I was given this book on the birthday by my friend @bmcleish.bsky.social the other day: Andrew O’Hagan - On Friendship. You get a sense that O’Hagan the writer emerged early in his life when after a school trip to the cinema to see Charlotte’s Web, he read the book later that night. #BookSky

This photo of people in Madrid's Prado looking at a painting by Velazquez makes it look like you're looking through a window into the painting. This is one of my very favourite paintings, I love it. I was lucky to see it in person. #art www.theguardian.com/world/2026/j...

We keep hearing about how Royal Mail needs to modernise. Encountered that today when I tried to contact them about my neighbours and I not having any mail for a week. There's nothing on their website about this scenario, and only a phone number where you're in a queue for 40-50 minutes.

Most detailed map of what Antarctica looks like beneath the ice. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Slow Horses: great show, terrible theme song.

I don't have access to read this article, but the story of trying to understand this creature from its fossils is one of my favourites.

Grand Depart of the Tour de France 2027 will start from Edinburgh on 2 July 2027, making its way through the Borders and Dumfries and Galloway to Carlisle. It'll be good to see the Scottish countryside and small towns the race will pass through. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

I have books published by Faber and Faber, Faber & Faber, and Faber. #BookSky

Rather nice having someone come to your door and hand you a single malt whisky and a book.

I'm not a fan of drama documentaries which this sounds like it'll be. I have always preferred things to be either dramas or documentaries. I'd much prefer it if this was a documentary presented by McKellen, rather than him playing Lowry. I'm sure I'll still watch it though.

It's really good news to hear of maintenance work is done on the tall ship Glenlee in Glasgow. Two of the masts are being sent away for specialist conservation work. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

I'm going to have to show age ID to a delivery driver later tonight because the business has mistakenly tagged Diet Coke as being for over 18s. The times we live in.

Can I ask that people using the #BirdingScotland hashtag use alt text on their images please? Alt text is there to describe your images so that people who cannot see the images for whatever reason can still derive information from them. It's a low-effort assistive technology.

Young Army Cadet performed CPR to keep a young child alive while waiting for an ambulance to arrive. Well done young chap. www.glasgowtimes.co.uk/news/scottis...

Yesterday morning there was a Wood Pigeon that was making a faster and higher pitched than normal call. I don't think I've heard anything like it before. It was like Spud in Trainspotting. #BirdingScotland

At 16:35 tonight, despite it being overcast, it was pretty much still daylight outside. Sunset was at 16:10 today, and by the end of the month will be at 16:48.

Morrisons supermarket: the van turns up, does a three-point turn and drives away again. That's my last ever order with them.

Just a quick note that alt text isn't there for adding extra content to your posts. It's for describing the images you post so that people who cannot see the images know what they show. Specifically, they should describe what it is about the image that you want to convey to readers. #accessibility

Got an email from a Scottish tech festival saying they don't want riffraff turning up any more and it's going to be invite-only for founders and investors. OK then, consider me unsubscribed to your communications.

Post a pic of the venue where you saw your first concert and the band or artist. Ten points if you can guess either.

There's a nice photo in today's SOC Clyde Grapevine of a Mediterranean Gull at Bute. I should probably pay more attention to Black-headed Gulls in future as they might not all be these gulls... #BirdingScotland

This is a great article by Marcia Bjornerud about the ancient rocks in Wyoming. #geology #EarthSciences #DeepTime www.hcn.org/issues/58-1/...

Love this. Listening to old rocks.

They mention University Challenge in this article and I'd suggest they also include Detectorists. There's even a line in it: "Watch University Challenge last night?" www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio...

There’s a quote by Edward Forbes about the Common Brittle Star: “Touch it, and it flings away an arm; hold it, and in a moment not an arm remains attached to the body.” Losing one arm would be a defensive mechanism against a predator. But why lose all the arms? Does it feel attacked from all sides?

A large skirmishing party of the little balls of fluff that are the Long-tailed Tit just came through, murdering and pillaging. The first such raid of the year. #BirdingScotland

Simon Schaffer used to be a talking head on TV documentaries but you don't see him these days. He's in this 2003 discussion, along with Jenny Uglow and Peter Jones about the Lunar Society. #InOurTime www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/...

You'd think a radio show called The Earth's Origins would be about, you know, the origins of the Earth. But no, it was just a brief discussion about what we understand about how old the Earth might be. #InOurTime

This is a great episode of Every Rock Has a Story that shows that you don't have to travel far to see interesting geology. In this case, the rocks shown are all from New York City. @ethanrockstory.bsky.social www.youtube.com/watch?v=iP3W...

Woolly and downy willows to be planted on Ben Lui. This is hoped to establish a self-sustaining population, restoring plants that would have been more commonplace before overgrazing became a problem. www.heraldscotland.com/news/2574972...

Well done to the three guests for attempting to describe the complex geological history of Britain and Ireland in 45 minutes. #InOurTime www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/...

One of those rather you than me moments. Lightbulb changers (it took five of them to do it) on the chain of the Clifton Suspension Bridge. Photo by Beezer. www.theguardian.com/artanddesign...

I made a list of six new books to buy this year (well as far as June) and have just received the first of them. I didn't have a new year's resolution or anything, but wanted to restrain my book buying this year and try and get through many of the unread books I already have at home. #BookSky

Well done to the three guests for attempting to describe the complex geological history of Britain and Ireland in 45 minutes. #InOurTime www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/...

History is all the events that took place over a period of time but also the story we tell about those events or what people believed or understood about those events. That’s the impression I get from Martin Rudwick’s Earth’s Deep History.

Usually when I see a Song Thrush they’re up the top of a tree, but I just saw one on the ground and it’s actually quite a bit smaller than I imagined it was. Weird how your perspective changes. #BirdingScotland

Sunset here in Glasgow hits 4 pm today for the first time since November. And today is two minutes longer than yesterday.

We had the worst type of weather over night. Light rain while the air was really cold meaning the pavements are covered in black ice this morning. Give me a blizzard any day. Spare me the ice you can hardly see. This is our thing these days unfortunately.

This is a superb episode of Natural World: Iceland: Land of Ice and Fire. The cinematography is spectacular, and includes footage of fissure eruptions. Unfortunately it's only available to watch for three more days. www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b...

@pavementgeology.bsky.social I thought you might like the look of two buildings clad in Morton (Minnesota) gneiss in this blog article, particularly the planetarium. www.extinctblog.org/extinct/2024...

Scotland to get a bank holiday on 15 June to celebrate the men’s team qualifying for the World Cup. Just got to be rubber-stamped.

If you enjoyed the recent @rigb.org Christmas Lectures you might find this episode of the Geology Bites podcast interesting. www.geologybites.com/anat-shahar

Started watching the second series of The Night Manager tonight and just thinking about his flat. Living room window is right on the Thames with views over to St Paul's Cathedral. Location, location, location!

Happy New Year and happy 25th anniversary to the Jurassic Coast WHS! This #FossilFriday we're introducing a fossil of the month to celebrate the collectors who make this place what it is. We're kicking it off with this beautiful ammonite from local collector Lizzie Hingley. (1/2)

Two of my posts here in the last two days have been liked instantly by porn bots which I subsequently blocked. Twitter was really bad for these and I really hope BlueSky isn't going the same way.

Check this out for an astounding aerial shot. This is a couple of Pumas in the BBC series Seven Worlds, One Planet. The ripples in the water are from one of the cats lapping up the water.

The Moon is looking stupendous right now. No photos unfortunately.

Natural World: Snow Monkeys Available to watch for just under two weeks, this episode features the famous monkeys that have taken up residence in hot springs in Japan. www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b...

First bird of the year: Feral Pigeon on my bathroom window ledge. Second was Blackbird, and third (having been first for many years) is Magpie. #BirdingScotland

Finished reading an excellent book but the notes and references are shunted off to a website rather than being included at the end of the book (a design choice I think). I hope the website will still be live 20 years in the future for those who might be interested in the sources....