Have you noticed an opaqueness to the blue sky this morning? Wildfire smoke from North America is drifting south across the UK, meaning the clear skies may not be as blue as you might expect 🌤️

Just off to meet my Argentinian neighbour.

It’s your last chance to tell us about how you travel to school – and be in with chance to win a £200 shopping voucher. Complete our short survey by 5pm on Friday 17 July and we’ll enter you into our prize draw. https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/parentWOW

And one worrisome side effect of the recent good weather? The glare from Grand Central Station has caused Lime bikes to smoke perilously in the heat. 🔥

Tom was jealous of his older brother John, so buried his favourite toy tractor deep in the garden Tony, thats how it got there. #TheArchers

#OtD 8 Jul 1822 English Romantic poet Percy Bysshe Shelley died aged just 29 when his boat sank. After the Peterloo massacre he wrote: "Rise like Lions after slumber… Shake your chains to earth like dew… Ye are many—they are few!" More about Peterloo: workingclasshistory.com/2018/11/07/e...

It's the last day to nominate us. Can you help? 🙏

Im my experience, the countryside always stinks of manure. Surely muck spreading has happened near Spiritual Home before this week. #TheArchers

I can usually get a sense of what's gone on in #TheArchers by reading Bluesky. But today has got me totally stumped.

Have a little joy this morning:

These are great: BBC Archives seems to have finally realised what a trove of material they have. Like this 1972 episode of Scene looking at Thamesmead: www.youtube.com/watch?v=kzU8...

12 years ago Janet Street-Porter curated an incredible collection of BBC Archive films for BBC Four on post-war architecture. They're all still available and it's difficult for me to think of a better illustration of the value of public service broadcasting. www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/a...

Good evening #TheArchers

Stewart Lee: Exit stage far-right – now Britain’s theatres are being urged to capitulate to Farage www.thenerve.news/p/stewart-le...

Sleepi™ Bed Mini Newborn bundle | Stokke® Online Shop share.google/NFXKIAbxyLPa... I was surprised Amber accepted the Grundy family cot, as an influencer couldn't she blag a Sleepi #TheArchers

The government's plans for teen social media usage turn out to be more harsh than expected.

Lovely obituary.

Gift link has run out but we've intervened at god level and made it free to read as it's a year old. www.ft.com/content/3862...

Alternate take. (The blog post below is also a bit of a gallery.)

I thought I'd make a thread of some of the things that people who care about trans rights people and human rights could do to help. We really need more cis people stepping up. • Post about it sometimes. Make sure people who see you online know that you're aware of what's going on, and you care.

#pastpuzzle en-489 🟩🟩🟩🟩 (0) ▪️▪️▪️▪️ ▪️▪️▪️▪️ ▪️▪️▪️▪️ 1/4 🥇 www.pastpuzzle.com It was a guess! But something in my unconscious must have remembered.

#pastpuzzle en-487 🟩🟨🟨🟥 (-77) 🟩🟩🟩🟩 (0) ▪️▪️▪️▪️ ▪️▪️▪️▪️ 2/4 🥈 www.pastpuzzle.com One of my quickest right answers.

charity, placing no pubs in the village due to his Quaker faith. The village was planned by renowned architects Raymond Unwin and Barry Parker, who later designed Letchworth Garden City. The village provided affordable, well-built homes with gardens, open

Joseph Rowntree was born OTD 24 May in 1836 in York. Best known as the driving force behind the Rowntree chocolate empire, he was also a pioneering social reformer. One of his legacies was the model village of New Earswick. He wanted to build a genuine, mixed-community without the stigma of

Hear its carer's week next week. Might explain the sudden appearance of Burt and Carol SL about difficulties of caring for elderly parents. Expect a dramatic development over the bank holiday. #TheArchers

Last week, a gentleman returned this rather dilapidated copy of this famous book to us after 50 years. He had found it in his attic! Presumably this means there is a pristine copy somewhere in our libraries....

Pet Shop Boys have been touring with thier hits for a good few years. It was an amazing gig, but we've all had opportunity to see it. So the decision to do something different makes sense. #radio4today

I found Brian's way of speaking about George and Ruairi interesting. No time for George the ex-con, but sees his own son, the violent offender as vulnerable. I think both young men are equally troubled and vulnerable. #TheArchers

Justin is brilliant. Didn't you know your son was a gigolo, Brian? #TheArchers

George is what we referred to at work as 'all therapied up' and trying to convince Ruairi that he needs to have therapy. If they end up seeing the same counsellor, she will know who cloncked George. That will be a twist worth having #TheArchers

Nobody has ever been so lyrically yet thoroughly excoriated as in this piece. And yet, few people have ever deserved such a complete dismantling as the Prince formerly known as Andrew www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...

Why would Ruairi have to go and live with Brian and Miranda? What am I missing? #TheArchers

This is super interesting. The last one I can read fluently is 1600. I can then still read it and figure out (almost) every word, with some puzzling, but then lose it almost completely at 1200. www.deadlanguagesociety.com/p/how-far-ba...

I recapped Souvenir Tat Week on Pottery Throwdown: ariadnereviews.com/2026/02/04/p... The Sidmouth Donkey School of Art, the playground economy, my personal evolutionary theories and Anubis holidays in St Ives. #PotteryThrowdow #tgpt

"In response to criticisms she's heard about the hat being 'performative,' Mashaal, the shop owner, said the thousands of dollars that have gone toward supporting their community speaks for itself."

#bbc #@bbciplayer #bbciplayer #AMatterOfLifeandDeath #PowellAndPressburger #TheArchers #DavidNiven #Rogeralivesey

'New data from the Ministry of Justice show that studying with The Open University (OU) delivers “significant reductions” in reoffending amongst prison learners.' 'It also found that those studying committed 37 per cent fewer offences within a year of release.' 1/2

Hand & Snowdrops, created c.1970s by George Buday, at Netherne hospital where he was compelled to live. Art therapist Edward Adamson secured special dispensation for Buday to have the tools & materials he needed to carry on working as an artist, doing so from a summerhouse in the hospital grounds

I wish George had stood up for himself and stayed for Grandma's shepherds pie. #TheArchers

Four Greater Anglia stations will host the Inspiration exhibition train celebrating 200 years of rail: Cambridge, Colchester, Clacton-on-Sea and Hertford East. Hands-on displays and history brought to life. Tickets are free but limited. @eastangliabylines.co.uk

Happy Christmas to all my Archers friends that I've never met but talk to everyday. ☃️🎄🥂

Bingo card prepared! Excuse awful handwriting, its to disguise my dyslexia. #TheArchers

I wrote about 28 Years Later

The Christmas window of Constance’s shop, painting created 1968 by Muriel Lewis, in the art therapy at studio Netherne hospital, where she was compelled to live. A large number of her works survive, they depict scenes from her own life inside & outside the hospital during the mid C20th in Surrey

'The dictionary will not be huge because relatively few words survive, but experts from Aberystwyth University say they expect they will end up with more than 1,000 words.'

Down by the sea: poverty brings Blackpool life expectancy to UK low | Life expectancy | The Guardian share.google/b79dU4zVXmF7.... In case the Archers is tempting you to try Blackpool #TheArchers

The purpose of probation is to protect the public. It does so by managing the risk of offenders committing further offences. But an unstable system with demoralised staff is undermining rehabilitation. J J Jackson reports