Always exciting to see some tax polling; interesting that "equalise CGT and income tax" has dropped off the question list (always reliably popular as a tax that is mostly paid by "other people"). Would be good to see something on charging CGT on sale of principal residence.

New Strictly presenter just announced.

a chainsaw, a relaxed attitude to personal safety, and offering to help woodland owners works about as well

Weather working unusually well this month: therapeutic peaceful sunset to finish the weekend; bleak chilly squalls to accompany the start of the working week.

First attempt at Newlyn mackerel tempura went pretty well (only downside was making about twice as much as needed and feeling obliged to eat all of it)

Today is the day that bluesky finally made it as the leading tax policy analysis platform.

Accurate but as depressing as ever - still, looking forward to seeing @cornishpirates.bsky.social kick off our season at the Mennaye tomorrow

Chilli processing time. Sorting into stitchable, worth pickling and a pile for the dehydrator. And millions of spare ghostly jalapeño - probably 500g+ still on the plant.

Finally... looks like some traditional rugby weather will be along by Saturday too

What’s both amazing and terrifying simultaneously

Does anyone have good recommendations for a Duolingo successor? A bit shocked by "accidentally" finishing Italian unexpectedly last night - I thought there were 100 levels and it suddenly stops at 60. (I know a lot of people don't like Duolingo but I have found it pretty effective at beginner level)

Trying out wine case inserts for apple storage: 18 large King Byerds stacked neatly in this box taking the place of 6 bottles. They are meant to store up to 4 months so might make it into the New Year even with the early harvest this year.

Big year for poblano peppers. Need a few more recipes or better preserving techniques this year.

how are your arms though

This is just to say I have eaten the swans that were in the duck pond and which you were probably saving for the King Forgive me they were delicious so white and so necky

The last melon in the greenhouse just self-harvested. Definitely autumn.

This looks interesting. Weekly pass is the same price as a single match was last season (£7) and there will be some free-to-air - more importantly all matches will be available, compared with about 1 in 3 away games previously. Not sure it competes with the majestic BBC Radio Cornwall commentary tho

In their defence, is it possible that someone didn’t bother planning content (because rapture, obviously) and now it’s a last-minute choice of this or old episodes of Pointless?

Don’t think I or the dozing heron in the garden undergrowth enjoyed me startling it awake from a foot away. They are a) really massive and b) take ages to get fully airborne while nearly flying into your head. Guess it’s a good clue to why we never see fish in the stream.

Starting to harvest aubergines so it’s caponata season. Peppers (y/n)?

This could be a bit awkward (1 week to go til the season starts). www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Tonight’s red hot take: a dozen jars of beautiful clear claret-toned crabapple and ghost jalapeño chilli jelly cooled and sealed up. Less of a timeline cleanse and more of a purge unless eaten carefully.

This year's entire Cornish watermelon harvest decided it was ripe this morning.

Today in things that should have been obvious: useful life of Ethernet cables is shorter than the piece of fitted furniture installed hard against the front of the Ethernet socket <wearily fetches multi-cutter>

Bluesky knows how to have a good time on Friday evenings.

Patiently waited on the cliffs at Sennen to spot a Cornish Chough, only to find about a dozen of them hanging out in the car park

Cornish melon harvest seems to come earlier every year.

If you’re going to do flags, at least pair them with a ton of sardines. (the inaugural Cornish Sardine festival in Newlyn was excellent)

Chilli sauce with fermented Hot Paper Lantern chillies and honey is underway. Always nice to teargas yourself in the morning... 🔥🥵🔥

So it does seem rumours about “SDLT for sellers” on £500k+ houses that were in Monday’s papers are based on last year’s Onward doc - ignoring the issues of only seeming to work in a rising property market, the paper makes clear it costs govt lots for many years - hard to see how that plays right now

It's actually moving... making roughly the same progress as a Volvo XC90 with a caravan on a Cornish lane right now

the inevitable increase bands thread: radiohydra

Still slightly diminishing those bands: Christine and the basic everyday bees

Slightly diminish a band: Works No More

Slightly diminish a band Pas Mal Jovi

Not at all easy to see how this raises short-term revenue (cap on lifetime gifts = more IHT sometime in the future; immediate IHT on lifetime gifts = people trying very hard not to make gifts, then more IHT sometime in the future). Risk to near-term CGT revenue if gifts disincentivised too?

Chains at the harbour #believeinfilm #filmisnotdead #holga GN #ilfordphoto #ilfordfilm #panf 50 #harbour #seaside

Lots of September harvest apples ready today.

a script that cries wolf.

I always enjoy reading the TripAdvisor London Forum because I'm fascinated to see what foreign tourists expect, what they ask about and what surprises them. I thought this post from someone from Texas was a really lovely and cheering comment about riding the tube late at night

An extraordinarily persistent belief you can see underlying so much British public life is that there is a set of Sensible people who have the mandate of heaven, and importantly their being Sensible is an inner trait they have not a description of some observable behaviour of theirs.

MAN: doctor, I just don’t know whether people have opinions about clowns DOCTOR: go to the pollster Pagliacci, he’ll get some decent data for you MAN (crying): but doctor, I AM the pollster Pagliacci <sad polling trombone>

Will mostly be eating cucumbers this week.

Two @cornishpirates.bsky.social legends of the last couple of seasons (Matt McNab and Bruce Houston) involved here - sadly both moving on next season but looking forward to see where Zimbabwe go with this squad.

Forestry-and-hiding-from-tourist-traffic-jams weekend coming up; standard August really.

Very noisy tawny owlet photo (in the camera's defence, it was pretty much dark and I was using a 300mm zoom at ISO 12800). There are a pair in the garden and at the moment they spend every night shrieking for food at 5 second intervals which is cute for at least an hour.

Trying out new APS-C walkaround lens (ie 35mm for normal view) - impressed that #pentax managed to make it a decent macro too (for manual focus at least). Closest replacement yet for SMC-M 50mm on an MX/LX body for general kinetic feeling-rightness. 📸 Pentax K-3 🔘 HD Pentax-DA 35mm F2.8 Limited

New best ice cream: purple* basil and milky bar. The basil started taking over the greenhouse so I used a bucketful: it’s aromatic, peppery and nicely savoury, sweetened just enough with white chocolate and coconut stracciatella.Recipe credit (as usual): Gelupo Gelato *yes, really

Tonight’s excitement: the most choughs I’ve ever seen together: a family(?) of six.

Excellent advice (well, half an hour but it’s a start)