These first two photos made me think I really should clean my phone camera lenses. I did and it gave me a second chance. Then it moved in.

The Orchard meadow looks promising.

Solar currently generating more than 43% of UK electricity. If the price wasn't being set by expensive gas, it would be a cheap day for the UK.

Well, yesterday was pretty special.... I spent an hour or so escorting the Princess Royal (Princess Anne) around RHS Chelsea. She was attentive and warm to everyone she met. A memorable day for everyone. x

Arctic sea-ice levels are at an all-time low again for this date. The black line is 1979. The grey bands are median ranges. The blue line is 2026... Source: nsidc.org/sea-ice-toda...

Ooh - don't think I've ever ever seen our gas use this low for UK electricity generation - 2.4% of current demand... grid.iamkate.com

Snail patrol team doing a great job tonight...

@stephengbyrne.bsky.social Uncanny....

Just one of many reasons why fracking should never even be considered in the UK.

It's such a beautiful tree - clothed in white blossom along every branch and twig - a magical sight. And then in autumn, dripping with golden berries. No idea why they're not more widely known.

@stephengbyrne.bsky.social ...

Oh, what a marvellous sight this is....

Wonderful to see so much UK electricity being generated from wind and solar right now. Less than 5% gas (which is almost certainly propping the price up much higher than it would otherwise be...

Glorious. Very lucky to be custodians of this for a few years.

Fluffy cloud, fluffy Swallow.

"The rape is out and the asthmatics stay in. There is money in rape and a yellow country declares it to be true. Its garish beauty adds a psychedelic dimension to the landscape, what one might call the Van Gogh touch." Ronald Blythe, 'Borderland', 2005.

We’ve lost ground. We can’t even get back to where Obama had us because Trump has buried us. So much losing.

If Israel, Iran and Russia all have the full Esptein files now, does that make them worthless to them as leverage? And if so, who would definitively gain by releasing them, since the consequence would like be JD Vance as President... ?

Just... Wow

I hadn't seen this before. This is pretty remarkable. Earth and Moon in one NASA photo. ht @astrokatie.com

Another #ChatGPT insight.. New threads are better at debugging than old ones. I pointed it out to a new thread which was enthusiastically tidying code. "Yes, well observed, it says'. Old threads tend to focus on progressing the task you set. New ones want to tidy up first, then take on a new task".

Latest insight into #ChatGPT for solving code problems. Me: 'Here's my problem...' "Yes - I understand perfectly. Post this". Me: 'Do you want to see my current code first?'... "Yes, paste this exact section" (I paste in some code...). "I see exactly what the issue is. Replace this code here".>

What drives the price of electricity in the UK? The graph on the left is UK electricity generation today by source. Gas is orange, wind is green, solar is yellow. The graph on the right tracks the price. Compare the price graph line and the gas graph line. The more gas we use, the higher the unit £.

I've found something I really like using ChatGPT for. Solving IT problems. Yes, first it just scans the usual help info. But if you then say 'that didn't work, search more carefully', it usually comes up with some options, the last of which will be 'Open Terminal and paste this in'. Oh yes....

I need BT to reinstate call forwarding that seems to have stopped. Have got passed the AI chat bot and now interacting with a 'real person' who keeps asking me if it's OK to check this or that... Why do that? If you need to check something on your own systems to fix the problem, just do it!

Exactly why I put solarPV and batteries on my house. Yes, partly for environmental reasons, but largely because I am almost completely insulated from energy/electricity price shocks, because I buy so little of it now.

Almost 25% of UK electricity demand is being generated by the sun right now. In March. Fab isn't it? If the cost wasn't being driven by the price of gas, it would be cheap too.

Such a relief when the wind blows, and the UK's wind turbines are turning. As a result less than 5% of UK electricity is being generated by gas, driving the wholesale price down to 2p per kWhr.

Fewer!! Now, write that out a hundred times... #montypython...

Artic sea-ice update. A record low for this date in March, and llikely a record low winter peak at 14.286 million square kilometers. The former low peak was 2025 at 14.307km2. Compare that to 1979 with a peak of 16.593 km2. Blue is 2026. Dark green is 2025. Black is 1979. The grey bands are medians.

Led by Donkeys nails it again.

I've just created a business app that I've been asking my web developer for for six months. I did it in a week. I can't code, but I can specify and test. ChatGPT produced exactly what I want. In the process I learned a great deal about AI coding and why we still end up with crap software. A thread>>

Well, would you look at that - in March in the UK, on a hazy day. Solar is generating almost 40% of UK electricity. If it wasn't for Trump's war on the gas supply (gas prices fix the electricity price, in case you didn't know...), this would be a cheap day for electricity...

You could say that Rock n Roll was born 111 years ago today in Arkansas, but probably not where you'd think. Before there was a Chuck Berry or Little Richard, there was those who wanted to be like her. Rosetta Nubin better known as Sister Rosetta Tharpe, the godmother of Rock was born on this day

More good news. We need it right now, don't we? www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

On the left - UK electricity generation today by type. Orange is gas. On the right, the price of wholesale electricity today. See the pattern? Using gas pushes the unit price up. Wind and solar reduces it. Been that way for a long time but the 'myth' of expensive renewables still pervades.

That's a huge relief...

I was looking at different BESS projections to 2040 in the EU yesterday. Most of them are in the 100GW to 200GW range. There is one over 600GW. I think we will be closer to that one.

In the past week, wind, solar and hydro have generated 58% of UK electricity demand. Gas has been just 17%. It's gas usage that pushes the price up, but thankfully our high renewable generation has helped keep prices sensible. Source: grid.iamkate.com

On the subject of heat pumps, here's my living room right now. So what - you asked it for 20C and it's delivered 20C. Yes, but the really genuis part about it is that it doesn't 'know' my living room is at 20C. It only knows that it's 6C outside. It also knows my house's heat loss rate and so...>>

A sobering, insightful, beautiful and necessary read.

Am reading Adam Nicholson's 'The Mighty Dead - why Homer matters'. What a delight it is - essentially a long love letter to Homer and beautifully written too. Like many public schoolboys Nicholson was made to learn a little Greek which put him off Homer for years. Anyway, it's a joy.

Well that's a no-brainer....

I wasn't going to go and see "Wuthering Heights". But then it was the last screening date and I thought - what if it's great? And... in the real sense of the word, fabulous. Surreal, dream-like, urgent, fantastical. Gargantuan, grotesque, weird, wild, muddy, bloody, erotic, sensual. And I loved it.

3/3 Did you drive the pink Cadillac hired by Nathan Gill who last year got ten years for taking bribes from a Russian spy? Do get in touch: johnsweeney.co.uk

Dear Shabana, Let's clear some things up around migration and remember we're talking about people's lives.

A little reported fact is that the Iranian frigate destroyed 2000 miles from the combat zone was carrying ZERO AMMUNITION (a condition of the exercise it was invited to participate in). The ship was, by any definition, defenceless. Much like the 80+ sailors left to drown. Infamy.

Bumble overnighting on Edgeworthia. This was the more accessible of the four we could see.

Well this is an interesting point youtube.com/shorts/T3arp...