Thursday, 9 May 2019

Cathedral City Cormorants and Coastal Conveyancing


 Disclaimer: This is not an attempt to cause Ms Scarlet more cormorant-related anguish.

 Well, maybe a little...

 In keeping with the recent general theme of birds - and, in particular, Mistress Maddie's more specific cormorant-containing posts - the first part of this post is my most recent cormorant sighting.
 The photos are a bit crap because they were taken with Phone, not Camera, as I was walking through the city on my way to work.  Yes, through the city!  These cormorants were perched atop the Norwich University of the Arts*, lording it over the mallards and Egyptian geese that were grubbing around on the riverbank beneath them.


You can just make out their distinctive silhouette
 I must point out, that these were taken in February, and I haven't seen a cormorant since.  Perhaps Ms Scarlet has a point, and that England's cormorants have flown across the pond since then?

* Although, when I attended, it was known first as the Norfolk Institute of Art and Design then, in my second year, as the Norwich School of Art and Design. 


oOo

 And now on to other things.  The following are just a few photos from the Bank Holiday weekend's leg-stretchers.
 First up - Saturday (and what a difference from this time last year):


Monday, 6 May 2019

Doing It!


Cock! (cock pheasant, that is)
 I was on my way back from stretching my legs, when I remembered that I had some photographs of a tawdry nature that I hadn't shared with you all yet.  I meant to add them to the end of the previous post, but forgot.
 Rather than edit the Pensthorpe post and sully it with such lewd subject matter, I thought I'd just create a new post.  So here it is.  Smut!

From the rear window of Hexenhäusli deVice, may I present:

Unusual Suspects at Pensthorpe


A rather striking shelduck
 To save you from looking at that Star Trek stuff in the last post for too long, I have thoughtfully sorted out some photos from Thursday's trip back to Pensthorpe.  Yes, I was dragged back there by Inexcuseable, with Count Podgekinson in tow, for a lovely family day out.
 It was OK, I suppose...

A mallard couple

Moorhen

Saturday, 4 May 2019

It's A Faaaake! Not the Art of Star Trek : Oops-a-Daisy!


Redshirt Alert!  Redshirt Alert!

 It's Star Trek time again!  (I knew you'd be pleased)

 These are my efforts for the TrekBBS Fan Art April Art Challenge "Oops-a-Daisy!".  But first, the theme of the challenge, as set by me because my Disco78 won the March art challenge:  

 Our heroes almost always manage to save the day - sometimes only by the skin of their teeth (and with a lot of technobabble) - or get to the end of the episode in one piece without a bathroom break or a hair out of place, but what if they didn't?

This month's art challenge is to depict a Star Trek something that didn't quite go to plan. For example: what if Nurse Chapel hadn't dodged that Spock-propelled plomeek soup bowl? What if Scotty hadn't managed to get the spacedoors open before the Enterprise reversed into them? What if Sisko hadn't managed to convince the Prophets to dispose of the Dominion fleet before they exited the Celestial Temple?

The size and scope of the "Oops!" is up to you, and you can illustrate something that was (just) avoided on-screen, in TrekLit, or from your own Trekmagination. The only "Oops!" that won't be accepted is "Oops! I ran out of time to create something this month.

::

 I'd planned to do four pictures featuring hapless redshirts coming a cropper due to various malfunctions: Turbolift Malfunction, Wardrobe Malfunction, Kirk-Fu Malfunction (a forthcoming book will delve into the "Final Frontier's Most Feared Martial Art"), and Captain's Log Malfunction.

 Here's the first one: Due to a turbolift malfunction, Deep Space Station K-7's Andorian security guard, Lt. j.g. Caddorshath ch'Thir, is helped down the stairs by some friendly Tribbles... (as with most things, click to embiggen)


Thursday, 25 April 2019

High Tide at the End-of-the-Line

Brought to you in association with Connie and Carl the collared doves

So, these are the rubbish-less, graffiti-less, "massive knob-fest"-less (thank you, Jon x) photos that didn't make it into the previous post.


Monday, 22 April 2019

Rubbish. With knobs on!


Knobs
 "That isn't a real beach" declared Hound, of my previous post.  "I can tell because there isn't a single condom, needle, nappy, dead animal or chav in sight.  It's a sort of John Lewis fantasy of a beach."
 Rubbish, I say.  With knobs on!  Of course this is a real beach.  Why, just look what I've found for you this morning, Hound.  Rubbish with knobs on.  Oh, and some graffiti at the end.
 But first...

Nice morning for it

Glinting, glimmering high tide

Thursday, 18 April 2019

I kept my trousers on...

... as per Ms Scarlet's advice, but I did roll up the bottoms!

 Well, wouldn't you when faced with a beach like this?

Overstrand beach today

Looks all right, doesn't it?  Despite being a little misty over Sidestrand way

Not misty enough to obscure PEOPLE!  Bah.

Wednesday, 17 April 2019

Mid-Week Muscles : Pondering Cleanliness


 I was looking through my draft posts (22 of them!) to see if I had something almost finished that I could "touch up" and post, so to speak, when I came across (not literally) this one from almost a year ago:

~ cue wobbly soap opera flashback effect ~
We have a new cleaner at work.  He is young and attractive.

26.04.2018 - After the most languorous yet insouciant display of vacuuming I have ever seen, followed by a nod 'hello', the new cleaner slowly and deliberately coiled up his vacuum cleaner cable while facing half-away from me.  The level of arrogant nonchalance with which he managed to instill in this simple action was quite remarkable. And hypnotic.  His muscles are quite impressive.

27.04.2018 - The muscular young cleaning youth did it again.  I think he may be on to me, though, as this time he deliberately faced me as I was sitting at my desk.  Having completed another seemingly languid and indolent pass of the horrid carpet tiles, he almost casually coiled that cable again, unnecessarily flexing his biceps and bouncing his pecs in my direction.  I didn't know where to look!  Well, I did, clearly...
To make things worse, he actually smiled at me a couple of times.  Not while doing his "routine", but in passing as he moved down the office.
He looks like this (John Hirka), only with less shirt-lifting (mores the pity)
Also, with less "I think I'm having a heart attack" after covering himself up...

Sunday, 14 April 2019

Wind Score and Wishing for Blue


 It is cold and overcast here on the North Norfolk coast today, so I'm not going out.  Instead, I'm going to sit at my desk and draw pictures of Starfleet Redshirts falling over, in compromising positions, with wardrobe malfunctions, and being generally clumsy and hapless for this month's art challenge.
 While the Host does that, here are some photos from March which include the kind of weather I wish was going on outside now.

17th March

A very windy day at the End-of-the-Line


 It was very windy on the 17th.  So much so that Inexcuseable informed me later that Number 34's griffin laid the same egg three times!
 Nevertheless, it didn't stop me from drifting down to the beach and beyond the End-of-the Line.  Once there, I started to notice some strange marks in the sand.  They looked like tracks from some peculiar vehicle or object that had made its way (or been dragged) across the beach.  However, upon further investigation, they could not have been from any Earthly vehicle/object as, despite their regularity, the "tracks" widened and narrowed as they criss-crossed the sand, leading to and from various inaccessible places.  Also, despite the various footprints on the beach, none of them accompanied these score marks, so they can't have been made by people/animals dragging something.

Sunday, 7 April 2019

It's A Faaaake! Not The Art Of Star Trek - Disco 78


 Now that I've managed to get one hastily slapped together post published (yesterday's groyne monitoring shenanigans), it's time for another.  Yes, more Star Trek related nincompoopery with my entry for March's Trek BBS Art Challenge.

 But first, a quick aside:
Thank you, Ms Scarlet, for my Universe on a Chair!
I shall endeavour to rule it wisely, and not get carried away with
delusions of grandeur or a full blown attack of megalomania.
Much better photos can be seen at Ms Scarlet's
I have already been doing some tinkering with the Universe,
as you can see below. But only the bit that can be seen from
the spare bedroom of the DeVice Mansion.
Out of all of this lot, only the constellation of Canis Minor can be seen in full.
Leo, Cancer, Hydra et al were last seen a year ago in
Constellations from a Nightshade Tarot

 And now, the feature presentation:

 Here is the Star Trek art challenge as set by February's winner:

Saturday, 6 April 2019

Someone is monitoring my groyne!


Nice day for it
 Right.  Now that Bryce's Bum is out in the open, I thought it was about time to get back to that laziest form of blog posts: photos from a walk on the beach.
 These photos are all from Thursday's foray out into the fresh air.  And talking of lazy, I actually got Broom out and flew down there because I couldn't be bothered to walk!
 As always, click the pics to embigulate.

Broom managed to get to something approaching what one might call "altitude", allowing these photos of magnificent, yet barren, landscapes.

Just look at the strata of the cliffs.  This is easily missed unless one is flying hundreds of millimetres overhead

Thursday, 4 April 2019

A Discovery of Derrières


 Originally, this bottom-related post was just going to be an aside in another post, as it only featured one pert posterior, that of the rather yummy Lieutenant Bryce (portrayed by the equally yummy Ronnie Rowe Jr.), communications officer (just like Lt. Uhura) aboard the USS Discovery.

Here's Lt. Bryce and his delightful derrière, along with (right to left) Commander Saru, Captain Pike, and Admiral Cornwell
 
 But then, a recent episode displayed gratuitous shots - bordering on the obscene! - of the new Spock's spacesuit clad buttocks.  I, along with many others, had to reach for the smelling salts.  And then lost several hours wearing the pause and rewind buttons out...

Spock and his foster sister, star-of-the-show, Michael Burnham

First glimpse of that arse!  Look's like Michael's seen something else, though...