Lighting

Eskimo Party, a Loup 500 piece jigsaw. What i’d class as a five hour evening jigsaw.

Loup ‘Eskimo Party’ a y

Some fabulous Fritillaria

A rogue peg on a KEF Coda III. Where did that come from 🤷‍♂️

Mirrors & light

Sugarland at one LED. @edrybicki.bsky.social

It’s been a busy day, but MrsG’s sewing room is now finished, furnished, & flourished. I’m now taking some down time listening to Sugarland on my new old NAD CD player via the vintage NAD 3020A through KEFF Coda III’s, while enjoying the reinstated oak truss & purlins in the garden room.

For Primula seasons: Primula engravings from Curtis Flora Londinensis (2nd ed, 1779-1832). Primula acaulis (vulgaris), P. veris, P, elatior, P. scotica, & P. farinosa.

One of the Amaryllis has started to flower.

Topped up the Discovery today, thanks to the checkfuelpricesuk website (well worth checking), I found the cheapest locally. What amazed me was that ESSO was 7p a litre cheaper than both Tesco & Morrisons. I have never known a branded fuel to be cheaper than the supermarket price!

Surely that should have read mooved! Highland cows moved over viral TikTok visitor surge www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Charles Darwin & Alfred Russel Wallace @linneansociety.bsky.social last evening.

Final Kew post of the day, to share a purchase. An Adenium ansu baobab plant. So unusual, couldn’t resist.

The Fritillary meleagris (snakes head fritillary) meadow at Kew was at peak display. Fabulous😍

Some amazing Australian flora in the Davies Exploration Glasshouse today at Kew. I don’t have names for them, but they were extremely eye catching 😍

Lots of geese on the meadow at the top of Sion Walk by the Kew Gardens lake today, suddenly lots of honking & rushing back to the lake. A Canada Goose (not the one shown) was the 1st to spot the fox. The pair of Egyptian geese with several goslings were the 1st back into the safety of the water.

Amazing glasshouse architecture seen at Kew Gardens today. The Princess of Wales Conservatoy, the Davies Alpine House, the Tropical house, & the Temperate House. #greenhouseenvy

The Hive @ Kew Gardens, a sound & light installation that hums & changes LED illumination in response to the real time vibrational conversations taking place within a real bee hive. Well worth a visit.

Magnolia, rhododendron, camellia, & cherry blossom all putting on a great spring show @rbgkew.bsky.social today.

The start of a great day @rbgkew.bsky.social

Stayed at the Kew Gardens Hotel last night. A nice place, in a great location, with a substantial breakfast, which cost less than the 2 pints of Neckoil I had at The Botanist on The Green yesterday evening!

Evening topped off by fish & chips, & a pint of Neckoil @ The Botanist on the Green, Kew Gardens. Expect a flurry of flower photos tomorrow 📸 🌷

After a great Trustee meeting @linneansociety.bsky.social today, a stunning talk by @dghaskell.bsky.social on How Flowers Made Our World. An excellent day. Check out the Linnean Society website for future events open to the public, you don’t have to be a Fellow to attend.

It’s Camelia time 😃

The tadpoles in the pond hatched today 😃. To mark the occasion, some frog cufflinks.

It’s five years ago today that I set out the shuttering for the summer house base. How time flies!

More hidden details filled for a minimum of 25 years. Decorating heritage properties is where my heart is at. It’s my custodial duty to keep things as they were intended to look.

Pool time at the doggy daycare 😃

‘If new want new ideas, read old books’. Ivan Pavlov.

A selfie from 15th March 2021. Inbound to Schipol.

If anyone involved in renovation or restoration is not yet following @theofficialgrb.bsky.social, I’d highly recommend you take a look at his posts. Incredible experience shared.

Dogs were man's best friend far earlier than thought - scientists - BBC News share.google/4i4LNSMrvz35...

Explore the intricate beauty and complexity of spider webs, where nature's artistry meets engineering marvels. Discover their secrets today.

Just found this packet of radish seed, sow by 31/5/94… 🤔

As requested by @edrybicki.bsky.social, an update. Just bought a vintage NAD 5240 CD player to partner my NAD 3020A amplified that I bought 40 years ago. Currently playing The Beautiful South through a pair of KEF Coda III’s. Superb sound.

Spring bulbs in flower today. Narcissus ‘Rip van Winkle, Fritillaria michailovskyi, Tulip homilis ‘Tete a tete’, & Narcissus tarzeta ‘paper white’.

Sunshine through the sash window on the hall floor. The skirting board goes on tomorrow.

Floor update: I think mahogany, harvested 100+? y ago, tropical Africa? from trees 200? y old, installed as parquet flooring in Norfolk, removed early 2000’s, saved but never relayed so sold on eBay. Now a floor in Yorkshire. The trees germinated about the time this house was built. Reuse & restore.

How it started, how it’s going. A £50 eBay purchase of a pile of old parquet tiles in the back of a landrover, to this. It’s been a lot of work, but worth it.

The hall floor. Before, & after after waxoil coating. It’s been a long journey, but worth it.

I’d normally start with the sky, but the beige area seemed more like a challenge.

Happy Hannah

That’s enough for tonight.

Why spend your evening watching house renovation & grand design programs when you can spend your evenings doing it yourself?

Well that’s set the alignment, & finished off another tub of gunk.

I can see a pattern emerging😃

How it started… (see later posts for how it’s going) The library floor is next. The final parquet floor 😃. The border tiles are set. That stack will make a floor. Just need to move the cast iron radiators out of the way. Hall & corridor floor now ready to PolyX waxoil. Feels like progress.

🌿 Postdoc opportunity in plant evolutionary ecology/genetics! My lab in the Dept. of Ecology & Evolutionary Biology at the University of Michigan is recruiting a postdoctoral researcher to start Fall 2026. We study plant adaptation, using weeds as model systems. #Postdoc #EcoEvo Pls RT!

Gyoza & Pak Choi.