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The Satanic Stash
It’s been a busy week around the Lair. Due to the intrusion of a certain centenary, many of the usual weekend events in April did not keep to their usual schedule. Two of the serpent favourites - the annual garden festival and a school fete in the city all got crammed into the first weekend of May.
The garden festival is a bit of a rip off. It costs a lot to get in and they are not exactly giving away the pretty plants. But it is a chance to find unusual weeds and seeds and this year was no exception. However this time the location was moved to a gorgeous park right next to the city and the local council were offering two for the price of one vouchers to encourage folks to turn up at this new venue.
So Petunia and myself packed up a picnic and had a wonderful day. We were especially happy to find Hellfire Chillies selling some of their wicked weeds at half price since they are going into the dormant season.
Especially amusing was looking at the tree nursery stand. Now that no one has land anymore, fruit trees and vegetable gardens have become quite a status symbol and the fruit trees have prices to match. Avocado trees were a ridiculous $60 and they were no bigger than medium sized shrubs. Most ridiculous of all were the tropical guavas at a mere $150. There’s one five minutes walk down the road and I am constantly collecting the dropped fruit and burying it in the hope that some of the seeds may germinate. No luck so far. It might be time to dry out the seeds and see if that makes a difference. Being a tropical tree, it should take less than 6 years to get some fruit on it.
There were a wonderful selection of Angels’ trumpets but after one of the speakers claiming that they are really easy to grow from cuttings, will most definitely try that first before forking out $20 for a specimen. There’s also an Italian lady who sells them at the university markets who has them a bit cheaper.
Saturday was the St Luke’s Church annual eco festival. This lovely old church has gorgeous grounds with a very lush community garden. It’s also a wonderful place to get plants. This year they had a stall belonging to a wild life centre where they rescue abandoned animals. One of these was a big black cockatoo who had a great time cackling and feasting on pine cones and gum nuts. There was also a five month old joey whose mother was killed in a recent storm. It was snuggling up in a quilted bag to keep warm.
Of course there were the weeds. Wormwood and ghost chillies were that day’s temptation as well as some seed packets for Mother’s Day. Petunia also likes gardening but she has very green fingers and a much prettier and more productive garden than me.
I was sitting in the hall when some creepy blokes dressed in black started marching up to the stage. Some were dressed like pirates, one like a priest, another a rabbi and they were all singing in very low voices. They were none other than the Spooky Men of the West - a male choir with a wicked twist. The songs sound all serious but the words are a parody of all the usual male choirs. These are just the sorts of folks who could come in handy as inspiration for a cult. Since some of them were wearing black Sea Shepherd tee shirts then they would be perfect candidates to join the Cthulhu choir.
But the spooky goodness was not yet over. Sunday also provided an abundance of tasty morsels. The school fete had a very pretty outdoor area for nibblies. It was the perfect spot to peruse the program and map of activities as well as squiggling in the spiral notebook and finishing reading “The Dunwich Horror”
From previous years experience, the best strategy is to always do munchies first, then eye up the plants to see what is there. But actually buying is best left for an hour before closing time when they are going cheap as they want to get rid of them all. The book stall is always worth a visit but the infernal things are just so heavy so no point in going there too early. And it’s not like I actually need any more since I have not read a tenth of what is already in the collection.
The first book that caught the beady serpent eye was “The Satanic Verses”. Had got it from the library a few years ago and gave up after four chapters. It was just so hard to follow. But for one dollar I could afford to give it a second chance. After all I had a similar problem with Mr Lovecraft. It took ages to get used to the strange convoluted and arcane language but after about four stories I got hooked.
Then there was the biggest stash of Stephen King books I have ever seen at any book stall. Most were hardbacks in near perfect condition most of which I had already read or have in my possession. The one that nearly jumped into my hand I had got on Amazon only last May after having looked in many libraries and second hand book stores with no success at all. It was the one about writing and here it was for a tenth of the price I had paid on Amazon. Of course I snaffled it. It would make an excellent November present for some squiggling friends. So that went into the bag along with “Night Shift”
Mr King’s paperbacks were a bit tattier. Cujo was on the wish list. Having once worked for a Cujo Corporation, it was a no brainer. But the most intriguing of all was “Running Man”. The title seemed vaguely familiar and looking at the blurb on the back, it looked remarkably like an ancient Hunger Games but without the Capitol and all those awesome dystopian details. It was published way back in 1983 so it’s going to be so amusing to visit the Arena without all those cool tech toys.
There were a lot of Vampire Diaries, Twilight and Anne Rice sorts of stuff. Izzie just yawned and walked on. Was a bit more intrigued by the Marquis De Sade’s “Justine”. The inner Dolores insisted she wanted it for some light bed time reading and for the sake of one silver sickle, Izzie wasn’t going to argue. Along with Eckhart Tolle’s “A New Earth”, and an Oliver Sachs book about music and the mind., it was a very respectable haul. Some of these books still had their old prices on the back. Some poor sucker had paid $34.95 for “The Secret”. I got it from the library years ago and found it most amusing indeed. A sort of secular version of “God wants you to be rich”. Definitely excellent research material for an assortment of happy clappy cults for November’s novel along with the truly ghastly “Celestine Prophecy” that was so awful I never made it past the first chapter. Those can be got for 50 cents these days. There was also a rather dour and dusty old black book from 1857 which was basically the Biblical Book of Revelations with very extensive notes. The Beast was beckoning to buy it. One lady at the Scrabble Club was telling me that she had gotten a similar book recently at a Baptist seminary book sale. (It turns out to be the same one. Now that’s a possible plot point definitely worth adding to the little book of inspiration)
Was very pleased with my stash and amused by the rather esoteric reading habits of Catholic secondary school girls and their families. Must keep this in mind for any future book hunting expeditions.
But with 15 books in the bag, there wasn’t going to be much more walking after that. A quick peek at the plants added some bird friendly weeds to the collection. Nothing nasty or toxic like the previous few days.
So the fun bit was shuffling down to the bus stop with the stash looking like the bag lady from under the bridge. It’s just as well that this school fair is only on every second year.
There’s going to be a fun few months of reading and planting.
The garden festival is a bit of a rip off. It costs a lot to get in and they are not exactly giving away the pretty plants. But it is a chance to find unusual weeds and seeds and this year was no exception. However this time the location was moved to a gorgeous park right next to the city and the local council were offering two for the price of one vouchers to encourage folks to turn up at this new venue.
So Petunia and myself packed up a picnic and had a wonderful day. We were especially happy to find Hellfire Chillies selling some of their wicked weeds at half price since they are going into the dormant season.
Especially amusing was looking at the tree nursery stand. Now that no one has land anymore, fruit trees and vegetable gardens have become quite a status symbol and the fruit trees have prices to match. Avocado trees were a ridiculous $60 and they were no bigger than medium sized shrubs. Most ridiculous of all were the tropical guavas at a mere $150. There’s one five minutes walk down the road and I am constantly collecting the dropped fruit and burying it in the hope that some of the seeds may germinate. No luck so far. It might be time to dry out the seeds and see if that makes a difference. Being a tropical tree, it should take less than 6 years to get some fruit on it.
There were a wonderful selection of Angels’ trumpets but after one of the speakers claiming that they are really easy to grow from cuttings, will most definitely try that first before forking out $20 for a specimen. There’s also an Italian lady who sells them at the university markets who has them a bit cheaper.
Saturday was the St Luke’s Church annual eco festival. This lovely old church has gorgeous grounds with a very lush community garden. It’s also a wonderful place to get plants. This year they had a stall belonging to a wild life centre where they rescue abandoned animals. One of these was a big black cockatoo who had a great time cackling and feasting on pine cones and gum nuts. There was also a five month old joey whose mother was killed in a recent storm. It was snuggling up in a quilted bag to keep warm.
Of course there were the weeds. Wormwood and ghost chillies were that day’s temptation as well as some seed packets for Mother’s Day. Petunia also likes gardening but she has very green fingers and a much prettier and more productive garden than me.
I was sitting in the hall when some creepy blokes dressed in black started marching up to the stage. Some were dressed like pirates, one like a priest, another a rabbi and they were all singing in very low voices. They were none other than the Spooky Men of the West - a male choir with a wicked twist. The songs sound all serious but the words are a parody of all the usual male choirs. These are just the sorts of folks who could come in handy as inspiration for a cult. Since some of them were wearing black Sea Shepherd tee shirts then they would be perfect candidates to join the Cthulhu choir.
But the spooky goodness was not yet over. Sunday also provided an abundance of tasty morsels. The school fete had a very pretty outdoor area for nibblies. It was the perfect spot to peruse the program and map of activities as well as squiggling in the spiral notebook and finishing reading “The Dunwich Horror”
From previous years experience, the best strategy is to always do munchies first, then eye up the plants to see what is there. But actually buying is best left for an hour before closing time when they are going cheap as they want to get rid of them all. The book stall is always worth a visit but the infernal things are just so heavy so no point in going there too early. And it’s not like I actually need any more since I have not read a tenth of what is already in the collection.
The first book that caught the beady serpent eye was “The Satanic Verses”. Had got it from the library a few years ago and gave up after four chapters. It was just so hard to follow. But for one dollar I could afford to give it a second chance. After all I had a similar problem with Mr Lovecraft. It took ages to get used to the strange convoluted and arcane language but after about four stories I got hooked.
Then there was the biggest stash of Stephen King books I have ever seen at any book stall. Most were hardbacks in near perfect condition most of which I had already read or have in my possession. The one that nearly jumped into my hand I had got on Amazon only last May after having looked in many libraries and second hand book stores with no success at all. It was the one about writing and here it was for a tenth of the price I had paid on Amazon. Of course I snaffled it. It would make an excellent November present for some squiggling friends. So that went into the bag along with “Night Shift”
Mr King’s paperbacks were a bit tattier. Cujo was on the wish list. Having once worked for a Cujo Corporation, it was a no brainer. But the most intriguing of all was “Running Man”. The title seemed vaguely familiar and looking at the blurb on the back, it looked remarkably like an ancient Hunger Games but without the Capitol and all those awesome dystopian details. It was published way back in 1983 so it’s going to be so amusing to visit the Arena without all those cool tech toys.
There were a lot of Vampire Diaries, Twilight and Anne Rice sorts of stuff. Izzie just yawned and walked on. Was a bit more intrigued by the Marquis De Sade’s “Justine”. The inner Dolores insisted she wanted it for some light bed time reading and for the sake of one silver sickle, Izzie wasn’t going to argue. Along with Eckhart Tolle’s “A New Earth”, and an Oliver Sachs book about music and the mind., it was a very respectable haul. Some of these books still had their old prices on the back. Some poor sucker had paid $34.95 for “The Secret”. I got it from the library years ago and found it most amusing indeed. A sort of secular version of “God wants you to be rich”. Definitely excellent research material for an assortment of happy clappy cults for November’s novel along with the truly ghastly “Celestine Prophecy” that was so awful I never made it past the first chapter. Those can be got for 50 cents these days. There was also a rather dour and dusty old black book from 1857 which was basically the Biblical Book of Revelations with very extensive notes. The Beast was beckoning to buy it. One lady at the Scrabble Club was telling me that she had gotten a similar book recently at a Baptist seminary book sale. (It turns out to be the same one. Now that’s a possible plot point definitely worth adding to the little book of inspiration)
Was very pleased with my stash and amused by the rather esoteric reading habits of Catholic secondary school girls and their families. Must keep this in mind for any future book hunting expeditions.
But with 15 books in the bag, there wasn’t going to be much more walking after that. A quick peek at the plants added some bird friendly weeds to the collection. Nothing nasty or toxic like the previous few days.
So the fun bit was shuffling down to the bus stop with the stash looking like the bag lady from under the bridge. It’s just as well that this school fair is only on every second year.
There’s going to be a fun few months of reading and planting.