Graculus

As I plan my holidays for next year, I've been entertaining myself with various travel subs on Reddit. Poeple post itineraries, like the one with a day trip from London to Haworth (minimum 4 hours each way) where they want to visit the Parsonage and also walk on the moors *before lunch*. 🤣

Nothing says local power cut like the chirping of dozens of burglar alarms nearby. 😏

Female yes but sparrowhawk not kestrel, the big yellow eyes are the giveaway - kestrels eyes are black.

For some reason, after months of Isla by Beluga Lagoon being my earworm of (not) choice, my brain has now moved on to Where's Your Head At? by Basement Jaxx. 🙈

I'm partway through an ARC of Once Was Willem by MR Carey.

*Bells, even. Flipping auto carrot.

Currently in St Peter's, Barton-upon-Humber, which is normally closed, waiting for the Bella to be rung 😍

Shocking behaviour. 🤣

I'm a good chunk of the way through Slow Gods by Claire North (enjoying it so far), also reading The Animals in That Country by Laura Jean McKay and just starting True North: Travels in Arctic Europe by Gavin Francis (non-fiction).

Baby hedgehog count is up to 3. 🦔🦔🦔

Unexpected hedgehog encounter just now. 🦔 Went to put food out as usual only to find a small one (mango sized, the others are more like pineapple sized adults) hanging about - definitely not one of the two I see regularly. Must be one of this year's babies...

An ARC of Slow Gods by Claire North and also nearly finished African Europeans by Olivette Otélé

Share your favourite black and white movie.

Sullivan's Travels

I grew up on Monkey and Tales of the Water Margin (both Japanese productions of Chinese classics) in the 70s and also Shaw Brothers movies, so it was hardly a stretch...

If you see this, repost with the first #CDrama you watched.

Long before all this Untamed and Guardian business... 😜

An ARC of The Maiden and Her Monster by Maddie Martinez and The First Kingdom by Max Adams (non-fiction).

Retirement kicking in properly this week. Everyone at my previous workplace is back, I'm watching Murderbot and thinking about lunch. 😍

First Advent calendars spotted in the wild about 2 weeks ago 😱

Phone keeps bugging me to do a 66Mb update. My dude, I am on a boat in the Hebrides, I'm lucky if I can get 1 bar of 4G. ⛵

Musk has made clear he is not a ‘fit and proper’ person to be given a foothold in our essential services.

Giving him any influence in our energy market is a risk the UK can’t afford to take.

👉 Will you write to Ofgem? https://www.bestforbritain.org/petition-elon-musk-uk-energy-power-grab

Many female athletes can make more money as a right-wing grifter complaining about trans women than she can as an athlete.

Therefore, trans women in sports greatly enhance the career prospects of mediocre cis women in sports.

Advent calendars on sale in B&M 😱

An ARC of Mistress of Lies by KM Enright and The Fens by Francis Pryor (non-fiction, mostly about the archaeology of that region).

Weird beeping noise in my house when I got back this evening, initially thought it was my smoke alarm but then realised it was a fledgling blackbird sitting on the arm of my sofa 🐦‍⬛ Eventually caught & put outside.

September will see me a) dealing with the fact that this isn't just another summer break and b) sorting out tax codes since I get two workplace pensions, among other things. Also a little light DIY (e.g. replacing some floorboards) it's been too hot to do.

Having done all the paperwork over the past few months, the next milestone to pass is actually *getting* my pensions. Got my first tax code notice today, so that's something. First payment is due this weekend, the other one pays at the end of the month, so I guess we'll see... 🤞💸

Sounds like a skills issue to me. 😎

Don't get me started on the Brando Sando hegemony. 🤣

I'd suggest many of the people lauding those authors are not reading much newer stuff anyway, so would struggle to rec something published this century

Might be Jeff Bezos pronouncing on how you make Good TV Shows and using 'different types of landscape' as his example of what world-building is? Just a hunch...