I LOVE Juniper! It has had a dramatic decline on the South Downs; in just one place in Sussex is it abundant - @sussexwildlife.bsky.social NR Levin Down. It is sculpted by the wind here into giant bonsai shapes. The UK gin industry now imports European juniper berries; its more abundant in Europe

Ladybird book in the Spotlight ‘Smoke and Fluff’ (1941) Artist: Angusine Macgregor

Anthony Delaney isn't on here, so here's a shout-out for his new book, Queer Georgians - published today! It looks fabulous . . . 🌈📚🗃️ www.penguin.co.uk/books/460692... @doubledaybooks.bsky.social There's an online event with AD and @thegozfather.bsky.social (The National Archives) on 17 Sept . . .

✍️ The quiet power of relational disobedience Resist without hate: from relational disobedience to creative protest, quiet courage can disrupt domination without mirroring its violence By Mike Chitty @mikechitty.bsky.social

I enjoyed this. And what an infectious laugh. ❤️ "Reporter left speechless after witnessing Japan's new $70 million Maglev train in action at 310 mph"

‘Hare’ Artist: Septimus Scott (In Green Pastures, 1945)

Sea Level xkcd.com/3135/

The Blackberry or Bramble is a member of the rose family & makes a great habitat for many birds, insects & spiders - and it produces delicious, juicy, black berries in August & September. Hence CRUMBLE buff.ly/JT1XwxA 📷 Hugh Clark FRPS

🐈‍⬛🤍

We love a parkland walk.

In Which Nadine Amuses a Dragon and Makes Autumn Happen

WHAT NEWS, BOY? WHAT DAY IS THIS?

Gillian Anderson and David Duchovny Happy Weekend Everyone!

Cover, catalog for fall planting Holm & Olson, Inc. St. Paul, Minn. 1939 Source: Henry G. Gilbert Nursery and Seed Trade Catalog Collection of the National Agricultural Library via @archive.org; archive.org/details/CAT3...

Happy Caturday 🐈‍⬛🤍

Positive tipping points for climate, like the UK phasing out coal, show how big steps toward a low-carbon future can suddenly become unstoppable. Can we identify where the next tipping points could happen, and figure out how to help trigger them? These researchers say YES. Read more:

Sonc

Please behold my very Pinterest tomatoes 🍅

I can’t even believe I got this photo. I wasn’t supposed to chase that day. I ran out to the edge of the desert at the last minute. I happened across this scene, but this cell wasn’t producing much lightning. Still, I set up the cameras & waited. Finally, it let loose this beastly double bolt. #azwx

The "Ghosts of Vezio Castle" in Lake Como are moulded off tourists who agree to have white gauze and chalk fitted to them. The sculptures are then left to the elements, where they erode. When a new season begins, the ghosts are cast anew.

Well, if it’s 30 August, it’s the 121st anniversary of the marathon at the St Louis Olympics, which saw 32 people start, 14 finish, the ‘winner’ get disqualified for cadging a lift, and the gold medallist reach the end only with the aid of brandy and strychnine

The more things I've made, the less I've been interested in publicly criticizing the things that other people make, because once you make a few things you start to understand what a miracle it is that anything gets made at all

omg LOOKIT! it IS a very happy calico cat! 😻😹

Other work of the Ladybird artists. Shell Guide, 1955. ‘August’ Artists: Edith Hilder, Rowland Hilder

My favourite word for a mobile phone is the Zulu umakhalekhukhwini. It means something along the lines of "the one that wails in your pocket" I should also mention (because I'm currently in Sweden) that in 80s Swedish slang a mobile phone was sometimes known as a yuppienalle, or "yuppie teddy bear"

The Freddy Mercury hoovering display team were also a particular highlight...

I considered writing a long carefully constructed argument laying out the harms and limitations of AI, but instead I wrote about being a hater. Only humans can be haters.

Remember 20 years ago when you had to use facts, not just use opinions? Lets go back to that.

From Byron to The Beatles, female fans shaped popular entertainment, while finding their voice in repressive times.

It can be galling to see one's period misrepresented onscreen but that shouldn't be reason to deny historical truths, like that medieval people shuffled around giving it the whole 'my liege' all the time, unless they had cheekbones in which case they were the king

Spotted on my last trip to Venice: a model of a tank designed by Leonardo da Vinci in 1487. This fighting vehicle was designed to be driven straight onto a battlefield and to decimate the enemy with its 360-degree cannons. It was powered by two large cranks operated internally by four men.

Don’t know who made this but thank you

It’s the content you didn’t know you needed: please enjoy these windswept doggos on Pen y Fan. Big thanks to thejoulesdog for sharing this *adorable* clip. [Video description: three windswept brown and black spaniels in front of a stone oak leaf emblem]

Rock Looked Way Cooler Wet

The restorative powers of a Bank Holiday by the sea (1958) Father in particular seems to have … blossomed John Bull Magazine Artist: G Critchlow

HEY friends: recently seen heaps of "disclosures" from AI companies of the energy cost per question you type into chatbots (most recently from Google)? Presenting per-query 'efficiency' is part of big tech's efforts to hide its extremely real and happening-right-now climate impacts! NEW POST -->>>

What I'm doing when I say I can't go out because I "already have plans". Photo from my collection, no date/info.

Cats make the world a better place.

ICYMI: The Writers’ Guild of Great Britain has created a free online guide for non-fiction authors working with factual material, covering themes such as copyright, defamation and ensuring good relationships with interviewees 👇 #BookSky

Why it’s time to uncouple the price of a record from its value: A small-hours conversation with an independent record label. medium.com/@petepaphide...

Rest Harrow, Cross-Leaved Heath, Heather, Harebell Artists: Edith Hilder, Rowland Hilder (Wild Flowers, 1957)

Very strong dancing at a wedding to a normcore song you’ve never heard before energy here.

Word of the Day is ‘theic’ (19th century), defined as ‘one given to immoderate tea-drinking; a tea drunkard’.

Roses are red They charm and delight us

A rare, pre-war Ladybird book in my collection (circa 1930) How can you not love the cover?

An excellent no nonsense statement from the Women's Institute.

If the AI bubble really is bursting, please take this lesson from it: Nothing marketed to you this relentlessly is ever worth it. If it was, they wouldn’t need to beg you.