Helen Macdonald

Absolutely! It was very eerie — I took the photo and couldn’t stop staring

High aircraft contrail with a darker line below it that is the contrail’s shadow on a layer of thin cloud. In the mid ground, a streetlamp

Yes, shadow on cloud beneath. Had this the other morning

Blurred silhouette of a raven against a blue sky

The eaves of my house, a blue blue sky with two black dots in it that are ravens

Quiet evening near Bury St Edmunds and I hear something unexpected, high over the house. It’s a pair of very vocal ravens having a lovely time soaring and chatting in the blue. Not seen them anywhere near here before ❤️

Stephen Hickman's painting of Cthulhu

See, this is why I don't do cruise ships.

I am becoming increasingly anxious about:

1) The Government’s lack of meaningful response to this, and indeed the pandering to it.

2) The way it’s being covered by broadcasters.

I can hear them buzzing OUR NEED IS GREATER THAN YOURS OUR NEED IS GREATER THAN YOURS

Today's ADHD echolalia is

Just read it. THANK YOU. Hugely enjoyed it.

I have not and I absolutely should

Winces in "what it's like to be British"

Can't fault the clarity of Labour's message on protest. There are BAD protesters who must be punished (Irish musicians, anti-genocide vicars) and there are GOOD protesters whose views deserve respect (masked thugs with petrol bombs trying to start a pogrom)

Haven't got Dick up a mountain yet.

i know it's much too much

Hornets drinking is such a dramatic affair compared to wasps, I love the way they helicopter down right onto water weed - none of this careful tiptoeing down the water's edge

Look, I like wasps, ok? They're fighty little bastards and I like their snazzy outfits, pest-control abilities, skill with paper, and total lack of compromise

Constant stream of wasps drinking from my tiny garden tub-pond, so many I have to top it up every evening. I'm not saying I'm hormonal, but when I realised they're taking water back to their nest to spread on its surface to cool it down in these too-hot days I got a bit tearful. They work SO hard.

All of the penicillin in use worldwide comes from a strain of mold that was growing on a cantaloupe bought at a grocery store in Peoria, Illinois in 1942.

stomp clap diagram identifying its antecedents: self conscious t raditionalism and rustificaiton as a response to the inescapability of commodification under late capitalism, being french canadian, ambiguous earnestness as a response to the inescapability of commodification under late capitalism, k records/twee, weird la post hippie gestald, mormonism, lumberjack outfits, taavo somer, edison bulb type restaurants, peter bjorn and john, neutral milk hotel, britishness, brooklyn hipster aesthetic understood from afar, the moldy peaches, saffle creek, la rich kid shenanigans, edward sharpe, freak folk, the vw ad with nick drake

@maxread.info identifying the VW ad with nick drake as a significant progenitor of stomp clap music is revolutionary maxread.substack.com/p/who-is-ela...

Vigilance urged as potato industry faces Colorado beetle threat Animal and Plant Health Agency calls for Colorado beetle vigilance from home gardeners, allotmenteers and farmers who grow potatoes

uh-oh

This makes me so happy -- I would have been out there doing just the same

Thank you for the recommendation. And I'd forgotten the colorado beetle panic of the 70s. I used to have nightmares about finding them on walks when I was a kid.

This was a little before the time I discovered that grass snakes have a similar form of defence

Ladybirds are extremely excellent

Ahhh two mentions of Hayling as the epicentre

Right? Up there with rabies and nuclear war

Couldn't have gone better

Oh no! I didn't get bitten mainly because they were mostly dead by the time I saw them. So glad the invasion lives on in memory for us both but sorry yours includes insect trauma

What's happening to the Oval Office genuinely reminds me of what happened to The Liberator in its final episode in Blake's 7

Does anyone here remember the Ladybird Invasion of 1976? I was tiny but have incredibly clear memories of trudging through deep drifts of them on a family trip to Brighton

Once "future fair for all" and now "we revel in punishing our most vulnerable minorities"

Fuck them