Penguins ! from @en.afp.com

Sampford Peverell is a great name for a station – or for a louche character in a novel (Sir Sampford Peverell, of course)

Look at that clear, smooth road surface ! Not something you see many places these days

Delighted to come across an architectural model for a new concert hall (I think…)

Up to the portal through the trees

Country Life May 13, 2026 www.countrylife.co.uk/magazine/cou...

The winding road and steep path through the chalk hills (you have to zoom in to see the person making their way down the path)

Clinozoisite in "Bethel White" - Bethel granite from Bethel, Vermont, US. FOV=ca.2 mm #thinsection #petrology #petrography #polarizingmicoscope #岩石 #偏光顕微鏡写真

The old gas lamp, Dorking

‘Chanctonbury Ring, Sussex, MkII’, Frank Wootton, oil on canvas, before 1989.

Link to the English translation (even though the thumbnail is still in Icelandic) share.google/5vWVDDt8o1DK...

Beauty and pain by the living water – Stitchwort and stinging nettles

This was a good place to spend a sunny afternoon – the pub at Wotton Hatch, Surrey Hills

Oh go on then youtu.be/2TJaNDBI87s

A pitcher is worth a thousand words

Trees like clouds, and clouds, and reflections of trees I love the billowing shapes of the willows along the shoreline against the solid mass of oaks behind. And the depth of colour in the reflections

Furthermore, there is a range of rather unique forms of tracery in the windows throughout the church. Perhaps most memorable are those shaped like the Star of Bethlehem. 6/7

… and they’re back! At last

and the ‘mustard’ flowering is over, back to green fields – but a flash of sunshine brings out the last gleam of yellow in the crop

A nice selection of leaf shapes over the dark pool

‘Town planners have preferred to plant male trees because these are tidier and easier to maintain, producing no seeds, fruits or pods the way female trees do. These at least appear to be less of a nuisance to citizens. Yet hay fever continues to get worse.’

Greylag goose on a pond of rippled silver, come to visit the yellow iris …or perhaps come to see if I have food for it. I don’t.

It’s a small space for landing between the crops, I hope the pilots know their mustard

If it’s strawberry time already, can Wimbledon be far behind? Farm ships 1.5m strawberry punnets in bumper crop www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Ancient Greek: "Tell me oracle, what will the future be like?" The Pythia: "A comedian will be the world's greatest wartime leader, and the leader of the most powerful constitutional republic will be a joke." Aristophanes: *👍*

Via di Porta San Sebastiano

Appropriate to name the award after the late H.H. Bloomer, as an amateur naturalist may so often be a late bloomer

For the list of things / people who I thought had gone 20 years ago

It's a weird feeling for an Englishman to be welcoming rain to refresh the parched garden . . . at the start of May !! Where were those 'April showers'?

a beautiful portrait

‘And all my cares just drift right into space (Up on the roof) On the roof, it's peaceful as can be And there, the world below can't bother me’

The way the outfits here create flashes of blue and white is very mesmerizing.

@drfrancisyoung.bsky.social credit to an author who thanks the indexer

Now, where has the cat gone?

Tree for today: the Silver Birch

🎶Up where the air is clear, up through the atmosphere 🎶 Nice to see @lauracummingart.bsky.social quoting Mary Poppins in her splendid book Thunderclap 🎶Oh let’s go Fly a kite🎶

Passing these on a sunny day I think of the pines of Rome Although these are the pines of Scots, of course

Cistus

With unsettled weather coming over the weekend there's a chance we could see some thunderstorms, but what makes a thunderstorm? ⛈️ Alex Deakin explains in this video 👇

The oak trees always seem to be the last to put on their leaves in the spring, so it is good to see this today showing intense green against the equally pure blue of the sky

New & Notable: The music of Arvo Pärt, in all its rich and moving depth and minimalist melodies, comes to life on the latest from Cello Octet Amsterdam.

I thought I had a a water feature, but it turns out that it is a multi level bird bath

Two roe deer. We stared at each other for about a minute. Then they decided to trot slowly away into the sunset (literally). OK, you can’t actually see them but they were here just now

Waxing moon at the waning of the day

Grace Gillespie, contemporary printmaker #Womensart

Almost reading the greats. (my latest cartoon for @theguardian.com books)

In memory of Michael Tilson Thomas. In this archival video, Tilson Thomas and Steve Reich recall a now-legendary performance of Reich’s "Four Organs" at Carnegie Hall, where audience members all but rioted in the hall.

Outbound and homeward at 35,000 feet

A flamboyant tulip which has been hiding it’s head behind the tub until I found it just now