Terror on the Norfolk Broads!

 Oof!  Here we are!

 

 So, what have we been up to since last our paths crossed?  Well, we'll show and tell you.  Mostly show because The Host can't be bothered with a lot of typing...

 

 The day after our previous post, it was The Mother's 80th birthday and a couple of days later (on the Bank Holiday Monday) we had an all-day boat trip on the Norfolk Broads to celebrate.  We were all there: both my sisters - Inexcuseable and Indescribable - and their families (and Indescribable's dog), The Father, but not The Mother.  She decided she'd much rather stay at home with Bitey and have some peace and quiet.  I don't blame her - I wish I could have done, too.

 Anyway, here are some photos:

 

Amongst other things, the Broads are famous for their windmills.  This one's having a bit of work done.

 

We startled a cormorant!

Eclipsing the Foo-Foo Valve

 It was a bit of a damp squib here on the eastiest part of the country (I'm sure Ms Scarlet had a much better view over there in the west), but here are some photos of yesterday evening's partial eclipse which followed me & Bitey on our walk and spent some time sniffing around his foo-foo valve* 

 

As we walked up Madams Lane, the eclipse made it's way across the field parallel to us.  The landowner has put up 'Private Land - No public right of way' signs, but they obviously don't apply to celestial phenomena.

 

 

At the base of Skylark Hill the eclipse, having made its way over the trees, descends towards Bitey.

New Arrivals

 There may have been orange tip butterflies in the gardens of Hexenhäusli Device earlier this year, but this one is the first I've seen (I've seen several up at the allotment and surrounding fields, though).  And there are plenty of black ladybirds around here, but the 'eye' markings on this harlequin ladybird (Harmonia axyridis) are the first I've noticed.

 

 Anyway, that's the new fauna out of the way.  Now for the flora!

 

 On Thursday, I took The Mother to Hadfields garden centre in North Walsham.  I wanted a cherry tree, some 8ft canes, seed trays, and plant pots of the right size (as Jon pointed out, all the plant pots one has at home are "never the right size").  While I didn't get plant pots of the right size - does no one have them?! - I did come away with some 'extras':

 

Back left: Fuchsias 'Delta's Sarah', 'Dark Eyes', 'Wendy's Beauty', 'Marinka' and 'Dancing Flame'

Back right: Salvias 'Amistad', 'Cherry Lips', and 'Plum Crazy'

The four trays at the front are The Mother's cosmos and snapdragons.  In the middle is an agapanthus she bought a couple of weeks ago (at the back is a pot of narcissus and a horse chestnut).

"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. 

Children these days are high in cholesterol, anyway.

 

 Minus cooking a quivering slab of meat, this has been my weekend. Well, my Sunday afternoon, at least.  Bah!

 

(It took me a little while to find this ad as I thought Geoffrey Palmer said "I love children.  But I couldn't eat a whole one."  Still, his face at the end says it all.) 

Four Photos: Nearly a month out of date

This year I actually made something out of the sour, pointless red currants from the allotment: fruit leather.

It's horrible.  It gets stuck to ones teeth and no one likes it.  I only made it because Vom Smallhausen and Count Podgkinson foolishly picked some currants after I'd taken them up the allotment (fruit leather was the least complicated recipe I could find that used the most red currants).  The red currant bush is getting dug up this winter!

 

View up Northrepps Road

 

Parasol mushroom

 

Escaping the heat - and Bitey - was this toad.

 

 

 

P. S. Apologies for my absence, I have been busy with summer and taking photos for the Grand Gardening Competition in October, or sooner??

 

  Oh, no, wait.  That wasn't me.  That was Ms Scarlet.

  While I have been busy with summer and taking photos for the Grand Gardening Competi-  I mean, Garden Photos Event, I have also been sorting out the garden & allotment, engaged in a few social activities (pah!), exhausted myselves trying to eke out some sort of service from a couple of companies so-called "customer service" departments/teams, and have been lumbered with nieces and nephew far more often that I would have liked!

 (Except for the toad, these photos are from 2nd August and I started this post on the 8th!) 

 

  Also, Ms Scarlet had locked me in her attic without food nor a bath mat - but that's a story for another time... 

Four Photos: Elephant!

Last month, we found this in the red greenhouse

 

It's an elephant hawkmoth

 

And last week The Mother discovered this on the lawn.  Well Bitey discovered it and The Mother went over to see what he was staring at. An elephant hawkmoth caterpillar (she thought it was a poo!)

 

Yaaaaaaaaaaaaaarrrrgh!*  It's going to devour us all!!!!

 

 

*It may or may not be a pirate. 

Yg----=----..-sD

 Even though the Big, Tiresome Work Project has come to an end (see last month's Rutherford post for slightly more details), I'm still finding it difficult to return to blogging.  This is partly because something else has taken its place: the Allotment Drama!  I won't go into all the whys and wherefores now otherwise I'll never finish this post, but I will do at some point soon because at least it'll give me something to blog about.  Some of the other reasons are the same as in this post from a year ago except that I don't have any washing on the go and Ms Scarlet hasn't published a new post, although her current one says it's new..... Scratch that.  In the time it's taken me to compose this, there is a new post!

 

 Anyway, here are a very select few of some things that have been going on here recently:

 

Saturday 22 February: Sonic Shower Show Rutherford.  Although number four in the series, this is the eighth Rutherford fantasy action figure I've created:

 

 

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 - 

"Wow, was that your girlfriend? What crawled up her boob window and died?"

 Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!1!!11!!1!!!!!!!1!!!

 The trailer for the fifth and final season of Star Trek: Lower Decks is out! 

 Jennifer!  A Bajoran lightship??  Creepy little cyborg arm hug!!  Decon gel scene!!!  Ma'ah is back!!!!

: :

 

 In other news, my niece, Lionel (not her real name), got a mobile (cell) phone two or three months ago.  She's eleven.  Far too young to have a mobile, but she was the only one in her class without one so her parents relented so she wouldn't feel left out.  She now has access to anything and everything.  Smut, filth, the rudest of swear words, Taylor Swift - It's disgraceful! 

Midsummer Mix

A bit of exotica for this, the longest - and possibly sunniest & warmest (so far) - day this year: The Mother's bottlebrush plant (Callistemon somethingorother)

 

. : .

 

 Yesterday's Sounds of Summer should also have featured this track which I first featured back in 2015:

"Love Like Mine" - Miami Horror feat Cleopold 

(I'm still none the wiser about Cleopold's identity and I just don't have it in me to google them.)

 

 . : .

"Did I Win Yet?" Grand Quiz 2024

 Happy New Year to you all!  We hope you had a splendid night whatever you did - whether you went out celebrating, stayed in and slept through it, or had your head down revising for this "Did I Win Yet?" Award/Quiz/Competition/Event/Festival thingy!

 I was at my sister's - Indescribable's - with a couple of friends drinking gin & cherry vodka and playing some convoluted card game.  However, I didn't drink so much that I wasn't able to drag myself out of bed and pop down to the prom this morning to make sure the New Year arrived on time.  It did, as you can see in the photo below.  I've got some more photos (of course) which I will share in a few days time as this post is all about the "Did I Win Yet?" Grand Quiz in honour of our dear, departed friend, LẌ.

 

 

 The "Did I Win Yet?" Award/Quiz/Competition/Event/Festival thingy can take any form, but I have chosen to do a quiz again because it's quick & easy (easy to put together, that is - although you might find the actual quiz is easy, too), and I left it too late (as per) to come up with something else.  (Ms Scarlet's The 'Did I Win Yet?' Competition/Award back in January 2021 had a quiz bit and a creative bit, for example). 

 

 As with my original 2020 quiz, almost* ALL ANSWERS CAN BE FOUND IN THE YEAR OF LOOKING GLAM EVEN WITHOUT NAIL VARNISH POST WITHOUT HAVING TO CLICK ON ANY OF ITS LINKS OR WADE THROUGH THE ENTIRETY OF MY POSTS FROM 2023, but you may need to embiggen one or two images.

 

* One answer can be found in a November post, and one bonus point answer requires clicking a link in The Year of Looking Glam... to find.  The other bonus point has no "right" answer - the point will go to the most amusing/creative/smutty response.

  There is no prize as such, but the winner will have the honour of hosting the next "Did I Win Yet?" thingy whenever they see fit.  Oh, and Ms Scarlet did create this elegantly calligraphed quote by LẌ which the winner will have the exclusive right to display on their blog sideboard.

 Right, I can tell you're all eager to flex your mental muscles and get on with the quiz, so here it is:

 

1. In which month did LX visit The Very Mistress from beyond the grave?  And for a bonus point, which two posts was he first at?

 

2. We all know that Dinah looks glam even without nail varnish, but what couldn't she do without in order to look like movie star, Joanna Cassidy?

 

3. How many freckles are there on-  No, just kidding!  How many men did Mistress Maddie-  Ha!  Kidding again. 

 Really this time: How many ducks - rubber or otherwise - feature in The Year of Looking Glam...?

 

4. Who has a sideboard even more beautiful than mine?  (Bah!)

5. In which comic strip does Suzie Derkins feature?

 

6. On what page can the instructions be found?

 

7. What did Jon go all the way to Sitges for?  And for a bonus point, what do you think [the answer] was describing/measuring?

8. What is Full Moon Fan Dance Rutherford's cybernetic implant set to?

 

9. Which super powers did Ms Scarlet gain at the expense of no longer having birthdays?

 Please email your answers to me by Saturday 6th January, either to this blog's gmail address which can be found in my profile on the Sideboard, or to the Host's personal hotmail account.  You can also leave your answers in the comments if you like, but then everyone will be able to see what they are...

 Good luck, and Happy New Year!

"Grandad is a Poo Face"

Well, yes, quite frankly, he is.

 This, like last week's publication, is just another mish-mash post because I don't have anything specific to relay.  My niece, Lionel (not her real name) scrawled the always amusing epithet above on our garage wall some months ago, yet it is only now that I have got around to taking a photo of it to share here.  I'd actually only gone outside in the rain to take a photo of 'Eva Boerg' swinging away under a bird box, when I realised I could kill two birds with one stone, so to speak.

. . .

 

 Now, a little music from our favourite Pop Princess, Kylie.  Apparently, this track - "Running" - didn't make the cut for her upcoming album, Tension, but it is still utterly fabulous!

. . .

 

 I finished The Bullet That Missed (see last post) and definitely have a crush on Bogdan.  The last page of chapter 84 cinched the deal - I just wanted to give him a big hug.  And then he'd reciprocate with those big, muscular, tattooed arms.  Ahhhhh...

 

 Anyway, enough about Bogdan (even though I don't think there can ever be too much Bogdan).  I have started a re-read of Smoke and Mirrors by Neil Gaiman (last re-reads here in 2013 and here in 2008).

 I've wanted to read this collection of short stories again for quite a few years, but had been thwarted by not having the book.  You see, I'd lent it to my sister, Indescribable (Lionel's mum), a long, long time ago, but every time I'd asked for it back she claimed to have already returned it because it definitely wasn't in her house anywhere.  Definitely.

 Except until it was (she found it behind some other books in her unruly bookcase a couple of months ago and sheepishly gave it back to me). 

. . .

 

 Star Trek!  I am EXTREMELY excited for the forthcoming episode of Strange New Worlds because it's a crossover with my favourite Trek show, the animated Lower Decks, and features a live action Boimler (in the clip below) and Mariner (both played by their respective voice actors, Jack Quaid and Tawny Newsome).

 Unfortunately, I won't be watching it when it airs on Thursday because I don't have Paramount+, so I'll have to make do with clips and screencaps until it comes out on BluRay (or I can get a free trial of P+ or something).  Bah!

. . .

 

 Finally, last month I found this scrawled piece of advice in a field of oil seed rape while walking Bitey:

 

 I'm not going to pay it any heed as I like thinking, and don't like doing!

"Summer Hath Aroused" thoughts of the Infomaniac Garden Photos Event

 Oof!  Nearly fell back into the all consuming "All".  Fortunately, the most recent questing tentacle from All turned out to be little more than a tendril, and is now* eating a cheese & coleslaw sandwich (made by me!) while safely ensconced in the recliner downstairs nursing a gashed shin. 

 So, as Summer has finally** reached the north-eastiest bit of East Anglia (which means it's too hot to be outside doing anything) I find myself with some unexpected free time - enough to whip up a reminder for:

the House of

I N F O M A N I A C

Garden Photos Event 2023

 

* About 11:30ish at the time of writing.

** Summer landed in most of Blighty last week.  Apparently, temperatures in the mid-to-high 20s abounded, but not here.  The cold North Wind (from the North Sea, funnily enough) kept the clouds in place and the temperatures at least 10 degrees cooler than practically everywhere else.

Until today.  It might get as warm as 20°C!

 Ooh, before I forget, in book news, I have finished The Thursday Murder Club, and have started the second book in the series by Richard Osman: The Man Who Died Twice.  While reading a few more pages last night, I found myself thinking that Elizabeth and Joyce are very much like Granny Weatherwax and Nanny Ogg respectively, from Sir Pterry Pratchett's Discworld.  This is obviously a good thing.

 Now, back to the GPE reminder and some photographs of subjects you have (mostly) seen before a thousand times:

 

Love-in-a-mist (Nigella damascenais) flower bud

 As you should all be aware by now, the annual Infomaniac Garden Photos Event is held here, rather than at The Very Mistress's hallowed cesspit knitting blog, The Infomaniac.  (For the forgetful, easily confused, and any newcomers, further information can be found by clicking on the Garden Photos Event page at the top of this blog).

 

 This year, just as in years past, the Event will be held in November, so please set to with your cameras and photograph the luxurient growth of your garden, courtyard, terrace, conservatory, windowbox, house plant (delete as applicable) so you have something to send in nearer the time.

 If you don't have a garden or pot plant but would like to take part, just take a photo/s of a favourite plant (or twelve) from a local park or wild area that you frequent (and I do mean frequent - somewhere you visit reasonably regularly to enjoy the greenery) and send them in, but please make sure you let me know where the photos were taken.

 

 I will publish further haranguing nagging reminders throughout the Summer and Autumn, as well as instructions and deadlines etc. (which are usually along the lines of: email me your photos and captions by the end of October - email address, if you don't already have it, is in my blog profile on right).

 

 As you may recall from April's GPE primer, this year's sub-theme is:

Honeybee swarm inspecting my compost heap

Flora and Fauna

 So, if you can take a photo or two of non-human, non-domesticated animal visitors - birds, butterflies, bees, bugs, and/or bears - to your unkempt undergrowth or manicured green patch, please do.  They can be sent in along with your main chlorophyll-based lifeform photos.

Breaking the Circle

 Enough moping around and using "all" (see previous post for barely any explanation whatsoever) as an excuse for not blogging.  I am determined to, if not make a grand return, then at least dip our toes back in and go from there.  I must admit, we have almost returned several times, but something always cropped up that was an easy target to use as an excuse for not returning.  And if we leave it much longer, everything that we've missed will become too overwhelming, and we'll never come back.

 

 Anyway, yesterday evening while having tea (the late afternoon meal, not the hot drink) I took to my bookmarks and selected a blog I hadn't looked at in ages: Love in the Time of Chasmosaurs, "a blog about the science, art, and pop culture of Mesozoic life" that I find to be witty and educational, plus it contains dinosaurs!  After reading a couple of the recent posts, I slowly scrolled down to see if something would catch my eye, and something did.  I recognised a photo of a family of Triceratops ambling past Dippy's Pizza & Fries and clicked the 'continue reading' thingy.  

Nieces about to be gobbled up like Children McNuggets

 My suspicion was confirmed: The photo was taken at ROARR! the dinosaur park right here in Norfolk that I ended up at for my nephew's birthday back in August 2019, so I read - and very much enjoyed - the article.  So much so, in fact, that I was moved to leave a comment.  And it was then that I remembered I had featured some photos of the park right here on this very blog that I could link to!  So, I found the requisite post - and very quickly became subsumed in our back catalogue of adventures Over the Cusp...

The Blob! (and other Unusual Suspects at Pensthorpe)

 In an effort to get away from it all*, me and my sister Inexcuseable took a trip to Penisthorpe (as she likes to call it - and so now does her son, Count Podgekinson, 5!) yesterday.

 After an underwhelming welcome from a handful of ducks, geese, and a few black headed gulls, we headed out into the reserve.  Much to our surprise/digust/horror, one of the first things we came across was an iridescent alien egg sack (which we later discovered was only a slime mould, Enteridium lycoperdon - the false puffball).

Well, of course we poked it (those are Inexcuseable's fingers, not mine)

Newly hatched ducklings

Cloud Mouth

 Under threat of a Sideboard Invasion if I don't make an appearance before Friday, here I am!  (Although, I'm not convinced that the invasion won't go ahead anyway...) 

 I don't have much to say for myselves, so may I present a selection of photographs depicting some of what I have been up to this month: 

From the 3rd . . .

This huge cloud-with-a-mouth loomed over the garden, but moved on when I hid under the trees pointed out that my sister (who lives down the road) has more meat on her bones than me.

 

From the 13th . . .

I popped down to the beach for an early morning swim - the first of the season!

(I had to brighten this photo considerably in order to make it resemble how the beach really looked - Camera didn't like being pointed at the sun, I suppose...)

Of Hawkmoths and Drag Queen Knock-Offs

 First things first, the leading photo in this post is to address the disappointment of no actual sunset in yesterday's Summer Solstice post.  Poor Mr Tonking was so looking forward to it, so I hope this Big Gay Sunset (thank you, Jon) from out of my pit nest boudoir window on the 19th will suffice?

Now, on to the titular moths and knock-offs, also from the 19th:

This hummingbird hawkmoth (and friend/partner) was drinking nectar from the last of the Jasmine flowers.

This was the best shot I could get as they were zipping around so quickly.

There are some better photos back in 2020 and 2015.

Things That Can Fly...

Can you guess what it is yet?

 As I don't have anything else to post about, here are some photos of flying things that would otherwise languish on my hard drive.  While the cow below may be able to jump over the moon, I'm not convinced that it can actually fly.  Fortunately, there's a pheasant in the lower right corner which meant I can include this photo (it was taken at the beginning of June while I was cat-stting at my sister, Inexcuseable's house while she was away - as were the following three photos).

Moo!  Yes, I love being disturbed at 6:15 in the morning by a cow trying to eat from a bird feeder.