For the #heatpump /solarPV/battery curious, here's a typical late September day... The brown area is us buying electricity from the grid during off peak time, at 8p/kWhr. This tops up the 13kW battery and runs a hot water cycle via the heat pump. We might also charge a car during this time. 1/

Is the National Snow and Ice Data Centre website down? Can't get the Arctic and Antarctic sea ice graphs to load.. nsidc.org/home

Morning all - I've just emailed out two new stock lists to our Trade customers: 9cm pots in stock now and bare root plants for delivery in Feb 2026. If you are in the horticulture trade and would like to receive these lists, please reply below...

It's been great fun creating this - a real team effort by everyone, inspired by questions asked at our Thursday Gardening Club.

...and shows how incredibly resilient seeds are :-).

I had occasion to walk between London Euston and London Victoria today. And what a walk it is. Bloomsbury. Theatreland. Covent Garden. Trafalgar Square. Whitehall, (home to the newish, very moving memorial to the women of WW). Parliament Square. Westminster Abbey. Victoria Station. Wonderful.

Credit where credit's due... He's right about this. Can't bash him for not applying sanctions on Russia while Europe's still buying oil. Interesting that he seems to consider Europe as a single entity.

Also just confirms what we've said - there is no point chasing Reform's policies to appease/appeal to their voters. They'll just keep moving their position further to the right.

What a fab fungi. Is it a cep? Can anyone identify it? If it helps, its under birches :-)

Yes, I have #solarPV, #batteries, a #heatpump and we have two electric vehicles. No gas or oil at all. We also grow lots of our own veg and garden organically. But in the interests of full disclosure, I also own a small share in a microlight plane(EV97) and I'm going flying this afternoon.

There are 4.24m people with Indefinite Leave to Remain (or equivalent). 82% are in work, compared with 74% of Britons 3.8m are in relationships with Britons They have about 2.4m British-born children. This bullshit is never going to happen. Again. But... www.theguardian.com/politics/liv...

Autumn equinox, 53deg N. My old S. facing solarPV are generating 2.4kW. The newer E/W facing ones (not on graphic) are generating 1.5kW. That makes 3.9kW in total. The house is using 1.8kW (tumble dry on, heat pump on etc.). So I'm exporting 2.1kW to the grid and earning 30p/hr. #heatpump #solarPV

It's the autumn equinox and it's only 10am. SolarPV is powering 20% of the UK's electricity grid right now.

In other non-news, the heating has come on and house is toasty at 21C. It's 0.5C outside. Flow temperature is 30C. Electricity consumption 600W. Cost to run = 5p/hr (electricity bought overnight at 8/hr and stored in batteries. #heatpump #solarPV #batteries.

Good morning, and a happy autumn Equinox to you. We're marking the occasion with a frost on the rooftops and the promise of a sunny day ahead. Au revoir, Persephone, see you in March..

Après le deluge... we're probably going to get a frost tonight. It's absolutely clear, totally still, what wind there is is from the north and the temperature is dropping fast.

Woke up to a brilliant blue sky, yesterday's raindrops glistening in the sun and overflowering ponds. 24 hours of non-stop rain - reckon we had a good three inches. It's wonderful...

It's been raining for 24 hours straight and there are several hours to go yet. It's sometimes steady, sometimes torrential but hasn't stopped for a minute. After a long summer drought it's quite the experience. Our ponds will be full for the first time since April.

Wonderful!

What I'm seeing here is everyone wearing absolutely every bit of bling they've got, seated at a table groaning with gold leaf, and trying hard to keep a straight face as they lay on this glittering pantomime for a child-President. Bet he was hoping someone would give him a medal too...

When even your very rich friends and kin won't raise a finger to help you, but merely ask your enemy's ally to ask them nicely to stop, then you really have nowhere left to turn. Shame on the wealthy Arab world, and shame on us all. #Gaza edition.cnn.com/2025/09/16/m...

Getting older means you frequently read about the death of someone you know about, maybe admired, or even adored. Most of them are 'oh, that's a shame...' Only a few really kick you in the stomach with the loss of them. Robert Redford is one of those very few...

Of course....

I picked up a take-away from our local curry house earlier. Sitting waiting, I noticed an 'England' flag tie-wrapped to the lamp post opposite. There were about twenty other nearby lamp posts with no flag tied to it. What are the lovely folk who run the curry shop supposed to make of this? >>

It is with heavy heart (and, unfortunately, deep affection) that I must reshare a snippet from the 1980s masterpiece “Yes, Prime Minister”, in relation to Russia’s drone attack on a NATO ally.

My plumber dropped by today to do a small job and in passing asked how we were getting on with our #solarPV set up. Was it saving us money? I told him our monthly electricity bill, year to date, is ~£35. We cook electric, heat the house and our hot water via the heat pump, run the dishwasher>>

Cometh the hour.... www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

Yes - here's the same info from grid.iamkate.com 's website. It's so normal now that it's considered unremarkable. But it really is something that on a fairly ordinary September day, over 70% of our electricity is being generated from the sun and wind.

At last, three hours of heavy, non stop rain. The garden has been gasping for this for months. Such a relief.

Led By Donkeys have got Fartrage's number.

www.peoplesfundraising.com/fundraising/... Help Great Britain's Deaf Women's football team reach the Deaflympics! They don't receive government funding so although they have qualified, they rely on donations to fund their travel to Japan in November. They are currently £50k short. Please share!

Swallows gathering on this cool, dewy September morning, I counted 79 on the wires and another ten or so flying. This might be the final assembly before departure. And just as they are leaving, the pink footed geese are arriving :-).

Mystery solved - thank you :-)

Last week we were in Brittany - went for a walk late at night to look at the Milky Way. Looked up and there was a very bright streak moving slowly across the sky in a perfect straight line. No obvious source (like a plane lights) and anyway, nothing to light it up as it was pitch black. What was it?

Back from a wonderful week away in Brittany, France. For the first time ever I toyed with the thought that I might enjoy living somewhere else more than in England. Not because England is 'full of immigrants' - of course not. It's because it suddenly seems full of racists.

At last, at last....

Very good!! :-D

Painted Lady butterfly at @bluebellcottage.bsky.social nursery today. It's a good few years since one has been seen here. Enjoying self-seeded Verbena bonariensis along the path edges.

Our campsite in Britanny had some very fine plants and trees.

Back from a week in Brittany. Dropped into a chapel in Saint-Pabu, a tiny hamlet near Erquy. Absolutely stunning set of #stainedglass windows installed in around 1998, esp. the Magdalene. No-one could tell me who made them. There is a name, R. Badet?, but they said he was the donor... Beautiful.

Just got slapped a retrospective bill and fine for a music licence at the nursery. We don't play music anywhere here - we like it quiet. But a very honest member of staff when pushed, said yes, a few times last winter someone put a radio on in the potting shed. Well, you might think, fair enough...

Tulips! Our first delivery of tulip bulbs arrives next week. 20 wonderful varieties, selected by us, and grown in the gardens here - all photos were taken by me here in 2024/25. Order online for delivery or collection, and in store from 2nd Sep :-) www.bluebellcottage.co.uk/search?q=tulip

I know a young woman who is perfectly numerate - she helps in our coffee shop very competently. But she cannot pass GCSE Maths (3rd attempt). She knows that 5 x 6 is 30, straight off. But her reading is slow (dyslexia) and so reading a long question in which a grandfather with six grandchildren >>

Please sign and share (across multiple sites). @josiah.writes.news @weownit.org.uk @jujuliagrace.bsky.social @nataliegreenpeer.bsky.social @bhgreens.bsky.social @dougparr.bsky.social ‪

@noahpinion.blogsky.venki.dev Not that losing the odd follower here or there will make any difference to you, but I'm blocking you for this...

I counted 57 swallows in one shot, preening on the lines outside our house - such a joy to see. More in the sky. Presumably part of the hundreds that billowed over the field opposite this morning, too many to count or film, almost like a starling murmuration.

Always great to see: 75% of UK electricity being generated by the sun and wind right now, which of course means it's so cheap, it's free...

Friends, I'm bored of trying to persuade my Google Pixel phone to focus on a precise spot- it's too often off by enough to annoy, as you see. I loved my Canon 600D SLR and want that manual/auto focus accuracy. I still have a few lenses. Should I stick with Canon EOS or do something different now?

Some people relax by knitting, doing crosswords, reading books or watching TV. I like sorting seeds and putting them in little glassine bags... I like the crackle of seed pods, and all the different shapes, and release mechanisms. And knowing they are safely harvested for next year.

I'm Ok with using famous novels as inspiration for new works (I loved Sally Wainwright's 'Spark House', inspired by Wuthering Heights, for example'). But if you use the original name, you can't just add characters and scenes simply to sex it up. No, no, no. www.theguardian.com/film/2025/au...