So long #LHC and thank you for all the collisions 👋 Today, the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), the world’s most powerful particle accelerator, comes to the end of an extraordinary chapter in its scientific journey. Find out more: home.cern/cern-bids-fa...

We cycled over the Powderhall bridge twice yesterday morning and noticed nothing amiss. I remember thinking that I thought I’d read there was an issue with it; but no, nothing. I mustn’t have been paying enough attention.

Day1 of the hols involved a morning trip 🚲 down to the Giants to see them up closer for ourselves, and then an outing 🚊 to Saughton Park 🛴🪻🥀.

Delighted to say that my lightning photos of Edinburgh were published in at least 6 newspapers today, with 2 on the front pages. Here's the tearsheets and a few of the other shots I took

We're already starting to see another pronounced hot weather signal emerge for 2nd week July, with the potential for v. hot conditions to return. You might think "surely we couldn't have another high-end heatwave so soon?" but the trouble is, extreme weather can load the dice...

On the one hand, I’ve resolved to have a teetotal summer holiday, and on the other I’ve been non-stop with a 9 year old boy for 32 hours and 29 minutes. It’s still just the weekend 🫣 (And this is basically an annual post.)

What with the seagulls, Holy Trinity Church ringing out on the hour, and the question of why St Andrews doesn’t have an apostrophe, how does anyone get any sleep in this place?

I was on the train up to Leuchars yeaterday, and they stood out for miles through the mist. I wonder if the local schools have made outings down to see them? www.inchcapewind.com/all-three-se...

The site’s not working very well on my phone, but over 300,000 lightning strikes in 48 hours seems like … a lot

incredible lightning over arthur’s seat in edinburgh tonight constant (every couple of seconds!)

never known thunder and lightning like this in my whole life

I’ve never seen anything like it ⚡️in Edinburgh before.

This sort of policy agenda has a strong economic rationale and would have the political benefit for Labour of appealing to the sort of voter who has defected to the Greens.

Had a conversation with a climate change denier last week, & didn’t then have a good answer to his argument that CO2 molecules make up such a tiny fraction of the atmosphere - < 0.05% - that they couldn’t possibly carry so much responsibility for global warming. climate.mit.edu/ask-mit/how-...

Scottish Fans getting their spreadsheets oot.

Good morning, Glasgow. Forget about last night's football result, and enjoy what looks like it's going to be a rather spectacular day here on the Costa del Clyde. #glasgow #glasgowtoday #goodmorning #reflection #summer

I’ve spent about 2 1/2 hours on the phone to Virgin Media since 4pm yesterday. I’d been planning to query the rise in my bills, but didn’t realise they’d been sending my bills to a mis-spelled email address, thought the fault was mine. So I’d let my service get cut off, to lower my monthly average,

I often hang my duvets out to air on hot sunny days, but today I’ve gone the whole hog and put two mattresses out to airmax as well. Now tempted to have a little nap in the garden.

My first visits to the intriguing Pianodrome 🪨 🎶 🖌️ 👏🏼 and also the excellent Tempo Perso 🍝🌟🔥 🦦- like a five hour holiday to Bruntsfield on the No 11 bus.

Whilst the media commemorates 10 years since Brexit, it’s worth recalling that one of the principal causes of Brexit was the abject failure of the media to call out the lies and the liars.

Given that schools are closed over summer, I suppose it’s not really surprising that Victorian schools were built to maximise light, without a thought for coolness. 🥵 The problem with a heatwave this week Is that the sun’s out for literally about 17 hours 🪭

Haven’t been on an urban walk for a very long time. Set off, and within 400 metres feeling too hot, and hungry, so stopped at the Bonnington Brunch for a bacon and egg roll to eat in the park! But that’s how it starts. #xwwlw

My habitual 1980s Gaelic ✍️: “Bha mi a’ cluich an dè. Bha e fluich agus fuar.” My habitual 2020s Gaelic 📞 “Tha mi duilich, tha sinn beagan fadalach an diugh. Bidh mo mhac san sgoil a dh’aithgearr”

“That’s all anybody can do right now. Live. Hold out. Survive. I don’t know whether good times are coming back again. But I know that won’t matter if we don’t survive these times.” - OCTAVIA BUTLER, born on this day in 1947 in Pasadena, California

Starmer should have waited until Wednesday just to drive the point home 🎂

Going to sleep now. I don’t really suppose I’ll wake up to find that a country the size of Edinburgh has beaten a country that has twice won the World Cup, but it’s a nice thought while it lasts #FIFAWORLDCUP

Grasses in the sunrise mist this morning. #SummerSolstice #Midsummer #Berkhamsted #LocalPhotography

The workers who tend Seafield cemetery do excellent work. A beautiful and tranquil place to visit and reflect. Thanks to them.

By happenstance I read these two essays one after the other (childfree Sunday morning scroll time!) and they shed an interesting light on each other. #essaysky Time to get up now. www.theguardian.com/news/ng-inte... lithub.com/mario-vargas...

If you regularly follow ensemble forecasts, you get a better sense of how the climate is changing because you see multiple possibilities — including extreme events that don’t always happen. Even just for the UK, the rapid increase in exceptionally hot scenarios in the last 5 years is staggering.

It’s the first time Scotland have qualified for thr World Cup this century, and the games are played in the middle of the night. We deserve better than to be assaulted by that garbled match report in the Guardian.

Spotted near Harrison Park.

I just learnt that only 8 countries have ever won the World Cup. 😲 It adds to the sense of surprise that once again Italy didn’t qualify. Germany and Italy have won it 4 times; only Brazil has won it more often.

I think ASL has changed sm manager, and this is making me feel slightly discombobulated.

📹 Urgent: Do you have a 4k res GoPro you could lend to edi.bike for the next week? Please drop us a DM or email [email protected] and repost for reach.

This isn’t true for me - my World Cup and Euros peaks came mainly during the late 90s football fever, and while living abroad, from the John Collins goal against Brazil to the Greek tragedy of Zidane’s headbutt - but this is a lovely article nonetheless: www.irishtimes.com/sport/soccer...

Very pleased with this profusion of roses from my garden. Hoping that by harvesting I might still get an encore. #bloomsky #gardening

Beautiful ceramic detailing in these apartments in Iran The balconies are sublime! Designed by Mohammadreza Kazemi - a quick thread 🧵

The Cuillin ridge, with CalMac in the centre and Sabhal Mòr Ostaig off to the right.

Back to real life 😢

Lochs I have swum in #1:

Call me daft, we are here, go on yourselves, Scotland: #HaiSco

Sandaig:

Only half way through but loving this one for its breadth and austerity. Will soon be passing through Europe’s most westerly rail station. So far no clouds of midgies have boarded the train. #reading #booksky

Looking at the small pyramid of pleasant end-of-term socials stacked up this weekend in Edinburgh, and looking at the various forecasts, and frankly questioning my choices.

Maybe ScotGov is hoping FIFA will give them a peace prize if they sponsor someone £125 per mile (apparently it’s closer to 3,200 miles?) to walk across Trump’s America for a cause that they themselves directly fund anyway But hats off to Craig Ferguson: www.thetartantrek.co.uk

The intriguing Drakkar’s Drift garden 🌸 planned for the former green next to Victoria Park is almost halfway to its target goal: www.mypark.scot/Appeal/drakk... Worth checking out @lukecolemangardens on Insta. And more here: www.rhs.org.uk/shows-events... #gardening #Edinburgh #bloomsky #Leith

Accompanying a relative to a private healthcare provider. They reserve the right to cancel without refund if you are >5 minutes late, & yet here we are, 95 minutes after the scheduled appointment time, still waiting to be seen, & no recourse. Very one-sided distribution of rights!

I am pleased about this. Doesn’t affect me directly (yet, god willing) but I imagine it’s very supportive to parents trying to hold the line. If you can’t have it at school, it’s easier to argue against having one at all.