Starscream's breakdance lessons were not going too well...

Took Kai for a proper haircut today - Jeff at The Zone. Looking good! (Photo? Not a chance. He hates having his taken almost as much as I do.)

No snake, alas. Her current mum was off work with a bout of food poisoning today.

Hopefully early next week, when she's recovered.

Poppy calls...

Labels: snakes, Starscream, The Poppy Tales

Let's dance! ->

Poggled. Up 7.45, wash on and out, lounge cleared, corner cleared, table cleared, floor hoovered, Kai's floor and chest of drawers cleared to take the clocks from the corner, table moved to corner to hold vivarium, drooping asparagus tied up. Then lunch.

Two and a half hours of client stuff, then the promised feedback for a friend, then more client stuff. But hopefully that's most of it all done so I can have tomorrow mostly to myself. Fingers crossed anyway.

Hopefully can start tackling next Poppy tonight!

Labels: busyness, client sites, domesticity, Starscream, The Poppy Tales

Later edit: snake arrives Friday. Kai has had a look through uni prospectuses and made a short-list. And Transformers: Prime season 2 is out in a DVD boxed set on the 20th November (mine is already pre-ordered). [g]

"You feeling lucky, punk?"

[blink] It looks like we're getting a snake...

One of Ken's workmates rehouses snakes with her partner. They rehoused four last weekend and had just one left. And it seems we're going to be its new carers. She's a Madagascan ground boa, three foot long, and is coming with vivarium and all equipment included. And apparently she's very tame and perfectly fine with a puppy bouncing around, so hopefully she won't mind Tyjer. As long as he doesn't think she's a very big slowworm and try playing with her. Heh. Luckily the vivarium has a lock...

[happy grin] I've always wanted a snake.

I need a name...

In other news: Suddenly, autumn. Woke up at 5.57 to yet more rain (couldn't get back to sleep but have had a fairly productive morning so not complaining). Tyjer has given up trying to go outside...

We watched the latest Lovefilm, The Man From Earth. Terrific. Must have. We seem to be having a run of introspective, thought-provoking films at the moment. Makes a change from giant alien transforming robots with sexy voices, I suppose! [g]

Labels: films, pets, Starscream, tired, Tyjer

HUG!!

Busy. Client stuff. Attempting an early night...

Labels: client sites, Starscream

The Hearts of Steel Starscream? ->

Ken said "buy him".

[gulp] So he's pre-ordered. £60. Plus another £15.50 p&p. And I'm afraid to check how much the import tax will be...

But he's gorgeous. And while (to put it in perspective) £75 represents four days' worth of meals for us all, as collectors' items go that's not hugely pricey. I mean, I could be addicted to expensive jewellery. Designer handbags. Exclusive wines. Manolo Blahnik shoes...

OK - that's all a bit unlikely. But you see my point.

Anyway... October. Can't wait!

(And Sainsbug's had a Prime Wheeljack. He's now put away waiting to be wrapped for my birthday.)

Labels: Starscream, Transformers: Prime

[sob]

Hearts of Steel Starscream...

(Do want. Do want so hard...)

Labels: Starscream

Fourteenth part of New World - Repairs - now posted over at The Poppy Tales (link above).

Enjoy!

Labels: The Poppy Tales, Transformers

Wheeee! [happy grin] The season finale of Rescue Bots (two awesome eps back to back: doesn't matter what the continuity watching Prime fight is always a treat) and ep 17 of Tf: Prime (equally awesome, worth the wait, and now I need a Prime Wheeljack figure. Wasn't too keen on him when he first arrived but he's definitely grown on me. Miko was marginally better here too. She's still a selfish irresponsible brat and it's still all about her, but she showed a little more maturity. Fingers crossed the writers build on it...)

My week is complete.

And I'm three pages into next Poppy and it's coming along swimmingly.

Labels: The Poppy Tales, Transformers Rescue Bots, Transformers: Prime

[sigh] I may have to move him from his post right in front of me - he's far too easy - and too much fun - to play with...

"Hi. I'm Starscream. Say hello to Mr Null Ray."

Staying Alive ->

(Lutra says "This version has a sense of humour, clearly...")

... I wonder if he'd perch on Armada SS's shoulder...?

Later edit: He does!

Labels: Starscream

As I said - posable.

Or, as Lutra said - "swoop, dive, wheeeeeeee!!"

And even be very silly if he feels so inclined.

Been a day of client stuff and Tesco shopping, where to my intense irritation I found an itty bitty teeny weeny Cyberverse DotM Soundwave masquerading as the Tf:P Soundwave! Who the hell do these idiots think they're fooling? Problem is, now this... sacrilege is packaged and on sale, there will probably never be a genuine Cyberverse Prime Soundwave and my collection will remain incomplete... [grump]

On Skype, talking about Dartmoor and Exmoor, and the horses that live there: -

Labels: client sites, Skype, Starscream, Transformers

Revoltech G1 Starscream...

I know, I know, I'm not supposed to have him 'til my birthday...

Beautiful design, wonderfully poseable, and the stand means he can be posed hovering. It is somewhat amusing that the stud on the stand that holds him in place fits into a hole in his backside, however...

[sigh] Soooo tempted to say that's probably why he's grinning before Lutra says it in the comments....[smirk] (Oh look I gave into temptation.)

Spent the entire day going back and forth between the park and the house (with two shopping trips to Sainsbug's) as today was the environmental group volunteers' visit to help with the Community Garden and other APAG members were either on holiday or otherwise engaged. And I couldn't do anything to help, physically, because of the hand. BUT! Between 10 and 3.15 they cleared the entire space of the remaining turf, all the weeds and remaining rubble, and barrowed down six or seven loads of leaf mulch from way back at the top of the park to spread around the plants. It looks amazing! There are a few photos and a big thank you over on the APAG website. (And then I got distracted and forgot to take a final pic when the work was done. Maybe at the weekend.)

But I'm knackered. Lugging two loads of shopping and then standing around in the sun all day do not agree with me. Hopefully trying for an early night.

Labels: APAG, Starscream, Transformers

Thirteenth part of New World - Scraps and Splinters pt 3 - now posted over at The Poppy Tales (link above).

Enjoy!

Labels: The Poppy Tales, Transformers

Later edit:

[pissing self laughing] Go here and read the comments...

Thanks Sue - made my day!

[sigh] Another Monday. Wish there weren't so many of them...

But I am two and a half pages into the next Poppy chapter, so all was not lost.

Labels: nowt really, The Poppy Tales

Later edit:

I wouldn't have noticed if I hadn't been looking down...

A very discreet Decepticon brand on a silver Subaru parked outside of Sainsbury's. [g] (The guy in it said it was OK to take photos...)

And then I found an itty bitty teeny weeny Cyberverse Wheeljack in the shop...

And then I found an Animated (Voyager) Starscream on amazon us for slightly more than half price (£9.47) and Ken said just to go ahead and grab it while I could.

[g] My day is complete...

My protoform Starscream arrived...

[blink] Since when did we start getting Sunday post deliveries? They stopped years ago.

Um, it is Sunday, isn't it?

Heh. Kai has just pointed out that it's Starscream. He's hardly likely to let a simple thing like the lack of Sunday postal deliveries stop him!

Anyway - he's dramatic!

Graphic-novel-accurate and as usual an impressive piece of design.

But, as I said, not pretty...

He came in root mode and I don't feel like transforming him today. Will do it some other time and photograph then. His cometary protoform looks like this...

Edit: just realised the back of his head and his eyes are translucent red plastic: his eyes glow with light behind him. [g] As Lutra says, spiffy!

And I've had confirmation my Revoltech SS is on his way from Hong Kong, though he'll take longer to get here and I can't have him 'til next Feb anyway.

Then I can take a photo of all the Starscreams together. (Fingers crossed I can get the Animated version by then!)

In other news... Ken's lifted the massive reed plant out of the reed bed pool at the top and set it to drain of any living things for a week, then we'll compost it. It just grows too fast for me to keep it under control. The square is actually now quite mature, with the bee-friendly plants well established: with a proper pool there it will encourage more wildlife.

Labels: garden, Starscream, Transformers

Twelfth part of New World - Scraps and Splinters 2 - now posted over at The Poppy Tales (link above).

Enjoy!

Labels: The Poppy Tales, Transformers

Last visit to the dental hospital! Have my retainer (it's tiny but very effective) and unless anything drastic goes wrong that's it. Nice feeling...

We watched Iron Sky on Filmflex last night... wow... Lots to say about it but too tired tonight. Suffice it to say we loved it - so many homages you could blink and miss one, wonderfully funny earlier parts and ending up as the most ferociously biting satire I think I've ever seen. I was gobsmacked. Terrific stuff.

Going to attempt a little Poppy, but it's been a highly stressful week and I'm not sure how composted I feel...

Labels: ... wow..., dentist, films, The Poppy Tales

So off we tanked to John Cabot to pick up Kai's A Level results for this year...

(Did you hear the YAY!!! at 11.30? Can you feel the pride?)

[HUGE grin]

Chuffed? Oh yes...

Labels: futures..., Kai

Sunrise this morning. Ken's photo of course, I wouldn't be up that early unless I'd stayed up all night...

Labels: fun stuff

Busy again. Client stuff, shopping, a little gardening...

And a little buying. Since I've been forced to admit I'm a cross-continuity Starscream addict and am obviously collecting all the different versions, I was idly looking at ebay (as y'do. Well, as I do anyway) when I found one of these. For 99p (plus postage). So I put in a bid and got him. This is very much how he looks in the first IDW movie-related graphic novels, and while he's not in the least pretty he is an intriguing character.

Then it occurred to me I really only need the G1 and the Animated versions for the basic collection to be more or less complete. And as luck would have it, ebay had the Revoltech G1 Starscream for just over twenty quid - P&P free - from a Hong Kong seller. Ken said "buy it for your next birthday". So I did! (If you visit the link take a look at the other views of the figure. It's non-transformable, but since I don't transform mine anyway (except for the tiny Cyberverse ones when I'm using them for comics) this is not a problem. The design is lovely and so wonderfully poseable!) I can wait...

So that leaves Animated. There's a nice, reasonably priced one at amazon us, which has gone on my wish list there, but I'll have to wait to afford him.

Soooooo, then I thought I'd check out the other rare SS's... I would really love the Shattered Glass version, but since that was a true exclusive at the 2008 Botcon I'm unlikely to ever be able to see one, let alone buy it. Pity, as it's a lovely design.

Then I found the Hearts of Steel Starscream...

[drool] I don't like steampunk but this - this is just gorgeous. Apparently TFC toys have developed a prototype, but given the series he comes from ran to just four comics back in 2006, whether it will ever become a reality is very much open to debate. But oh, I'd love one...

... then again, if anyone ever manages to make an IDW Thundercracker I wouldn't say no, either...

And then I found this... [sob] It's never-ending...

Labels: busyness, Starscream, Transformers

... Where'd Sunday go? Honestly, I really must stop losing days...

Catch-up time.

30th Olympiad Closing Ceremony... "bold, brilliant, bonkers - and British" to quote whoever said that of the Opening Ceremony. Loved it! (Well, except for the fashion sequence, and I think the Annie Lennox bit will be a little too obscure for a lot of people...) The whole event was wonderful - even if it was almost impossible to find anything else to watch for the two weeks (anything worth watching, that is). I have both ceremonies recorded for posterity.

K&K went to Glastonbury on Saturday - and actually managed to climb the Tor.

The view from Glastonbury Tor over the flood-plain of the Somerset Levels, looking north - from left to right, the 'hills' are: Maes Knoll, Steep Holm, and Brean Down.

In the garden: removing the ivy tree has really opened up the meadow, but upset the birds as they used to use it to perch on before feeding. However, with the new tree coming on, the apple tree now accessible, and my plans to prune the greengages to make them more attractive to the birds, I think they'll recover. We'll also be able to grow more native wildflowers without everything being choked, too - a great bonus. There's a lot of work still to do, though - removing inches-thick ivy stumps from the ground, and killing off what's left of the rooted stuff. It's going to take a couple of years at least, and that's without trying to keep the ivy on the wall under control...

Things are doing well in the greenhouse, however. With the late, warmer weather my tomatoes have suddenly exploded and it looks like I'm going to have a pretty good crop (although I'm ripening up a lot of them indoors to be on the safe side). Next year I'm going to try staggering the cucumber growing though, as they both fruited at the same time and I've had to ditch two as we just couldn't eat them in all in time! I'm also going to try cutting back on the cherry toms and growing more peppers - they've worked quite well this year and given the rocketing price of organic peppers...

In the veg bed - my sweetcorn are all at different stages of development, despite all being planted at the same time. [sigh] Anyone know how to hand-pollinate maize?

At the front: I've started poisoning the grass in preparation for actually, finally, after 20-odd years, getting the garden into some sort of order. The Morello cherry is staying (will prune it once the leaves start dropping: I am slowly achieving the 'weeping' shape I want), as is the cotoneaster and the cyclamen and geraniums. But we're going to move the skimmia and the pieris, both of which are being swamped in the back garden, and my two sage plants (which are absolutely huge and swamping everything around them!) to the front to provide colour and interest (and in the case of the sages ground cover that will keep the grass from coming back). I'll keep an eye out for other plants to go out there in my travels to garden centres over the next year - a lavender would be nice to attract bees...

My little prunus (the one Ken bought me very, very cheap as it looked like it was dying and he thought I might be able to revive it) is now far too big for its location and needs to be moved. I'm a little worried about this, as (as I said) it's now quite large, positioned close to the edge of Roeg's Pool, and I am very fond of it. I don't want to lose it. Going to be a ticklish operation. Also, I can't decide where it should go. We have more room at the front - but I'd like to replant it somewhere I can sit and enjoy it as it goes through the seasons, and that means at the back... Hm. Might consider moving the honeyberries, currently not doing very well on the slope at the top, and put it there... Will have a think.

Dialogue from Rescue Bots ep Little White Lies:

[bemusedly trying to imagine reassembling a donkey and grinning at the arbor day pun] Delightfully surreal.

I really should be out making a start on clearing up the meadow - but it's raining again. [g] So it's off to make a start on the next Poppy chapter instead...

Labels: celebrations, days out, garden, gardening, greenhouse, The Poppy Tales, time, Transformers Rescue Bots, weather

Eleventh part of New World - Scraps and Splinters - now posted over at The Poppy Tales (link above).

Enjoy!

(Actually it was posted last night but by the time I'd coded it the three different ways necessary for the three different places it's posted I was going cross-eyed and my bed was calling. Well, screaming, really... Yesterday was a bit busy.)

Off to see if the next Tf: RB is on Yt yet before I go tidy up around the new tree - an amelanchier lamarckii from Sue - that is now replacing the ivy tree in the meadow...

Labels: The Poppy Tales, Transformers

Busy today. Hairdresser early this morning (the usual fantastic job from Jeff - need a photo to go with my biog on our agents site so may try in a day or so) and I've booked Kai an appointment for the end of August. He's not exactly chuffed but I'd like him to start the school year with it properly cut for once. Then down to Sains, for a few bits and pieces, where Ratchet insisted on coming home with me..

So now I haz a Ratchet!

A distinctly grumpy one - but then, he is anyway. Transforming him was a nightmare, with his alt mode fighting us all the way, and his right shoulder ball-joint is very weak and dislocates easily, so he won't be spending much (any) time as an ambulance...

Back and a page and half of next Poppy while skyping with Lutra (her stapedectomy went well and she has improved hearing already! YAY!) then a couple of hours of client stuff followed by a little gardening. Will carry on with Poppy after TfP ep - Rock Bottom, quite a favourite - in half an hour or so.

Later!

Labels: busyness, client sites, hair, medical matters, shopping, The Poppy Tales, Transformers: Prime

... ow...

Hand still aching and painful from yesterday's poking and prodding, so taking it as easy as possible today. So a little client stuff, and shortly, a little more Poppy 6.11.

In the meantime, have a flah!

(Indoor hibiscus from Brackenwood. Looking for an appropriate pot for it now.)

Labels: client sites, medical matters, plants, The Poppy Tales

[sigh] Physio says I've been doing too much (overexercising hand). Have a new set of exercises to do twice a day every other day. Other than that to continue as I have been. The teno is going to delay recovery a bit, which is not good news but not unexpected.

Ken's author's advance copy of Celestial Geometry arrived, and it's beautiful. Hardback, heavy, gorgeously illustrated, with that delicious new book smell. You don't get that from a Kindle!

Labels: books, medical matters

Trip up to Broadwalk for bird supplies, then back and tackling client stuff. Have I mentioned how much I loathe Wordpress? It's eaten a file. I mean, I created it, saved it, and now the app can't find it. Well, it can when I want to delete it, but not if I want to add anything to it. Or see it. It was the second of five I created today, so it's not as though I fumbled the first one. I've deleted it once and recreated it, with the same result...

Will have another go tomorrow.

On the plus side, I have all the notes ready for the next Poppy Tales chapter, last week's Rescue Bots ep is now online at Yt, and the return of TfP is just 18 days away (well, 19, assuming some kind spark uploads it asap after it's shown). Itching for the second season on DVD - it's a nuisance trying to not let spoilers slip to K&K...

Labels: client sites, shopping, The Poppy Tales, Transformers Rescue Bots, Transformers: Prime

The usual Sunday. Shopping, gardening, blanching/peeling/chopping greenhouse tomatoes to freeze for the winter...

Labels: busyness, nowt really

GoodTwin and Sue over to visit today! Much fun was had. I now have enough sunflower seed to keep the birds going through the winter, and we managed to get to Brackenwood garden centre (despite two missed turns and a wrong one!) They had a bit of a sale on so I now have a white-with-burgundy-middle dianthus, a pretty trailing begonia, and an indoor hibiscus.

Many thanks, both, for a fantastic day!

Tired now. Need to answer a few emails and see if I can at least note down some of the story for the next Poppy chapter before I close down.

Labels: friends, garden centres, sheeeeeep, The Poppy Tales

Tenth part of New World - Structures - now posted over at The Poppy Tales (link above).

Link to the accompanying short Calming Blue is within the chapter.

Enjoy!

Angry tomato says "Up yours!" to the weather...

Labels: silliness, The Poppy Tales, Transformers

So we've all gone down with some sort of summer lurgy. [bleurgh] Not really bad, but scratchy dry throat and bunged up sinuses. I think Ken might have brought it home from work, he says several peeps have it...

In the meantime, Kai found this. Had me in stitches!

Kai's comment? "Rational thought is currently hanging by a thread out of the window..."

TPNK bit (Calming Blue) done, but can't post it until poppy610 is also finished. Four pages in - should be able to finish tomorrow.

Labels: medical matters, The Poppy Tales, Transformers, wiping tears of laughter...

Repeat of yesterday. I need a holiday.

Labels: sheeeeeep, zzzzzzzoooooooooooooooooommmmm