Hey Hi Hello

Alison Goldfrapp - Hey Hi Hello

 

 

 I think it's about time for a Garden Photos Event reminder, don't you, Very Mistress?

 

The House of

 

I N F O M A N I A C

 

Garden Photos Event 2025

 

 As with previous years, this year's GPE will be held throughout November, with the event kicking off on Hallowe'en with the now traditional Terrifying Triffidery exhibit.  This leaves you little more than three months to take photos of your green spaces (if you haven't already made a start) and curate them before emailing them to me by the end of October.

 

 Infomaniac Bitches should already know the score, but for the muddled, forgetful, and easily startled/distracted - not to mention anyone new who'd like to take part - there's a potted history of the Infomaniac GPE on its own dedicated page at the top of this blog so you can see what you'll be letting yourself in for/getting involved in.  And despite some comments to the contrary, the GPE is NOT a contest, so your gardening efforts (or lack thereof) will not be judged and there will be no winner.  This means you, Savvy!

 There's no particular theme this year - we'll accept photos of pretty much anything garden-related, whether selected prize specimens that would make Monty Don weep or breathtaking vistas of your expansive grounds, to the potted dwellers on your balcony/windowsill, to a resilient plant that you haven't managed to kill yet. 

 And if you have a straggly and unruly bush that you suspect may be a weed but fascinated you enough to wonder what it is, the Official Plant Spotter of Hexenhäusli Device and its Extensive Witchdom, nay, All of Blogdom Itself, Jon, should be on hand to identify your unmentionables. 

 

 Right.  That's that bit done.  Here are a few bits & bobs from my garden this month to goad you into action:

 

View over the Circular Paysho from behind a hebe.

Art vs Artist

 By popular demand-

 What? Since when was two people showing a polite, vague interest "popular demand"?

 Since now.  Go and interfere somewhere else.  This is my post!

 I think you'll find it is our post.  After all, whose name is on all those header images further down, hmm?

 Oh, hush.  Why don't you go and see to that ever widening Cusp interface before someone - or someones - falls in!

 Fine.  I'll leave you to your little doodles, then!

 

 Right.  Now that Witchface has gone, here is the Art vs Artist thingy I mentioned in the last post. It's something I saw on BlueSky so I thought I'd have a go, too.

 The majority that I saw are 3x3 square grids with a photo of the artist in the centre square surrounded by eight pieces of their work, so I followed the same pattern (it's all Star Trek stuff as I rarely produce any other kind):

 

Top left to right:

Four Photos: The Drier Side of Britain

 

Something for Ms Scarlet to consider...

(Proof of North Norfolk's dryness compared to Devon's - well, Cornwall, as Bude is the closest weather station to Ms Scarlet's neck of the woods) 

 

 

Stinking iris or roast-beef plant (Iris foetidissima)

 (A native to Britain, but "exotic" in New Zealand - the tables are turning, Dinah!)

 

 

A practise pose from 2021's Hallowe'en Star Trek Art Challenge

(I've included this as a reminder for me to concoct an Art vs Artist collage)

 

 

An unused photo from 2023's Salt Rooks

 You know, to show how dry it is here and all that...
 

Not the Hexenhäusli Device Gardens IV*

Agave montana flower head

 In the comments of my latest Four Photos post, I said to Jon that I might put up some photos from a recent visit to The Old Vicarage Gardens in East Ruston - and here they are!

 

* III can be found here. 

 

 We shall try to identify the various plants featured here, but The Host couldn't be bothered to stoop down and find the labels and photograph them while at the gardens, despite my nagging urging, so The Official Plant Spotter of Hexenhäusli Device and its Extensive Witchdom - AKA Jon - may have his work cut out.

 I was with a friend!  I had gossiping and laughing to do, not to mention trying to keep Witchface under wraps, so grubbing around in the undergrowth was low on my list of priorities! 

 

 Anyway, before we set off, Alison Goldfrapp has kindly offered to provide a musical accompaniment with her latest release, Sound & Light: 

I think these may be the flowers of Dianella caerulea?

(The plants I grew from seeds liberated from TOVG back in 2019 haven't flowered yet.  They're not doing very well where they are - and get trampled quite a lot by Bitey - so I will probably have to move them.)

 

 

Some sort of cow parsley/angelica thingy.

Tunes on Tuesday - on Thursday!

 Its been a month since my last Tunes on Tuesday, so here's a collection of some new, borrowed, and old music that I've been listening to since then.

 

 Oh, and the reason this is on Thursday is because I forgot to set up the autopublishing thingy at the weekend when I put this post together.  Drat! 

  

Reverberotic - Alison Goldfrapp

Nothing on Me - White Lies

 A couple of new ones from Ms Goldfrapp and my favourite glum, beardy miseryguts and his band.

Hawthorn / notHawthorn

 There seems to be a bit of a hawthorn trend going on at the mo. 

 After I featured some in a 4 Photos post last week, Maddie piped up wondering if her rebounded bush (that had been seen to by her "lawn guy" somewhat unsurprisingly) might be a hawthorn.  Ms Scarlet coupled hers with cow parsley for a spring wedding look (no pictures as yet, but here are some from last year sans hawthorn blossom).  Then, over at Maddie's, Jon posited that the hawthorn was a "cockspur hawthorn" (cock!!!), whereas I think it might be a pyracantha (both can surprise you with a big prick, though).

 

 Anyway, just to confuse things even more, I have another hawthorn to share - and this one is rather more moist:

 

Water hawthorn (Aponogeton distachyos) growing in the bath up at my allotment. 

 

. : .

The Foulness of Catching Crabs

 I remembered to take Camera with me on this morning's Bitey walk into the village.  I did this with one thing in mind: to take a photo of the "visitors' guide to Overstrand, past and present" map because it answers some questions that dear Mago asked last month.  I have still to look through the history books downstairs for more info, but I've made a start at least.

 Before we get to the map, here are some photos of the North Sea:

The Year with a Convenient Birthday at the End

 I'm sure it won't come as any surprise when I tell you that I've been somewhat slack with regards to blogging this year - both posting here, and reading all of yours.  And the Host hasn't been much better, either.

 Hey!

 Well, isn't it true?

 Yes.  I suppose so.  Except for June and November.

 Anyway, June and November aside, we've pretty much given up on our annual "Year of..." extravaganza, and instead focused on one very important award that always features towards the end of said extravaganza.  And that award is, the Most Inconvenient Birthday Award. 

 Only this year, it's the Most Convenient as it's saved us from exploding with frustration and exhaustion in an attempt to pack two or three days worth of work into just a couple of hours!

 And so, we'd like to present this golden, hazelnutty, chocolatey award to, none other than Savvy!

 

✮ ✮ ✮

GPE 2024 : The Finale

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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 #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.