Rob Fleming

Blue tit bum poking out of a green and brown RSPB bird box. Not quite in sharp focus, but near enough. Green leaves and out-of-focus speckles of sunlight through the leaves in the background.

This is another of my favourite photos from last year. I love it.

I'm hoping the blue tits find this nesting box again, and that the colour comes back into the world. It hasn't been this green in months, and I miss it.

Pentax P30T, long end of a Tokina lens. Ultramax 400.

#photography

A balloon dog, but transparent so you can see the "skeleton" within.

Need a distraction from the 24-hour news cycle? Check out "Balloon Dog Anatomy" by the great Jason Freeny.

I will no longer be available by email considering it is an evil mode of communication. Please reach me the old fashioned way: letters

No need to gloat, fella.

I get this constantly. It appears I am completely incapable of being effective as a cashier. Thing is though, I dont remember applying for the role, and I definitely haven't had the training, so I'm gonna call it a system issue and try not to be too hard on myself. Innit.

"Unexpected item in the bagging area."

Alcohol-free beer scanned - "age verification required" - This one really boils my piss.

One of them two definitely. Not much of a groundhog community round here. Shame.

I think my fondness for this film stems from the quote...:

"What would you do if you were stuck in one place, and every day was exactly the same, and nothing that you did mattered?"

...when this describes the lives of the majority of people, including the people he says it to in the film.

This is pitiful. A thousand people freezing their butts off, waiting to worship a rat. What a hype!

Groundhog Day used to mean something in this town. They used to pull the hog out and they used to eat it! You're hypocrites!

I'll try not to take this personally, working in a different system where this kind of thing is common.

I used Google Gemini to create a poster for "Hedgehog Fortnight" and this is what it came up with.

I am sobbing laughing at the spelling.

Happy Groundhog Day, folks.

Movie poster for "Hedguehog Day Fortnigth", apparently!

This was the best that generative AI could come up with.

For anyone using AI to write anything important, remember to check the output. It spells hedgehog with a U, and fortnight with a bonus T. Genius!

Hedgehog fortnight needs to be a thing.

Happy Groundhog Day to all those who celebrate.

"Okay, campers, rise and shine, and don't forget your booties 'cause it's cooooold out there today."

Happy Groundhog Day to all those who celebrate.

"Okay, campers, rise and shine, and don't forget your booties 'cause it's cooooold out there today."

Happy Groundhog Day to all those who celebrate.

"Okay, campers, rise and shine, and don't forget your booties 'cause it's cooooold out there today."

Happy Groundhog Day to all those who celebrate.

"Okay, campers, rise and shine, and don't forget your booties 'cause it's cooooold out there today."

Happy Groundhog Day to all those who celebrate.

"Okay, campers, rise and shine, and don't forget your booties 'cause it's cooooold out there today."

This valentine's day, consider giving yourself the gift of SIVA membership. We are a bargain, and your support will help us into 2026 and beyond!

Every season is the season to use intravenous anaesthesia!

Consider supporting SIVA by becoming a member, for only £25 per year.

We exist to advance the science of TIVA and processed EEG, and support those who are using or introducing these things in their practice.

siva.ac.uk/joom2/index....

Happy Groundhog Day to all those who celebrate.

"Okay, campers, rise and shine, and don't forget your booties 'cause it's cooooold out there today."

It is, I suspect, a natural result of capitalism. You can make more money if you don't have as many employees.

However, when no one has a job because it is all done by AI, robots, and / or by the consumers themselves, where does the money we use to fuel the capitalism machine come from?

Discuss.

We sound middle-aged, but as you say, we now have a situation where there is less work for someone entering the workforce, AND a queue of frustrated forty-somethings wishing someone else was scanning their produce.

Can't stand in the way of progress. No point trying I suppose.

Contemplating the state of the world.

When I was 17, there were no self-checkouts. It was someone's job, and they rightly got paid for it.

Now, I scan my own soup and tins of pop, and usually end up having to get help anyway because of unexpected items in the bagging area. I preferred the old way.

Black and white image of a striped coffee mug, containing approximately 1 pint of coffee, milk and sugar. Resting on a worn leather armchair. Handle to the right of the frame. Photographers left hand, complete with anxiety-bitten nails and wrinkles over the joints, completes the left of the frame.

If the sun is never coming back, and it certainly looks that way from north Nottinghamshire, I am going back to photographing whatever is near.

May your morning coffee be restorative, and served in an aesthetically pleasing photogenic mug.

Sony A5000, 25mm F/2 manual focus lens.

#photography

Does anyone else feel like the "hang on, is this cake?" era has seamlessly progressed into the "hang on, is this AI?" era.

Nothing is real, but deciding whether you are looking at cake or AI is now the real issue of our times.

It has. For the most part, I point cameras at skies, and anything illuminated by natural light.

The sky has been featureless grey, and there has been no natural light, for all of 2026 so far.

What is the point in having 47 cameras if there is never any light in this bloody country?

The result of overwhelming debt from education is that people from humble backgrounds, with the potential to do extraordinary things, may never get to do them.

University fees and student loans are an aspiration tax that prevents social mobility and harms the whole of society.

Society benefits from an educated populace.

Society benefits from other people being educated, even if a given individual can't see the exact benefit to them.

Much like we pay for roads we never drive on, and emergency services we may never call on, we know that they need to be there, surely!?

Leadership is not a luxury | The SAS Collective

I do enjoy writing rousing rhetoric.

"For too long, the conversation around medical leadership has suffered from a persistent blind spot."

"It's time to trade the shadows for the boardroom."

Brilliant to get support from @fmlm-uk.bsky.social for the #SASsix.

www.sascollective.com/leadershipno...