Composer Edward #Elgar was born near Worcester #OTD in 1857. I wrote about the fascinating story of his unfinished third symphony last year.

Composer Edward #Elgar was born near Worcester #OTD in 1857. I wrote about the fascinating story of his unfinished third symphony last year.

Ten years ago today, on a family holiday in the Lake District, my daughter & I on a whim walked part of the way round Ullswater. A couple of days later I climbed Cat Bells. And that’s how I caught the walking bug. Over 350 walks, 4,000 miles and endless explorations later, I’m very glad that I did.

Late stroll. The sky is a bright blue screen waiting for projected excitement. Nails in a fence catch the sun and make a subtle screen of sparkles. The pigeon swoops joyously on the warm evening air. A bridge of light sneaks between houses and strolls across the road. @imcmillan.bsky.social

Suggested Sunday listen: Benjamin Britten’s moving and strange Serenade for Tenor, Horn and Strings was premiered in 1943 @wigmore-hall.org.uk, which is celebrating its 125th birthday today. 🎉 open.spotify.com/album/7qG4Eg...

From yesterday’s walk. #tree

Leicester City Women Season Review, 2025-6: one last look back at a season of horrors. #LCFC 🦊💙

Sunshine stile. @lakesstiles.bsky.social

Their migration is frankly ridiculous, from Africa to here (and further north) in a series of generations, no individual butterfly making the whole journey but completing a leg of it before breeding and passing the baton to its offspring.

#FingerpostFriday with some great Northamptonshire place-names.

#AdoorableThursday Barton Seagrave

Thanks to @delargebc.bsky.social for inviting me to contribute to @thefosseway.net review of the #LCFC Women 2025/26 season, along with @charliparkes.bsky.social. Spoiler alert: none of us can find much to be optimistic about for next season. 🦊💙

Happy retirement Kasper, and thank you for being such a key part of the glory years. Your departure in 2022 may have been mostly a symptom not a cause of things falling apart at Leicester, but it certainly didn’t help. #LCFC

Listening to Miles Davis - born 100 years ago yesterday - playing live at Vienne in 1991, just a few months before he died. This album is great fun - it has huge energy, excitement and imagination, and a real sense of occasion.

NEW: The Leicester City Women 2025/26 season review - Part 2: The horror unfolds “After four seasons of steady progress we went crunchingly into reverse, with fewer wins, points and goals.” ✍️ @charliparkes.bsky.social @jembenson.bsky.social @delargebc.bsky.social #LCFC #WSL

Here’s @tedgioia.bsky.social, who knows what he’s talking about, on the juxtaposition of the death of Sonny Rollins and the centenary of the birth of Miles Davis.

Late stroll. Several weathers all at once: northwards ominous thunder scowls, the furniture moving of the gods. Westwards, sunlight slides grinning through cloudholes. Above, peaceful blue. Below, leaves jump from trees and swirl, uncertain, in air heavy with grumbles of heat. @imcmillan.bsky.social

NEW: The Leicester City Women 2025/26 season review part 1 - Setting the scene “It was meant to be a casual hobby. I didn’t mean to get this invested.” ✍️ @charliparkes.bsky.social @jembenson.bsky.social @delargebc.bsky.social #LCFC #WSL

Sonny Rollins, colossus of jazz saxophone, dies aged 95

A livestream of a volcano in the Philippines captured a meteor crashing to Earth today. What are the odds? Mayon Volcano, Location: Albay, Luzon, Philippines

The poemwriting is not goingwell today.

Cheese rolling race, live coverage ☀️🧀

I don’t see what the problem is… 😂

Toddler update: my husband let her taste his ice cream and she took the ice cream and ran. My husband has tried to bribe her to give it back my replacing it with a biscuit. Anyway now the toddler has an ice cream and a biscuit

Gutted. #LCFC 🦊💙

Penalties. 🙏 #LCFC 🦊💙

I think I’d trust Katie if it goes to pens. #LCFC 🦊💙

Still 0-0 at full time: we had a few half-chances towards the end but no surprise it’s still goalless. Extra time to come, and the players already look exhausted. Props to any neutrals who are still watching this on the telly… #LCFC 🦊💙

‘Why oh why do I support Leicester City?’ is a question I also ask myself regularly. 🦊💙 #LCFC

0-0 at half time. Fairly evenly matched I’d say, but we need to make our extra quality count. #LCFC

Matchday. The WSL playoff (it’s complicated) sees #LCFC Women go to Charlton. I wasn’t expecting to be able to go until a change of family plans a few days ago led me to book tickets to SE London - I’m not expecting a great game (though it’s live on BBC2) but I felt I had to be there. COYF… ☀️🦊💙

Matchday. The WSL playoff (it’s complicated) sees #LCFC Women go to Charlton. I wasn’t expecting to be able to go until a change of family plans a few days ago led me to book tickets to SE London - I’m not expecting a great game (though it’s live on BBC2) but I felt I had to be there. COYF… ☀️🦊💙

#FingerpostFriday Braybrooke

Introduce yourself with 10 acts you’ve seen live: Angelique Kidjo Fretwork George Benson Herbie Hancock Hugh Masekela Larry Adler Mstislav Rostropovich Pat Metheney Pierre Boulez Take That

#AdoorableThursday Warkton

Early stroll. A cat hurdles a low wall. A spillage of clouds has blocked one lane of the sky. Me and the bloke in the bus shelter raise thumbs to each other. A crow’s monologue. The trees are wearing their late spring collection.

@aliceolilly.bsky.social you OK?

It’s been a *long* time since Arsenal last won the Premier League: their last game in that season, 2003-04, was against Leicester at Highbury. Since then Leicester has been relegated to League 1, returned to the Premier League & won it, & is about to be relegated to League 1 again... #LCFC #Arsenal

Feeling quite confident Arsenal are going to win this.

Thought you all might need to see my puppy seeing some food above her, deciding to sit super still as she takes aim, and then jumping up to eat a cashew nut through a glass table she does not comprehend as existing.

Jamie Vardy with a HUGE goal for Cremonese in their fight to avoid the drop 📈

Late stroll. The day’s rain has left patches of ghost-silhouettes all along the path. An army of socially-distant dandelions has invaded the field and stands victorious. Two blackbirds squabble over an unappreciative worm. The sun is practising for summer with lazy rays. @imcmillan.bsky.social

As always, first Commons business after King’s Speech was first reading of the Outlawries Bill ‘…for the more effectual preventing Clandestine Outlawries’. Though ordered to be read a second time, this poor Bill hasn’t actually had a Second Reading since 1747, destined forever to be merely symbolic.

Some more from inside the Triangular Lodge. This could easily be a minimalist stage or film set from a challenging modern production of something.

I’ve seen the Triangular Lodge near Rushton a million times from the train, but have never been before today. It is an intriguingly strange place: a late C16th symbol-filled folly built by Sir Thomas Tresham, a recusant who was obsessed with the number 3. www.english-heritage.org.uk/visit/places...

Suggested Saturday read: @colingorrie.bsky.social goes back to the shores of the Black Sea 6,000 years ago, where the Proto-Indo-European language is thought to have originated, to trace the history of the irregular verb ‘to be’ (incidentally revealing which English verb doesn’t have a past tense).

I’ve seen the Triangular Lodge near Rushton a million times from the train, but have never been before today. It is an intriguingly strange place: a late C16th symbol-filled folly built by Sir Thomas Tresham, a recusant who was obsessed with the number 3. www.english-heritage.org.uk/visit/places...

Not only is it ten years today since the end of Leicester’s title-winning season, it’s also five years since Leicester won the FA Cup for the first time, beating Chelsea 1-0 in front of a small crowd (we were still in the Covid pandemic) at Wembley. I was lucky to be there. #LCFC

@timashash.bsky.social recognising someone from pictures is not always easy but were you at the Wigmore Hall last night?

Ten years ago today was the end of the 2015-16 season. Not quite the end of the story, though, since Leicester’s achievements in the Champions League in the 2016-17 season were also quite remarkable. So I’ll keep the thread going for a while. #LCFC #Impossible10YearsOn