"Civilisation still rests upon very old foundations: water, temperature, food and the limits of the human body... Countries like Britain may discover that the climate crisis is not only about weather, but about movement – the slow rearranging of where human beings can comfortably live on Earth."

From today my book "Science and Sensibilty: From the Heavens Above to the Earth Below" is being published by Boydell & Brewer under the Lutterworth Press imprint. A must read for all those interested in the natural sciences! (says the author 😀). @boydellandbrewer.bsky.social

Now available from our online shop, the inside story of William Wordsworth’s house at Rydal Mount, where he lived for most of his life gritstonecoop.co.uk/product/ryda... @westwoodbooks.bsky.social @showcasecumbria.bsky.social @poetrydaily.bsky.social

Things I did during the first covid lockdown and just discovered buried beneath a pile of things to be filed or thrown away: painting I did of a schematic topographic map of Norwich. OMG, I've just found several more! I must have been desperate for things to do.

And while we're here why not treat yourself to reading "Science and Sensibilty" with its chapter on geology's pioneers including the remarkable Mary Anning! 😀

Mary Anning looking east from Lyme Regis at her beloved Jurassic cliffs.

Scarborough, yesterday. *credit Fred Brown.

Rainbow over Lyme Regis last Thursday 11 June late afternoon. #LymeRegis

Iris, thank you so much for your kind words!

Exciting day! gritstonecoop.co.uk/product/ryda... @gritstonebooks.bsky.social

Well, vanity compels me to mention the 5 short chapters in my 2025 book "Science and Sensibility" (Lutterworth Press, Cambridge) that consider the origins and development of modern chemical theory. 😀

Wow. Love this. This makes total sense to me!

This was was a fast turnaround. Like modern British PMs ... here's a musical parody view of #Starmer's and #Labour's crisis through the lens of Rodgers & Hammerstein's "The Farmer and the Cowman" (Oklahoma!) 🎶 youtu.be/WbT2yTxOMvY

St Mary's Church, Stoke Newington with the City skyscrapers and Shard in the distance viewed from Woodberry Wetlands, Hackney.

With much focus today on the warming rate in Europe, it might be important to also pay attention to the "cold blob" - that area in blue to the northwest of Ireland/British Isles, with a persistent cooling anomaly. It's linked to a slowing down of the AMOC = potential big climate upheaval.

While we are transfixed by the antics of our supposed "leaders", a catastrophe of astonishing proportions has been creeping up on us. Climate scientists now believe it is more likely than not to happen, and soon. This week's column. www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

Interested in postgraduate study? Why not join me online at 6pm on Wed 29 April to find out more about our unique Ambleside-based MA in Literature, Romanticism & the Lake District (with full time & part time study options available): www.cumbria.ac.uk/events/open-...

The UK right wing media - which is most media including BBC- is really doing their best (worst) to find some dirt on the greens. Wonder why Farage wasn't exposed to same ferocious investigations 🤔😁

The untamed bit of the garden (of which there is rather a lot, what with me not being much of a gardener) has been taken over by primroses

82% of Labour voters said they supported "Britain rejoining the European Union". Just 12% were against. - Labour needs to stop chasing Reform voters! www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Rydal Mount saved. Excellent news and a big thank you to the Save Rydal Mount team who write:"After many months of thought and discussion we are thrilled to confirm that Rydal Mount has been acquired by the Wordsworth Trust in partnership with The Julia Rausing Trust and the Charlotte Aitken Trust."

I wasn't intending to turn this into a thread, but it seems to have happened anyway. It's about the great plague on our lives: the extreme wealth of a tiny number of people. And what to do about it.

Ah ha! So it's World Book Day I see. So it has to be done. All modesty held firmly in check. Here are 3 of my recent must reads! Treat yourself. Go on, you know you want to 😉 @saraband-books.bsky.social #Lutterworth Press.

This one hits hard.

Sent by an American friend

Interested in postgraduate study in the fields of literature, heritage, culture and the environment? Join me online tomorrow evening (18th February) to find out more about our MA in Literature, Romanticism & the Lake District. Register via the link below 📚

Langdale Pikes

Quite true Javiera! Well said.Also see my book "Extraction to Extinction" @saraband-books.bsky.social which explores how we transmute rocks into our modern material and the heavy environmental price we pay for our hubris.

St Mary's Church, Ambleside, Cumbria, by moonlight. The church was built in the 1850s to a design by Sir George Gilbert Scott in Gothic Revival style. The building is Grade II listed.

Between 1979 and 1982 American geologist William Barbat produced 18 issues of the "CO2 Newsletter". 8 pages packed with news, excerpts from recent reports and analysis. Accurate, prescient, heart-breaking. The third is now released. pdf and text via here - allouryesterdays.info/2026/02/08/c... 1/n

John Steinbeck "Cannery Row"

Lily Tarn on a moist and misty morning.

So true. And true of so many of our key materials that we ultimately extract from the ground. 'If you can't eat it, a geologist probably found it'. "Extraction to Extinction" A must read! 😊@saraband-books.bsky.social

Windermere from Jenkin's Crag.

Robin Lane on the way to Troutbeck.

Ambleside in the January sun from Wansfell Pike.

If you're free, flock round for lunch sometime.

Sunday morning and a moody Grasmere.

Correction for poor spelling in original post ...Langdale Pikes...

Blea Tarn with the Lagdale Pikes in winter sunshine.

Jetty at Windermere, Watershead, Ambleside.

Hoping that the USA is bigger than one deranged 79yo

Henry Moore, Reclining Figure at the Sainsbury Centre, UEA, Norwich at sunrise.

I can't believe I'm posting this video - but we actually have to have a conversation about the real world implications of America going to war over Greenland. Let me walk you through it. It doesn't turn out well for us.

Sunrise and bridge over the River Yare, Norwich.

Eaton Park, Norwich on an icy morning.

Lunar halo over our house this evening.