Spending the day defragging my hard drive. Looking forward to those fast fast read speeds tomorrow.

If you didn't fall in love with Diane Keaton the first time you saw the Uncle George story scene, your heart must've been made of stone . . . DK 1946 - 2025

Kashmir, 1980s

Seated goddess with a child, gold, Hittite Empire, Central Anatolia c. 14th–13th century BCE

Three rocks from the Chalbi Desert, Kenya

Lalibela, Ethiopia

Feed your head: listen to Spacemen 3's sensational 44-minute "Dreamweapon" while reading Will Carruthers' hilarious account of the creation of the piece: www.youtube.com/watch?v=-_qA... www.theguardian.com/music/2016/s...

Planting Horned Poppies in my inland suburban garden, very optimistically #jarman #thegarden #prospect

Here's a piece I wrote about a medieval church font in Dorset: mbalax.substack.com/p/wild-bruti...

Last night's Moon.

Carnival characters

Within the chaptere-house of the Abbey at West Minstere, a grate nobel fysshe, al goldene hewed

When the head and the hand are separate, it is the head that suffers. - Richard Sennett

Happy Napoleon's Birthday everybody! Let's celebrate one of history's most powerfully ambiguous characters with this fragment of Hugo: Et chaque homme porte dedans son coeur Son propre, son privé Empéreur . . .

London Gliding School, Dunstable 1935 Christopher Nicholson Image from RIBApix

Stoat dance: lots of theories on this one but none proven. Brer Stoat plays his cards close to his chest.

"A map of the world that does not include Utopia is not worth even glancing at, for it leaves out the one country at which Humanity is always landing. And when Humanity lands there, it looks out, and seeing a better country, sets sail." - Oscar Wilde, The Soul Of Man Under Socialism

Sidney Nolan, Landscape - Miner/Yellow Helmet, 1973 #artbots #tate https://botfrens.com/collections/14375/contents/1117498

It is party time among the cormorants of Aran, and you're invited, if you happen to be a cormorant

Shelagh, take a bow. (Shelagh Delaney in Salford, 7th August 1961, photo by Arnold Newman).

In the Burren, a fantastical limestone landscape in County Clare, with fossils of corals and crinoids underfoot, and orchids abounding.

Have been wanting to swim at the Forty Foot Hole in Sandycove for many years, and finally made it today, huzza

Send us, bright one, light one . . . quickening and wombfruit The National Maternity Hospital, Holles Street, Dublin. Thought about the river of babies that pours out of here and reached for my non-existent sharpie to scribble on the panes of the door: Here Comes Everybody

How can we suppose that there is anything supernatural in us when we look back through history with such satisfaction at the discovery of gunpowder to blow men to pieces. Each fresh engine of destruction hailed with applause. - Richard Jefferies

"I wish to have no status as a man. I am equally content to be a worm or a rat and am only glad that I am not because they have such a rough time without the pleasure of painting." - Stanley Spencer

A day out up the London is sometimes just too much fun

What a great record this is: top class production, every moment is filled as if the urgency and joy of it needed to be crammed onto the disc, which I'm sure it did. youtu.be/CqpA6iggSwA

Happy St Swithin's Day everyone!⁣ ⁣ Swithin/Swithun was Bishop of Winchester in the 860s: I always liked his deathbed wish that his body should be buried outside the cathedral under the eaves, "𝘶𝘣𝘪 𝘦𝘵 𝘱𝘦𝘥𝘪𝘣𝘶𝘴 𝘱𝘳𝘢𝘦𝘵𝘦𝘳𝘦𝘶𝘯𝘵𝘪𝘶𝘮 𝘦𝘵 𝘴𝘵𝘪𝘭𝘭𝘪𝘤𝘪𝘥𝘪𝘪𝘴 𝘦𝘹 𝘢𝘭𝘵𝘰 𝘳𝘰𝘳𝘢𝘯𝘵𝘪𝘣𝘶𝘴 𝘦𝘴𝘴𝘦𝘵 𝘰𝘣𝘯𝘰𝘹𝘪𝘶𝘴."

Other Dorset fauna: Six-Spot Burnets, Black-and-Yellow Longhorn, Grass Snake and Hare (here)

Insect of the day: the Lulworth Skipper 𝘛𝘩𝘺𝘮𝘦𝘭𝘪𝘤𝘶𝘴 𝘢𝘤𝘵𝘦𝘰𝘯, found only on the South coast and classified as "Near Threatened" i.e. not very threatened, today on the Isle of Purbeck swarming by the hundred.

I never understand the fuss made about Finnegans Wake and its impenetrability: if you don't find the below hilarious you are a dull dog indeed

Claude Debussy sleeping photo Pierre Louÿs

This masterpiece has just come into my awareness like a newly-emerged insect youtu.be/ENI4rAAr2t4?...

Insect of the day: the splendidly named digger wasp 𝘈𝘴𝘵𝘢𝘵𝘢 𝘣𝘰𝘰𝘱𝘴, which provisions its nest with shieldbug nymphs. "Boops" means "cow eyes". Also pleased to read that the subspecies 𝘈𝘴𝘵𝘢𝘵𝘢 𝘣𝘰𝘰𝘱𝘴 𝘣𝘰𝘰𝘱𝘴 has been recorded in Iran.

Last night's Moon. Great seeing conditions gave excellent craterage.

𝘨𝘰𝘵 𝘮𝘦 𝘴𝘰 𝘴𝘵𝘳𝘶𝘯𝘨 𝘰𝘶𝘵 𝘐 𝘥𝘰𝘯'𝘵 𝘬𝘯𝘰𝘸 𝘸𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘵𝘰 𝘥𝘰 youtu.be/1J5nR4efMCE?...

Insect of the Day: the always alluring Whirligig Beetle, 𝘎𝘺𝘳𝘪𝘯𝘶𝘴 𝘴𝘱.

Insect of the day: Boo! Hiss! It's the crapulous cleptoparasitic wasp 𝘏𝘦𝘥𝘺𝘤𝘩𝘳𝘶𝘮 𝘳𝘶𝘭𝘢𝘯𝘴, hanging furtively around the nests of 𝘗𝘩𝘪𝘭𝘢𝘯𝘵𝘩𝘶𝘴. Apparently it has even evolved to 𝘴𝘮𝘦𝘭𝘭 like 𝘗𝘩𝘪𝘭𝘢𝘯𝘵𝘩𝘶𝘴. But why is it all done up like a Christmas bauble? Makes you think of the Child catcher.

Insect of the day: the Purple Hairstreak, 𝘍𝘢𝘷𝘰𝘯𝘪𝘶𝘴 𝘲𝘶𝘦𝘳𝘤𝘶𝘴, a crepuscular butterfly which on early sunny summer mornings descends from its home oak to drink dew off the bracken.

Three Day Moon.

life is a whole lot safer underground www.youtube.com/watch?v=oaP0...

Insect of the Day: the splendid and deadly Beewolf, 𝘗𝘩𝘪𝘭𝘢𝘯𝘵𝘩𝘶𝘴 𝘵𝘳𝘪𝘢𝘯𝘨𝘶𝘭𝘶𝘮. At this site they were arriving from the same direction with preyed-upon bees every few minutes (not shown) - how did they know where the bees were?

The Red Tower by Giorgio de Chirico, 1913 #artbots #guggenheim https://botfrens.com/collections/212/contents/137318

Insect of the day: the Essex Skipper, 𝘛𝘩𝘺𝘮𝘦𝘭𝘪𝘤𝘶𝘴 𝘭𝘪𝘯𝘦𝘰𝘭𝘢

Insect of the day: the Marbled White, 𝘔𝘦𝘭𝘢𝘯𝘢𝘳𝘨𝘪𝘢 𝘨𝘢𝘭𝘢𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘢, which was absent two weeks ago but today is here by the dozen as if one were Elvira Madigan, please be careful

Wes Streeting says "no money for UK assisted dying" while rest of Govt casts a languid eye around the the globe for those they can help to shuffle off this mortal coil whether they like it or not

Happy solstice everyone

The very splendid Robust Marsh Orchid, 𝘋𝘢𝘤𝘵𝘺𝘭𝘰𝘳𝘩𝘪𝘻𝘢 𝘦𝘭𝘢𝘵𝘢, Appennines