Here you are @fungiflowers.bsky.social the broomrape lives on in my E14 garden. Seems to be favouring the rosemary this year, but still not as huge as the ones on my giant Echiums last year!

With more and more drone strikes reaching the key Rostov-Crimea highway, Ukraine 🇺🇦 redefines the depth of the "kill zone". Overview 🧵 and map explaining about zone ranges 1/

I do love this subtle photo of a carpenter ant in the wood galleries. Insect photographers for some reasons don't make that many moody silhoutte photos, I should probably do more of these.

Getting more like the Führerbunker ever day.

Russian lawmaker raises alarm about economy, calls for end to war in Ukraine Renat Suleimanov, a State Duma deputy from the Communist Party (KPRF), said in an interview with Russian outlet Kontinent Sibir that Russia needs the "swiftest possible end" to what Moscow calls its "...

Please never give up on your dream that one day, you will finally have a bookshelf with a rolling ladder.

I think this is the best story you'll read today: A while ago, I read a story on Threads about a Ukrainian Defender, Oleksandr Ivanov, who was in Russian captivity for several years now. Oleksandr loves Harry Potter Source: natasya_tigrenok/Threads

naturally

The youngest is 21. The oldest is 62. Most were captured at Mariupol or Azovstal in 2022. All of them came home today after four years in Russian captivity. The first stage of a new 1000-for-1000 exchange returned 205 of them. 🔗 euromaidanpress.com/2026/05/15/a...

I think this maybe the most niché bit of trivia I’ve ever heard.

Why exactly would a Thailand-based economic migrant secretly give Nigel Farage £5 million as a 'reward' for delivering Brexit? I won't get to ask either of them this question but every single journalist & broadcaster granted access could...

In April, Crispin Odey dropped his £79mn #libel claim against us. This is the inside story of how Odey’s battle to reclaim his reputation backfired. It's about the brave women who spoke out against him — and the new allegations the two-year legal saga unearthed. www.ft.com/content/edbe...

Chilly day looking for Duke of Burgundy had its surprises. Marsh Fritillary nectaring on Hawthorn (1st for me) and female adder half way up a bramble bush! We did see a few Dukes and did interviews for Dorset National Landscape who funded vital habitat management. @dorsetbutterflies.bsky.social

Half-expect to be told next the £5m was for a secure ballroom in Clacton.

Why does Radio 4 always platform as its 'independent legal expert' Jonathan Sumption, known to be hostile to the European Convention on Human Rights? Especially as he wasn't a human rights lawyer? (A rhetorical question. It's the BBC the Tories created and Starmer is too clueless to push back.)

"It is not entirely clear why Lewis put himself forward for the election in May; he has previously stated that the divine rapture and tribulation will occur in April, an event of such cosmic significance that the local elections would be likely be cancelled"

Exactly 12 years ago, on April 13, 2014, in Zaporizhzhia, a rally of pro-Russian separatists and collaborators was egg-bоmbed.

Celebratory dance in Hungary

The victory of the opposition in Hungary yesterday, like the Polish election in 2023, is a victory for democracy, not just in Europe but around the world.

Oil from an Iranian ship struck near the Strait of Hormuz threatens to poison one of the region's most important wetlands. Local fishing communities depend on the mangrove forest for food. If oil reaches them, it's likely to kill the fish they need to survive. share.google/hpVAKkuAVy9J...

A mini 'beast' of the leaf litter the pseudoscorpion Chthonius ischnocheles. This tiny arachnid is just a few millimetres long. It uses its venomous 'pincer palps' to immobilise prey such as mites then covers them with digestive fluid and injests the liquefied remains. They are harmless to humans!

Just what we don't need. Already, our rivers are overloaded with both human and livestock waste, leading in many cases to #rivercide. Now the government, responding as always to lobbyists, wants to make it worse. Then it wonders why it loses public support. www.theguardian.com/environment/...

The window has already begun to close so we'd better start doing something meaningful pretty sharpish... www.ceh.ac.uk/press/we-hav...

This is my favorite climate change chart. Japanese monks, aristocrats, and emperors kept meticulous records of cherry blossom festivals for 1,200 years and accidentally built the world's longest climate dataset.

Donald Trump threatened to stop supplying weapons for Ukraine in order to pressure European allies to join a “coalition of the willing” to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, according to people briefed on the discussions. www.ft.com/content/d304...

It's only worth going back to the Moon if it makes us look properly again at Earth, and appreciate how beautiful, precious and fragile what we have here is. The most famous images from Apollo aren't about the Moon - they're pictures of Earth. We need to stop taking our home for granted.

It's going to be an epic meltdown when old Frosty discovers that this Pope is woke.

UK greenhouse gas emissions are now down 54% since 1990. They fell 2% last year. It's something the country doesn't boast about enough. Yes, some of it is switch from industry to services. But the biggest reductions are from changes to electricity supply. 👇 www.gov.uk/government/s...

❗️A Russian strike destroyed a whole street in Korosten, Zhytomyr region. A 70-year-old woman was killed, five more people injured. 1,500 days of this today.

That trip to the Moon is paying dividends already www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Did BBC radio 4 #Today programme really just do a whole package about drilling in the N Sea without once even mentioning #climate change? And not having anyone challenging the one-sided claims of former BP boss? So irresponsible #bbcr4today

Holiday advice: It's pleasant to get a train to Europe. You just have to turn travelling into a core part of the holiday - lunch in Paris, dinner in Bordeaux, trip to Spain, week on beach etc. It's limiting, but very enjoyable & decent alternative to a flight you won't be able to afford by summer.

What's glorious about the review is the inadvertent humour of the reviewer's self-conception colliding with the reality that this stuff is simply not as intelligent as he believes it to be.

The intro to this is incredible. Essentially a shrieking lamentation that the author can't sufficiently intellectualize an opinion only a dullard could have.

Goodwin's new book has even been slammed by The Critic. It must be truly dreadful. thecritic.co.uk/suicide-of-a...

It's confirmed: Planetary warming has significantly accelerated over the past 10 years. This is the first statistically significant evidence of an acceleration of global warming that many had been warning about. Story via @bloomberg.com FREE link: www.bloomberg.com/news/article...

We can all agree that I'd look fantastic on a £5 note

We’ve started surveying #Fylingdales Moor to plan restoration after last year’s #Wildfire. It’s a desolate landscape. On the upside, areas with higher plant diversity and more Sphagnum moss seem less affected by the #Fire. I wonder why? 🤔💧 #GreatNorthBog #Water #Peatland @northyorkmoors.org.uk

Norway has fish and puffins on their banknotes, and look at the state of them. When I went there last summer it was a woke hellscape of flowering plants, even in the cities. Sparrows wandering around like they owned the place. Bees everywhere. Absolute menaces.

An actual statement from the one-time natural party of government.

Hedgehogs *are* our national heroes

Politicians in opposition would do well to realise that they don't have to oppose everything and have a negative opinion on everything that happens whilst someone else is in power. It's perfectly acceptable to say nothing. Or even say "Oh we love these the UK has wonderful native wildlife."

Impressed that Kemi Badenoch now seems to be calling for an ... independent British war on Iran?

The money is on crooked as hell, but there are still odds to take that Witkoff is just incredibly stupid.

🚨🚨Major story of today: Nearly seven months ago, #Ukraine tried to sell the US their battle-proven technology for downing Iranian-made attack drones but #Trump admin dismissed the Ukrainians, only to reverse course last week because of heavy drone strikes from #Iran.🧵 www.axios.com/2026/03/10/u...

New footage analysed by Bellingcat shows two of the world’s most wanted crime figures, Christy and Daniel Kinahan, appearing openly at a mixed martial arts event in Dubai, despite US sanctions and multimillion-dollar rewards for information leading to their arrest. www.bellingcat.com/news/2026/03...

Influencer's fleeing Dubai right now.

So I started looking into this to outline the conspiracy theory. But what I found was a genuinely beautiful piece of practical idealism. A small, attainable progressive change that would hugely improve people's lives. I was inspired by it.

a year is a long time in politics

#WutheringHeights Sweepcliff.