Ben

As a father of a girl, the Secret Commonwealth hit particularly hard.

Oh, has it been on?

Yes please

Will do. Although I'm going to do my way for the in-laws tomorrow because if your way fails I'll never hear the end of it...

Right, will try. Although it will be hard to beat the technique i picked up recently which is after parboiling, rough then up then allow steam dry and then *cool to room temp* in the colander before adding to hot oil. But maybe Angela's way is quicker!

Best time of the year!

How lovely. We had similar but the parakeets soon took over so I've had to take the open feeders down...

Oh fabulous! Great shot.

Arrived at rental in northern France for my stag do. Best man had forgotten to mention this detail when booking and on arrival the owner said, 'où sont les femmes?'. I made some excuses, she let us stay thankfully and said, actually, it was generally families with small kids that trash the place...

You just see so much more when you speak a foreign language, either fluently or just enough to get by. The way you look at others, yourself and how they look at you changes, sometimes very subtly, sometimes dramatically and everybody wins.

Went on a fairly dull lads trip to Cannes in my early 20s, mostly not my mates. Bored by general level of chat one evening, got talking to the pizzeria owner about the subtle differences between sot, saut, seau and sceau. And, funnily enough, the joys and pleasure of speaking other languages.

Traveled from Toulouse to Barcelona w/ friends often while at uni. Used to stay in this great hostel run by an elderly Catalan man whose only other language was Castillian. Had to call ahead once over the border to reserve a room, which was my job as I was the only one of us who could speak to him.

Trains to Berlin with my son, connection at Brussels cancelled so had to travel through gentle Belgian backwaters by local trains, asking in French at 1 stop, was the ticket valid? or in German at another, can I take this train instead? Just useful, run of the mill but satisfying stuff.

Went to a creperie in Paris and was able to reminisce about Brittany (where my exchanges were) and help him out with menu translations (he asked!), etc. Just a lovely exchange of thoughts and time in a city not famed for rewarding linguistic effort.

Did Duolingo Czech before going to Prague and I needed to buy orange juice for breakfast. By chance, one of the beginner phrases was, where is the juice? The lady prob spoke great English in touristy central Prague but she just showed me the way - result! And I got to show off to my kids.

My French exchange was a dick but rest of family were lovely, inc his grandfather, a committed anglophile who spoke flawless English. He made a point of never speaking it to me, we got on so well because i met the gesture by making an effort myself and was invited back 4 years in a row w/o the dick.

Traveling into Rome from airport with first girlfriend on first holiday, tried out my beginner's Italian on the ticket inspector to show off, asking is there a student reduction? No answer but when I questioned why he only wrote out 1 ticket, he replied that was the discount.

Had to return hire bikes before tight rail replacement bus connection at Montauban. Station master clocked hire shop was on bus's route so got driver to stop for us rather than us having to come all the way back to the station and miss it.

Was at uni in France, took Spanish as minor subject. Lovely teacher only had 2d cartoons and cassette audio to show us scenarios before we acted them out. Me and a couple of others were the usual suspects as rest too shy. When his neighbour had a job going at the Motorola plant, he put me forward.

The amphibious wave continues its progress!

This will be my son's first voting day so I'd be well up for making it a cracker...

How fast was the gate driving? @gazza-d.bsky.social @hoxtonrich.bsky.social @wandsworthcycling.bsky.social @crisortunity.bsky.social

Dots become dashes - the next stage in the frog life cycle begins as the eggs start to develop and the clutches of frog spawn start to melt into the water. Well over 50 clutches of spawn so far, fairly crucial local population. @tetzoo.bsky.social @stevoallain.bsky.social @froglife.bsky.social

I just mentioned the midwife toads in a local nature WhatsApp group I'm on and one person said, oh yes, my Mum had them in her garden before she moved away, another, the vicar on such-and-such reported them, another said they're apparently in this road or that. Locally famous.

Have had to temporarily protect the frog spawn from the attentions of the magpies. Fortunately this hasn't deterred the female blackbird from taking some muddy glue for her nest.

@rspb.bsky.social

Will do. Did the nature note about my hobbled frog ever get published btw? Haven't seen him this breeding season but am looking out for him...

Is the project ongoing and is there somewhere we can read about progress? Really interesting..

The Dark Side of the Toad Things don't always go the way you'd like when it comes to science. We were hoping to have most (if not all) of the samples collected from the remaining midwife...

@stevoallain.bsky.social does the population of midwife toads in Wandsworth still exist? That's really quite close to where i live...

experiment.com/u/B7AZw

Any photo of a fox is a good photo! I got home last night from an evening out and a fox was apparently waiting and jumped into next door's hedge, always lovely to see them.