Simon Huggins

Is it because Brian is going to hand himself in to try to save Ruairi? #TheArchers

(briefly) putting your hand over your eyes

But also... We shouldn't have daylight savings because we have electricity. And no one walks to school any more. And farmers start work before the sun is up.

Cf how many times linux distributions updates their "time" zones based on geopolitical bullshit

If "because mainframes" and "we have really slow ways to update our software" is the answer then you are the problem 😘

Help a toad across the road – and five more ways to save these endangered amphibians Britain’s toads have begun their spring migration, putting them at even greater risk than usual. Here’s how – and why – we should look after them

Help a toad across the road – and five more ways to save these endangered amphibians

Green Party say 'Hannah Spencer won't be silenced' after Manchester violence Hannah Spencer, Gorton and Denton's newly-elected MP, was ushered into a police car amid the unfolding chaos

The reason the middle-class media has not reported Hannah Spencer being attacked by right-wing transphobes is that it needs to preserve the nice, coffeee-round-the-kitchen-table, middle-class view of transphobia, not the thuggish fascist reality.

It's teeny tiny too!

Lesser spotted woodpecker on a lichen covered branch

Lesser spotted woodpecker upside down on a branch

Lesser spotted woodpecker on a branch

Amazing views of this lesser spotted woodpecker at Moor Green lakes today! It called twice too! #ukbirds #berksbirds cc @lesserspotnet.bsky.social

If you're doomscrolling, guess what? So far there are 51 kākāpō chicks hatched and thriving this season, the same number of birds as we had in TOTAL in the 90s! Only one chick has died and there are still fertile eggs waiting to hatch!

[We see a close up of a young white male, tanned, white teeth, coiffed hair clearly an influencer on social media. It is an image such as you see when social media posts are shown on the news. In the corner of the screen is named a location: DUBAI. He is staring slightly off-camera for several silent panels of the comic strip. His eyes move slightly. He is having a thought.] From off-screen a newsreader’s commentary comes: NEWSREADER: Extraordinary images here of an expat in Dubai [The influencer’s eybrows raise slightly] …Having their first ever geopolitical thought. [CUT TO a BBC news scene. The BBC newsreader CLIVE MYRIE is talking to an interviewee next to the screen showing the social media influencer’s face. The interviewee’s name is David Jones]. CLIVE MYRIE: To explain the significance of this moment we’re joined by David Jones, our Expat Thoughts correspondent DAVID JONES: Clive, this is momentous It was caught on film at the end of an Instagram post titled: ‘Dubai Is Brilliant’. [Pointing at the screen, the influencer’s expression still the same] You can clearly see in the eyebrows here, the dawning realisation that there *might* be something in the world beyond his dickhead self. It marks a *huge* departure from all the Dubai Expat’s previous thoughts. CLIVE MYRIE: Which are…? DAVID JONES: You've Got To Get Yourself Out Here Mate, Everything Is So Clean, I Don't Have To Pay Taxes, I Am Incurious As To Why I Do Not Have To Pay Taxes, and Spa. CLIVE MYRIE: And might we see an expansion of these new Thoughts in coming days? DAVID JONES: I think we can expect to see: “I Deserve To Be Airlifted By A Country I Pay No Tax To” CLIVE MYRIE: Mmm. [Ends]

This is really very sweet. 😍
Definitely worth 20 minutes of your time!

Fare dodgers targeted as train ticket refund rules are tightened In a bid to clamp down on ticket fraud that costs the railways millions each year, the government has quietly changed the rules on claiming refunds for unused train tickets.

DON'T BUY TRAIN TICKETS IN ADVANCE!
On 1 April, the government is quietly changing the rules.
Off-Peak & Anytime tickets become non-refundable after 23:59 the day BEFORE you travel.
If you wake up & find your event cancelled, NO REFUNDS, even on £100+ tickets.
www.ianvisits.co.uk/articles/far...

This makes fares MORE complex.
You assume Off-Peak or Anytime fares are flexible so can cope with any eventuality.
Counter-intuitively, if you have to cancel on the day, non-refundable Advance tickets can be moved to a future date, O-P & A tickets can't.
What a mess!

Starmer’s language in this letter to Labour MPs is absolutely *unhinged*. A grotesque parroting of Farage and Goodwin harping on about the Greens’ alleged ‘sectarianism’ when they’ve run a positive campaign that united the electorate in rejecting Reform.

Get him gone.

bsky.app/profile/zoec...

I think you're fine just the way you are 😍

And that's a good thing right? 😍

The long 2010s are finally over

Er... Well I guess the Telegraph still does click bait

A farrier making a shoe at a competition in June 2010

A farrier having a rest and showing off his arms at a competition in June 2010

Pretty men getting their arms out... Sorry I mean and competing for er, fastest or best er, something something metal... #TheArchers

Ha!

A flock of gulls on the water mostly black-headed in various plumages and one Mediterranean gull (just left of middle top, head pointing left)

Played Where's Wally at Lea Farm Lake yesterday searching for a Mediterranean gull that was eventually found amongst a mixed gull flock on the water. Got this terrible picture of it! 🤣 #ukbirds #berksbirds

Were they superb?

The Bleak Knight, Sir Keir Starmer, today vowed to fight on, despite losing the support of his parliamentary party, the Scottish Labour party and all his arms and legs.

From the new Private Eye, in shops now.

Q&A: New UK onshore wind and solar is ‘50% cheaper’ than new gas - Carbon Brief The UK government has secured a record 7.4 gigawatts of solar, onshore wind and tidal power in its latest auction for new renewable capacity.

I really don't understand why the gov. is not pushing this front and centre as a real, tangible way to show it is trying to cut costs for people and businesses

(and, simultaneously, maybe uncouple the energy price from gas??)
www.carbonbrief.org/qa-new-uk-on...

Canada goose in front of a canada x greylag hybrid goose on a bank near a lake.

Yes I think so. This is a hard crop of one that's been around here locally. And this site has more pictures of the hybrid: birdhybrids.blogspot.com/2014/02/grey...

A screenshot showing a table of dates with sunset and sunrise times

find out your local daylight dates using this lovely website from @dracos.co.uk

dracos.co.uk/made/sunligh...

I've said it before and I'll say it again. Hillary Cass is to trans healthcare what Andrew Wakefield was to Vaccine studies. Wrong, deranged, dangerous, and her work will kill children.

She should be treated as such, not lauded or given appointments. Her career cannot end soon enough.

"I say! Are you Georgina?" The child in the opposite bed sat up and looked across at Anne. She had very short curly hair, almost as short as a boy's. Her face was burnt a dark-brown with the sun, and “Famous Five 01 - Five On A Treasure Island” By Enid Blyton 7 her very blue eyes looked as bright as forget-me-nots in her face. But her mouth was rather sulky, and she had a frown like her father's. "No," she said. "I'm not Georgina." "Oh!" said Anne, in surprise. "Then who are you?" "I'm George," said the girl. "I shall only answer if you call me George. I hate being a girl. I won't be. I don't like doing the things that girls do. I like doing the things that boys do. I can climb better than any boy, and swim faster too. I can sail a boat as well as any fisher-boy on this coast. You're to call me George. Then I'll speak to you. But I shan't if you don't." "Oh!" said Anne, thinking that her new cousin was most extraordinary. "All right! I don't care what I call you. George is a nice name, I think. I don't much like Georgina. Anyway, you look like a boy."

To give you an idea of how deranged the UK has become about gender stuff, here's Enid Blyton - the absolute avatar of classic English conservatism and a huge fan of racist "gollywogs" - casually describing a gender non-conforming kid in the 1940s and having their friends be totally cool with it.

Female goosander rising out of the water stretching her wings on a lake

Tawny owl looking sleepy roosting in a hole in a tree during the daytime

A female goosander trying to impress a male and a sleepy tawny owl in its usual spot at Moor Green #ukbirds #berksbirds