Pete Connolly

I've got to say, Lumpy both rocks and rolls!

An image of some Welsh mountains with the coast in the distance. Everything is hazy and lit by a sun going down.

Flying back from Dublin yesterday, some of the views over north Wales were just beautiful.

A close up photo of a Japanese Maple tree showing the new yellow leaves.

Always a high point of spring, the Japanese Maple in our garden coming to life again.

Theyre probably in there too. Right next to the pistol!

My idea of a good day is a walk around there on a sunny day and then a coffee in the hotel bar.

A screenshot from Flightradar showing the route of a British Airways Airbus A380 from London Gatwick to London Heathrow.

BA is moving some big planes around, getting ready to resume operations from Heathrow at some point. I guess this Airbus A380 will be to repatriate some poor souls who have been trapped all day.

A skeet from a suspect bot account

A, skeet from another suspect bot account

Two bots replying on the same thread with similar sentiments.

Thanks for the pointer. I looked at their profile and all the replies certainly seem to have a fakeness to them. I'd seen the accusations of being a bot before, but this account is certainly "off".

Great show in Newbury last night, I loved it. That Cow and Cask is a lovely spot, good find.

A poster for McNeills pub in Howth, Dublin featuring a pint of guinness, a shucked oyster and the line up for a three day festival which includes The Rebel Souls at 10:30pm on Feb 28th, Howth Gospel Choir at 3pm on 1st March, The SKalps at 10:30pm on 1st March, 2 B 40 at 3pm on Sunday 2nd March and The Last Shuck festival closing party at 9pm on 2nd March.

Hullo BlueSky people. Moved the band page from X cos Elon Musk is a cunt. Next up for The Skalps - Dublin's favourite big band with a ska-punk attitude - is the All-Shucked Up Festival in Howth where we play McNeills next Saturday, 1st March at 10:30pm.

I love my EV6. The EV3 would be a bit more practical, but wasn't available two years ago. Lovely cars.

The rear of a white Tesla car with some words written into the dirt with a finger just after the Tesla logo. "=Austrian Painter"

In my local town centre in the UK yesterday:

This middle aged, married male suddenly has a thing for Bill.

Very early snowdrops sprouting on a green, grassy background.

I spotted my first snowdrops this morning, so that was an improvement.

A statue of a young woman placed next to a waterway in Utrecht.

Truus van Lier (1921-1943) was a young Utrecht resistance fighter during World War II, who distributed illegal newspapers, messages and weapons. She was a member of CS-6, an Amsterdam resistance group engaged in espionage, sabotage and liquidations. Van Lier guided Jews to safe hiding places and Infiltrated the NSB and the Wehrmacht. On 3 September 1943, here on the Willemsplantsoen, Truus van Lier shot and killed police chief commissioner and National Socialist Movement (NSB) member Gerard Kerlen from her bicycle as he was about to round up Jewish citizens and members of the resistance. Van Lier was later identified, arrested and deported to the Sachsenhausen concentration camp, where she was executed by firing squad on 27 October 1943. We here commemorate the bravery of Truus van Lier for her part in the resistance against injustice and oppression. The role of women in the Dutch resistance has been underexposed. For this reason, artist Joyce Overheul felt that a recognizable tribute to Truus van Lier was important. The only surviving photographs of Truus van Lier are facial portraits. There are no full-length pictures of her. Overheul asked student Juliëtte Meeuwsen to pose as a model for Truus van Lier. Meeuwsen, like Van Lier in her day, is a law student at the University of Utrecht, and has a similar build. She posed for life-sized body casts, helping to produce a model for the sculptising the surviving photographs, Overheul asked sculptor Marieke van der Meer to model the face. It e power and vulnerability.

Working in Utrecht for a couple of days and I came across this monument to Truus Van Lier. Such courage on a young woman.

The question for children "what do you think she has in her bag?"

A pistol for nazis, obviously.

I'm learning a lot too. I hadn't kept up with this at all!

And I believe the Polestar cars are Swedish design but made in China.

A graph from the fitbit app showing my sleeping 'breaths per minute' rate, typically 15 or 16. It suddenly spikes to 25, skips a night as no sleep was recorded and then starts dropping, first to 19 and then to 16.

I seem to be getting over that chest infection, thankfully. That hit me hard for a week, after having a heavy cold since mid December. Not a good winter so far.

Yay, you're both here!

St Paul's Cathedral in London in the fairly early light of a December morning. The roads are slick with rain and cars driving by have their lights on. The dome of the church is visible flanked by tall buildings on either side.

Walking down from Smithfield through Little Britain towards Postman's Park, you catch sight of St Paul's as you come around the bend. Always greateful this angle wasn't interfere with. (Yet?).

#London
#LondonHistory

A photo of a building in Bishopsgate in London that is currently a Tesco supermarket. The masonry near the top states it was initially the "Fire Brigade Station" and there are four wide doors visible that are about a carriage width. These have now been converted to either windows or normal, modern doors.

I'd never looked up at Bishopsgate Tesco, but I did on Wednesday. It used to be the Fire Station, according to the masonry. I always thought 4 (5?) wide doors were an odd feature, and it must have been a coaching stop or something.

You have a much better tour route than mine! I need to get out got more lunchtime walks - last week it was just around the corner to the Gherkin and the tomb of the unknown Roman London girl from 400 AD, plus the cannon bollard at St Helens. I'm getting there, slowly but surely.

It is great to walk though - I've been to a fair few stops in the two years I'm working there. The Mithraeum at Bloomberg that used to be public, now enclosed but presented really well. The London Stone and St Swithins garden, Postman's Park, the areas used to film 'Slow Horses'. All fascinating.

I'm going to have to swing by again tomorrow when I'm in the office. I love those little details of our surroundings. I'll add it to my office walk - arrive at Barbican at 8:00 and walk to Liverpool Street via London Wall, the best exercise (and perspective) I can get on the way to work.

I didn't think it would be an ancient tradition by the Scots diaspora in London for some reason. I guess it's good that people are aware of it now and have hopefully read more about the history if that's their thing. The flowers and ribbons did catch my eye, compared to some others there.

But places like Reading and Oxford, yes, there is a lot of dirt and litter. Loads of betting shops, never a good sign, as well. 14 years of neglect have taken their toll, and it'll be a long time before it's fixed, if ever.

I probably don't see it too much, as I come into Paddington then go straight to Liverpool St on the lizzy line. All pretty new and shiny so far, and The City is constantly being rebuilt, so always chaotic. I need to walk about more places that aren't dens of investment.

The memorial to William Wallace in Smithfield Square, London. TO THE IMMORTAL MEMORY OF SIR WILLIAM WALLACE SCOTTISH PATRIOT BORN AT ELDERSLIE RENFREWSHIRE CIRCA 1270 AD. WHO FROM THE YEAR 1296 FOUGHT DAUNTLESSLY IN DEFENCE OF HIS COUNTRY'S LIBERTY AND INDEPENDENCE IN THE FACE OF FEARFUL ODDS AND GREAT HARDSHIP BEING EVENTUALLY BETRAYED AND CAPTURED BROUGHT TO LONDON AND PUT TO DEATH NEAR THIS SPOT ON THE 23RD. AUGUST 1305 HIS EXAMPLE HEROISM AND DEVOTION INSPIRED THOSE WHO CAME AFTER HIM TO WIN VICTORY FROM DEFEAT AND HIS MEMORY REMAINS FOR ALL TIME A SOURCE OF PRIDE HONOUR AND INSPIRATION TO HIS COUNTRYMEN DICO TIBI VERUM LIBERTAS OPTIMA RERUM NUNQUAM SERVILI SUB NEXU VIVITO FILI ARMAN BAS AGUS BUAIDH AMAVAN

I turned right at the barbican exit from Farringdon and wandered down to Smithfield. A fair amount of history there, some of it quite violent.

See the alt-text for the memorial wording.

The remains of the roman villa at littlecote house hotel in Berkshire, UK.

At littlecote house hotel in Berkshire. The roman villa's triclinium (dining and reception room) with the heated floor.

I'm blocked from the original post. Just going to move on, tbh. Saturday night and all that, things to do.