Come for the cake, but stay for the nudity!

The Mother's 70th birthday cake.
Not the 70th cake - we're not gluttons!
This is the cake for her 70th birthday.

 This may be a somewhat surprising post for a couple of reasons.
 No, I've not joined the cakefarter brigade like The Very Mistress MJ, but there is cake (on the right there), and there is nudity. Well, not full nudity. After all, this is a tasteful blog, not some tawdry affair.
 The surprise is that the partial nudity is my own!

 Sick bags can be found under your seats.
Hey!

 But before we get to that, let's have some Cake!
 (Made by me and decorated by Inexcuseable. I knew she should have had a practice with that gold spray first...)

 §

Garibaldi, anyone?

 It's The Mother's birthday on Monday, and Inexcuseable and I have tasked ourselves with providing food for her afternoon tea party. Before we brave the shops, I wanted to have a hunt around Castlette DeVice to see what we have in stock, so as not to waste money on duplicating things.
 This is what I've come up with so far:

Warning: Nudist Beach Ahead!

Otherwise known as An Unsuccessful Swim...

No, I didn't write that.

 Yes, these are the photos from last week's thwarted attempt at swimming as mentioned in the last post. I've spent ages resizing, cropping and whittling down the photos into those you'll see below.
 Oh, and for anyone hoping to see glimpses of naked flesh, you'll be sorely disappointed as the nudists were not in evidence - probably scared off by the waves/seagulls/cormorants/apocalyptic sky...

A Successful Swim

This small blue butterfly was fluttering around
on the cliffs as I made my way
back up after my swim

 I got up early this morning, despite it being my day off, for a swim. The weather forecast was for a bit of a scorcher, plus the tide was on it's way in, so I was down on the beach just before eight o'clock, to make the most of the cooler early morning temperatures and not so blazing sun.
 I was very pleased to note that the sea was calm, unlike last week when I was thwarted from swimming by too rough a sea, and a very high tide. I'll post photos from the unsuccessful swim in a day or two as I can't be arsed to resize those photos at the mo (there are rather a lot).

Vortex goggles on? Here we go!*

 As I don't have anything else prepared at the moment, and it's been nearly two and a half months since the last book post, I thought I'd gracefully alight that bandwagon again.

 Yes, if an idea's worth copying once, it's worth copying again!

 So, with thanks to Ms Scarlet (the originator of the books on chairs premise if you couldn't be bothered to click on the previous links), may I present:

Books on chairs and other seating conveniences II 

33. Zero Sum Game (Star Trek: Typhon Pact), by David Mack (2010)

 Ug. Well, this novel was a chore to get through this time around. Continuing with my re-read of the Star Trek: Deep Space Nine relaunch, Zero Sum Game managed to make one of my favourite DS9 characters - Doctor Bashir - into an whiny, insipid, love-lorn mess. And the object of his affection, the annoying Sarina Douglas, hasn't been written with any qualities (that I can see) to be attractive to the good doctor. I just don't get it? Plus, I'm over the whole espionage/Section 31 malarkey.
 This book doesn't deserve to be photographed on a chair even if I did have the time and inclination to do so!

I last read this book back in 2011, here (the very first wwwWOW! post, no less).

Red Arrows: Cromer Carnival 2016

The Red Arrows classic Diamond Nine formation

 Here are some photos of the Red Arrows from their display for Cromer Carnival 2016!
 Yes, Cromer was a no-fly-zone for the likes of those of us of a more eldritch persuasion. All brooms, hoes, brollies, ancient Electroluxes, and especially that Mini Metro full of nuns, were left at home as the Royal Air Force Aerobatic Team, aka the Red Arrows, took to the skies over the North Sea late this morning.

Cake for Scarlet

 Oof! What with all that French robot jiggery-pokery, and reams of photos to get through, I have neglected to provide cake for Ms Scarlet. 
 Herr Mago began this meme here for poor, beleaguered Ms Scarlet, and recapped it here. And, upon her return, The Very Mistress MJ has also provided cake in her own inimitable style. This leaves me the only member of the Coven not to have done so. Until now.

 I made these almond and raspberry buns with just a few of the glut of raspberries from The Mother's allotment. And I'm sorry, Ms Scarlet, but they're not as almondy as I would have liked, so next time I will add a little more almond essence and a good dollop of marzipan!

Panoramic Triffidery...

...and not a Foo-Foo Valve* in sight, thankfully!

Cromer Lighthouse, 6th July

The Lotus Break

Whelk egg cases

 I hope you're all rested and have a cup of tea/coffee/glass of wine/flagon of gin to hand, as there are four days worth of photos to wade through, here. A four day extravaganza, no less!

Ha! Hardly an extravaganza. Most of these photos are pretty much the same as those you've already seen in previous posts.

 No! They're taken on different days, at different times, and in different weather conditions. Why don't you bugger off back to Witchface and let me get on with this?!

Hmmmph!

 Right. Now that Witchface's SubC has quietened down, we'd better get on with this.
 For your information, the first set of photos (from the 21st) were taken with Phone, all the rest were captured by Camera. And, as always, click to embiggen.  

Two Days Today

 Following on from A Conglomeration of Cormorants and Today and Two Days, may I present this, the third in the series of photo-bloggery: Two Days Today (so named to link with the last post, and because it covers some antics of a two-day period. Clever, eh?).
 The first five butterfly photos were taken with my camera which then promptly ran out of battery, so I had to nip home and get my phone to take the remaining triffid and moth photos - hence the reduction in quality. The camera battery was all charged up again the next day, so I used that to take the beach photos, although I'm not so keen on them as the ones from A Conglomeration of Cormorants. Maybe because they seem dull as it was so overcast on the 28th?

The Warren, Cromer/Overstrand border, 27th July 2016

A small skipper (female, I think?) on ragwort

Today and Two Days

 As I mentioned in the last post, this will become a photo-blog for a little while as I have a glut of photos from the past month or so that I'm going to post here as I have no where else to put them. 
 I made matters worse this morning by taking yet more photos as I walked back home after undertaking gruelling hard labour (painting The Mother's potting shed - the one that I helped construct here, here, and to a lesser extent, here) at The Parents'. So, this post consists of today's photos, and some from last weekend (when Indescribable, the Little Witch, and New Babyzilla were here). 
 Look away now if you can't abide pastoral, sunset, and beach views (some of which may contain hideous sea monsters).

Overstrand, 7th August 2016

A Conglomeration of Cormorants

 Before I fannied around with the press releases* yesterday's not-so-triumphant return post (that bloody 'bot is still linked to those eight posts, so I've reverted them all to draft for now), I popped down to the beach for a quick swim before the holiday-maker crowds arrived and ruined everything.
 For expediency's sake, I drove from Castlette DeVice through to the far end of Overstrand and the Coast Road, where I parked Car. From there, I made my way down the cliff and on to the beach (what little there was as the tide was in) heading east towards Sidestrand. I didn't go that far along, so I probably ended up on the border between the two 'strand parishes.
 Anyway, I didn't swim for long as there was a very strong current that threatened to wash me away, so I ended up taking loads of photos instead. Having resized some of them to email to The Mother, I thought I'd post them here, too, to make good use of all that photo-editing (as always, click to embigulate):

Looking east towards Sidestrand from the foot of the cliff at Coast Road, Overstrand
(about 9:30 in the morning)

There's a witch in the house, and she's living there still...

 ...Yes, that's right. I'm still here!



 Sorry for the sudden disappearance. The Host and I decided to shut-up-shop for a little while due to some unusual happenings. You see, certain posts were getting an inordinate number of page views from France which started at the same time as that horrific attack in Nice, which was worrying.

Eek! Leave me alone, France. Don't make me take out a restraining order!