This is utterly disgraceful.

A very early entry in the "googly eyes make everything better" stakes...

It ain't hard to see, as Taylor Swift sings...

The traditional posture of a particular type of Anglican on a Sunday afternoon - snoring on the sofa, clutching a slender volume by Rowan Williams...

Do a Gävle Goat Crêpes Suzette, you cowards.

Whatever else comes out once the attack on the ECML train last night, this alone is a credit to the train crew, driver, and signalling team. Huntingdon was the first possible stop. In a highly stressful situation and improvising a plan the train lost just 3 minutes vs line speed to get there.

Huntingdon - This comment from Simon Calder is worth repeating. My thoughts with all involved

*One* imaginary horse? Amateurs! I had over fifty, each with a notebook page recording its vital statistics...

Great investigation of the Nazis, racists and criminals mobilising the flag-on-lamp-posts movement. This is the kind of journalism that the national media could and should have conducted: manchestermill.co.uk/the-men-who-...

To celebrate our new bigger sofa (and all being able to sit on the sofa together for the first time in tears), tonight was Family Film Night. For perfectly logical reasons, the children chose Goodbye Lenin. We all enjoyed it a lot.

Today involves getting an old and collapsing sofa out of an extremely small (by British housing standards) sitting room and into the front garden for collection. By me and two teenagers, one of whom will have a sore arm and a grievance about it (vaccination catch up session).

Frodo wakes. ‘Where am I?’ ‘In the House of Elrond. It is ten o’clock in the morning. The morning of October the twenty-fourth, if you want to know.’ ‘Gandalf!’ ‘Yes, I am here. And you are lucky to be here, too, after all the absurd things you have done since you left home.’

Kit Whitfield's Austen takes are always worth the read.

There is no need for this 1st: No Christmas Carol Film can surpass the Muppets Christmas Carol 2nd: dont support an abuser

Cnut. He's forgotten about Cnut, who went on pilgrimage to Rome in 1027. Oh, and Edward I, who spent 2 months at the court of Gregory X in 1273. Otherwise, all over the detail, as per.

In the 17th century the British famously removed the need for the royal hat budget with a single stroke, FFS!

🌞Maybe you would like to stitch a large embroidery inspired by the Wheel of The Year? Check out my pattern bundle here (or buy them individually): payhip.com/b/FbM05 #Embroidery #WheelOfTheYear

Not sure if it was a stoat or a weasel? Remember, a weasel is weasily recognised, because a stoat is stoatily different.

Me at 2.30pm: You know what would be nice on a grey autumn Sunday afternoon? A second cup of coffee. What's the worst that could happen? Me at 2.30am the next morning: Oh. That. That's what could happen. Apparently we don't do sleeping any more.

And it's a happy 75th birthday to Prince Charles Napoleon head (disputedly) of the Bonaparte house! Hope he likes his presents, sorry it was a bit of a rush getting them...

Who had lead and cadmium poisoning in their options...?

I bet there are still skirmishes and they just go unreported by the mainstream media that wants to spin a narrative of inter-county harmony

Has anyone checked where the various French Pretenders to the Throne are right now?

Today I messed up taking the band off a big 10g hank of coton a broder to cut it into working lengths. Over eight hours later, it is now fully detangled. So that was my Saturday.

So what I am taking from this is that Pope Bob comes from the Temples of the White Rat.

Another thing to go on my "absolutely going to pre-order" list.

Popping in to say I’m writing a book! And St. Martin’s and @bloomsburybooksuk.bsky.social are publishing it! I’m very excited! Extra big thanks to Emma Bal at Madeleine Milburn!

My super modern regulatory plan is that any entity named for a thing from Tolkien has to publicly explain why Tolkien wouldn’t immediately throw it into Mount Doom

There are questions connected with the subject which cannot be entered into in a public paper.

Pre-ordered...

Takes me straight back to some of the correspondence I had to deal with in my own local government days...

A thing that has been nagging at me for decades - does anyone else broadly comparable (mid 40s, grew up in the UK) remember a cartoon on Channel 4 in the late 80s or early 90s called The Inventive Boy? I think it was eastern European.

Current state: liable at any moment to burst out yelling "...cry my eyes violet, ELIZABETH TAYLOR!".

You should not pray for a husband. How do you know it would be for your happiness or your advantage, and not a hindrance?

If you can afford it, pay for it (it's a stretch for me, but honestly worth it). Taking one for the team - those who can't find any way to get jabbed.

🎵 If I was a sculptor, ha But then again, no Or a man who makes potions in a travelling show I know it's not much, but it's the best I can do 🎵 Jobcentre advisor: No, I'm sorry Mr John, you have to look for three kinds of work. Your online account will have a to-do list, you need to be checking it.

Thanks to this, I have my covid jab booked for Monday. Clubcard points and all! (Was eligible until this year; permanently eligible for free flu jabs, got that on Wednesday at independent pharmacy)

Even now a crack team of Scottish culinary scientists are racing against time to discover a way to deep fry it.

Many congratulations to my colleagues in the Forms of Labour project team on the publication of their new monograph! 🗃️👏🎉 Brilliantly, The Experience of Work in #EarlyModern England is available open access: www.cambridge.org/core/books/e... news.exeter.ac.uk/faculty-of-h...

SHE ATEN'T DEAD YET

Boxes also work on bobcats

For context, there are 1.64 billion cars in the world, most of which run on fuel which, when burnt, causes or exacerbates respiratory diseases.

Just got to get these through Customs...

Seven chapters in (Waterstones shipped early), can highly recommend. Unless you want to sleep, that is.

Train 3, and stage 4 of the #DutchDayOut. We're not moving anywhere for another ten minutes, but it's warmer than the platform. Manningtree to Harwich International, for a big white ferry.

I really miss rail timetables. I don't want another planner app, I almost certainly want to do something peculiar with the route that you haven't given me nearly enough variables for. I just want the timetable so I can do my own planning.

#DutchDayOut A forty minute wait in the bustling metropolis of Manningtree on a Sunday night. Manningtree station has a bar. It doesn't open Sundays.