You've had a busy day and social media ain't what it used to be, but perhaps you could turn your thoughts to this chap, 15812 Pte HW Billy Disbrey of 11th 'Cambs' Battalion Suffolks, missing in action on the #Somme 1st July 1916. Missed this day and every day. Bugles still calling from sad shires...

The whole Trump White House mega flagpole thing reminded of this from the incomparable Day Today. In America, your patriotism seems directly related to how big your Stars and Stripes is and how prominently you display it (they have some *really * big flags out there!) www.youtube.com/watch?v=T72T...

Not expecting this to get much attention, but... today 80 years ago, a blurry photo captures a blonde haired toddler, my aunt, raising a chubby fist in a mock Nazi salute to ridicule a stuffed straw effigy of Hitler, destined to burn amid celebrations in her Cambs village that night! #VEDay80 #VEDay

Their Top of the Pops performance was both life-affirming & life-changing for boyhood me. I didn't know - had never met - anyone of Afro-Caribbean heritage. Had no frame of reference for reggae. But found their confident, laid back delivery somehow compelling. Decided I needed to find out more...

By special request of Mr @nickfshortbskysoci.bsky.social - at the first sign of spring sunshine, the MG emerges from its slumbers...

Can't get behind the hand-wringing about closing the Ashcroft 'look at my medals what I've got' IWM gallery. Took my boys to the museum when they were kids. They (and I) found the 'look what I can afford' gallery dull as ditch water. Easily the worst part of the museum. Something, something non-dom!

'Lostalgia'. Tit.

The somewhat meagre annual stipend received here at the vicarage doesn't stretch to 'posh telly' sadly. If it did, I think I should rather enjoy watching this...

Same vehicle photographed (poorly) by me during school visit, about 1983. Obscured by the fence, bottom left, is an armour section with projectile penetrations highlighted (smallish calibre). I had no Francs left, so had to watch with envy as other kids hit the museum gift shop for cool model kits!

Such a shame the risible 'proud boys' have hijacked this. As a kid, Ska / Two-Tone was the first musical 'movement', after punk, that I felt part of. Had two Fred Perry shirts - one black w/ white tips, the other white w/ black. To go w/ my DM shoes & sta-pressed. www.theguardian.com/fashion/2020...

To stand on the tragic deaths of people - including those in the service of their nation - and try to score pathetic political points is beyond unseemly. Has their ever been a more slobby, shabby, shameless, shambles of a 'leader' of a western democracy? Unstatesmanlike doesn't even come close.

Wishing a very merry Christmas to all the good folks on here! Image shows 'Christmas day behind the firing line', courtesy of the Salvation Army. My Great Grandad (9th East Surrey 'Journey's Enders'), always donated to the Sally Ann because, he said, they were the ones found nearest the front line.

My Nanna filled Mills bombs during the First World War at (I think) Lords Bridge (better money than being a domestic maid of all work).

I'd be most grateful if, during the course of your busy day today, you would momentarily turn your thoughts to this chap - 15812 Pte HW Billy Disbrey of 11th Battalion 'Cambs' Suffolks, killed in action alongside many of his comrades, near LaBoisselle Somme on this day, 1st July 1916. 'Stabilis'.

The fortunes of war can be fickle. Sometimes they weigh in your favour; sometimes not. 80 years ago today an incident near the tiny mid-Kent village of Charing brutally illustrated this. Hitler's V1 doodlebug campaign was in its early weeks. Buzz bombs aimed at London cut trails across (Thread 1/10)

In all the performative, 'look at me' D-Day 80th anniversary hoo-ha, a small reminder that not all the day's casualties lie in Normandy. These Royal Engineers rest, with a good few comrades, in CWGC St James's Cemetery, Dover. I wonder whether anyone gave them a thought today. Well, now *you* have.

Minor hiccup encountered during spring lube, tweaking and run-up of Winnie (Jeep), after her winter slumber. A tad annoying and a tenner down the drain, since I don’t have a spare! :(

A very happy Easter to all you lovely Blue Sky types - the pisanki are out in all their glory...!

Haven't watched a single episode of Masters of the Air (my lowly vicar's stipend doesn't stretch to installing 'posh' telly in the vicarage) but for Mothers Day I thought I'd go with a little WW2 'MotA' theme for all the mums out there. Hope all mummies everywhere have a fabulous day!

The answer to this morning's 'Sunday Conundray'? It's a clinometer for using rifle grenades with the SMLE. In fact a 'Sight, pendulum, rifle grenade No1 MkII' (the MkI had an enamelled graduation plate). It clipped (as shown - more or less) to the rifle's backsight leaf. Thanks all who pitched-in.

A little 'Sunday Conundray' for all you WW1 folks on here. I picked this up on a Somme field at the tender age of six on my first ever visit to the battlefields. I knew immediately it was 'something army' but I wasn't sure just *what*. Anyone care to take a guess...? (Answer later; ruler for scale).

Sad to hear about the death of David Soul. Everyone going on about 'Starsky & Hutch', but for me he was at his best confronting the Master in 'Salem's Lot' - first time I really understood him as a 'serious' actor; while simultaneously being scared silly, as a youngster!

Well, 2023 wasn't an unmitigated tale of joy and success - at least, not for me - so here's hoping for better in 2024. A happy New Year to everyone - may your spirits stay high!

Well, Bluesky types - hope you all are able to get into the true spirit of Christmas (see image for details)! Have a good one.

Something to mark the sad passing of Benjamin Zephaniah... www.youtube.com/watch?v=-COk...

I'll make my first post a 'proud dad' one, since I aim to be as much of a complete bore on here as I have been, historically, on Twitter! Great to finally see both my boys playing rugby together on the same pitch for the first time, for their club Tonbridge Juddians RFC v Maidstone RFC, today.