Stuart Aken

An upright photo of a strange ice structure that looks like strands of white hair. It is lodged in and on some dead wood in the forest.

#ourworldiswonderful; I leave you this evening with a picture of an unusual phenomenon. This is hair ice, a strange result of a combination of a certain fungus, Exidiopsis effusa, in wood that's rotting, mixed with humid air and temperatures just below freezing. Pretty, isn't it?

It has NOT been rushed, it's been going through the stages for years! And some folk don't die quickly, they live for years in agony. All I'm looking for is real compassion. I'm not in that boat. I watched someone I loved go through the process and she died without me being able to be there for her.

Take South East Water into public ownership NOW South East Water has failed households in Kent and Sussex. It is time to bring it into public ownership.

Water privatisation has failed

South East Water spent more on shareholder dividends than on infrastructure

Now the taps aren't working in Kent and Sussex

Emma Reynolds and Ofwat, bring South East Water into public ownership immediately

Sign the petition 👇

weownit.org.uk/act-now/sout...

If Anyone Builds It, Everyone Dies: Why Superhuman AI Would Kill Us All by Eliezer Yudkowsky and… If AI becomes superintelligent, humans could face extinction

If Anyone Builds It, Everyone Dies: Why Superhuman AI Would Kill Us All by Eliezer Yudkowsky and… by @vilmareynoso medium.com/across-the-p...

Simply take some pills? A person confined to bed by illness lacks that choice. Side effects of morphine? Addiction. Psychosis. And the fact they simply stop working. I'm curious; why is it so important to you that this Bill, designed to give comfort and dignity to dying people, fails?

You repeated it. Your argument ignores the vital issue of personal choice. What gives a Government the right to determine how and when we decide to end our lives? Understanding compassion means understanding, for some individuals, being made to continue to exist in a malfunctioning body is torture.

Thank you, Brigitta. Result!

Labour say a Green win would be "existential."

Sounds like an invitation....

Join.greenparty.org.uk

The snow capped mountains high above Whistler, British Columbia on a clear blue day.

“Bluesky reminds me that no matter how dark the clouds may be, there is always light beyond them.” -unknown 🕊️

#BlueSkyMonday #MountainMonday #sky

This is an impressionism style canvas of a pretty Chestnut Stallion horse galloping through some wild lupine flowers with a white barn in the background.

A pretty Wildflower Mare to kick off the week, happy Monday!
Available here...
tina-lecour.pixels.com/featured/wil...

#horse #horses #animal #animals #nature #wildlife #wallart #art #artshop #artstore #arte #paintings #gifts #giftideas #greetingcards #puzzles #homedecor #interiordecor #flowers

My painting LAKESHORE

10 JWST images that reveal the Universe as never before With unprecedented resolution, wavelength sensitivity, and light-gathering power, JWST reveals our cosmos like no other observatory ever.

10 JWST images that reveal the Universe as never before by @StartsWithABang in @startswithabang medium.com/starts-with-...

How Unnecessary Dialogue Tags Can Create Redundancies You might not realize why a certain passage in your writing doesn’t read quite exactly the way you intend it to read. Your brilliantly crafted, eloquent words are there, but the writing seems to dr…

How Unnecessary Dialogue Tags Can Create Redundancies kathysteinemann.com/Musings/redu...

Q&A: What UK’s ‘warm homes plan’ means for climate change and energy bills - Carbon Brief The UK gov released its long-awaited plan detailing support to help people install electric heat pumps, rooftop solar panels and insulation in their homes.

www.carbonbrief.org/qa-what-uks-...
#UKpolitics, #climate

MPs shouldn't be able to switch parties without asking us first! I just signed a petition calling for mandatory by-elections when an MP changes their political party. We vote for a specific manifesto and set of values—if that changes, we should get to vote again. I...

It feels wrong that an MP can get elected on one platform and then just... swap? 🤷‍♀️ I’ve signed this to demand a by-election when MPs cross the floor. Let's make sure our votes actually count. Add your name: you.38degrees.org.uk/petitions/re...

The foreground shows two wide, long fields sown with crops just emerging from the ground. The horizon displays the trees growing along the edges of the fields and the whole landscape lies under a pale blue sky bearing soft, white clouds.

#ourworldiswonderful; I leave you tonight with a shot taken in the flat countryside of Holderness in East Yorkshire with a wide winter sky above those fields of crops.

YouTube video by Ethan Baxter's "Every Rock Has A Story" Hear Hawaiian geoscientist Kamalani Poepoe tell the firey tale of Kilauea volcano!

⚒️🍎🧪🌋
Kamalani Poepoe shares what the Kilauea Volcano means to her as a native Hawaiian. These rocks carry both scientific and cultural significance. Please watch and enjoy this episode with your kids! Teach them to respect and appreciate the natural world around us
youtube.com/shorts/UnYZI...

How to Build Your Author's Platform: Quick, Easy to Understand, Practical Tips #selfpub #amwriting #writingcommunity #writers #indiepublishing www.amazon.com/dp/1948872293

snowed in

with phones off

and the breathless

glow of evening

we took something

beautifully

extraordinary

into this lasting

winter mirage

#BSPP49 #poem #poetry #writerscommunity

Shows the cover, which features a mediaeval illustration of a monk (Gerald?) writing.

Random book from our personal library, which I'm going to keep sharing despite the evil happening in my country right now. Hopefully, books bring you comfort at this time, as they do me.

📖 The Journey Through Wales / The Description of Wales by Gerald of Wales... 1/2

Vanessa Fox O’Loughlin re-elected as chair of the Society of Authors

ICYMI: Vanessa Fox O’Loughlin, also known under the pen name Sam Blake, has been re-elected for a second term as chair of the Society of Authors. SFF author Juliet McKenna has been elected as the SoA’s vice-chair 👇 #BookSky

The last Sunday of the month...time for a few short #BookReviews! Each month I do some @nancypearl.bsky.social -inspired explanations of unenjoyed books; some @nathanburgoine.bsky.social inspired quick takes on enjoyed ones. This month's crop is here:
expendablemudge.blogspot.com/2026/01/janu...

'I said my goodbyes to a brother I’d loved and cherished. For a while, like Joseph, I was undone, broken. Marie did her best to help me heal, and I began to notice her properly about that time, to value her care and friendship.'

Well, would you look at that

A pond near Indian Lake in the Adirondacks.

#January2026 #Season #ColorADay #OrangeSun #Art
#ArtYear #Watercolor #Adirondacks #UpstateNewYork
#EastCoastKin

This is cynical propaganda.

Calling real people’s pain ‘engineered chaos’ is obscene.

Minneapolis didn’t manufacture this crisis, your party’s policies and rhetoric did.

Smearing communities and inventing conspiracies is how you avoid responsibility.

Cowardly.👇

Meanwhile in UK - Cadwalladr's done the homework to lift stone on Oswald Farage's Quisling Party and its mercenary quest to sell out UK to Rusamerican imperialism in return for becoming 🇺🇸🇫🇷 proxy ruler👇

An alpine lake surrounded by rocky mountains and lush green vegetation under a blue sky with some clouds

Linkins Lake 12,008' #FallBack to July 25

BlueSky FOREVER! 🌿

🧪🌏👇🔭🌎❤️

See All of Trump’s Changes to the White House So Far (Gift Article) In a year, the president has altered 10 spaces in the White House.

See How Trump Refashioned the ‘People’s House’

In a year, he has altered 10 spaces in the White House.

GIFT ARTICLE NO PAYWALL

www.nytimes.com/interactive/...