Quick question: I know we're supposed to eat 5-a-day of fruit and veg servings. However if the meal I've just made and eaten turns out to say "serves 4" in the original recipe, have I accidentally had 20-a-day?

A butternut squash, chickpea & mushroom tagine has just gone in the oven. Now there's 40 minutes of anticipation before I find out if its nice, or I'm eating crisps for supper.

Finally managed to snag the last 40 litre bag of #peatfree compost from the nearest shop to me (still a mile walk with a trolley mind). I thought I was going to have to do a longer hike as earlier in the week they just had top soil, bark mulch and some we're-not-going-to-tell-you-what's-in-the-bag.

It's almost as though the rogue USA state just wants to steal other countries' natural resources.

Found this little beauty in an old diary. I didn't make it up. Don't know who did. Remember there's nothing to stop you living your dreams, apart from thousands of far more talented people working much harder than you.

From an international perspective, America is a rogue state now, right? America doesn't respect international law, doesn't honor treaties, is murdering civilians all over the world without care or consequence. At what point does the rest of the world say ENOUGH?

🚨 The Environment Agency has advised against swimming in the River Avon in Stratford-upon-Avon as pollution has entered the river The Environment Agency are responsible for investigating pollution incidents, such as this, in rivers Report concerns here: 0800 80 70 60

Apparently some beardy-weirdy will also be there sharpening scissors, secateurs and loppers. Hope that doesn't put people off... 🤔😂😂

Can we have the prairie planting without the grasses? 🤔 I like the large blocks of stuff like flox and lavender but I'm still not an ornamental grasses fan. #GardenersWorld

Blooming heck... we might stand a chance in #Eurovision this year. Look Mum No Computer has a banging Europop entry that's jolly good. www.youtube.com/watch?v=niMK...

I've just filled in Charnwood Borough Council's survey about settin up a new town council for Loughborough. Seeing as Local Government Reform is all about cutting down confusing council service provision and wasteful duplication, this seem a perverse move now! www.charnwood.gov.uk/pages/loughb...

The science isn't my field so the conference doesn't interest me, but that poster graphic stands out rather effectively. I bet @altmetric.com probably have a thread prepared on groovy academic conference posters already... 🤔🤣🤣🤣

The most polluting form of transport we have is subsidised to the hilt. There should be no more public money spent on flying, we need a change of direction and spend less.

Holy crap, if I’m reading this right: India invited the US and Iran to take part in a military excercise in international waters, where the Iranian warship would attend *without ammunition* as per protocol. The US then went to war with Iran, pulled out of […] [Original post on cyberplace.social]

FYI - March 8th is National Proofreding Day

Strong trying-to-teach-my-parents-videocalling vibes.

Warm sunshine at lunchtime so I thought as I'm working for home I'd take advantage of it for 20 minutes and mow the little back lawn for the first time. Turns out that the grass was a lot damper than I thought it was despite no rain for a couple of days, so not the best job I've ever made of it.

As someone who was diagnosed with #epilepsy as a child, its good to see new treatments becoming available to treat the most severe forms of the condition. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Of course what this photo is really of is Dr Albert Shuttlebuck, surveying the result of his disastrous experiment in adding baking powder to his rice crispie cake recipe in July 1903.

Wait... so the Telegraph thinks that when a political party that has been aiming to win for decades does win an election, they'll be rattled and it will spell their downfall? Even if your not a supporter of the Green Party you've probably got to admit that's a weird take on their recent results. 🤯

I've taken a step closer to actually welding something by learning this evening how to thread, clamp and feed the flux core wire into my new welder. Glad I found this video on YouTube because the Lidl instructions, whilst technically correct, weren't terribly clear. www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lari...

Just been listening to a programme on Radio 4 considering the moral aspects of the war between Iran & USA. A chap was claiming it was moral to go to war to deal with a theocratic, authoritarian regime that abuses and kills its own citizens. Took me a moment to realise he meant Iran and not America.

While we're hooked on oil & gas we're vulnerable to price shocks caused by a rogue US president. It doesn't have to be like this. Invest in renewables, insulate our homes, cut the cost of living.

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Energy independence is consistently one of the most powerful pro-Net Zero arguments among voters. They back renewables over fossil fuel as the solution and it's not particularly close. Bit baffled that Govt is not hammering this more loudly in light of Iran. Pushing at an open door.

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Maybe we should bring some of the right wing British tax dodgers who live in the Middle East out of the warzone, but drop them in Calais and tell them to take a small boat across the Channel. See how they like it.

I take part in TfWM surveys and one of the "Big Picture" results on a survey about travel in extreme #weather was: "Extreme weather is beginning to shape behaviour – influencing whether, when and how people travel. Reliability and preparedness are becoming central to trust in the system."

Just caught up with PMQs. I think what this has confirmed is that in the unlikely event of Badenoch becoming PM, she'd blindly follow the USA into whatever illegal and destablizing misadventures and scrapes they decide to get themselves into. Not a particularly attractive position to woe voters.

You know I can think of worse places to be for a quick middle of the workday lunchtime leg stretch in the Spring sunshine.

"You cannot answer one illegality with another, because that is how the great catastrophes of humanity begin." I'd not heard of the Spanish Prime Minister before today, but I think I already like the cut of his jib. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

So how's the UK Government getting on with decoupling electricity prices from the gas wholesale price? Hmmm? Had a couple of years to work on it now which will help with #ClimateChange goals as well as insulating consumers if any fool started a war in the Mid.... oh. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Just watched the Patreon early release of next weekend's "Just Have A Think" #ClimateChange video. Bit of a doozy this one... my subtle hint is it is concerning work coming from a bunch of long haired, hippie... er... actuaries.

Medieval intellects are gonna medieval. www.theguardian.com/world/2026/m...

This is absolutely brilliant, and sadly brings to mind a few people I know/knew who went to work out in Dubai. https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/picture/2026/mar/03/expat-dubai-startling-revelation-the-stephen-collins-cartoon

Matt @MattCartoonist on #Iran #IranWar @Telegraph – political cartoon gallery in London original-political-cartoon.com

Got a load of spinach beet from the #allotment last weekend, and the hospital dietician said that she recommends loads of spinach. So this evening's dinner is going to be a variation on "Palak mushrooms". Mostly the variation is based on what I've got in the fridge and store cupboards.

If that incident had happened in the UK, the board of inquiry might just have decided on the choice of biscuits for their meetings by now.

Shops: if you insist on using price codes for seed packets and then display a big "Buy 3, get cheapest free" sign, remember to actually also display the price code key so we know which the cheapest is. Unless of course you're so embarrassingly more expensive than Lidl you'd rather we didn't know.

Near me when they built homes there was a promise to build a youth centre. It never got built, they said they hadn't the money and would need to build more homes to be able to afford it. They built more homes and guess what - still no youth centre.

When developers started building hundreds of new houses on farmland near me, one of the "benefits" was a new local health centre, which was included in the plans. In classic UK style though, such infrastructure didn't get built and now the land is up for sale. www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/1...

Future date for your diary: our next SCA meeting is on Tuesday 17th March. The location has yet to be confirmed. If you think you can make it please let us know at the link below as we're trialing a new event booking system! www.tickettailor.com/events/strat...

History may be about to repeat itself.......

I see we're getting another lesson in "don't rely on foreign oil and gas as your main energy source". You'd think that after Russia's invasion of Ukraine the penny would have dropped world wide, but it appears not. Time to really start installing those #renewable generators and grid scale batteries.

The SWT guy said. "I could have offered to amend your ticket before SWT was nationalised , but now I am no longer allowed to " When I said " I thought nationalisation was about putting customers first? He said "it will over 20 years". I said "I am 65 !!" 🤷‍♂️🤷‍♂️

Despite the large-scale instability in the Middle East, the prices of wind and sunshine remain unchanged.

You know what the US expenditure on a military adventure in the Middle East really is? It's the money they could have spent on having a proper free at the point of use national health service.

Well it's not yet 9pm and I'm already in bed. Not because I'm tired or ill, but because I fear my aching legs and hips would complain too much if I left getting up off the sofa and shuffling up the stairs too much longer. I know I've had some physical activity today!