"Did Someone Say ----?"* : The Sequel!**

The aftermath of an orgy in the pond Lake.  Disgraceful!

 

 

* Answers in the comments, please.

** To this post from a year ago.

 

 Hello!  Here I am!  I don't have much to say, so I will just bombard you with gardening-related photos (mostly) which may also serve as a prompt to start photographing your own gardens and/or green patches for the 16th annual Lady Garden Presentation

 

I N F O M A N I A C

Garden Photos Event

later in the year.

 

 But first some music to accompany your scrolling, from the Project Hail Mary soundtrack, Daniel Pemberton's "Amaze Amaze Amaze (Life on Erid)": 

(I loved my birthday viewing of this film - and the soundtrack - so much that I went to see it again on Tuesday afternoon!  The similar, but not quite as euphoric "Amaze Amaze Amaze (Fist My Bump)" almost made the cut here.)

 

MARCH

The 15th to be precise...

 

The Echiums (pininana, I believe - AKA Giant Viper's Bugloss) made it through the winter.  Phew!

Wot I Did On My Birthday, by IDV (aged 44 & fourteen halfs*)

 Well, yes, I did go for a walk as the photos above attest, but the evening before, I actually went out.  With actual people (four friends).  To a bar (for cocktails)!  Yes, I know.

 

 Anyway, we went to Shoreline in Cromer because I didn't fancy spending all night standing in a noisy, packed pub getting hot and bothered (and not in a good way) and not hearing what anyone was saying.  I had three cocktails - a Cromer colada (basically a piña colada with apricot rum or schnapps or something), a Garden sour (a Spring special made with rhubarb gin, lemon juice and syrup), and an Ameretto sour - and didn't have to open my purse once because my lovely, generous friends bought them!

 Shoreline doesn't seem to have a website but they are on IG and FB (I'm not linking to them as I don't approve of the whole Meta thing, but if you're curious you can find them under shorelinecromer).

 

I neglected to take photos of the place or the cocktails, so I nabbed these from the web.  It was not raining or wet when we went.

  Right.  That's Saturday night out of the way.  Here are the rest of the photos from Sunday morning's birthday walk with Bitey. 

"Did Someone Say ----?"*

I caught these two doing it in the pond Lake.  Disgraceful!

 

 

* Answers in the comments, please.

 

 Hello!  Here I am!  I don't have much to say, so I will just bombard you with gardening-related photos (mostly) which may also serve as a prompt to start photographing your own gardens and/or green patches for the 15th annual Lady Garden Presentation

 

I N F O M A N I A C

Garden Photos Event

later in the year.

 

 But first some music to accompany your scrolling, the always delightful Dame Sophie Ellis-Bextor with "Relentless Love": 

 

MARCH

The 30th to be precise...

 

I finally got around to shingling the other side of the walkway from the Grand Paysho to the South Lawn (after I'd moved the buddleia back a bit).  As well as that pink cordyline, I popped in some irises, echiums, crocosmias, alliums (which had all been hanging around in pots for the past year or so), and a peony (which I moved from my shade garden the Gardener's Retreat).

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!!!

 

The Year of Looking Glam Even Without Nail Varnish

 As you may have noticed, we haven't been around much this year.  Certainly not as much as I'd've liked, and not even as much as in last year's Lazy Baggagery!  So that means that our grasp on the year's happenings and your reportings thereof is weak at best.  Sorry.

 However, there was certainly enough memorable stuff (and things I'd thought to make a note of when they happened) to create this end-of-year extravaganza!

 Extravaganza?  That's pushing it, don't you think?

 Nah.  A sprinkle of glitter (thanks to Jon) will cover the cracks and gaping holes in this rather haphazard (as always) round up and turn it into the Event of the season!

 If you say so...  Shall we get on with it, then?

 Yes. Oh, hang on!  I've got to add a bit at the end about the return of the "Did I Win Yet?" Award/Quiz/Competition/Event/Festival thingy!

 Well, you'd better hurry because I'm launching this thing now.  Be ready with your Champagne flutes all you glamorous Blogorati!

 

 Oops!  Wrong signage.  Try this one:

 Strap in.  Here we go!

January

Quote : "My smut well has almost dried up." ~ What a way to start the year: The Very Mistress answering a question nobody asked.

Event : The 6th January was National Cuddle Up Day, apparently.  Although I'd want to cuddle up to those freckles EVERY day!  Adorable. 

 

 Thank you for bringing this auspicious occasion to our attention, Mr Tonking.

 

 

Art : Nouveau, of course.  I love the fantastical, soft intricacy of Art Nouveau, and don't indulge myself in it as often as I should.  Fortunately, Maddie popped up with a themed Mood Board this month which hit the spot.

 

Hot Totty : When it's cold outside, guests at the House of Borghese are offered furs with something hot inside. 

The Year of Ferrero Rochering Dangerously

 Good afternoon, and welcome to the 2020 Coven Awards!  We hope you've all been to the loo and got yourself a drink and some snacks, as this does go on a bit.

 I'll say.  I've worn my fingers down to mere nubbins with all the keyboard clacking I've had to do to prepare all this!

 Oh, stop complaining.  You love it really.

 Well, it does keep me from getting bored, I suppose.

Let's hope the same can be said for the poor Blogorati that have to wade through this

miasma of muddled memories and self indulgent claptrap!

 I say!

 Shall we get on with it before this devolves into unrecoverable unpleasantness, hmm?

 Hmmph! As long as you can keep your SubC under control.

 Fine.  Carry on.

 Right.  Here we go: Well, this hasn't been the best year, has it?  However, we're not going to dwell upon the bad as amongst all the toothache, shingles, and Mondays, there were fuchsias, Freakin' Green Elf Shorts (sort of), and Ferrero Rocher!

 

Despite appearances (you know, if you squint a lot and have had a gin or twelve...)

this is not Ms Scarlet, Intergalactic Global Ambassador for Ferrero Rocher.

This is, in fact, a decoy.  Ms Scarlet is cunningly disguised as the youthful,

rather vertically challenged Ambassador's handmaiden, second from right.

(One of the other two at the back might be Charmaine...)

Of Baubles and Blog Parties

 As I said to Mistress Maddie on Monday:

I don't have a tree (haven't in years), but I love all your baubles and such.  And you know what?  You have inspired me.  So much so that tomorrow I'm going to the garden centre next door to buy some of the baubles that I've coveted for the last two or three years.

I'm going to find a nice bowl or somesuch and display them with the pine cones that I collected last month.

 Well, I got some, and here is my first effort at displaying them.  This is The Mother's dresser (and the Christmas cake that she made), now complete with be-pineconed & baubled cake stands.

 The pine cones have been in the house for a week or so now, and only a couple of them have opened up.  I'm hoping that now they're subjected to the intense furnace-like temperatures The Father keeps the house, they'll open before the winter solstice.

Did Someone Say...

...

Thursday Swim: Calligraphy & Cake

 Before we get to the calligraphy and cake - I can tell that you're all just a quiver with anticipation! - I have some photos from the weekend to dump here offload graciously share.
 Sunday saw a lunchtime, post-rain wander up Tower Lane, across the field and down the road to the skewed railway bridge, across to Madams Lane, then back home.  Along the way, various things caught my attention, including these closed bindweed flowers on the right which look like they're holding hands.
 There were also, baby toads (some of which may have been trampled underfoot - oops!), that mossy post again, a dead tree that Beaky guards for some reason I've yet to fathom, butterflies, and - once home - a bloody massive bumblebee!

Ms Scarlet with the Trolley on the Mezzanine

 "EXCUSE ME????"  Ms Scarlet was aghast.  "Fight over the starring role???  Are you insane???  I am a natural leading lady.... See how the light follows me wherever I glide... See how the camera loves my glowing complexion.  Fight over the leading role?!  Oh, you are awful, Mr Devine."
 "Look, there are two starring roles, and you've already nabbed one of them" I sighed, gesturing at Ms Scarlet in her wheelchair.  "I was only suggesting that Jon and The Very Mistress might audition to see which of them might be more suitable for the other role."

 "To be a star is to own the world and all the people in it.  After a taste of stardom, everything else is poverty" Jon declared with his nose in the air as he attempted to gaze out of an age-clouded, corrugated plastic skylight.  "Besides, I think 'Whatever Happened to Baby Jon?' has a nice ring to it."

 "'Whatever happened to Baby Jon?'!?"  The Very Mistress nearly choked.
 "Yes.  Baby Jon.  What?  You think 'Whatever Happened to Baby MJ?' is more realistic?  No one will believe you were ever that young."
 "Well, what about this then??" and The Very Mistress pulled out a copy of her unauthorised and unofficial biography and waved a picture of herself from her youth at him.
 "Perhaps we should take a break, hmm?" I said glancing over to the little kitchenette tucked away at the back of the mezzanine.  We were rehearsing the dreadfully delayed Christmas panto - now repurposed as Ms Scarlet's Birthday Panto - in the tight space of the upper level of the Mogwash scout hut (which was currently doubling as the village hall due to there not being one on the map).  The main space below was in use by a member of the Littlehampton Confectionary Display Team who had booked it following the destruction of their previous venue near Southend pier by a tornado of trampolines.  "I think we could all do with a nice cup of tea and a fig roll before we go any further?"

Did I Win Yet? Grand Quiz Results

 It's the moment you've all been waiting for! Well, the moment that a handful of you might have been idly speculating about...
 Yes, for the nearly five* of you who asked "Did I win yet?" it's time to reveal who actually did win the Dinahmow-sponsored Did I Win Yet? Grand Quiz held in honour of "A Friend", LẌ.

 First, let's have a look at the questions, and the answers as provided by the select Blogorati who could be bothered to enter:

1. We all know that LẌ was Chief Pillow Fluffer for The Very Mistress over at Infomaniac, but what other official service did he provide?

• Personal IT Consultant to The Mistress. (Oooh, this quiz is easy)
• IT services
• Mr von LAX is the Official I.T. Specialist of The Mistress
• LX served as the Mistress's body double in her ill-advised attempt at geriatric porn

The official service, of course, is:  Personal IT Consultant to The Mistress, although I will accept variations on that theme - i.e. those other two answers.  
I don't think LẌ's body-double services were ever "official"...

Have You Won Yet?

 For those of you who have not yet had time - and/or maybe not the inclination, either - to wade through the end-of-year Coven Awards (Ancient Groyne edition), may we present a reminder of the penultimate "The Did I Win Yet?" Award Which Is Masquerading As A Quiz!
 This award was proposed and sponsored by Dinahmow [and heartily seconded by Ms Scarlet and thirded by The Very Mistress] in honour of our friend of the ïmpössïblë ümläüt, LẌ.  However, due to Ms Scarlet's overexcitement for what was then a non-existent quiz, I reimagined the "Did I Win Yet?" Award into a quiz in order to kill two birds with one stone.  This Grand Quiz has taken the form of questions related to the aforementioned LẌ and the content of this end-of-year Ancient Groyne Extravaganza, so I hope you've been paying attention.

 Before you begin, please note: Aside from the LẌ questions (1 to 3, & 13), and number 5's bonus question, ALL REMAINING ANSWERS CAN BE FOUND IN THE YEAR OF THE ANCIENT GROYNE COVEN AWARDS POST WITHOUT HAVING TO CLICK ON ANY OF ITS LINKS* OR WADE THROUGH THE ENTIRETY OF MY POSTS FROM 2019.

1. We all know that LẌ was Chief Pillow Fluffer for The Very Mistress over at Infomaniac, but what other official service did he provide?
2. What is the title of LẌ's unofficial and unauthorised biography which featured in this very blog earlier in the year?
3. Who got LẌ to ask all those awkward questions (and did all his ageing for him since taking on his birthdays)?
4. Which comic strip couple were the inspiration (and basis) for my Not The Art of Star Trek entry, Disco 78?
5. Which two Blogorati appeared first in our adventure over the Cusp this year?  And for a bonus point, what method of transport did they transmogrify the TARDIS-a-like HVMS Infomaniac into?
6. Which member of the Blogorati introduced me/us to 2Cellos?
7. Who was Aljaž Skorjanec's dance partner on this year's Strictly Come Dancing, and which side of him should she be on?
8. Where did "Canable Man" feature?  (And how should it be spelled?)
9. Which month featured a "load of seamen" clogging up the rigging?
10. What does The Very Mistress claim is NOT a competition?
11. What's my favourite cake?
12. How many acres of block paving make up Mogs Mill?
13. Before the wind changed enabling LẌ to use a hot air balloon, what had he asked Ms Scarlet, Beast, Mago, and The Very Mistress to steal for him to fly home on?

(There was going to be a maths question along the lines of "What percentage of Mago's Sunday Musics actually occurred on a Sunday?" but I don't know if my maths is up to getting the right answer?  Perhaps it can be used as a tie-breaker question should the need arise...)

 You can leave your answers to the thirteen questions in the comments, or email them to me if you don't want anyone to peek - my blog email address is in my profile (but if you're one of the few who have my personal email, then please use that).  You have until Wednesday 8th January to submit your answers (although, if anyone needs a little more time, just let me know).
 By the way, I've already had more than one(!) set of answers - one of which scoring over eight points!

 The winner shall have the honour and responsibility of hosting the next Did I Win Yet? Quiz/Award as and when they see fit.  It doesn't have to be tacked onto a massive post like I did with the Coven Awards, or even held at the end of the year.  In fact, I'm not quite sure if it even has to include questions about LẌ (I think it just needs to be a quiz/award in his honour)?  I'll let the very gracious Lady Dinah - for it was she wot came up with the idea - have at it with the rules/suggestions/guidance in the comments (if she can be arsed, that is)...


* You may have to click on a few of the pictures to embiggen them, though.
  

~o~

 Right.  That's that out of the way.  Let's look at some New Year photos.  The first two are from New Year's Day, and the remaining four are from Friday 3rd January.

4²

 As seen at such illustrious blogs as 63 Mago, and Savannah Marsh Mama, we bring you our take on the “Game of Fours”. Four questions, with four answers each.

1. Favourite food?
• Cake (not CAKE!), preferably of the moist and rich chocolate variety. Especially Black Forest Gateaux - Yes, gateaux plural!
• Pudding/dessert/afters etc. also goes down a treat (as long as it's not a slimy, wobbly creme caramel or blancmange-type affair). Basically, something dark and rich with a good dollop or two of extra thick cream.
• A nice big crispy-skinned baked potato filled with butter, tuna, and lashings of mayonnaise. Oh, and maybe a sprinkle of herbs!
• A toss-up between homemade cheese & onion tart and fish pie (as long as it doesn't have squid or octopus in it).

Come for the cake, but stay for the nudity!

The Mother's 70th birthday cake.
Not the 70th cake - we're not gluttons!
This is the cake for her 70th birthday.

 This may be a somewhat surprising post for a couple of reasons.
 No, I've not joined the cakefarter brigade like The Very Mistress MJ, but there is cake (on the right there), and there is nudity. Well, not full nudity. After all, this is a tasteful blog, not some tawdry affair.
 The surprise is that the partial nudity is my own!

 Sick bags can be found under your seats.
Hey!

 But before we get to that, let's have some Cake!
 (Made by me and decorated by Inexcuseable. I knew she should have had a practice with that gold spray first...)

 §

Cake for Scarlet

 Oof! What with all that French robot jiggery-pokery, and reams of photos to get through, I have neglected to provide cake for Ms Scarlet. 
 Herr Mago began this meme here for poor, beleaguered Ms Scarlet, and recapped it here. And, upon her return, The Very Mistress MJ has also provided cake in her own inimitable style. This leaves me the only member of the Coven not to have done so. Until now.

 I made these almond and raspberry buns with just a few of the glut of raspberries from The Mother's allotment. And I'm sorry, Ms Scarlet, but they're not as almondy as I would have liked, so next time I will add a little more almond essence and a good dollop of marzipan!

"We know what takes up your time!"*

* said Norma (in the comments of the last full post).

Oh my gods! They know. They know!

Stop panicking. They don't know anything.

But what if they do? What if they do?!

Oh, shut up!

We'll tell them half-truths and omit certain incriminating events - They'll be none the wiser.

Shhhhhhh! Shhhhhhhhhhhhhhh! They're here!

Ah. Um. Hello?

::sigh::

 
Well, for those of you that didn't know what myself, the Host, and the SubC's get up to, this post should explain some of what we've been up to over the last couple of weeks or so.

So, pull up a chair, grab a coffee-

Yeah, you'll need something to keep you awake throughout this snooze-fest now that the interesting stuff has been edited out.

Quiet you!
Let's get on with it, shall we?

 ::

Something and nothing

If this was gratuitous,
he wouldn't have any clothes on!

 You might be wondering what I've been up to this past week - especially as I haven't been around blog-wise?
 No?
 How rude!
 Well, I've just had a look back and have discovered that I haven't been up to much at all! Still, I've done enough to blog about it, so: Ha!
 Oh, and the image of Chris Hemsworth is not gratuitous as will become clear a bit further on.

Quilted cakes and be-tentacled baking

 Seeing as the last batch of baking I shared here escaped being cakefarted by The Mistress, I thought I'd share my latest batches. I'm experimenting with decorating, hence the quilted effect, the two-tone piped icing, and the... well, the octopi.

 

Under the mini-cake dome

Under the Cake Dome

 Don't mind me. I'm just trying out the cake dome I was given for my birthday a couple of months ago. With The Mistress on holiday, it's safe to bring out the cakes without them getting farted on.

Victoria sponge with lashings and lashings of jam & cream

Australian Women's Weekly rich chocolate cake with a ganache topping

 There. All done. That wasn't so bad, was it.

Cakes through the ages

 As you may know, I'm not one to pass up a little procrastination if circumstances warrant, so, with that in mind - and a hundred and one far more important things to do - I thought I'd make a record of (some) of the cakes I've made through the years.

 Please look past the poor photography and so-so cakes- Wait! That doesn't leave anything to look at!

 Ah, well. Here goes anyway...

An After Eight cake for a girly night in

Inexcuseable's (lopsided looking) wedding cake (June 2007)

A Little Cake (May 2008)

An accidental cake (July 2008)

Tazzy's birthday cake (August 2008)

Birthday brownies for The Mother (August 2009)

Butterflies & marzipan cerises (May 2010)

Inexcuseable's sister-in-law's wedding cake.
Cake made by her non-wicked step-mother and
decorated by Inexcuseable and myselves (June 2010)

Hen Day cupcakes and buns (July 2010)

A friend's wedding cakes (August 2011)

The Mother's birthday cake (August 2010)

 

A secret for SP (September 2010)

Decorated in boredom (March 2011)

More decorated in boredom (March 2011)

Lemon & coconut buns (March 2011)

A Huntsman's birthday cake (May 2011)

Indescribable's wedding cake (May 2011)

The Parent's ruby wedding anniversary cupcakes (December 2012)

 

1st anniversary cake for Inexcuseable's place of work (November 2014)