Trapped in the bath

An unused concept for my Holy Rings of Betazed
Star Trek treasure map

 Oh, dear...  I trapped myselves for too long in a hot bath with the excess time unintentionally used to over-imagine a Blog Map.  The design evolved and grew, eventually galloping away without me, the reins flapping and dangling in its wake*.  It transcended beyond the work of a lifetime, easily casting off the shackles of having to be finished by the end of July.

 Dratted thing.


* I'm not sure why it took on a legged equine form?  Particularly as it came about while I was partially submerged.  A hippocampus would have been more suitable... 

P. S.  The sunset photos will be my next post.  I promise.

Sidestrand Landslide on the Seashore*

 I side-saddled jumped astride Broom like a Man, and dithered along three feet off the ground plied the skyways up to Tower Lane in Sidestrand this morning, to get some arial shots of Wednesday's landslide.  And this time, I've also provided some "before" shots (from 6th May - one of which featured here) for comparison purposes.

Ow! My Groyne!

 Well, it's the end of the line for the End-of-the-Line, unfortunately.  The sun has set on this particular subject as its taken a pounding like no other, leaving just its severed groyne dangling out into the sea.
 "What's the old Drama Queen going on about?" you may ask.  Well, prepare yourselves.  The following images may be disturbing to those of a sensitive nature...

 Oh, and no cormorants were crushed, or bunnies harmed in the making of this post.

 Unless they were, of course...

It's A Faaaake! Not The Art Of Star Trek - Treasure Map

...continued from X Marks The Spot

 This is the "making of" of my Star Trek treasure map, as featured in the last post (and linked to just up there ^).  It came about thanks to the monthly Star Trek Art Challenge over at the Trek BBS that I frequent when I'm not here.  Specifically, the "Treasure Map" theme was chosen by me for May's challenge because I won April's with my clumsy Andorian ("won" is probably the wrong word - after all, it's the taking part that counts - my Andorian picture just got the most votes, that's all).

 Anyway, here's May's challenge:

A brief sojourn to Wikipedia tells me that May's birthstone is the emerald. Ah, ha! Precious stones! Treasure!

So, I thought this month we could try our hands at map making. But not just any old map - a Trek treasure map! Maybe a map like the ones featured in Romancing the Stone, or The Goonies but filled with Trek terms ("Here be Gormaganders" and the like)? Or something more futuristic in keeping with the era of Star Trek of your choice, like an okudagram?

However you decide to do it, the challenge is to create a star chart, geographical map, floor/deck plan etc. that promises a Trek treasure or secret to whoever successfully navigates its course.

X marks the spot!

::

 I began working on my map remarkably early in the month - the 11th May, to be precise.  I knew that my vague ideas were quite [adventurous], so I'd need plenty of time to work everything out.
 As with many things in life, click the images to embigulate!

 I'm wasn't exactly sure what the finished article would be like, but I had some ideas involving pin-pricks and space-lanes and telepaths. Also, being so early in the month, I thought that this first set of squiggles might just end up as a trial run, with something else as my finished piece.

 After setting down a few white outlines, I didn't spent much time on my treasure map for a week. Well, I tell a lie, I spent a lot of time procrastinating in the name of research: Searching Memory Alpha for star charts and telepaths, plus trying to work out where certain stars and planets might be located (including getting caught up in the ST Generations stellar cartography scene screenshots at TrekCore), as well as trying out fonts etc.

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