Trail Of Destruction

 Before those Bluer Deckers in the previous post outstay their welcome (if they haven't already), I thought I'd better pop in so that you know I haven't fallen over The Cusp never to be seen again.  I don't have anything to say/show except that Kim Wilde's latest has been an oft played earworm since The Host discovered it eleven days ago.  Oh, and my absence wasn't due to or caused a "Trail of Destruction".

 Right.  I'd better engage in a flurry of visiting and commenting while I have a few minutes.  See you out there!

Bluer Decks

  Star Trek fan art time!  But don't worry - I'll make it quick.

 

  August's Star Trek fan art challenge theme was "Toon Trek":

Take some inspiration from your favorite non-Trek cartoon or comic and draw Trek scenes in the same manner. How about Looney Tunes, Arthur, Calvin and Hobbes, Garfield, etc? Alternately, show us your own unique drawing style.

 Initially I was thrilled because I thought it would be a chance to finish the Ulysses 31 / Lower Decks poster I started last year, but real life got in the way so I had to reduce the scope of my plans.  I didn't think I was going to have time to do anything, but at the very last minute I came up with this Bluey / LDS mash-up:  Bluer Decks

 

From left to right: Bandit Heeler/Sam Rutherford, Bluey Heeler/Beckett Mariner, Bingo Heeler/Brad Boimler, and Chilli Heeler/D'Vana Tendi.

 

 

 The final season of Star Trek: Lower Decks is out on Paramount+ 24th October! Yeah, I know I've already featured this teaser trailer before, but you can never have too much Lower Decks!

Reminder: The Infomaniac Garden Photos Event 2024

If the previous post wasn't enough of a prompt, here's an official reminder:

 

 

the House of

 

I N F O M A N I A C

 

Garden Photos Event 2024

 

is only two months away!

 I hope you've all been snapping away in your green spaces this season in readiness for the event of the year?  If not, you'd better get to it as I don't want to have to get my wand out and turn you into one of these:

☙❧

 

  Let's have a bit of musical accompaniment, shall we?  I've only recently discovered Sophie Ellis-Bextor's cover of Propaganda's "Duel" and, needless to say, it's fabulous!

Lurking Green Old Friends

 With nothing prepared and not much time to conjur up a new post - especially that Garden Photos Event reminder I said I'd do last time (and the time before) - I thought I'd publish this post which has been lurking about unfinished in my drafts since the end of March. 

 I haven't finished it - I was going to add some more photos and a couple more plants but can't be bothered haven't got time.

⌇  ⌇  ⌇

 I can't remember when exactly, but not too long ago - within a year or two, I'm sure (maybe three?) - Jon said something somewhere about plants that he'd had for years having survived/coped with several moves, and I'd replied with some examples of my own.

 Well, after showing my pot-bound bonsai* Acer in the previous but one post, I thought I'd do some research - i.e. trawl through loads of old photographs - to find out just how long that Acer had been if not flourishing, then at least suriving in its shallow, blue-glazed pot.  And find out I did. 

 Along the way I also discovered the origins or early days of a few other green old friends, so I've collected them together here so as not to have wasted all that time and effort for nothing.

* Thank you, Mitzi. 

Acer palmatum: After much to-ing & fro-ing between batches of photos from 2010 and 2011, I can safely say that my Acer has been with me since mid-late 2010 at the earliest or early 2011 at the latest.  I didn't buy it in the blue pot it's currently growing in - I'm pretty sure it came in the usual plastic pot and I then decanted it into a terracotta pot before moving it on to its current home.

 

This is my Acer's first photographic appearance - a cropped & enhanced shot from a set taken on 2 May 2011 at the second Castle DeVice (the one I shared with SP).  I think it must have been drunk on fertiliser as it's staggered over.

Cormorants!

 I know I said at the end of the previous post that I'd probably do a Garden Photos Event reminder next, but I took Bitey along the beach (what little there was of it due to the high tide) to the End-of-the-Line this morning and: Cormorants!

Romancing the Precious Cargo

 The brief for July's Star Trek Fan Art Challenge was, well, brief:

  

Not Good Enough: Art inspired by unpopular episodes

  One particular episode came to mind as soon as this theme was suggested: "Precious Cargo" (a kind of screwball comedy).  Although it's not my absolute favourite, it is one of my most watched episodes of Star Trek: Enterprise (and not just because the lovely Connor Trinneer is running around in his undercrackers again).  However, almost everyone else considers it "a piece of crap" - even the episode writer, David Goodman!

 I quickly gathered up some screencaps from TrekCore and put together the rough draft below.  The inspiration for this came from the Romancing the Stone movie - specifically the odd couple romance and the crashing around in a jungle (I love that movie!). 

 

 Initially, I'd intended the backdrop to be a screencap of the watery jungle that Trip and Kaitaama find themselves in (similar to the RtS poster background), but the characters didn't stand out very well against it so I used a shot of their escape pod descending towards the planet instead.  Happily, the top of the escape pod lent itself as a marvellous background for the episode title.

"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! 

Out and about with Bitey

 I was just thinking how lovely and easy it is to upload photos to Blogger and pop them into a post in a specific order,* and that it could stand to be far more difficult and annoying.**  Fortunately the Google Blogger gnomes heard my thoughts and intervened.  Hooray!***

 Anyway, now that my patience and copy-&-pasting fingers have had a work out, here are some photos from a few perambulations up Toll's Hill to Skylark Field where Bitey likes to run around and stick his nose in everything.  And also catch rabbits and chase small deer.

Frock or Smock?

  I'm not sure what to make of this ghastly print t-shirt dress or whatever it is?  Mitzi, have you seen the like on your forays oop North?

This Weekend, I Am Mostly Dressing Casual

 

Empire Of The Sun - "Cherry Blossom"

 

Empire Of The Sun - "Music On The Radio"

 

Thank you Jon for the idea (and for the post title).  And I've just realised that this could also do rather well as "I Think Today Should Be A Say Something Hat Day!"

 

P. S. Why don't we have some of this while we're at it, too:

Golden Towers

 Yes, I know at the end of the previous post I said I may return the following day, but I also said that "normal service may resume" which, as you all know by now, means days if not a week or two between posts.  And, if you hadn't already gathered, this post includes the previously mentioned space shuttles and golden towers - I'll do the Bitey walk and Norwich skyline photos another time.

 So, why are there space shuttles and golden towers on the beach, I hear you clamouring - or at least tutting indifferently about?  Well, it was all for June's Star Trek art challenge which had a "World(s of Star Trek) Buildings" theme.  I had intended to construct a little cardboard castle or palace to represent Lwaxana Troi's family home, but despite collecting various cereal boxes for the raw material, time escaped me (again).  So, in a last minute panic, I rushed down to the beach last Thursday evening with a carrier bag full of coffee jar lids and a small model shuttle.  The photo above and those at the end of this post are the result. 

 I also took some non-Star Trek photos for those of you who couldn't give two figs about such things (i.e. most of you) - and these are them:

That's either the sun setting or everyone in Cromer forgot they left the gas on as they lit a fag.

Tying Up Loose Ends

 It's taken me a week to get over the Ten Day Blogging Challenge thingy but before I move on to business as usual, I have a couple of things to say and a couple of loose ends to tie up.

 Firstly, the 10DBC has given me new found respect for the likes of Jon (who was the unwitting inspiration behind the challenge), Mistress Maddie, and Mr Tonking who can often be found teetering at the top of my Sideboard thanks to their daily blog posts.  Their commitment to blogging and, therefore, entertaining us each day, cannot be underestimated - they are an inspiration!

 Secondly, big thanks to Ms Scarlet who was the instigator of the 10DBC - taking up the mantle of the Daily Blogger when Jon departed for sunnier climes - and to Savvy who took over when Ms Scarlet's ten days were up.  Your efforts were the motivation I needed to see this through myselves.  Thank you.

 Now, on to those loose ends:

  1. I do NOT work in Warhammer.  Although, I think The Very Mistress might have posed for one or two of these little sculptures unless I'm very much mistaken?

 

Apologies for the poor image clarity.  I couldn't get any photos without loads of reflections and this is the clearest I could make them after messing around with the contrast and shadows etc.