I think I over-picked.

What a morning. Happy Easter.

When you start worrying slightly about cholesterol levels in tomorrow’s pudding (flourless chocolate cake with crème Anglaise).

If Miliband approves the Jackdaw field for Shell, he shreds all international climate diplomacy credibility, and any remaining empathy domestically after gambling so heavily on hydrogen and carbon capture and storage. Reeves wins. Bugger the future.

And now for the discipline of not touching them until this afternoon.

One of the richest doughs you can make, on the most penitential day of the year. I am not asking questions.

Book design really lost its mind in the 19th century (Type specimen from 1830) #typography

Fake news somehow isn't funny this 1 April, and even less so when illustrated using AI. April Fools indeed.

The garb (not to mention the décolletage) is, to my knowledge, unique for a clergy portrait of that date. Since he had been installed dean of St Paul's late in 1621, I think this is channeling (Roman) orator in a gesture toward a deanship to be defined by preaching.

Moon and Magdalen tower.

Fascinating. The costumes look much earlier than 1683 to me; Pevsner says frame 'early Georgian'. An example of reused/composite work? Great social details: butchers, grain stores, egg baskets, the differently abled, and lay piety, learning (those folios!), and worship. #Earlymodern

Something of a yellow theme this time of year.

Proper.

Former students, bless ‘em.

I hate the marginal comment function in Word so much. Infuriatingly clumsy to start with, and doesn't keep up with itself. What a crap 'improvement'.

A little kitchen sink drama.

Big excitement in garden yesterday—rarity of a red kite perching in an oak. TOH’s camera work did it such justice too.

One of the trickiest things of living in this time is how seductive normalcy is: we will cling to any piece of it, use it to convince ourselves that things are as they were and will continue to be so, even as another part of your brain is on full Starship Enterprise red alert

Extra reward for two glorious days of gardening.

“Based on historical patterns, Phoenix could expect a March day as hot as it was on Thursday only once every 4,433 years” heatmap.news/climate/marc...

Morning.

Vacation reading!

Didn’t know militias could be so brilliantly camp.

Slanting evening light makes such a tourist of me. Oxford High St., looking west, from (r-l)All Souls to University Church to Brasenose and (just) the tower of All Saints (library @lincoln.ox.ac.uk ).

The UK has fallen from 1st to 22nd within Europe, on LGBTQ-focused protective legislature. It's narrowly ahead of Albania - a Muslim country - and dead last in western Europe. This is owing to a surge in anti-LGBTQ sentiment that needs FAR more attention than you or your party have given it.

Pleased with the skip-dive roof tile edging. (And, looking at this, wish the hornbeam would get on with it and hide all that trellis.)

First fritillary!

Sundown on Oxford Hilary term.

Finished term with great tutorials on the georgic legacy in 18thC. Britain and colonies. From Anne Finch to Grainger’s Sugar-Cane and points between. I. Am. So. Drained.

The UK is currently generating over two thirds of its electricity from the sun and wind. This demonstrates why the fossil fuel lobby and its paid-for politicians are straining every sinew to obstruct the transition.

Palantir is such a great fit for the NHS.

I want to imagine this being clutched by one of the Geneva exiles on her voyage back after Elizabeth's accession.

Decent article, and good to see; but why can't Guardian commission such a piece based on UK universities?

Electrician in and power off a lot, so read and took notes the old fashioned way. Highly recommend.

Is everyone in the UK appreciating R3’s big normalise-AI-in-the-arts push this morning? I despair.

Spotted in the searchroom this week was this 1510 probate with a very interesting seal! It appears to depict the murder of Thomas Becket and is in pretty good condition given its age! 📷 D/EBP/E33

This👇(+Alt text) is how to measure ‘impact’.

Is it a competition to see how much irony can fit in one headline?

Kier Starmer reaches new levels of idiocy. Fool, utter fool. Who in the UK wants to be part of the orange man’s war? And Starmer has, with yet another u- turn, escalated it. Out, out, out with him and his party.

WHAT a scorcher. (Though I will admit to being glad of the appendix with his notebook sketch so I could check that I had correctly understood what happened.)

So important, this 👇

The frogs have really been at it.

Some things to be happy about today, cont.

'my discourse [is] intended only in defence of nominal Christianity, the other having been for some time wholly laid aside by general consent, as utterly inconsistent with all our present schemes of wealth and power' Jonathan Swift anticipating (1708) what Reform means by a 'Christian country'.

👉’broad multiethnic coalition’👈

The Constable vs Turner exhibition @tate.bsky.social is every bit as good as reviews have said. Closes April and booked up well into March. I was particularly taken with Constable’s little folding outdoor sketching chair.

A sparrow hawk just arranged a little epiphany for me.,Thrilling.

Sunday lunch continues. Treacle sponge!

There.

I just hope that someone has done the decent thing, and cancelled this evening’s booking at Pizza Express.