracious comments.

Hope all is well,

 

M I T Z I

 

Birds eye view from the car camera.  Look how clean my drive is compared with theirs next door.

[Can Mitzi's car fly?? - IDV]

 

 

The other side of the fence lives a Chinese lady.  She likes to peer through the knots in the wood at us, reminiscent of that horror film The Ring.

GPE #6 : UptonKing Keeps It Up

Had quite a bit of help with these.  The house faces my mother's house, so...  Yes.  Ugh.  Have to keep it up (hee hee). 

 

U P T O N K I N G   2

- The ReTURN -

 

 Roses in the backyard...

GPE #5 : Dividing Uptonking

U P T O N K I N G

 

I've been dividing my time between the north house and south.  The north house, I have a good deal of help keeping it up and the soil is good.  The south house is just a frightful mess; poor soil, and I'm on my own.

 

South house first... 

Bush...  Is in the front.  I took that pic in April.  It blooms for 2 days and then nothing.  The leaves turn from black to green to red to black.  Oddest thing.  I feel sorry for it, as it is under a giant pine tree and another smaller tree and crunched up against the deck now.

[This looks like a slightly less glam version of Ms Scarlet's Big Pink Bush™ - IDV]

 

The front is a bunch of garbage lilies which keep sliding down the hill in the front.  This year, milkweed sprung up and as I'm all for helping butterflies and the like, I decided to keep them.  The backyard too...

GPE #4 : Ms Scarlet's Opportunity to Show It Off

M S   S C A R L E T

I don't have much to offer up this year - this year being one of the most miserable ever, BUT, my big pink bush was glorious and I don't want to miss any opportunity to show it off. 

[Ms Scarlet's infamous Big Pink Bush™ in situ - IDV]

GPE #3 : Melanie's Native Beauties

I'm afraid I've been tearing up the pavement between my home in Woodinville, WA and my parents' homes in the Spokane, WA area. If I win any award it should be for my knack for avoiding the worst of all the road construction this year! I suppose the hours of saved time was reward enough. I can't remember the last time they did such an extensive year of road construction, not since the 1980's at least!

 

So, since my garden this year was rather sad, and indeed, some of the beauties that graced the Garden D'Lite in the past are sadly no more, lets just give you a gander of what the other end of this big ass state has to offer. If you were to drive from the ocean to the very edge of the Washington State line bordering Idaho it would take you 6hr 19min with no traffic delays at the freeway speed limit of 70mph (112.65Kmh). Like most Washingtonians I go 5-10mph above that.

 

 Without further ado..... 

 

the visited greenery of

P R O X I M A B L U E

 

Dad's house overlooks a small valley surrounded by wheat and sunflower fields. Unfortunately, the sunflower fields were past their prime.

 

The view of the hill behind me, a well-maintained Ponderosa Pine forest. Forest fires are the biggest threat to living here.

 

 

Three Native Beauties - 

GPE #2 : Jon's & Madam Arcati's Glorious Spells

Despite the fact that it has been a pretty mild (and on occasions glorious) spell of weather lately, the Spring and summer of 2024 in London were mainly pretty grotty. As I recall, we had a couple of days of sun in June, and in late July/early August we had a proper blast of heat, but then it once again went to shit until October.

 

Regardless, the extensive gardens here at 

 

D O L O R E S

D E L A R G O

 T O W E R S

 

                                                                               still managed to provide us with some stunners – the ferns [every one of which has self-seeded, so we have dozens of new plants], lilies, clematis, begonias, hemerocallis. thalictrums, daffs, tulips, brodiaea, taro, aquilegia, lobelias, pelargoniums, hesperis, verbena, agastache, tradescantia, brunnera, veronica, geraniums and roses all did us proud (and of course the salvias, impatiens and fuchsias, which continue to do so); but the phloxes (all varieties), hydrangea, campanula, dianthus and dahlias all struggled compared to previous years. It was probably just too gloomy for them – what with the preponderance of grey days, and the encroaching canopy of bastard weed trees that blocks more and more light off our garden every year.

 

So, on with the show… In a melodrama akin to “Sophie’s Choice”, I have slimmed down the myriad photos we’ve accumulated since the beginning of the year to one “Star of the Month” each month to date. And here they are:

 

Jan 2024 – Ipheion uniflorum

 

 

Feb 2024 – Primula

GPE #1 : Dinah's Sex in the Front Yard

How many can you handle? asked

 

D I N A H M O W

 

I'll start with some of the Quisqualis which is an absolute cracker this year!

 

 

Will look for more!

The Infomaniac Garden Photos Event 2024

 

Yes, the Infomaniac Garden Photos event is finally upon us - Welcome to the show everyone!

 As I type this, there are photos from nine Bloggerati (including mine) waiting in the wings to be published throughout November.  However, I am fully expecting at least one tardy entry - even if I have to scrape their blog for the photos myselves!

 Oh, and due to an unavoidable scheduling clash, there won't be a showing from the Infomaniac duck this year - The Very Mistress sends her apologies.  Instead, may I present the Hexenhäusli Device dove and jackdaw:

 Beaky is livid that he didn't get a starring role, but it's his own fault for being such a demanding little diva!

☙❧

 Now, on to the winners (i.e. the triffids that managed to devour whole persons or limbs) and losers (those that only inflicted minor lacerations or stings) of Terrifying Triffidery.  Just in case anyone hasn't yet seen the previous Terrifying Triffidery post and wants to guess who sent in what, I've redacted the names in the captions below but they can be revealed by selecting/highlighting the blank part.

GPE 2024 : Terrifying Triffidery

 

 You made it.  Splendid.  Welcome to the fifth annual Terrifying Triffidery show!

The hors d'oeuvres are here!

Hang on... I didn't think we were serving our Bloggerati guests with food?

We're not.  We're serving them as food!  The triffids are getting peckish and without Gavin and his monstrous arms we have no way to hold them back.

We are NOT feeding our guests to a load of house plants with ideas above their station!  And where is Gavin?  I haven't seen him since last year.

I think Maddie made off with him.  Or was it Hound?

Christ!

 

 Ah.  Don't pay the SubCs any attention.  And don't open that door!  Just follow me to the orangery where one of the staff will be serving Champagne or cocktails or something before we begin the tour.

What's Witchface talking about?

We don't have any staff.

Unless you count the woodsman?

I hope he's changing out of that horrid flannel shirt...

 Right.  Let's have some music to accompany our tour.  Oh, and remember to keep all your appendages on this side of the velvet rope - unless you don't need them, that is.  And some of the triffids' tendrils and tentacles are quite long, so be on your guard.

Garden Photos Event update

 Well, the deadline for sending in your garden/graveyard/windowsill/duck photos has come and gone, and I'm surprised to have received entries from as many as six Bloggerati (thank you all).  I am not surprised that dear Savvy's entry wasn't amongst them...

 

 Anyway, you still have time to get your photos in if you want to take part (into the first week of November, if absolutely required), but please note: if you have a Terrifying Triffidery photo, you MUST email it to me by midday tomorrow UK time.  That's anywhere between 5am on the US west coast to 8am on the East, I think?  And 1pm in Franconia...  (The expected Australian entry is in, but if there are any more you'll have to work the time out yourselves as your country spans too many time zones for me to be arsed to list).

 

 Everyone is welcome - even newcomers, friends-of-friends, lurkers, Lady Goldberg-DeWoofs etc. - so if you'd like to take part, please do!  This blog's gmail address can be found in my profile up there on the Sideboard to the right.  If you have any questions, please ask away in the comments.

 

Hope to see you and your  I N F O M A N I A C  Garden Photos Event snaps soon!

Incoming! GPE at Two O'Clock!

Or is it ten past twelve?

Who knows?  I think Witchface must've been having a moment when this title came to mind.

 Oh, all right.  Forget the time/direction, then.

the House of

I N F O M A N I A C

Garden Photos Event

 

is almost upon us!

 When you say "almost", what exactly do yo-

 Christ!  Shut up!  I'm doing this and I don't need any of your 'help'.

 Well, I just don't want anyone to start panicking because of a misunderstood deadline.

 They should be panicking.  There're less than two weeks to go!

It sounds like you're the one who's panicking...

A few deep breaths later...

 Right.  As I was saying: it'll soon be Garden Photos Event time so I hope you've all been taking photos of how your expansive grounds | bijou courtyard | overgrown wilderness | rampant houseplants | tasteful city garden | impenetrable jungle | potted paradise | graveyard that you frequent [delete as applicable] has grown over the year, as I'll want your carefully curated selections - along with terse or verbose captions - in my in-box by Monday 28th October, please.* 

 And remember also to include a photo or two of a particularly spooky plant in your collection - or, failing that, a rather more mundane plant which has been snapped at an odd angle/close-up/while drunk - for the GPE preview Terrifying Triffidery on the 31st.

 This blog's gmail address for sending your photos & captions into is in my profile on top of the Sideboard over there.  Or, if you have the Host's personal hotmail address, you can 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!

 If you have any questions, thoughts, or ideas about the GPE, please sound off in the comments.

  

☙❧

* But, because I am a soft touch, as long as some of you send in your photos by then, the rest of you lallygaggers can have a bit longer.  But not much longer, mind!  I have things to do, and I don't want to be curating photos all the way through November.

(I'll leave it up to you to decide who's going to be in my good books by getting their photos in on time, and who will earn under-my-breath mutterings and a spectacular eye roll come 29th October.  Or later.  Almost certainly later.)

 

See you and your triffids (good or evil) next week!

"Just spun in a web made of moonlight"

  Another clear sky yesterday which means more photos!  And a timely release from Sophie Ellis-Bextor with "Freedom of the Night" as an accompaniment.  Yes, I know: I spoil you.

First glimpse of the Moon emerging from the hazy clouds over the North Sea horizon

Cloudbusting

 Yesterday was the first clear-skyed day for some time, and the last chance to see C/2023 A3, otherwise known as Comet Tsuchinshan-ATLAS or Comet A3, for 80,000 years.  An occasion such as that warranted leaving work early and hightailing it home in order to witness said comet, so I did.

 Having miscalculated the amount of time required to get home, take Bitey out for his evening "movement", and then wander up Madam's Lane with Camera and Tripod, I set out with all three - getting hotter and hotter as I neared Madam's Lane (it had been a VERY warm day for the time of year).

 Once I'd trudged up the not-very-steep-or-very-high Toll's Hill to the Nightship stop (very near boiling point), I gazed around the points of the compass, marvelling at the beautifully clear skies above and to the North, the East, and the South.  And there to the West was my target - obscured behind the only clouds in the sky.  Drat!

The view west from the Nightship stop looking out over Toll's Hill and not seeing any comets.

Where was Kate Bush when I needed her?

 Not wanting to have a completely wasted trip, I thought I'd take some photos of the stars coming out in the west.  But that was scuppered by the Moon which was massive and brilliant, totally obscuring the stars in Camera's sights.  Bah!

 Still, I did inadvertantly get a shot of the light from Cromer lighthouse:

An Argument of Witches

 Well, it has been 19 years since that fateful day 19 years ago...

Did Witchface mean to say "19" twice?

Who cares.  Just let them get on with it otherwise we'll be here all night.

 As I recall, our very first post did not have a title - that came later.  As did the eye.  No, not the one on the Sideboard (although that one did come later, too), the tiny, blue, glowy thing in the 19 year old post.

The Eye

 As blog beginnings go, it could have been a little more spectacular, I suppose.  Having said that, I'm glad it didn't happen like this.  At least, I don't think that's how it started?

 Didn't it?

 I don't know, I was asking you!

 My mind has blocked out the traumatic incident that led to you and your bloody SubC taking up residence in it, thankfully.

Hey!

 Yes: Hey!  And, traumatic?!  I hardly think it was traumatic.  In fact, I'm sure it was wonderful!  You should be grateful I arrived to instill a bit of pizzazz into your life because you certainly weren't doing anything with it.

 "Pizzazz"?  Christ.  No one says pizzazz anymore.

 Oh, pish posh.  Anyway, it's a good job I did turn up - just think how lucky you are that this isn't going to happen now.

 That happened because of you, you silly witch!

Yeah!

 You're the one that cuts the toenails, so it's clearly your fault. 

 If you hadn't been in me then you wouldn't have been summonsed to the future and my great-to-the-power-of-six (or is it seven?) nephew wouldn't have had to travel back in time to stop it from happening!

*Ahem*  We're getting somewhat off topic, here.

What exactly is the topic again?

Who knows?  Some sort of half-arsed anniversary malarkey, I guess.

Well, it's certainly half-arsed.  The time would have been better spent

visiting everyone else's blogs and replying to previous posts' comments.

 That will have to wait until tomorrow as we're in the middle of an argument now!

EDIT: 16:55 10/10/2024

Jon has already provided the link to a similarly themed choon in the comments, so here's a little something else for this post's soundtrack - Donovan and "Season of the Witch"

An Oddity or Two

 You can thank Madam Arcati for this post, for if she had not seen fit to furnish us with her August flowering foxglove, you would be hastily scrolling through/clicking past a Star Trek fan art post featuring a barely clothed Rutherford.*

 Except for the first photo, here are some late blooming floral oddities from the gardens of Hexenhäusli Device this morning:

From yesterday's Bitey walk: A foxglove in the wild.

Sorry.  Please ignore Bitey's fluffy bottom, and focus your attention on the rather lacklustre foxglove.

The Freakin' Green Elf Shorts are on the move!

Yes, there is an update about the Freakin' Green Elf Shorts: 

 

Rimpy Rimpington, Official Historian and Commissioner of Clones, has put up a post with the news.  

 

He's also made an addition to The Continuing History of the Freakin' Green Elf Shorts - which includes news of dear Princess!

 

If you're reading, Prinny, we hope you're well and that you may find time to pop in now and again.

Tails and Orbs and Fairy Rings

 Just dropping off some photos from a couple of Bitey walks (as vaguely requested by The Very Mistress, here): the sun setting over the trees set are from Saturday, and the fairy ring and sea set are from lunch time today.  The musical accompaniment - "Locked Out of Heaven" by Bruno Mars -  is only featuring because it popped into my mind while swimming this morning.

Orb!  Or Camera artefact...