John Brown

Good news for chocolate lovers everywhere

Fun fact: my brother was at school with Mark and came home one announcing he had a new friend called Marco, who we all assumed was Italian

I think it’s been a good year for apples

They look good! Did they come over the wall or did you plant them?

Close up of some hop flowers growing against a brick wall. The wall is painted white. There is some ivy in the corner of the frame

Once again I’m growing hops in my garden. An artisanal brewery is sure to follow

If I’m lucky they will last a couple of months, but I will cook and freeze a load of them and use them in pies, apple sauce, etc

A cardboard box filled with apples, a mixture of green and red

I can’t reach all the apples on my trees this year, and they are delicious 🌱

Multi-generational vulture nests hold 700 years of human artifacts Crossbow bolts, sandals, slingshots, and more.

Multi-generational vulture nests hold 700 years of human artifacts.
www.popsci.com/environment/...

That’s a Jay!

YouTube video by Jed Wentz - Topic Sinfonia in B-flat major HWV 339: Allegro

At a concert today the orchestra played this, and two young girls at the back of the church just couldn’t resist and started dancing extravagantly around the pillars

What a pleasure to sing tenor for a change: it means I actually get to sing the third of the chord, which basses very rarely do. And singing Messiah with baroque trumpets and drums also a lovely experience

Plenty of beavers in Belgium, but two seen in Brussels!

That whole Belgica story is amazing and like you say the characters involved are wild. There’s a good book about it: The Madhouse at the End of the Earth

A selection of chocolate advent calendars and other Christmas treats

In my local supermarket today

Belgium just flipped the switch on what’s billed as mainland Europe’s largest battery storage project — a big win for grid reliability and renewables.

ENGIE + Sungrow Europe have commissioned 100 MW/400 MWh at Vilvoorde (first phase of 200 MW/800 MWh due end-2025).

www.ess-news.com/2025/10/01/l...

Listening back to the recording I’m confident that the Yellowhammer and Robin were really just Meadow Pipits. Much more likely to be in a small flock

Some interesting birds picked up by Merlin on my lunchtime walk, although I don’t believe the robin, as the birds identified were in a flock

If you see this post a bridge

Near the col de Grosse Pierre, in the Vosges mountains in France

I didn’t know this story about Albert Ier before. The Roi Soldat.

Aged 16, Hamilton became the mistress of the wealthy aristocrat Sir Harry Fetherstonhaugh, the MP for Portsmouth, who historical records describe as a "witless playboy" who threw wild parties. At his Sussex home, she met Charles Greville, a British antiques collector and politician, who took her to London and ordered a series of portraits of her by George Romney and one by Sir Joshua Reynolds.

But what a life she led!

When my Facebook got hacked the hacker added MFA so I couldn’t change the password. But when I started the deactivate account procedure it gave me the option to change the password then without MFA… worth a try?

Study of 1m-year-old skull points to earlier origins of modern humans Skull found in China may be Homo longi, potentially revising understanding of human evolution

All very exciting but I don’t really believe it

Sorry Wordle, that just won’t do. Not a proper word. Write out 100 times ‘I must not use foreign words if the word is not used with its actual meaning in the other language, even if it is used in a colloquial expression’

That’s a niche hashtag

I thought that must be the case, couldn’t imagine they’d all be the same gauge

Ahem

I shouldn’t judge but the man ahead of me at the supermarket bought 8 very strong Belgian beers and a big bag of cat food. That’s going to be a good party

“The first cargo train from Daqing in Heilongjiang province to Zeebrugge was launched in 2017, covering more than 10,000 kilometres across Russia, Belarus, Poland and Germany in just 18 days.”

There’s a direct train from Liege to China?!

Same in Belgium, really practically useful