Back in the Fenland Garden Today.

You wake up in the morning and look out of the bedroom window at this. You have several days off and you think, "Yes, this works for me. Especially, on a day like this."

Everything is done and dusted. The winter cruise is waiting to break up the winter months. For now, it is summer and the wheat fields to the front of the house are causing me to sneeze. I think I may have mild hay fever, but it is nothing I can't bare.

Carole and I wandered down the town and bought some bird seed for the many hanging feeds etc. The only fly in that ointment is the Sparrow Hawk that knows they various Finches and Sparrows go to the feeds. I hung the feed plates in the tree to make it more difficult for the Sparrow Hawk to attack the fledgelings.  

I'm no gardener. Yet I love my garden. My wife is the gardener. I get to say what flowers I like and she seems to know about the presentation and all. In this sense, I'm lucky. When I'm at work, she potters about in the garden all day. I think she is in her element.

The front is done with a wild cascade of flowers too. I like the more wild and unconventional look. I like cosmos and cornflowers plus the many poppies. I like everything going undisciplined and mad. Nature doing its thing. 

Tranquil Hours in the Fenland Garden.

My wife, Carole, and I spent hours in the garden yesterday afternoon. I bought some beers and they were slipping down very easily. We put the world to rights with our small talk, but it did not matter. We were just enjoying the fruits of the many good things we have. Especially the nice garden on a summer evening. The dog and the cat were in on the act too. They were laying about with us. Spoke with my sons on their mobiles and went out to a few of the surrounding market towns earlier in the day. Including King's Lynn, where we had a wander over the retail parks. All nice casual meandering about Norfolk and Cambridgeshire. Then back home in time for feet up on the decking looking out at the cornflowers. I do like the cornflowers each year.

A View to a New Garden Pond.

Every time my wife and I do our pond, we sit back and decide to make it a little bigger. This is the third one. Now, we are thinking of railway sleepers around it to give a little more depth. We can do this with the pond liner. Obviously, there would be some sort of creeper and hanging plant garnish around the sleepers. It would stop them looking to bland among the plants.

I am also wondering about a new filter system with a more elaborate waterfall effect. This oxygenates the water nicely and the fall is therapeutic when we sit on the decking.

The fish are multiplying too. Last year, we noticed a lot of minos zooming around the plants. Twelve of these new fish have survived among the eight we purchased. The minos have grown. At first, they began to wander in a group of their own. Now, they have started to interact with others. Their black colour is changing below the belly area.

All this makes for pleasant debate when my wife and I sit on the decking in the summer evening.

The Big Closet Science Fiction Geezer.

Closet Science Fiction Geezer. 

I'm a total geek when it comes to science fiction. I'm a closet sci-fi buff. My friends and workmates know nothing about this aspect of me. Perhaps some of them are like me too? I would not know. I indulge more in this field of interest via the web. There are always other folks on this wavelength via the web. 

My wife is tolerant of these little excesses. I love Doctor Who. I've loved it since I was a kid. I remember the show from William Hartnell. I can remember many stories that are lost from the archives. I loved to be spooked by the Daleks. These wonderful bad guys. All our excesses of badness are poured into the Daleks. These pathetic looking pepper pots that defy the logic of fear. 

I just love the whole concept of them. Over the years we have created ways to give these bad guys excuses for being masters of the universe and looking pathetic. Now they can simply levitate up stairs. We have not quite worked out the lavatory plunger for a hand, but I'm banking on a ball of kinetic energy that glows from the sucker. It can work complex controls and all. - lol!

The web is a delight for people who enjoy Doctor Who and the spin-offs that might emerge from the retro sci-fi show. Some of these invented spin-off stories keep that old retro feel. Almost like the off-shoot annuals and comics of the 1960s decade.

I've stumbled across something called Big Finish. These are serious of audio adventures of retro TV shows etc. Among them are a large selection of Doctor Who stories. This collection is growing. You can experience new adventures of bygone Doctors and companions.  

I have downloaded and enjoyed a number of these. I have barely dipped my toe in this ocean and have listened to some very clever stories. Among them is a spin-off set of stories known as 'Dalek Empire.' There are a large number of these tales and I have only listened to the first set of 'Dalek Empire' stories. The plot moves over a series of years. It involves conquest and invasion etc.

Very entertaining and great to listen to if one works outdoors as I do. I would highly recommend this well written and wonderfully presented audio story. It has a great retro feel with actors that inject a great atmospheric feel through dialogue etc. 

Doctor Who: The Genocide Machine by Mike Tucker

Doctor Who: The Genocide Machine by Mike Tucker

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Wonderfully atmospheric. A real trip down memory lane too. Sylvester McCoy's Doctor with Ace. A clever story of a grand and extra special library on an outback planet. The whole presentation of this story is splendid. The Daleks are after all the knowledge they can get and have a diabolical plan to get at such desired things. If you are a Doctor Who fan, I would highly recommend this one. Splendid fun.

View all my reviews

Fifield Xenomorph Mutation (Deleted Scene) From Prometheus.

P R O M E T H E U S - Fifield Xenomorph Mutation (Deleted Scene)

I wished this part had not been deleted and watered down. It would have enhanced the movie a tad more. Prometheus is a fine prequel. A lot of people did not like the movie. The scenes and the spaceship were splendid. This deleted scene, plus the fallen spaceship scene towards the end would have made the movie complete for me. I would like to know more about the Engineers.

A climatic ending with the two ladies running for their lives as the ship, shaped like a giant Celtic neck torc, is rolling down upon them. Sporadic meteorite debris is exploding all about the woman in this hectic scene.

I thought it was a splendid film undone by a sad follow up in Alien Covenant. 

Look at this! (Some of these adaptations for animation are so clever.)

Look at this!

Some of these adaptations for animation are so clever.

The advancement of this type of animation is coming on in leaps and bounds. The art of using models or some form of plasticine for animated presentation is splendid. The trend became popular in the UK with Wallace and Gromit etc. In this teaser above, there are further developments concerning movement. It all makes for some fabulous ideas. Also, look at how they get around the moving mouth for speech.