A lovely day so I trekked out to the Garden Centre after work. In the past, there has been these really cool sculptures made from straw* but alas, there were NO such hay-makers to be found this year.

(*click the link above to see some past sculptures.) Here are a couple of those sculptures.

 

One time, there was even a cool little shrine to Gojira!

But since I was at the garden anyway, I wandered around and snapped some pics of orange roses to add that festive flare.

 

There were a few Halloween displays, but not that many.

 

 

And some interior displays, including some crafts you can make yourself (YOU can make not that I can make, I'm not very crafty.) 

 

All in all, it was rather disappointing. A couple of cool owls though!

 

I will definitely check out Halloween at the local aquarium in a few weeks though.

 

 I'm surprised I didn't run into Mandragora. It seems like the kind of creature that would hang around an Agricultural centre.

 

 Of course, a popular item for any witch's brew is Mandrake, and here is a brief description thereof.

 

I never knew that this dude showed up in Harry Potter. Kind of cute, ain't it?

Here are some details.

Snack on these... 

 Here's another fellow blogger for you to peruse, vraie fiction.

Ayame fan of Irises.

Since today is the Summer Solstice and thus the longest day of the year, I decided to spend some of it outdoors for a change. So I popped over to Tagajo and checked out the week-long Iris Festival (Ayame Matsuri). Whoa! 3 million specimens from 800 different species of Iris! 

A quick respite from viewing Irises, I scurried up the steps to the site of Tagajo Castle. Not much to see, for it's been in ruins for ages, though there is a big rock as a marker.

And a temple that is undergoing restoration.

 

All the irises...

Back to the Ayame.

Somewhere around here, it got very windy, so I took a Short video, which I cannot embed. Here's a link, I think.

Some of the fallen soldiers.

And the men who retrieved them.

It's me squinting in a selfie.

I'm nearing the end of it now...

Just a few hyacinth for good measure.

And the finale.

Biggest disappointment was the lack of dragonflies!

 At one of the dozen food booths, I grabbed some tandoori chicken and a mango ice cream.

Hey you know what movie came out yesterday 48 years ago? JAWS! A few years after that, I was watching it in a gal's basement and was coming into first base. Then the head fell down from beneath the boat wreck and it was a real mood killer.

A brand new Gatcha set captured a few scenes from JAWS 1,2&3.

JAWS (1) has Hooper in the SHARK CAGE being crushed by Bruce.

Also from 1, is the BATTLE WITH SHARK scene with Bruce dragging three barrels.

From JAWS 2, we see a different Great White gnawing on a SUBMARINE CABLE.

Finally from JAWS 3-D, we have RAID whereupon our captive shark decides he doesn't like to be captured.

This set is even better than the previous set which you can view here from a post last Halloween.

So it's nearing midnight and our days with be getting shorter from here on in. Sigh.