Some ink studies

Did you know that more than 20 million elm trees were lost during the 1960s and 1970s due to Dutch elm disease?

Thanks to funding from the Trees Outside Woodland Fund, Hampshire Forest Partnership has planted over 1000 disease-resistant elm trees across Hampshire this winter.

At the Open University we used to receive Commonwealth Scholarships for up to 20 students in east Africa to study the MSc in Environmental Management; this year just 5; as climate change hits the most vulnerable..

It is much easier to confess your sins in the dark, than to acknowledge them in the light; to make it up with a god you don't see, than with a man whom you do.. Teach a man to do right, to love justice, to revere truth. So be virtuous, not because a god would reward or punish him hereafter, but because it is right; and as every act brings its own reward or its own punishment, it would best promote his interest by promoting the welfare of society.' Ernestine Rose. Activist and humanist. Humanists uk

For over 130 years, women in the humanist movement have been a radical voice for progress. This #WomensHistoryMonth we celebrate all brave the women who risked everything speaking up for humanism or challenging the influence of religion in society. 🧵

Photo of an A4 sketchpad leaning against a wooden stool. The drawing is of a sturdy jug on the corner of a table.

Just playing with watercolour and aquarelle pencils. I bought this jug in a charity shop because I liked it's shape and heft and wanted to draw it. We have plenty of jugs. But there's something about one that you want to draw....

#drawing 4861 trees from my stall at Abington Park Museum #adrawingaday #artyear #thedailysketch #usknorthampton

A cloud inversion at Devils Dyke, with vivid green hills rising above the mist under a cloudy blue sky.

Will a cloud inversion ever not look magical?

These occur when the air near the ground is cooler than the air above it.

📍Devil's Dyke
📸May Cheung

A photograph taken on a calm day in the sea. It shows the very tops of a few vaguely recognisably Hove buildings just poking up above the gentle swell of the water.

High tide, Hove.

“The ‘privatisation premium’ is what you’re paying on top of your energy bills [due to the] sell-off of our national assets to private companies ... it’s about £450 of the average energy bill just going into corporate profit.”
 
Eleanor Shearer on BBC’s Any Questions 👇

The view out the back of the library. It is cloudy but between the clouds the sky is blue and it is light.

Incredible scenes here. Somehow it's March and somehow it's 5pm and SOMEHOW we're already on EPISODE NINE of 'How light is it in #Orkney at 5pm this week?'

It's cloudy but we are striding headlong into glorious longer days

And it is THIS LIGHT! 💡

Will Greenwood was on Radio 4’s Today programme this morning, with a philosophical reflection on England’s performance. The response: “We should sign you up for Thought for the Day”. And yet - that wouldn’t happen, would it, Radio 4 - because you reserve that spot exclusively for religious voices.

This is a great read. I love the photos.

Meanwhile, Spain's massive investment in renewables is paying dividends now: with prices for Spanish industry and consumers low and stable compared with other European economies.

www.ft.com/content/ac77...

Small crayon painting of a yellow bowl with red pears

Practically inedible #RedPears #sketchbook

International Women's Day celebrations also come with reflection. Teenage girls are still missing from many of our parks and public spaces. Too often spaces are designed without them in mind, leaving girls feeling like there is nothing for them to do, unwelcome, or unsafe.

I have some free AI training for you.

Ready?

AI is not only absolutely shit, but it is also killing the planet. Stop using it!

Thank you for attending my free AI training.

Yep, that kind of sums things up.

Conservative peer quits after Lords probe into PPE deals It comes after a Lords standards probe into his contacts with ministers and advisers during the pandemic.

The VIP lane was rotten to the core.
A national scandal.

Brown river
acrylic on 8 sheets of paper
#Blueskyartshow #flow #abstract #art #painting #abstractart #abstractpainting

Rachel Taylor MP drives ambulance 1500 miles to Ukraine Rachel Taylor, MP for North Warwickshire and Bedworth completes a mission to deliver aid to Ukraine

Rachel Taylor, MP for North Warwickshire and Bedworth completes a mission to deliver aid to Ukraine | Rachel Taylor MP

A photo of a canvas which has drawing of 5 stones collaged on to it.

A Kind of Prayer. Probably finished. Mixed media.

Well that's a no-brainer....

Painting of a young white girl, upper half, with her back to the viewer, standing by a window in an interior, there are bottles on the windowsill with flowering twigs in them

'Spring at the Window' by Tetyana Yablonska (1917-2006), Ukrainian painter #WomensArt

Obama: Every day you wake up to things you just didn’t think were possible. Each day we’re told by those in high office to fear each other. Everywhere we see greed and bigotry being celebrated, and bullying and mockery masquerading as strength.

Mayor Mamdani and a child play with Legos while looking very serious and concentrated. The child is impossibly adorable and wearing tiny blue glasses.

No interruptions, please. We’re building universal child care.

Pretty difficult to refute a single thing in this perfect assessment of where the f**k we are, from @iandunt.bsky.social:

I know that in the battle to get kids to read, seeing their heroes promoting books really helps … but why is it only ever football?

Why only ever footballers surprising a class of primary school kids, or an event in an antiseptic conference room at the Emirates Stadium? 1/3

And aside from celeb endorsement of reading, the real difference will only be made by every school having a library and librarian and giving them budget for books and author visits. All the rest is just fluff for Instagram. 3/3

INTO THE FOLD is tomorrow - Friday and Saturday. Here are some of the books I’ll have.
The Winchester School of Art Artists’ Book and Zine Fair is on Friday 6 March 2-6pm and Saturday 7 March 10-4pm
FREE ENTRY

@unisotonlibrary @wsalibrary @unisoton_wsa @unisouthampton