Welcome to Tatooine, pod munching fans! Gather around all of you Hutt gangsters and haters of the bipedal herd animal and of all things Freemasonic, Pharaonic and Solomonic alike. I bring to you warm and dusty greetings from the dry Druidic plains of the Dust Bowl — a mysterious Celtic land and popular colony and tourist destination for invading hordes of outcasts from the Outer Rim Territories; a place where red dragons and precipitation only exist in legends; where the brave venture up Mount Snowdon wearing only shorts and flip flops and leave behind a trail of path erosion, open gates, a perverse plastic wasteland and the faint odour of Lynx deodorant and Issey Miyake; where the daring encounter fairies in ancient oak forests after picking fights with the indigenous fungi that even the most seasoned of our witches won't touch with a 10-foot broomstick; where unfortunate past explorers have been lured from slippery, moss-covered boulders to their untimely deaths in the dense cloud below by a mysterious woman dressed in white who police have still yet to find (probably the farmer's wife or a local B.A.S.E. jumper); and where the
Carolina Reaper becomes a harsh reality and drinks more than all of the farmers and visiting Jezebels combined. 😁
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| Chilli Harvest - 7th August 2026 |
The asylum is now open for bookings and the circus is in full swing. Perhaps the recent solar eclipse really did have a strange effect on people's brains after all. Dŵr Cymru are running around like headless chickens trying to fix as many leaks as possible and the Tavistock Institute has installed a mind virus and given the population a lifelong phobia of water, hosepipes and the civil defence sirens built into their mobile tracking and snitching devices. One man was seriously injured after falling from a ladder whilst clutching a tin of white paint whilst others of a more messianic nature frantically grabbed their emergency proton packs and bibles and waited eagerly on their knees outside the front gate for the arrival of King Solomon's spaceship, which was late again as usual. A certain faction of the demographic is now currently fixated on some new stage performers who rode into town on disillusioned horses with tinted windows whilst the perplexed natives are still yet to figure out the true extent of the alchemical sorcery taking place behind the scenes, reaffirming that Plato's Cave is a very real and dangerous place! The insanity continues, and whilst MI5 are working tirelessly around the clock to put all of the untameable pagan tribes into the correct categories in order to feed them the relevant propaganda, some people have been left wondering whether we really do exist in the past, present and future simultaneously. 🤪
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| Oreocereus Celsianus - 16th August 2026 |
A good definition of alchemy would be the manipulation of nature or natural forces in order to achieve a specific outcome. Keep your eyes peeled, Padawans. Everything is a means to an end [goal], and the picture makes much more sense when you view everything from an alchemical and energetic point of view and add red roses to the ingredients list. When venturing off-road do you want a 4x4 or an ice cream van? When hiking up Ben Nevis do you want hiking boots or sandals? Does the poodle make a better guard dog than the Rottweiler or is it the other way around? And why does either breed exist to begin with? An individual ant is just an ant, but when viewed collectively you'll soon notice that there is structure, function and order taking place within the whole. Certain groups won't be happy until they've overridden the default settings and turned the whole planet into something resembling a large global circuit board which can be controlled via technology from a central point. Do not most cities already resemble large circuit boards when viewed from an aeroplane seat? And don't get me started about societal heatsinks, either the online and offline versions. Some people really do see Planet Earth as their birthright and inheritance.
What a strange world we live in. Instagram is adamant that I'm going to show my support for the British royal family, despite the fact that I've never been a fan. Each time I open Facebook and blow away the dust I'm greeted by posts pertaining to criminal drug gangs and fox hunting, despite having never once shown any interest in either topic. And the only time I can be bothered venturing into the strange patriarchal cult of X (formerly Twitter) is when judging the artwork by the David Icke fan club. Aside from all of that, most of the grass died and the garden has resembled a Moroccan hillside for most of the summer. This next photo aptly shows the
Carolina Reaper with some of the dead grass in the background. All that's missing here is a scythe and a few goats. I've got a
Bahamian Goat, but that's not the same thing. Still, at least it has saved me the job of having to scrape away the dog sh*t from the bottom of the lawnmower. 😆
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| Carolina Reaper - 16th August 2026 |
The
Aji Largo plants are coming along nicely and I noticed a few days ago that a couple of the peppers had started ripening. I suspect that both plants will plod on until late October or early November.
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| Aji Largo - 16th August 2026 |
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Aji Largo - 16th August 2026
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Aji Largo - 16th August 2026
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| Aji Largo - 16th August 2026 |
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| Aji Largo - 16th August 2026 |
Aji Lemon is performing like a pod factory as usual. I've been picking lots of these over the past couple of weeks and eating them on sandwiches.
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| Aji Lemon - 16th August 2026 |
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| Aji Lemon - 9th August 2026 |
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| Aji Lemon - 9th August 2026 |
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| Aji Lemon - 4th August 2026 |
I'm growing
Bahamian Goat again this year for the first time since 2015. This variety has an amazing flavour and will be on the list of regular varieties to grow from now on. It might even make its way onto
my favourites page at some point. The plant has produced a few pods which had the correct phenotype but most have been somewhat irregular in shape. I've added some more photos to the Bahamian Goat page, if you're interested. More will also be added over the coming weeks.
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| Bahamian Goat - 6th August 2026 |
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| Bahamian Goat - 6th August 2026 |
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| Bahamian Goat - 18th August 2026 |
Bullet is a new variety for me this year. It's one that I've been familiar with for many years but never grown before. The Bullet page is now live if you want to scroll through some more photos of this variety.
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| Bullet - 2nd August 2026 |
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| Bullet - 16th August 2026 |
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| Bullet - 14th July 2026 |
The
Carolina Reaper watches over the flock from the back of the greenhouse, and along with
Trinidad Moruga Scorpion (TMS),
Chocolate Habanero and
Aji Lemon it's one of the thirstiest members of the tribe. It went into full-on fruit production mode a few weeks ago, which I suspect may have had something to do with the dip in night time temperatures. The Carolina Reaper page is now live and you can view lots more photos over there.
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| Carolina Reaper - 13th August 2026 |
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| Carolina Reaper - 16th August 2026 |
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| Carolina Reaper - 18th August 2026 |
Flirt by day and serpent by night, Moruga, Moruga how we love thou spicy ways. Here are some random
Moruga Scorpion photos that were taken between the 4th and 18th August. The seeds for this year's plant came from the USA. 🇺🇸
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| Trinidad Moruga Scorpion - 16th August 2026 |
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| Trinidad Moruga Scorpion - 4th August 2026 |
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| Trinidad Moruga Scorpion - 9th August 2026 |
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| Trinidad Moruga Scorpion - 9th August 2026 |
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| Trinidad Moruga Scorpion - 16th August 2026 |
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| Trinidad Moruga Scorpion - 16th August 2026 |
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| Trinidad Moruga Scorpion - 16th August 2026 |
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| Trinidad Moruga Scorpion - 18th August 2026 |
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| Trinidad Moruga Scorpion - 9th August 2026 |
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| Trinidad Moruga Scorpion - 16th August 2026 |
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| Trinidad Moruga Scorpion - 9th August 2026 |
I moved the
Orange Habanero plant into the greenhouse a few weeks ago because things were getting a tad overcrowded in the porch. For the last couple of years, the plants have grown a bit larger than they used to, which has to do with my new fertilising schedule. The plant isn't easy to photograph without taking it out of the greenhouse, so you'll just have to settle for a couple of random pod pics for now.
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| Orange Habanero - 16th August 2026 |
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| Orange Habanero - 16th August 2026 |
The
Peruvian White Habanero plant spends its time in the greenhouse doorway or outside on a table next to some rough Cactaceaen outcasts endemic to the Outer Rim Territories. It was involved in a bar fight with some outlaws a few weeks back and lost one of its branches, but apart from that it's doing well and fruiting up nicely. 😬
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| Peruvian White Habanero - 16th August 2026 |
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| Peruvian White Habanero - 16th August 2026 |
I recently picked all of the chillies from my
Ring of Fire plant so that it can start directing its energy on producing the second flush of fruit. I use these chillies mostly at the green stage in
Indian curries and I've still got lots of dried ripe ones left over from last year.
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| Ring of Fire - 4th August 2026 |
Rocky Road Rocoto is a few weeks behind my other two
C. pubescens plants due to the late start. However, the plant is very healthy and is setting fruit.
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| Rocky Road Rocoto - 16th August 2026 |
Here are a few greenhouse photos that were taken between the 7th August and 16th August. The second one down was taken at 19:20 during the recent solar eclipse, which turned out to be somewhat of a let-down when compared to the one in March 2015.
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| Chilli Plants in the Greenhouse - 7th August 2026 |
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| Chilli Plants in the Greenhouse - 12th August 2026 at 19:20 |
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| Chilli Plants in the Greenhouse - 16th August 2026 |
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| Chilli Plants in the Greenhouse - 16th August 2026 |
Here are some photos showing the solar eclipse on the 20th March 2015. It was cloudy here in North Wales on that day, as you can no doubt see.
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| Solar Eclipse - 20th March 2015 at 09:27 |
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| Solar Eclipse - 20th March 2015 at 09:35 |
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| Solar Eclipse - 20th March 2015 at 09:39 |
These next three photos show my most recent chilli harvests, albeit small ones for now. I imagine the bulk of ripe pods will be picked around mid-September. So far, I've eaten five whole
Moruga Scorpions and five whole
Carolina Reapers fresh from the plants, and I can honestly say that I detect no difference at all in terms of heat. Both are extremely delicious and stupidly spicy. What more can you possibly want?
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| Chilli Harvest - 7th August 2027 |
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| Chilli Harvest - 9th August 2027 |
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| Chilli Harvest - 16th August 2027 |
Anyhow, I'm off to pot-up a critically endangered cactus and water some thirsty chilli plants. And don't forget to send me some Pepper X seeds through the post. Muchas gracias. 🥀
