GPE 2025 : The Finale

* C R A C K *

 

 Drat it!  Who stood on that twig and startled my woodsman?  Now I'll have to leave him be for a while before I can sneak up again and snatch that horrid flannel shirt away.  Bah!

 Well, seeing as you're all here, we might as well get on with the closing ceremony.

 

 Thank you to everyone who took part in this year's Event.  Whether you shared your garden photos, visited and left comments, or just wandered around gazing at the various botanical specimens on show (and avoiding the triffids - unless you didn't, in which case, thanks for acting as fertiliser!).

The gardens and greenery were full of gorgeousness once again and, as always, served as inspiration for next year.

 Here's what we got up to:

 

Programme of Events

 

The  I N F O M A N I A C  GARDEN PHOTOS EVENT 2O25

 began on Hallowe'en with the now traditional TERRIFYING TRIFFIDERY!

 

 

1st November

The  I N F O M A N I A C  GARDEN PHOTOS EVENT

opening ceremony

 

 

GPE #11 : IDV's Year of the Greengage

I N E X P L I C A B L E

D E V I C E

 

 Yes, it's finally my turn!

 I'm sure you mean our turn, hmm?  After all, whose hands and body - not to mention knowledge and bank account - is used to maintain our garden?  If it was left to you, the Hexenhäusli Device gardens would be a prickly, poisonous wilderness of brambles, apple trees, hemlock, and foxgloves!

 It would save having to go out on the increasingly unsafe Broom to gather ingredients.  Besides, you like those plants.

 Yes, but not just those plants as a garden!

 Oh, fine.  You can get on with the captioning and the like as you're the "expert"!

 I will, then!

Oh, good.  This is turning out well, as usual.

Wake me up when it's all over.

 

 Right.  Now that Witchface and the dratted SubCs have shut up, I'll continue.

 You may have noticed that we've been decidedly absent from the blog this year, which means that there were rather fewer garden updates than usual.  A consequence of that is a glut of garden and allotment photos that are all being dumped here because they haven't yet seen the light of day.  I've tried to include mainly plants that haven't featured in the previous couple of years, and I've smushed some together to make sure this post didn't wear out your scrolling fingers.

 

It may be rather dull and overlooked usually, but when in flower (such as here in early May), I think laurel is quite lovely.

GPE #1 : Ms Scarlet's "is large and somewhat messy"

 [This is not Ms Scarlet.  This is Barney her canine companion]

 

M s  S C A R L E T

 My garden saw some new additions in 2025, namely a higher fence, and a larger dog. There were also some plant purchases, which included an apple tree in early Spring, and some Asters, which gave some much needed colour in early autumn. There was also something that had orange flowers - dead common, grows in hedgerows, and just about everywhere else, but I can't remember what it's called. We bought it in the hope that it would see off the ground elder. 

 The big pink bush did its thing in late spring - not as vibrant as last year, but still in the pink. 2025 was a good year for the Hawthorn tree, but not as good as 2023. 

 

[Snowdrops in January - IDV]

The Infomaniac Garden Photos Event 2025

 Welcome to the 15th annual I N F O M A N I A C  GARDEN PHOTOS EVENT, and the 6th to be hosted here at Inexplicable Device! 

  

 Thank you to everyone who sent in photos - and to those of you who haven't yet got around to it but will do soon.  And certainly by Tuesday the 4th!  Without you  - even the slackers and lallygaggers (whom do not include Savvy this year as she got her photos in BEFORE the original deadline!!) - there would be no Garden Photos Event.

 

 As of this writing, there are 11 sets of your garden and/or pot plant photographs waiting in the wings to be published throughout November.  

 Unfortunately, The Very Mistress herself is not taking part this year - in her words: "I have nothing" - so I have included this sunflower from the gardens of Hexenhäusli Device in honour of her 2020 contribution.  

 And also, in the continued absence of the Infomaniac Duck (and last year's stand ins, the Hexenhäusli Device Dove & Jackdaw), may I present our special guests, the Canberran Cockatoo & Magpie:

 

 

 Some of you may recognise the above pair from another blog, Elephant's Child, run by Dinahmow's friend Sue.  Sadly, Sue lost her battle with cancer at the end of September, so Dinah asked if we could feature her garden as she left it - bright, colourful, and full of the joys of spring.  Of course I agreed, so you'll be able to see Sue's spring bulbs and other blooms about midway through the Event (garden #5).

 

 So, what else is coming up? 

Filling gaps and softening edges

 Here are some photos from the garden today.  I had intended to go through the garden photos I've taken throughout the year and select some for the upcoming Garden Photos Event-

 From the beginning of November, people!  We hope you've been snapping away at your green stuff?!

 Anyway, as I was saying, I'd started to select some photos for the GPE, but nieces descended upon us, so that went out the window leaving us with just enough time to slap together this post of a few hastily taken photos of our tired, end-of-season greenery.

 There's not much in the way of colour, but there are a few splashes here and there, like the pale purple (mauve?) scabious and yellow geum above.

Bitey on the Beach

  I'm on holiday this week.  I made some plans - something to do every day so as not to waste the time - and thought I'd have plenty of time for catching up with your blogs and updating my own.  The universe had other plans, however...

 

  Still, I managed to go to the Old Vicarage Gardens in East Ruston on Saturday, window shopping in Norwich on Monday morning, a long walk & paddle on the beach with Bitey on Tuesday, back down to the beach for a swim (which turned out to be a very deep paddle - more on that later) then gardening and allotmenteering yesterday, and here we are on Thursday already!  I've been swimming (in a heated pool) and done some tidying up in the garden and then came indoors because the forecast is for rain.  

 

  It is not raining.  Rather than put my shoes and socks back on to go back outside, I thought I'd use this opportunity to do some blogging.  So, here are some of the photos from Tuesday's foray down to the beach:

 

Approaching the End-of-the-Line

 

The End-of-the-Line

Four Photos: Elephant!

Last month, we found this in the red greenhouse

 

It's an elephant hawkmoth

 

And last week The Mother discovered this on the lawn.  Well Bitey discovered it and The Mother went over to see what he was staring at. An elephant hawkmoth caterpillar (she thought it was a poo!)

 

Yaaaaaaaaaaaaaarrrrgh!*  It's going to devour us all!!!!

 

 

*It may or may not be a pirate. 

Hey Hi Hello

Alison Goldfrapp - Hey Hi Hello

 

 

 I think it's about time for a Garden Photos Event reminder, don't you, Very Mistress?

 

The House of

 

I N F O M A N I A C

 

Garden Photos Event 2025

 

 As with previous years, this year's GPE will be held throughout November, with the event kicking off on Hallowe'en with the now traditional Terrifying Triffidery exhibit.  This leaves you little more than three months to take photos of your green spaces (if you haven't already made a start) and curate them before emailing them to me by the end of October.

 

 Infomaniac Bitches should already know the score, but for the muddled, forgetful, and easily startled/distracted - not to mention anyone new who'd like to take part - there's a potted history of the Infomaniac GPE on its own dedicated page at the top of this blog so you can see what you'll be letting yourself in for/getting involved in.  And despite some comments to the contrary, the GPE is NOT a contest, so your gardening efforts (or lack thereof) will not be judged and there will be no winner.  This means you, Savvy!

 There's no particular theme this year - we'll accept photos of pretty much anything garden-related, whether selected prize specimens that would make Monty Don weep or breathtaking vistas of your expansive grounds, to the potted dwellers on your balcony/windowsill, to a resilient plant that you haven't managed to kill yet. 

 And if you have a straggly and unruly bush that you suspect may be a weed but fascinated you enough to wonder what it is, the Official Plant Spotter of Hexenhäusli Device and its Extensive Witchdom, nay, All of Blogdom Itself, Jon, should be on hand to identify your unmentionables. 

 

 Right.  That's that bit done.  Here are a few bits & bobs from my garden this month to goad you into action:

 

View over the Circular Paysho from behind a hebe.

Four Photos: Wishful Thinking?

A hummingbird hawk moth drinking from one of the buddleias in the Hexenhäusli Device gardens this afternoon.

 

Oh my gods!!!  They're almost holding hands!  They're going to do It*!!!!!!

(Two of my three favourite** lowest of the Lower Deckers - Fin*** the super-hot, pretty boy human med tech and Charlie**** the adorable Andorian engineer - from the first episode of Star Trek: Lower Decks season 4, "Twovix".  I took this photo back in April as I couldn't take a screen shot and couldn't find one online [I have found one since then, though] - I wanted it for research purposes, the end result of which will probably be posted here at some point.)

 

Bitey on the beach on Wednesday evening.

 

Someone in this house had this for tea on Wednesday - and it certainly wasn't me!

 

 

* According to First Officer Jack Ransom (in "Parth Ferengi's Heart Place"), the Cerritos is the "horniest ship in the fleet" (and doesn't have any married couples on board).

** The third is Buddy the Vulcan, as featured here with the other two.

*** He's not named in the show as he's just a non-speaking background character, but he looks remarkably like my backup lifeguard at the pool I swim in, so I've given him the same name.

**** Again, unnamed in the show, but someone has named him Charlie.  I'm going with it for now as I haven't thought of anything better.

Four Photos: Bee Edition

 "Four Photos" is an idea I've just had to help me get back to our little corner of the BlogWorld. 

 Rather than spend hours trying to work out what to say (if I don't have anything to say), or how to say it (if I do), I just need to select four photos that I've taken and slap them up here on my blog with as little or as much accompanying text as I feel is necessary or can be bothered with.  

 There doesn't need to be a theme, or anything that links the chosen photos, and they don't even have to be recent ones, but they do have to be photos I've taken.  (I'm considering family photos as well - just in case I happen to look at old photo albums and see something of interest.)

 

 This first set, you will see, does have a theme.  Well, the first three do, anyway.  Bees!

 Just over three weeks ago I was up at the allotment and noticed a rather loud buzzing.  Once I'd worked out where the noise was coming from, I saw the air over number 37 (next door but two to mine) was rather hazy.  Putting down my tools, I wandered over to investigate.

 

It's not readily noticeable in this photo, but the air was thick with honeybees - I didn't get any closer.

 

I don't know if they were coming or going.

 

You can't really make out the bees in front of the blackthorn blossom, but look at the sky between the branches and twigs.

: : :

 

Oblivious to the danger lurking under the swing, Bitey rolls around on the lawn.

(From 20th April)

: : :

 

 Should anyone else who is suffering from the 'blog uselessness' bug think that this 'Four Photos' treatment may help them, please feel free to use it.

"Did Someone Say ----?"*

I caught these two doing it in the pond Lake.  Disgraceful!

 

 

* Answers in the comments, please.

 

 Hello!  Here I am!  I don't have much to say, so I will just bombard you with gardening-related photos (mostly) which may also serve as a prompt to start photographing your own gardens and/or green patches for the 15th annual Lady Garden Presentation

 

I N F O M A N I A C

Garden Photos Event

later in the year.

 

 But first some music to accompany your scrolling, the always delightful Dame Sophie Ellis-Bextor with "Relentless Love": 

 

MARCH

The 30th to be precise...

 

I finally got around to shingling the other side of the walkway from the Grand Paysho to the South Lawn (after I'd moved the buddleia back a bit).  As well as that pink cordyline, I popped in some irises, echiums, crocosmias, alliums (which had all been hanging around in pots for the past year or so), and a peony (which I moved from my shade garden the Gardener's Retreat).

"Access at either end remains open"

 Just popping up some photos of last weekend's beach walk before I get distracted with something else and another month flies by. 

 I'll probably take Bitey down to the beach again today because the weather hasn't changed since last Saurday: sunshine and blue skies all the way (although it appears to be reverting to the normal clouds and rain from this Tuesday, so that's a comfort).

 

Bitey Gets Ignored

 It has been near enough freezing all day, so I've been indoors mainly working on my entry for this month's Star Trek fan art challenge.  However, at about half one I felt the need for a stretch and some fresh - if cold - air, so I gathered Bitey up and took him down to the beach.  And here are the photos to prove it!

 Oh, in a couple of photos time (after the jump) there is a scene that sensitive viewers may wish to brace themselves for.  All I'll say at this point is that you should count yourselves lucky you weren't here to smell it!

 Anyway, the main thing is: the photos.  Oh and this tune (which I know from the film, Evolution):

The Winter sea has scoured away much of the sand exposing large swathes of the underlying chalk bed.

 

Approaching the End-of-the-Line

 Hold your noses and stomachs for what's next:

Old Knobs and Groynes

 Bitey and I went for a lunchtime walk in the drizzle and found ourselves surrounded by knobs at what's left of the End-of-the-Line.  Bitey didn't seem fussed, but I was thrilled, let me tell you!  And I'm sure at least one of you will be, too.

Before we reached the End-of-the-Line, I tutted disapprovingly at Cliff's slovenly posture.

Garden Photos Event update

 Well, the deadline for sending in your garden/graveyard/windowsill/duck photos has come and gone, and I'm surprised to have received entries from as many as six Bloggerati (thank you all).  I am not surprised that dear Savvy's entry wasn't amongst them...

 

 Anyway, you still have time to get your photos in if you want to take part (into the first week of November, if absolutely required), but please note: if you have a Terrifying Triffidery photo, you MUST email it to me by midday tomorrow UK time.  That's anywhere between 5am on the US west coast to 8am on the East, I think?  And 1pm in Franconia...  (The expected Australian entry is in, but if there are any more you'll have to work the time out yourselves as your country spans too many time zones for me to be arsed to list).

 

 Everyone is welcome - even newcomers, friends-of-friends, lurkers, Lady Goldberg-DeWoofs etc. - so if you'd like to take part, please do!  This blog's gmail address can be found in my profile up there on the Sideboard to the right.  If you have any questions, please ask away in the comments.

 

Hope to see you and your  I N F O M A N I A C  Garden Photos Event snaps soon!

Cloudbusting

 Yesterday was the first clear-skyed day for some time, and the last chance to see C/2023 A3, otherwise known as Comet Tsuchinshan-ATLAS or Comet A3, for 80,000 years.  An occasion such as that warranted leaving work early and hightailing it home in order to witness said comet, so I did.

 Having miscalculated the amount of time required to get home, take Bitey out for his evening "movement", and then wander up Madam's Lane with Camera and Tripod, I set out with all three - getting hotter and hotter as I neared Madam's Lane (it had been a VERY warm day for the time of year).

 Once I'd trudged up the not-very-steep-or-very-high Toll's Hill to the Nightship stop (very near boiling point), I gazed around the points of the compass, marvelling at the beautifully clear skies above and to the North, the East, and the South.  And there to the West was my target - obscured behind the only clouds in the sky.  Drat!

The view west from the Nightship stop looking out over Toll's Hill and not seeing any comets.

Where was Kate Bush when I needed her?

 Not wanting to have a completely wasted trip, I thought I'd take some photos of the stars coming out in the west.  But that was scuppered by the Moon which was massive and brilliant, totally obscuring the stars in Camera's sights.  Bah!

 Still, I did inadvertantly get a shot of the light from Cromer lighthouse:

An Oddity or Two

 You can thank Madam Arcati for this post, for if she had not seen fit to furnish us with her August flowering foxglove, you would be hastily scrolling through/clicking past a Star Trek fan art post featuring a barely clothed Rutherford.*

 Except for the first photo, here are some late blooming floral oddities from the gardens of Hexenhäusli Device this morning:

From yesterday's Bitey walk: A foxglove in the wild.

Sorry.  Please ignore Bitey's fluffy bottom, and focus your attention on the rather lacklustre foxglove.

Tails and Orbs and Fairy Rings

 Just dropping off some photos from a couple of Bitey walks (as vaguely requested by The Very Mistress, here): the sun setting over the trees set are from Saturday, and the fairy ring and sea set are from lunch time today.  The musical accompaniment - "Locked Out of Heaven" by Bruno Mars -  is only featuring because it popped into my mind while swimming this morning.

Orb!  Or Camera artefact...

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.

Of Forthcoming Fruit and Fugitive Familiars

 I took Bitey up to the allotment earlier for some exercise and so I could see if the seemingly neverending rain had turned the ripening soft fruit to mush.  It hadn't, surprisingly - as can be seen in these photographs.

 

 And both Bitey and me got more exercise than I'd planned for!  (A brief synopsis of events can be found at Ms Scarlet's.)

I think we're going to be all right for loganberries this year...