I wasn't going to post more snow photos because I'm sure those of us with snow are sick of it, and for those without it's just rubbing your noses in it. However, I'm still working on the post which I'd intended to publish, so as I've gone to all the effort of trudging around the frozen countryside this morning, you might as well have a look at the best bits.
The photo above is the view across to Hungry Hill. To the left is the old reservoir which, as you'll see from the photos below, is frozen over. But doesn't it look lovely?
Like much of the UK (except Devon, it seems), Hexenhäusli Device and its environs has become encumbered with a blanket of snow - the most we've had since the end of Feb/beginning of March 2018. Unlike three years ago, I didn't have to struggle to get to work (not that I struggled very hard, it has to be said) thanks to working from home for some reason...
Anyway, here are some photos (which are very similar to those 2018 ones):
The leading photo and the one above are from yesterday's lunchtime excursion
Yes, at 196 light years away poor Petra (AKA WASP-80) is too dim to be seen with the naked eye, with an apparent magnitude of only 11.88. If you get your telescope out however, Petra can be found in the constellation Aquila (the Eagle) just off the tip of its beak at right acension 20h 12m 40.18s, declination −02° 08′ 39.1″. She also has an entourage - at least one planet, Wadirum, constantly orbits her, attending to her every whim and desire.
I haven't been out stargazing lately, so I put this star map together from a photo I took back in August 2019 (which is why Saturn is in Sagittarius here rather than Capricornus)
Yes, Mago will have some stellar company with this Diva Lady. And speaking of Mago, let's pre-empt his Sunday Music with some 'Petra-themed tunes:
What with it being a remarkably nice day today, I decided to go out for a longer walk than usual (especially as the forecast for the coming week is cold and icy). This walk turned out to be a LOT longer than I expected as I had to forgo many footpaths and cut-throughs because of all the mud (more of that coming up) and take the long way around (i.e. the road).
I began by walking up Madam's Lane and cutting across to the old reservoir next to the radar station where I disturbed this heron:
Thanks to Mago's unintentionalprodding, I've come up with a list of books I've read over the last year or two. Well, most of them, anyway. And I've just discovered that the last time I did a proper Books post was in September 2018! Although I can't remember everything I've read since then (I'm sure it's not a lot), I did find one book in my Kindle that I must have read just after that last book post:
Anyway, on to2019(the month and year in brackets after the title and author is aproximately when I read each book):
∘ Available Light (Star Trek: The Next Generation), by Dayton Ward (April 2019) - Oh, dear... What a disappointment. I'm over all the political fallout rubbish that features in half of this novel, and the "adventurous" other half was just dull. Worf was great, though!
∘ Prime Directive (Star Trek: The Original Series), by Judith & Garfield Reeves-Stevens (April 2019) - This old novel (my fourth or fifth re-read) is still wonderful, though.
∘ Exploring Calvin and Hobbes: An Exhibition Catalogue, by Bill Watterson (May 2019) - the last (but hopefully not least) Calvin and Hobbes book I bought. But not the last one I read...
∘ The Captain's Oath (Star Trek: The Original Series), by Christopher L Bennett (June 2019) - Christopher L Bennett is one of my favourite Trek authors, and this Original Series novel is one of my favourite of that era.
It was while dragging a draft post about books into 2021 and getting it fit to be published, that I noticed that there were 1300 posts on this blog. But, upon closer inspection, 16 of them were drafts, so it'll be at least a couple of months before I hit that nice, round 1300 published posts.
I pondered deleting the drafts as some of them are bloody ancient, but I thought I might actually finish them off one day and publish them. Then I got to wondering if anyone else has a load of half-finished (or less) posts languishing in their "drafts" folder. So, do you? If I show you mine, will you show me yours? I hope so, because here are mine:
Out of these first five, I'd just about managed to get "Books" in some sort of order, but I've ruined it with some questionable font/size choices, so that's going to take some unravelling. Then, I'm preparing for this years "Coven Awards" as I had an idea for a revamp which means taking note of things as they happen, rather than trying to remember stuff in a panic half-way through December. There's also some preparation for a trip over the Cusp for "Ms Scarlet's Birthday" in March - but the rest of that post depends on whether we get this pandemic under control and the Cusp opens its borders. Obviously, "Isn't It Drafty In Here" is this post, which just leaves "It's a Faake! prose" - which I will probably delete it as it's only a half-arsed Star Trek story that, despite the Jan 3 date, has actually been hanging around since at least Feb 2019 (which is the penultimate time that I edited it). The only reason it's still hangning around is that I've been using it to upload images to my Blogger gallery, and Jan 3rd was the last time I did that...
Having found myself awake just before dawn, I thought I may as well go out and see the sunrise as the sky was relatively clear. In the fifteen minutes it took me to get dressed and make my way to the cliff top, the inevitable clouds had arrived and made things a little more interesting.
It was (and still is) very cold and frosty, so I had to be careful getting down the slope to the promenade. Once down there, I could only get about halfway along before great sheets of extremely slippery ice across the prom (from all the water draining out of the cliffs) halted my progress. Fortunately, there was a small amount of beach, so I descended the steps to the sand and made my way east.
After the weekend's snowy disappointment, I thought I'd do a happy post to make up for it. So, without further ado, these are some of my (current) favourite things:
Superstore:
I found this sitcom on Netflix on Sunday. Or, rather, Netflix displayed it prominently on the home page and I got suckered in by it. I watched the little preview (with the sound off - always with the sound off) and thought I saw Ugly Betty. I kept watching and, yes, there was America Ferrera along with a very attractive Pretty Boy (Ben Feldman), so of course I was going to watch it. Well, a few minutes of the first episode, anyway...
It was joyful! I couldn't stop at the first episode, and now I'm halfway through season 2! I hadn't realised how much I really needed something light-hearted and entertaining to lift me out of the lockdown doldrums. I urge any of you who may be feeling a little (or a lot) glum to find something fun to watch or do (I have also watched a couple of French & Saunders episodes, and 13 Going on 30 starring the delightful Jennifer Garner and adorably handsome Mark Ruffalo).
It snowed this morning. A wet, white flurry of mushy disappointment. It wasn't cold enough for it to be that nice crisp, dry snow that's good to walk in, so I stayed in and made paper globes to replace the Christmas/Winterval baubles on the cake stands in the kitchen.
Well, apart from work and wandering about the countryside surrounding Hexenhäusli Device, not a lot. As these photos go to show...
First up from 27th December, the titular blue bottom and a load of clay:
Near the end of the End-of-the-Line is a blue bottom!
Don't worry, this photo was taken from quite a long way off.
This grey seal pup had just been disentangled from a discarded jacket, and was getting over the ordeal by lounging about waiting for its mum to return from the sea.
In fact, it was the first and only vinyl record I ever bought. And the only reason for that is that all the cassette tapes and CDs had sold out (although, I'm not sure that I even had a CD player back then?).
~o~
On a related note, I really wanted to feature French & Saunders' spoof of "Stay" (and "I Don't Care") "Destiny" by Dickens Daughters (which features in the first episode of their fourth series, "Misery"), but there's no clip on YouTube (however, for those of you in the UK, it is on BBC iPlayer!).
Dawn French and Jennifer Saunders as Siobhan Fahey and Marcella Detroit
EDIT: Jon found the clip on DailyMotion:
So instead (of the clip that wasn't on YT, but is on DM, and can now be found above, meaning that this bit is now surplus to requirements but I'm keeping it as its funny. Well, I think so anyway...), may I present this exceedingly poor quality, much shorter clip - that I still find pant-wettingly hilarious - from The Mary Whitehouse Experience, performed by David Baddiel and Rob Newman:
~o~
Drat! Perhaps I should have written out this quote for Ms Scarlet's "Did I Win Yet?" Award/Quiz/Competition/Event thingy?
A new day dawned and, as I was awake and it wasn't raining, I decided to go out on Broom to see the sun rise. I hadn't taken Broom out for a spin in ages - Autumn and Winter are generally too windy, wet and cold - but as there was only the lightest of breezes and the likelihood of anyone seeing me several dozen metres up (because most people would be still in bed, or nursing hangovers from the night before) was slim, this was as good a time as any.
After some persuading, a couple of choice swear words, and a good kick, I eventually managed to get Broom airborne. Then, after only a modicum of cajoling, I enticed it back down so that I could get on!
A rather wobbly ascent to clear the trees around Hexenhäusli Device, and a stomach-churning plummet over the edge of the cliff later, I managed to get Broom steadied just over the beach huts on the promenade.
