Phill Cook

If only someone could invent a method for making naturally highly insulated buildings that can stand for 100s of years out of, I dunno, locally available 100% recyclable materials like mud and straw.

If only, eh - still, we can dare to dream.

It's a niche win, but the image is of a C18th brickwork chimney stack on top of cob mass. Yippee, date right! More importantly, there's a clear diagonal lime mortar line from the bottom left of the brickwork upwards, showing how the stack was originally on the end of a hipped, thatched roof. Reading a building gives me immense joy.

Little things in life: Admiring what is now a single dwelling and saying "I think it was originally two, built at different times in ~C18, with the now central chimney originally on the end wall of the earlier dwelling which had a hipped thatched roof" then seeing this in the loft ...

Given the state of medical science in the 1770s, "I'm not feeling so good, let me go to have a look at the rich man's tower" might have been about as good as "take me to the hospital" ...

Nothing against them but be aware that Biscot Mill is not a small or local business in the way most people think of those things.

They're part of IVC Evidensia, a private equity backed corporate veterinary group with about 2,500 'independently branded' clinics across Europe and Canada.

I've spent many hours, on many occasions, sat in the room in Vienna'a Kunsthistorisches Museum marvelling at the originals.

But, a shout-out to the book Headlong, by Michael Frayn, which is a bloody good farce about them.

£7.99 might be an acceptable sale price for bin olives in Finchley but it's a bit rich for me!

Just saw @ofalafel.bsky.social performing in Bristol.

He's got spare tickets in Corsham apparenrly ... and the show is good!

Some nonsense as part of this meme.

I mean, you can't fault him ...

2020 model here, 30,000km under his belt (yes, "he" - just is).

Tyres replaced, obvs, and this winter I splashed out on some new windscreen wipers.

Other than that, we charge we go ...

I have no penchant for needlework, possessed as I am of stubby fingers and a lingering indifference to repetitive activity.

But, I do need to know now, or anytime before now, if that is available as a kit I can buy and make.

Watching school football. Parents next to me: "I want to work with the school but you have to go through all these bloody child protection checks! Everything's so bloody woke!"

Me (thinking): "Yet more evidence woke is good".

Just been to Taunton Deane services for a much needed wee.

On the way out spotted one of those parcel collection locker things by the petrol station.

Obvious question: Who the fuck gets their parcels delivered to a motorway services?

Right @greenparty.org.uk just saw your party political broadcast on BBC1.

Not tempted to watch Corrie but what's with the staging of Zak in a timewarp house?

Trying to decide whether to enter a half marathon this year (mebbe Barnstaple if it's on?)

On the one hand, CBA. On the other hand, I do like the bit at the end where you get a sample roll-on deodorant, a small bag of Haribo and an ACTUAL MEDAL.

We needed a new washing machine. I do most of the laundry round here, so I know it needs only three buttons: Normal, jumpers and school shirts. In a decent brand, £500.

Wife has feature FOMO: iDose, stain removal, WiFi, in-wash chatbot, you name it.

I got the £500 one. It has been a long morning.

If you're the sort of person who looks at a field and worries that putting solar panels on it "turns the countryside into an industrial landscape":

Rest assured that by looking at a field, you are already looking at an industrial landscape.

This is the kind of harassment I actively applaud.

I dunno if you're in the U.K. or elsewhere but every public charging station I've used just does tap my bank card, it reserves £x, I charge. I've never had to download an app?

That said, I mostly charge at home. I only stalk the public infra at >250 miles or so.

If there was a political party called Uberwokenetzeroistrejoinerism I'd join in a heartbeat.

FWaiw, I am not trying to open up a dogs v cats debate. My point is that in both cases, we dump an apex (ish) predator into our locale and gloss over it.

The main diff is dog ownership comes in two forms - irresponsible (lead off) or responsible. For cats, it's irresponsible or cruel (keep it in).

Agreed.

However, same for cats. They're also not your "baby" who "won't do any harm".

They're semi wild carnivores who gaily slaughter their way through nesting season in my semi urban environment.

Unfortunately, irresponsible cat owners can't be held to account, though.

I am not fond of people who habitually complain about the weather (or Mondays, or ...) but it would be great if it could stop raining now.

I've got a mid C20 asbestos slate roof to remove. I need 3 dry days to get to membrane and battens. The Delaboles can then go on at leisure.

What shocks me is how the "use Epstein to get Trump" narrative leads some on here to want the contents of the files to be particularly bad.

This is about sexually abused girls. Political stories may fall out of it, sure. But, at its core this about rape and assault. Let's not forget that.

3/ where the influentially wealthy of Sneyd and Westbury Parks, or Clifton, complain the poor people are spoiling their view so BCC ships them off to camps in neighbourhoods with nationally significent deprivation, cuz "outta sight, outta electoral issue".

Be clear: That's exactly what this is

2/ Don't get me wrong. Van dwelling (and homelessness in general) is a national issue. I applaud BCC in providing safe, well managed sites in the absence of government action.

What I cannot support, though, is how this is a smokescreen for demographic cleansing 🧵

Multiple choice quiz: Bristol City Council's (Green maj) cunning plan for tackling the large numbers of van dwellers in the city is:

(1) [Insert any sensible sounding answer you like] or
(2) Evict them to the most deprived parts of the city.

Credit to My Lordy Lord Lord Sir Nigel, though.

Despite the very low inital odds of success, he has managed to create an outcome where he is no longer unambiguously the worst example of humanity on Reform's front bench.

I would happily shop all of my friends (*) in exchange for a good marmalade. This does not, however, extend to jam. For the love of god, stop giving me jam as a gift.

(*) I have no friends, so this statement is less harmful than it first appears.

The best scenario is a committed USA in the tent.

We can't have that, so the next best scenario is the USA obviously outside of the tent, door zipped up.

For balance, the thought of a couple of hours where I could guarantee to be on my own and no-one would think to look for me does have some attraction.