X Marks The Spot

 Long ago, before it became known as Betazed, Cyndriel used to be a ringed planet, but a stray comet disrupted the rings' orbit and they coalesced into the three moons of Avandar, Merandar, and Keylandar.  However, some of the rings' exotic particles fell to Cyndriel and were fashioned into three circlets by smiths of the Fifth House.  During the Terabian conflict, the circlets were split up and hidden offworld for fear of their rare power being perverted, but over time, their locations were lost.
 Nearly 200 years later, an ancient star map came to light which guided a determined Daughter of the Fifth House across the stars in a "commandeered" Federation starship to seek out the treasured Holy Rings of Betazed...

Displaying My Rear...

An Aloe or Haworthia or somesuch on the paysho*

 The Official Plant Spotter of the DeVice Mansion (prev. Castle DeVice et al) and its Extensive Witchdom, the dazzling Jon,brought up a very good point recently: "I wonder if the "missing Canuck" is going to be hosting the garden show'n'tell this year?".
 Well, I hope The Very Mistress does manage to get up off her quince and play Hostess with the Mostess for what will be the Ninth Annual Infomaniac Garden Photos Event, as I've been sorting out the swampy building site (as was) to the rear of the DeVice Mansion.
 No you haven't!  It was me!  I've done all the sorting and lifting and digging stinking horse muck into the borders and other hard manual labour, not you.
 Fine.   In that case, you can carry on with this post.

 These two photos (above and below), were taken at the end of March, after the leftover building detritus was cleared up, and the swampy, clay "soil" rotavated in preparation for a lawn.

 The photo below is how it looks now, but it's not going to stay this way, however.  This is just a temporary solution until I settle upon a design or, more likely, a cobbled together mish-mash of ideas that will "just have to do".

Sunday Swim: Bunny Boiling

Overstrand beach this morning

 Don't worry - I haven't gone all Glenn-Close-in-Fatal-Attraction on anyone/thing. Rather, I have partaken in my first sea swim of the year on this, the most boilingest hot day so far.  Last year I didn't fling myself in the drink until mid July (although, back in 2017, I was a day earlier than this year, managing to brave the cold sea on the 1st of June).

 Oh, and for the 'Bunny' bit, just keep going... 

The knobbly old spine of some ancient sea monster plying the depths shallows

All The Queen's Horses...

 Oh my Christing gods!  I've just discovered that Siobhan and Marcy are back!  Shakespears Sister rides again!!!

New single, All The Queen's Horses

I love all the call-backs to their previous videos (some of which can be seen below)

Here's a recent interview


And now, how about some of their classics:

Out on a School Night

 The other day, Dinahmow had sent me a photograph of the beach between Overstrand and Cromer, taken in the evening of 11th May, with a solitary someone on the sands.  She asked if it was me, but it was not, I replied, as I'm more of a morning beach walker than an evening one.*
 It did, however, prompt me to drag myselves down there on Thursday evening, from whence the following photos came from.

  I did not, however, have the beach to myself.  Rather inconsiderately, a large group of youths (with a handful of supervising adults) were congregated at the foot of the cliffs getting up to who knows what, and making a din about it.  I tried not to get any of them in shot, but if you squint at the bottom left of the photo below, one can just about make out the fuzzy, indistinct silhouette of a youth clambering over the curved revetment.  Ruining the photograph.  Ruining everything!!!

Cows and Copious Moist Ejecta

 First the cows:

 These photos were taken last Thursday on Coltishall Common.  I'd gone to meet a couple of old friends for lunch and, arriving early, had a wander around the green and pleasant cow-pat festooned lands of the common, complete with the pat producers.
 At one point, they had blocked my way back, the only calf standing right in the middle of the path staring at me.  So, to prevent spooking them and getting gored by their rather pointy horns, I had to walk all the way around to return to the gate.

Cormorant: The Return!

Cormorant #1 near the "Not really dunes"

 Yes, they're back!

 Fresh from debuting at Mistress Maddie's lakeside retreat, the cormorants have returned to their rightful place on the North Norfolk coast.  Well, two or three of them have, anyway.
 I wonder if the rest stopped off in Devon...? 

 Anyway, I spied these three (possibly two, as the first one I spotted could have flown along the coast, overtaking me, before settling on a big, rusty knob at the end of a groyne) during Saturday's lunchtime wander.  They're sporting little head crests which is a sure sign of mating season!

The tide was in...

... so I had to walk behind the revetments...

Exasperated by Equine Escapades

 Le sigh...  I knew it was too good to last.  Having not had one for a while, since the end of April I've been irked by a recent spate of "One Of Those Days"...


Thursday 25th April 09:30 - I got soaked while freeing some hippocampi (aka white horses) trapped in the revetments on Overstrand beach.

Saturday 27th April 10:02 - In the presence of my nieces, my big gobbed distant cousin, Svaathor da Vjis, blurted out that his nephew's daughter, Calreed, had a unicorn at her recent birthday party.  So, guess who had to arrange for The Little Witch and Vom Smallhausen to have one at their party. The. Very. Next. Day!  (I should have kept that one I found lurking in my shed a few years back)
 Still, it wasn't all that bad, as it gave me an excuse to meet up with the exceedingly hot Gathiir (the Ipotane nephew of Svaathor), to find out where he managed to acquire a unicorn. 

Sunday 28th April 15:24 - After The Little Witch and Vom Smallhausen's party, I found myself walking down Overstrand High Street with the unicorn in tow, taking it back to the pick-up point at the Nightship stop.
 I was so embarassed.  It kept farting rainbows.

Tuesday 7th May 19:01 - Getting out of Car as I parked up outside the DeVice Mansion, I was unceremoniously kicked in the back of my head by a pegasus as it came in for a landing.  Luckily, it was only a glancing blow, but I still saw stars.  It had been sent by Svaathor to drop off Camera that I'd inadvertantly left at his place the evening before.

This morning 05:29 - Woken up far too early by the wind whistling through the horn of an errant Shâd'havâr.  Quite what it was doing on the lawn under my bedroom window, I don't know.  Luckily, that cock pheasant took a disliking to it, and chased it off down the road, leaving me to return to the land of nod for another hour or so.

::

More far-fetched phenomena can be found here:

Wanton for Well-Built Warlocks
Maddened by Mischievous Monsters
Harried by Hair-Raising Hunks
Persecuted by Preposterous Pests
A Sequence of Unpalatable Events

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):

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

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)