I had intended to do some gardening today, but the West Wind is bitter (and, as I type this, it has just rained), so instead of getting cold and mucky outside, I have sorted out some photos from yesterday's turn around the grounds.
Above, the daffodils I planted on the embankment behind Hexenhäusli Device when we first moved in are in full force. And below, my shade garden behind the garage has been brightened by blooms:
There have been some changes since this time last year: I moved the pheasant berry/Himalayan honeysuckle (Lycesteria formosa) from its pot next to the table into the ground next to the square compost heap (you can see its tall, dark red stems at the back right of the photo above). In its place I put the chocolate vine (Akebia quinata) which is going great guns and competing with the Pyracantha (behind the pheasant berry). It's also flowering, as you can see on the right.
Mwah hah hah hah haaaaaa!!! It's my birthday and I can do whatever I like! Including publishing this self-indulgent Star Trek fan art post! Which I did warn you about in the last post. Well, I mentioned it, anyway...
Yes, when I'm not blogging-
So, most of the time, then.
You can talk! This is supposed to be YOUR blog. I'm only here to provide the necessary fingers & thumbs for all the typing and HTML jiggery-pokery.
Hmmph!
Anyway, when I'm not blogging in Witchface's stead, I can be found messing about with Star Trek related stuff, such as these monthly themed fan art challenges from the only other social media-type site I visit: Trek BBS.
The following are my efforts since August last year, so strap in!
August: Movies
"Get your drinks in and prepare your popcorn because we're headed to the cinema!
Which Star Trek movie era will inspire you: TOS, TNG, JJ? Or perhaps you'd like to imagine a movie for a series that never made it to the silver screen. And how about those new streaming movies on the horizon, can you predict what we might see in the Section 31 movie or what could follow after it?"
I'd intended to create another movie poster - Star Trek IV-B - like I did for February's challenge. Unfortunately, useable free time for such things was in short supply back then, so that plan was scuppered and all I managed were some sketches and a bit of MSPaint art of the Whale Probe from ST IV: The Voyage Home.
I'm not sure how to start this post, so I'm just going to dive right in with this lightly edited response to a very kind email from Mr Mago:
"There a few reasons for my blogging absence, but, sadly, bumping into Mr Adonis on the beach* is not one of them. Time (as in "lack of") and work are the main culprits I think, and the Winter darkness hasn't been conducive to making any particular effort either. Combined, these reasons have culminated in the loss of my blogging "mojo". I've sat down with Blogger open now and again, but can't muster up the enthusiasm to write anything - even posting images seems like a big effort. I've visited other blogs now and again - including yours, of course - in the hopes of getting the wind back in my sails, but I can't even think of anything to say in the comments. Plus, I've missed so much that catching up with everything seems like a chore - and it shouldn't be! (That's work's influence. Work has been relentless for the past year or so, and sitting in front of my PC doing something other than reading feels like work, so I end up aimlessly following links until I get fed up then go and watch something fun on telly to get over it all - such as Bluey, those Australian animated dogs from my previous post.)
"However, I have nearly two weeks off work from the middle of next week with no plans except for gardening & sorting out the allotment, so I'm hoping the extra time and the brighter days will help in getting that blogging mojo back! I do miss it and you and the rest of our little community - and I even have some Star Trek art I can post until something else catches my attention that's worth blogging about."
So, I sat down to finish this post which entailed opening up YouTube to get the code for a new song I like (see below), but that meant I had to listen to it all as well (and "Wicked Game" by Girls Aloud). Then I remembered that Ms Scarlet had emailed me with some questions of a highly personal nature that I'm not going to share here, so I opened up my emails to reply before I published this post, but clocked a notification from Wonky Words about the NEW POST Ms Scarlet had threatened to publish in her email so I had to read that (I didn't send the rook, by the way. I can manage a jackdaw and occasionally a crow, but rooks are out of my comfort zone). And then the washing machine beeped its shrill annoying beeps to let me know it had finished turning my bed linen inside out (how does it do that?!?) and that I had to empty it RIGHT THAT MOMENT! So, down the stairs I went to decant the pillowcases and duvet cover and the like from the washing machine to the tumble dryer - turning everything the right way around as I did so. But as I type this, I'm thinking I should have left it all inside out because the tumble dryer also turns everything inside out - if it doesn't twist it all up into a hot, tight, damp little ball first (why does it do that?!?).
Oh, and my coffee is going cold and is almost finished so I'm wondering if I should go and make another one or finish this post first? While I'm dithering, here's that new music I mentioned:
Bright Light Bright Light & Ultra Naté - Every Emotion
* There is a Mr Adonis at the pool, though: The handsome, surly, golden-brown fox of a lifeguard who sits in his lifeguard observation chair looking bored and/or slightly angry and, therefore, very sexy.** There hasn't been any bumping, though.
P.S. While I was searching for that description of Ryan-the-Foxy-Lifeguard, the tumble dryer insistently beeped at me, so I had to go down and untangle the hot, damp, tight little ball of bed linen and set it going again!
P.P.S. I didn't reply to Ms Scarlet's email! Must do that next.
