Mark Annand

Firefighters lining up a ladder ready to install nesting boxes

Firefighter on a ladder installing house martin nesting boxes

Firefighters in Charlbury have installed house martin nesting boxes as part of ladder practice. The boxes were fixed below eaves awaiting the arrival of the birds later this month. Charlbury Wildlife Society reports the martins are already regulars at (the eaves of) the nearby Rose & Crown pub.

Wow: not a structure that's run of the mill. Thanks for this.

Me standing on the suspension bridge in Bedford, England

The suspension bridge in Bedford while it was being built in 1888

In half term I had an evening out in my old home town. Here's a picture of me standing on the Suspension Bridge not far from where I grew up. I just found a photo on my computer from when the bridge was being built and thought it was interesting to see them together.

How to Approach a Fire-Damaged Building | Bloomsbury Group Technical guidance for property owners and PMs on fire damage recovery. From safety exclusion zones to weathering and permanent repair.

Surprised there's been time and opportunity to assess it.

A very short read on the assessment of fire damaged buildings to be found here:

Glasgow fire: Remaining section of Union Street building to be demolished Glasgow City Council said the decision was made due to public safety concerns.

That's a shame.

The last of the original facade at Union Street will be demolished.

The city council will be developing a support package to aid in recovery, and to support affected businesses

In praise of Jeremy Bowen His Today programme monologue on Trump, war in Iran, and the history of the Middle East was exactly how the BBC should be reporting on the world.

NEW | A rare positive edition of the newsletter…

IN PRAISE OF JEREMY BOWEN

His Today programme monologue on Trump, war in Iran, and the history of the Middle East was exactly how the BBC should be reporting on the world.

brokenbottleboy.substack.com/p/in-praise-...

Full disclosure, on the bus to and from school, receipt of a bun penny in the change was a significant event.

Bob Mazzer spent two decades commuting to work and back on the tube. As he travelled, he used his Leica M4 to capture images from of the London Underground in the 1970s and 80s.

Marks & Spencer search results page. “ We found 0 results for ovaltine, but here's what we found for opaline.” Then lots and lots of sensible bras.

Search in 2026.

The head and wings of a red kite. Its head is grey, and its hooked beak is yellow and black.

Low-level red kite this afternoon.

We are a country of light and (very) dark animal stories: Black Beauty (a harder read than many will recall); Wind in the Willows and Beatrix Potter; Watership Down and Plague Dogs (gulp); Tarka (by a fascist) and Animal Farm (by an anti-Fascist); Kes.

I think we can cope with animals on banknotes.

My colour guess result is 0.0046, the average is 0.02 so I've scored better than the average person

New colour game new colour game new colour game

How good are you at telling the difference between two colours next to each other?

Starts easy, gets much harder

@emilyoram.bsky.social @ewacat.bsky.social

www.keithcirkel.co.uk/whats-my-jnd...

@semaphoria.co.uk
This Lower Quadrant signal at Ketton is supposed to be removed at the end of the week!

Iranians rethink the price of regime change Destructive US and Israeli war and Islamic republic’s resilience have alarmed even those who supported foreign intervention

"The scenes of devastation — to schools, a desalination plant, passenger aircraft and historic landmarks such as Tehran’s Grand Bazaar and Golestan Palace — have shocked many Iranians.“If they wanted to assassinate the supreme leader, why are they waging full-scale war?” asked one woman."

I transferred by Bsky data to @eurosky.social and I feel like I did something a bit useful today.

80s singer Thomas Dolby on raising queer kids: "the eldest is trans, the middle is a lesbian, and the youngest is a drummer"

The 3 genders

Various Scottish bank notes as well: wildlife a'plenty.

A big group of cheerful pansy-faces.

Today's @unison.org.uk branch AGM: buoyantly quorate. The membership headcount has been well on the up too.

Like yesterday, today's a good day to join a union.

My favourite grasshopper fact: Grasshoppers first appeared on the planet 250 million years ago.

Grass did not appear on the planet until 40 million years ago

Imagine it: 210 million years, hopping around on any random surface you can find, waiting for the grass that will make you truly yourself.

... the smaller follower count is revealed as seed corn, or it emerges that it touches other organisations at the right level... 2/2

I think it's the science community who have found that quality can sway them, but yes, especially for small organisations that need to maintain their resources, it's hard to turn their backs on a large follower count. The option's there to run both in parallel though and if 1/2 ...

Strong concluding pair of paragraphs.

Train at Tweedbank Station, the Eildon Hills in the background.

Oh, and if you attend the Scottish Borders Book Festival, it's a short hike from Scotrail's Tweedbank Station, and even if you don't arrive by train, travel on the line if you can.

(Scotrail: they're another outfit you'd expect to find here...)

Hat tip to @wigtownbooktown.bsky.social who have an account here even if they don't yet use it.

Book and arts festivals - are many on Bluesky? Can only think of @bridportarts.bsky.social for now and wondering why, for starters, the likes of... Aldeburgh, Falmouth, Bath Festivals, the Hay Festival, the Scottish Borders Book Festival, Pitlochry don't have a presence here.

It's no longer OK for you to sit in the house of Lords because your dad did.
But if your mate put you there?
That's fine.
Neither of these really feel like democracy to me.

A cartoon by Ron Cobb (1975), showing a shadow of US B-52 bomber above cratered landscape. Two people who look like Vietnamese peasants look up; one says “they’re having problems with their economy again.”

This is from 1975.

🧌 New episode out 🧌

To understand the Trump administration, you need to understand Stephen Miller. @dorianlynskey.bsky.social and @iandunt.bsky.social are here to accompany you on this treacherous journey.
Listen / watch ➡️ linktr.ee/originstoryp...

re-creating a lost canal with route diversions as necessary, a triumph of willpower and persistence ..

During 2020 one of the major obstructions to the The Cotswold Canals restoration was removed when a new roundabout was built on the A38 to take the canal towards its new route and the missing mile.
You can see an explanation here youtu.be/FZTBYcHLkX0?...