Everyone will be so sad to hear about the humiliating way Kristi Noem just got fired We all saw this coming, writes Holly Baxter — and yet it was still an exercise in public embarrassment, especially so recently after being quizzed about her sex life and having a fellow Republican compare her ICE tenure to the time she shot her dog

Everyone will be so sad to hear about the humiliating way Kristi Noem just got fired

Moss and lichen on boughs of hawthorn tree, Shaugh Moor, Dartmoor, Devon

Hawthorn tree coated in moss & lichen, Shaugh Moor, #Dartmoor #Devon #nature

Two Reform councillors leave party as one hits out at ‘misogynistic undertones’ Joanne Blythe raised concerns about ‘what I perceive to be misogynistic undertones in the treatment I have received’

Ms Shaw...quit her role as a cabinet member for children, families & education...said...she could “more effectively advocate for strong safeguarding systems” outside of the party.

A warning of what will happen to child protection services if Reform is elected?

www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/poli...

Picture from the forest captures mushrooms nestled in moss. There are fallen leaves around the mushrooms.

Mushrooms and moss. 🌿

#FungiFriday #ForestFriday #Moss

Two spring snowflakes in focus. Mossy ground blurry in the background.

Friday!
Finally.
And it’s going to be a longer weekend for me. Really need this little break.

Have a good one! 💚

Coffee? Coffee!

#flowers

Aglaostigma aucupariae (Tenthredinidae) always my 1st sawfly of the year, dozens out today. 5/3/2026 Topsham, Devon.

Anthophora plumipes (Apidae) Hairy-footed Flower Bee male. 5/3/2026 Topsham, Devon.

Eudasyphora cyanella female (Muscidae). 5/3/2026 Topsham, Devon.

Phaonia subventa female (Muscidae) 5/3/2026 Topsham, Devon.

Like saying hello to old friends; lots of familiar faces out and about today.
Names in Alt texts

Gool Peran Lowen! Happy #SaintPiran’sday and #worldbookday #books #cornwall

Boulders of various sizes and desert plants surround a couple of joshua trees.

“This is the sense of the desert hills, that there is room enough and time enough.”
-Mary Hunter Austin

Sunlit woodland bank covered in bright green moss (a bryophyte). Fox-tail Feather-moss (Thamnobryum alopecurum) forms lush draping growth over a sloping bank at the base of a tree, the shoots rising and branching like tiny green trees or soft fox-tail plumes. Nearby a Hart’s-tongue fern (Asplenium scolopendrium) grows with long strap-shaped fronds. Winter sunlight filters through bare woodland branches in the background.

The woods were so beautiful today...

Moss cushion - Mooskissen

#aphotoaday

Jan 2026 - House sparrow and Dark-eyed junco standing together on frosty deck railing while a Blue jay flies past in the background.

Winter truce at the buffet.

#WildlifePhotography #Birds #Birding #BackyardBirding #HouseSparrow #DarkEyedJunco #EastCoastKin #BirdOfTheDay #MixedPairs 🪶🦆

A close-up profile of a Blue Jay’s head and upper body, showing fine feather details, dark eye, and black beak against a soft green background.

The quiet between hunger and sky.

#Monostich #Poetry #Micropoetry #BlueskyPoets #PoetsOfBluesky #Photography #Macro #Nature #Wildlife #Birds #Birding #BlueJay #ImageAndVerse

A close-up of pale yellow, elongated catkins of Common Hazel (Corylus avellana) hanging in clusters from a thin brown branch in woodland at the Syrenie Stawy in Szczecin, Poland. The cylindrical catkins are textured with overlapping scales and lit by low early spring sunlight; the background shows softly blurred tree trunks and dry leaf litter.

A close-up of bright yellow, ribbon-like flowers of Chinese Witch Hazel (Hamamelis mollis) on bare branches at the Summer Theatre in Szczecin, Poland. The narrow, twisted petals radiate from small reddish centres, sharply lit by sunlight against a softly blurred garden background.

And in the race to be first to ‚spring’ to life here in PL, it’s a dead heat between two types of Hazel, the Common variety and the Chinese Witch variety😺 The first is growing wild near the ponds while the second has been planted near the summer theatre. The catkins have opened so fast! #Szczecin

An Atlantic Puffin standing in green coastal grass, shown in profile with its distinctive black-and-white plumage and bright orange, red, and yellow beak wide open. The background is softly blurred, suggesting a rocky shoreline.

I just heard that today’s #BirdOfTheDay theme is #ShoutItOut – birds calling. This Puffin says, ‘LET’S GO!’ 😺👋

Big Ginge the ginger cat gives a particularly Hard Stare into the camera when his dinner is not forthcoming. It will be soon .

‘You arbitrarily changed my dinner time and expect me not to notice?’ #GinjaBoiz

Macbeth will always hold a special place in my heart. In Scotland, we visited the graveyard where tradition (though not archaeology) holds that he and Duncan are buried.

A gravestone with a single circular hole in it. It is so overgrown with moss and lichen that it is impossible to tell what, if anything, it had carved on it. In the background is a similar stone tilted at an angle as if falling over. Iona, Scotland

This one was my favorite.

Close-up woodland floor scene among moss (a bryophyte). A pale lace-like skeletonised leaf lies across a dark decaying leaf, the fine network of veins still intact while the softer leaf tissue has disappeared. Bright green feathery moss surrounds it, with a small woodland seedling and a catkin nearby.

I saw this while looking at moss today...

Lush green moss mounds on the leaf-littered forest floor.

Some excellent moss.

Picasso

#Art #ArtYear
#ModernArt
#Abstractia #Faces

Tumbling Toads on Tuesday.

One of a number of nest boxes on an urban green space that I have cleaned dried and refurbished over the past couple of weeks. Within minutes of putting this one back up this morning in its original location two Blue Tits were checking it out.

Blick aus dem Flugzeug auf die Alpen im Morgennebel

'Nebel, Dunst' #FotoVorschlag.
Alpen am Morgen

Astonishment, pattern of nature 🖤 #shotoniphone #mobilephotography #natureinspired

Ein hölzerner Steg mit Geländer ragt schräg von links ins Bild und spiegelt sich auf einer dünnen Eisschicht. Im Hintergrund sind Bäume im dichten Nebel nur schemenhaft zu erkennen. Die Szene wirkt ruhig und winterlich, mit gedämpften Farben und wenig Kontrast.

'Nebel, Dunst' #FotoVorschlag
Schmachter See im Winter #Rügen

Sign in background 'Reform UK'. Line up of Zia Yusuf, Robert Jenrick, Farage, Tice, Suella Braverman

Now that the worst ghouls of the Tory party have been exorcised away to Reform, if they were to free themselves from Bad Enoch, a more moderate conservative could unite the Right & Centre Right - a much larger vote share - making the party electable again. I'm not a Tory, but it's a smarter move.

A yellow slime mold (fuligo septica) plasmodium on a cut tree log

Small blob #slimemold

Pati ❤️ | An Istanbul Cat in thr garden 🐈‍⬛

#cat #cats #catsofbluesky #catpics #catlover #Blueskyねこ部 #caturday #nature #kittens #catsofistanbul #photography #catsky #istanbul

Absolutely beautiful 😊