Nick Langley

Sorry, forgot Alt text. Les Murray The Transposition of Clermont.

After the Big Flood, we elected
to move our small timber city
from the dangerous beauty of the river
and its fringed lagoons
since both had risen to destroy us.

Many buildings went stacked on wagons
but more were towed entire...

There's a Les Murray poem about anything you can think of.
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Asylum seekers to be removed from Epping hotel after council wins injunction District council in Essex had cited disruption and safety concerns, as well as alleged breach of planning law

Makes you wonder what targets the emboldened scumbag Right will go after next.

www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025...

Because it has a designed-in blindspot
And the DRIVER is a FUCKWIT

Pop-up says "Can you help us to #improve our #website?"

Yeah -don't include #pop-ups

The Lead Untangles: Why Britain isn’t built for the heat Some may sneer at every heat-health warning, but high temperatures come with dangers our housing stock is not ready for. Can we improve things?

Green space & tree cover is vital for keeping homes cool... The UK Green Building Council advocates a 3:30:300 approach: be able to see three trees from your home, 30% tree cover in your neighbourhood, & being no more than 300 metres from a green space.
national.thelead.uk/p/the-lead-u...

"Robert Jenrick - an experiment in what national socialism would look like if it was designed by Laura Ashley..."

As long as there's stuff like this, it'll still be worth getting your head out from under the duvet.

Tinderbox Britain: How conservatives ended up praying for violence These aren't warnings. They're threats.

"this is a moment of tentative, guarded satisfaction. Because the basic reality is this: the people didn't come.. For all the encouragement - by national newspapers, leading politicians, government ministers and broadcasters - they have so far come to nothing."

iandunt.substack.com/p/tinderbox-...

Tax the rich more to fill hole in public finances, Labour members tell Starmer Exclusive: PM urged to conduct a ‘radical change of direction’ as the government attempts to plug gaps in the public finances

New ‪@compassoffice.bsky.social‬ polling shows Labour members overwhelmingly want bolder offer on democracy, the economy, child poverty and much more. The government is out of step with the mainstream of the Labour Party and must reset to transform the country. www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/poli...

It's so great, finally, to see a reviewer from the conservation sector acknowledge that although there is harm to natural life from recreation, it is utterly dwarfed by the harm due to land use and the levers pulled by those who own and control who gets to access or develop land.

An SUV covered in toilet paper on the street

Hutchinson Street kids who TP’d this car that didn’t move for the block party, welcome to @thewaroncars.bsky.social

Multi-petalled lilac coloured flowers growing in clusters on a tall, thick, jointed dark green stalk.

These fine flowers, an asset to any herbaceous border, are what you get when you plant endive/frisee out in hot dry weather. The next sowing looks to be going the same way. Strictly an autumn-to-spring salad, it seems.

#allotment

#Trump's Special Envoy Braz Butlift is married to #WhiteHouse mouthpiece Heidi Salami. The former reality TV celebrities have been looking pretty dishevelled lately after ICE arrested the only people in their household who know where things are & how they work.

Why we moved to a terraced house fronting the street. They poke at the pavement for a bit then go away with their hoods drooping.

Burning crosses on your lawn.

(Thanks to ‪@kamimagic.bsky.social‬ for that.)

Trump's signature turned into KKK hoods.

Just like his.

A vision in Laura Ashley on a Pashley.

Want To Make Money? Build A Business On A Bike Lane Research from New York City notes that newly installed protected bike lanes do more than keep bikers safe--they raise the income of the stores they are in front of.

“Local stores next to the protected bike-lane have seen a 49% increase in sales, compared to an average of 3% for Manhattan as a whole.”

(Among MANY other public benefits.)

Want To Make More Money? Build A Business On A Bike Lane.

#CityMakingMath via @fastcompany.com
#BikeLanesMeanBusiness

Broadcasting House just covered this. You heard it here 9 days ago.

BLACKBERRY ALERT

They look like they are going to go on forever, but:

Unpicked ripe fruit is withering.

No more flowers are coming.

Rumours of a lost early Borges story, Bunyard the Exhibitionist.

Just read A-board outside cosmetics shop:

That Fresh Skin Feeling
as
That Freshly Skinned Feeling

Cambridge sewage plant move halted after funding withdrawn Anglian Water wants to replace its current facility, but the government withdrew funding.

Funding is withdrawn for the relocation of Cambridge sewage treatment works, four months after the Development Consent Order passed. @SaveHoneyHill1 www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

They should slip a couple of mugshots of the Restore Trust arseholes in there too.

Funny, I was in a saloon bar last week and a Tory was saying exactly the same thing.

We had rats & squirrels. Now that we've got foxes we don't see so much of them. One odd consequence is that it's now very hard to germinate peas & beans, because mice are back in force & dig them up. Muntjac have been seen nearby but haven't got past the fence yet.

grown it!

You could always tell when ours was ready because the squirrels* had it, no matter how tightly you netted or caged. I notice nobody on the site has brown it this year.

*Clusters of sunflowers come up every spring from the chunks of seed head they bury.

The dog was so big they had to use a snow shovel and a bin bag.