Infomaniac Garden Photos Event - Reminder #3

The House of

I N F O M A N I A C

10th Anniversary Garden Photos Event

 

will take place here on this very blog commencing on 31st October.

 

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 You may recall that The Very Mistress has handed off the hosting duties for this auspicious botanical occasion?  This year, the various consciousnesses - including the SubConsciousnesses (for some reason...) - of yours truly, Inexplicable Device, will be your host/s.  Remember?  Remember?  REMEMBER?!?

 

 

 If you haven't already done so, I'd like you to get your unruly bushes in order, trim those straggly overhangs, and mow that fuzzy patch.  Then, set-to with your camera and send me your photograph/s - along with an enlightening blurb - by Wednesday 28th October.  My blog email address is in my profile (just click the link on the right.  Or, for those few of you who have my personal email, use that instead).

 

 The Infomaniac Garden Photos Event will kick off on 31st October with some of your Terrifying Triffidery* (as long as enough Triffids can be rounded up without too many fatalities, that is), then a couple of days later the main exhibits - i.e. your gardens/window boxes/pot plants/contents of your salad drawers - will be on display for all to enjoy.

 

 

* The Terrifying Triffidery Exhibit will be a place to show off your horticultural horrors or otherwise ordinary plants that have been photographed from odd angles/close up/while drunk which make them look out of this world. So, get inventive/within-2-metres/drinking and get that camera out!

Sea Swims and Sodden, Sparkling Groynes

 I'm on holiday!  Two weeks off work and the weather is playing ball, for a change.  With the global travel situation as it is, I have the perfect excuse not to go anywhere or see anyone.
 So, just like every other day, week, month, year etc. etc.
 Yes!  Isn't it fabulous!?!

 Anyway, on with the show: Here are a few photos from the last three or four days. 
 The sunrise below is from a week ago Monday, taken from my home office/library/blog room, and the first set of beach photos below are from Saturday (no swim then as it was a little chilly - there was a swim on Sunday as it got out a little warmer, but I didn't take any photos).

Saturday

A Little Broad, perhaps?

 On Sunday, I made my way to Little Broad in Frogshall - somewhere I've been meaning to go for years, but have never got around to.  Until now.  Or then, rather.
 Like many people-

Oh, gods, we're common!

 Shush, you! Like some people, I'm drawn to water - particularly the less obvious (i.e. not the sea) freshwater streams and ponds that are tucked away in the countryside.  Even a big puddle can be fascinating!  But Little Broad, despite the name, is significantly larger than a puddle.

 As you might have surmised, I took one or two photos while I was there, and here they are:

As I picked my way through the undergrowth towards the sluice gate, I startled two small deer - possibly Chinese water deer (they didn't have white bottoms, so not muntjacs) - but wasn't quick enough with Camera to get any photos.

Shrieking Pit Saturday

This was taken from the front of Hexenhäusli Device yesterday evening.
The sky looked like it was on fire!

 I'll just have a quick walk to get some fresh air and stretch my legs, I thought.

 Two and a half hours later - and with Camera's memory card full - I returned home...

 So, you should know what's coming next, then?
 Yes!  Reams of photos!

Here we have the views from the top of Tower Lane in Sidestrand (last seen here).
Above is the view west to Overstrand,
and below the view east along the coast to Trimingham.

There were also some cormorants on The-End-of-the-Line, as per...

Thursday Swim: Wet Winkles & Gloomy Groynes

 Before we get to the good stuff, first I must announce that one of my Ipomoea tricolor "Heavenly Blue"s has finally flowered!*
 I have been envious of Jon's and Madam Arcati's displays for the last couple of months, but now, at last, I have my own Morning Glory!

* Of course, had I sown the seeds back in March/April instead of at the end of May, these blooms would have come out that much earlier.

~o~

 Anyway, here's what you came here for: warm, wet groynes with a sprinkle of winkles!

Infomaniac Garden Photos Event - Reminder #2

The House of

I N F O M A N I A C

10th Anniversary Garden Photos Event

is being held here rather than at The Very Mistress's this year.  Remember?  Remember?!?

 We're posting this reminder mainly for Savvy.
 Yeah, you all know what she's like with competitions, challenges, and events.

Absolutely hopeless.  I don't know how many Tin Foil Hat Competitions she's missed?

Well, to be be fair, the one she did remember she actually won!

 Oh, yeah!
 Anyway, for the rest of you, we still haven't decided exactly when the Garden Photos Event will begin, other than at the end of October/beginning of November.  There are a number of reasons why the date is still undetermined: One of which is that it's our 15th Blog Anniversary on the 15th Octob-
 No it's not!
 What?
 I said: No.  It's not!
 Well, when is it, then?
 Ummm... [hastily looks it up]  The 9th.
 Oh.  That's too early.  The Very Mistress's garden may still not have thawed out by then.  We need to give her frozen greenery time to put forth at least a couple of shoots before winter sets in again, so we can't have it coinciding with our anniversary.
 Well, shit.  Now we'll have to come up with an actual anniversay post!
 What about Hallowe'en?  If we have the grand opening then, we won't have to come up with a separate Hallowe'en post?
 Oh, that's a good idea!

For a change...

 Hey!

~o~

This book might come in handy:

Gardeners Guide to Unfuckable Plants

[seen at Tor.com and MacMillan Publishers]

~o~

Art Trek Not Trek: Hellrunner loves Spineback

 Good news, Everyone! 

 August's Star Trek Art Challenge has been cancelled!

 However, don't start celebrating just yet, as in its place is a load of other (mostly) old sci-fi properties that you probably couldn't give two figs about either.  Such fun!

 Here's the brief:

Welcome to the August 2020 Art Challenge — the 189th edition, for everyone who's taking count. That's 17 years of art challenges, with a majority of them focussing on Trek. Well, this month shall look a little different, because the theme is called Not Trek.

If you're anything like me then Star Trek isn't the only sci-fi universe you feel comfortable in. Well, this month is all about that. Basically the only requirement for your entry is that it somehow features a sci-fi entity other than Star Trek. Maybe you are passionate about Star Wars, Babylon 5, Battlestar Galactica, Red Dwarf, Doctor Who or The Orville. Or are you more into obscure stuff like Cowboy Bebop, Odyssey 5, Charlie Jade or Sliders? Anything goes, as long as its within the genre.

 Farscape instantly popped into my mind when I first saw the theme, then later on while in the bath (where I do all my thinking) I came up with this list (WARNING: Almost all the following links are to YouTube clips/trailers):

Ulysses 31, G-Force: Battle of the Planets (Gatchaman), Flight of the Navigator, Asgardians of the Galaxy (because I can't decide between Thor and Guardians of the Galaxy), Transformers (UK G1 comic and toys), Zoids (UK comic and toys), John Carter of Mars (Disney film, because I still haven't got around to reading the books), Jupiter Ascending (Bees! Gravity boots!! That wedding dress and hairpiece!!!), Primeval (Dinosaurs!), Day of the Triffids (the nightmare inducing 1980s BBC TV series), and The Tripods (I couldn't find a non-blurry clip with the original music, so here is the actual theme).

Not The Device Mansion Gardens: The Sequel

 Yesterday saw a return to the Old Vicarage Gardens in East Ruston. But this time, instead of going on my own to spend as much time as I liked there in peace and quiet, I reluctantly agreed to go with my sister, Inexcuseable, and three year old nephew, Count Podgkinson.
 Needless to say, much of the visit passed by in a blur - which wasn't as bad as it seemed as most of the gardens had obviously had their day and were looking a bit tired.  However, I did manage to get some snaps of a handful of unusual or distinctive flowers.

These are seed heads from some sort of ghastly lily, I think?

A feathery, clockwise-curving fern

Thursday Swim (including Leaf-Cutter Carnage!)

 Right. I think you've all had enough cake for now.  How about some beach photos as it's been a couple of weeks since the last lot?

[ s i l e n c e ]

 Well, that's all I've got to show at the moment, so it'll have to do!

 First up, my curious seal familiar from last Friday's amble along the promenade:

~o~

Did Someone Say...

...

Art Trek: New Look Next Gen

 I bet with all the beach posts lately you thought I might not have found time to fart-arse around with Star Trek art? Well, surprise!

 Don't worry though - there's not a lot to try and take in, and the end result is a rushed, sub-par sketch that you needn't look too closely at.

 I said:  Don't look too closely at it!

 Anyway, here we go with the theme so you know what you're letting yourselves in for...

What I'd like for us to do in July is to forget the somewhat stagnant design lineage between 2293 and the TNG era, and come up with concept art of how dramatically different in-universe Trek could look - at either the beginning of the TNG era in 2364 (71 years since the end of the TOS movies), or in 2399 (20 years or so after the end of the TNG era). As Norsehound says for 2399:

The challenge is to create a New Look/feel/set staging completely different from the TNG universe. Leave behind LCARS, one-piece uniforms, and organic looking ships. Treat TNG like yesteryear's TOS (Or appropriately, TMP) and design for us an alternate 2380 {2399} that is just as dramatically different as the early trek movies are from TOS.

For example, one of my bugbears are the massive consoles (conn, ops, and all the others). Why are they so bulky?? I know that in the real world they have to contain all the styrofoam rocks, explosives, CRT monitors, and lighting equipment required for the show, but in-universe shouldn't they be wafer-thin, floating in mid-air, firm to the touch yet yielding to a fall or impact?

I want to see your take on a no-holds barred, totally futuristic 2364 or 2399. In the words of MisterD:

What do you think Federation ships/technology of that era should look like? I want to see it all. Ships (outside and inside), LCARS, uniforms, equipment (phasers, tricorders etc.).......all that stuff and more.

Or, to put it slightly more succinctly (as I said to a fellow board member):

...amongst all that waffle, what I'm trying to say is: redesign the TNG era. Get rid of all the old TOS/TOS Movies trappings and make it completely different.  I mean, they're still using warp drive, and phasers, and tricorders, and navigational deflectors, and those corridors and transporter pads have been around for ever! It's old news, dahling.

Yikes - I'm beginning to sound like Edna Mode  

 Or, if you don't want to change TNG's style, then change Picard/2399 style instead - it's just too similar to what came before.

 Despite setting this theme myself (because I "won" the In Times of Crisis challenge in June), I was devoid of ideas - except for a flying saucer-esque Enterprise-D which languished in my notebook until 19th July when I finally sketched it out...

Saturday Swim: Submerged SeaWitch

Hold on to your lunches!  (Don't even try and guess what this is)

You can blame Mistress Maddie for what is about to be inflicting upon you!

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But to give you a little time to prepare yourselves, here are some photos from Thursday morning's swim:

The Host's stone spiral (last seen here) as discovered (left), and refurbished (right)