Quote post with a dramatic B&W of you
Researcher & student: biodiversity, apples, orchards, sustainability, collapsology. Lazy druid, cake judge, letter writer, eavesdropper. Poetry, text adventures, Christmas food enjoyer, islands, archipelagos, hiking, Sweden & Norway. Elsewhere: Wordshore.
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Quote post with a dramatic B&W of you
Prolific American novelist here. For some reason that I genuinely cannot remember, I name most of my male characters after obscure Worcestershire County cricketers. Now that they have a women's team I have started naming female characters after them as well. Too late to stop now.
Today in Bizarro-England-land I learned that the full names of Jacob and Helena Rees-Mogg's children are: Alfred Wulfric Leyson Pius, Thomas Wentworth Somerset Dunstan, Peter Theodore Alphege, Anselm Charles Fitzwilliam, Mary Anne Charlotte Emma and Sixtus Dominic Boniface Christopher Rees-Mogg.
You may be on to something there, in terms of making their doorstep appeal more palatable. "Here's your bottle of Bombay Sapphire, wrapped in the latest copy of The Watchtower. Can I interest you in tonic?"
Ah; sorry to see the oven is still broken :-(
Current status: impatiently waiting for Lidl to open so I can cross that off my weekend list.
Move to England. Review tea shoppes for a living. Solve village murder mysteries. Eat cake while watching cricket. Marry a hot vicar.
5th September is a bit of a personal anniversary as it's ... {gulp} 37 years to the day since teenage me first went onto the Internet. That feels like a very long time to be arsing around online.
Another sign it's autumn is that I've just booked my flu jab for next week. Gives me the weekend to decide which upper arm I want to be a bit hurty for a while.
In the big Birmingham Selfridges a few evenings ago, browsing the international food section on the ground floor. Pictures of two of the three stands in the American food section. As with most "American food" displays in UK shops and supermarkets, the flavour palate leans towards ... sugar?
The quiet couple of hours where it's just me, coffee, whatever I've chosen for breakfast, and the cat. A few planes roaring overhead (under the flight path to Birmingham Airport) but, until the kids in the nearby school start doing their playground screaming, it's as tranquil as the suburbs get.
Nadine Dorries listens to Asda FM xx
DiGRA 2026 will be hosted at Maynooth University in Maynooth, Ireland from 14 to 18 June 2026. The 2026 conference theme is Intersectional Pleasures. digra.org/digra-2026-h...
More by accident than design I went to see the Olympic torch relay thing run through south Birmingham in 2012. Had my camera ready to take a picture of whoever was running past with the torch. Did not expect it to be Cliff.
Sometimes strange how the skyline of Birmingham (the England one; no idea about the Alabama or other US ones) seems to change on every visit. The view yesterday evening after stepping out of the little Tesco between The Mailbox and The Cube, looking towards Broad Street.
1. Abstinence is boring. 2. It's a good distraction from {waves at the state of everything}. 3. We may not be around by December. Pandemic, unhinged presidents with nukes, being hit by a bus, so many possibilities with uncertain probabilities. 4. Also a positive counter to cold, wet, weather.
[CW: festive spoiler] It's the 4th today, so time to open the 4th window on my Peppa Pig Advent calendar to see what's behind it... {brief struggle with cardboard packaging ensues} ...and it's a pig and snowman in a Christmas scene!
Starmer drops trousers to reveal English flag underpants while Home Office suggests housing asylum seekers in disused coal mines.
So, brown sauce or ketchup in a Nutella and bacon sandwich?
I joked that we should start selling bacon and nutella breakfast sandwiches at our cafe. My wife jumped on the idea and we sold over 70 today. On the one hand, we make a bit extra. On the other hand, I worry that we're killing our customers faster with this deliciousness.
Oh, yes. Mince pie stack has been replenished. Though I'm now out of miniature Christmas puddings, and there's (still) no stollen. {raps fingers impatiently, glares in direction of Lidl}
Hiya.
In the big Marks and Spencer food hall, where the summer foods signs have gone, and they are clearing shelves for, I presume, Christmas foods. And as I type this, the festive tins of shortbread are put on display.
They’ve gone for Marlcombe, which the newsreader pointed out TWICE was not Malcolm. So everyone is going to call it Malcolm.
They’ve let people in Exeter vote for the name of a new town, and they didn’t even go for Towny McTownface. Game’s gone.
Your scientists were so preoccupied with whether or not they could, they didn't stop to think if they should.
Common Blue in flight off cornflower In wildflower meadow at edge of our Shropshire village @savebutterflies.bsky.social @omsystem.bsky.social
That's the date when I open the first window on my 4th Advent calendar of this Christmas... #TisTheSeason
I've just met the phrase 'bootility room' and I wasn't prepared.
No spoilers!
A beautiful pearly #sunset reflected across the still waters of the Oslofjord in Åsgårdstrand on my first evening in #Norway (and final leg of my Nordic universities visits) 🍂
A fair number of people? At least one supermarket has sold out. bsky.app/profile/silv...
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Christopher Wren absolutely off his tits on churches. Man needed an intervention. "Chris mate don't you think you've had enough?" his friends cry. I CAN STOP ANYTIME!!! he yells. Three more churches fall out of his pocket.
Apples are swollen. Blackberries sugaring. Hedgerows a riot of haws and hips. The wood's shadows speak again of the Hoarse Hag walking. Our lungs begin to fill with the incense of autumn. The year turns. We harvest the magics of today against tomorrow's ice. – #EmilyCBanting, 1982
Popped into the big Tesco and they've gone Christmas. Not full-on, but significantly. Amused they have already sold out the mince pies and are "awaiting a fresh delivery". The tannoy was quietly playing "We're all going on a summer holiday", sung by Cliff Richard.
Right. Clearing out and closing down my storage unit today. 15 years is (way too) long enough. I'll still be left with a mountain of legacy and historical paperwork, but am slowly working my way through that (nearly all of which goes in the shredder).
Just seen my first pumpkin carving video on Instagram. Just in case you wondered if it was still summer.
The nearby big Tesco starts Covid jabs next monday. £90. No clubcard points.
I'm in the mood for d̷a̷n̷c̷i̷n̷g̷,̷ ̷r̷o̷m̷a̷n̷c̷i̷n̷g̷ stollen.
News flash: anyhoodle rhymes with toodle!
wonkhe.com/blogs/trashi...
This year it's my turn to be the guy in the newspaper pretending to be flabbergasted that supermarkets are selling mince pies with best before dates earlier than this Christmas.
That’s quite the shot from Worcestershire CCC….
Popped into the local B&M, where the aisle of summer tat like inflatable pools has been replaced with Halloween stuff. And the aisle of 'Back to School' stationary et al has been replaced with Christmas stuff. The Christmas crackers look good. Most of the other festive stuff is, oddly, for pets.
'morn
The divorces are going well x
I can verify your observation. No complaints.
Only customer, so far, in my 2nd favourite coffee place in Lichfield. The serenity will not last.
It led to strong debate in the final seminar between "Jigsaws are solely for completing" and "Jigsaws are enabling environments to do things in", which unintentionally slipped into academic game arguments. Not the purpose of the exercise, but it was interesting to hear it argued out.
"The sky is blue so I should go to Lichfield" (possibly) said no-one ever. Except me. So I will.
Context: team / ice breaker exercise in first lecture of our "Introduction to Epistemology" class, postgrad school. Bonus post-game debate, in our case: was it fair that the winning team had the least complete jigsaw? Is perfect the enemy of the acceptably fine? What is accuracy wrt knowledge?
(3/3) TWIST 3: Each team is allowed only 4 or 5 attempts to accurately describe the picture to the satisfaction of the lecturer. Each attempt must be articulated by a different team member. n.b. if using 2nd hand jigsaws from Dollar Store et al, check all the pieces are there before!
(2/3) So there's a shift from silent tactile puzzle completion, to being able to articulate what a thing is from incomplete, but gradually forming, knowledge. Initial reaction (groans, "jigsaws are for the olds") gave way to a *lot* of in-team talk (is this a tree? what is this? no it's a ...)
(1/3) Team jigsaw puzzles, but with a twist - the lecturer hid the lids so no-one knew what the pictures were. That forced some questioning, much guessing, repeated trying and failing. TWIST 2: objective isn't to completely finish the jigsaw, but to accurately describe the picture to the lecturer.
I mean, maybe I just grew up in a very bucolic environment in rural Worcestershire, and that was more the exception than the rule. And media representations of community were more accurate? Though I don't remember an episode of Camberwick Green where Windy Miller has his todger injected.
When I was growing up, many communities had a cluster of the same types of shops and services, advertising their wares on signs outside. The bakery. The newsagent. The sweet shop. The butchers. The grocers. Perhaps a shoe shop, a hairdressers, a barbers, a post office, a bank. Times have changed.
Also, dinner.
Yes, but only quality ones. Morrisons are too heavy on doughy pastry, not enough filling. And it's too early for Easter eggs; those will appear 18 weeks from today, on 2nd January. (You track birds, I track festive foods - s'all the same.) {Emma vigorously shakes her head, silently says 'twat'}
Non of the first five! Though some confusion when I asked in several. Food-centric chains definitely with Christmas goods: - Sainsbury's - Morrison's, but not the small ones nb I don't recognise the ubiquitous tubs of chocolates as Xmas goodies unless they have festive artwork.
So far today, been in a big Tesco (4/10), Marks and Spencer food hall (9/10), Aldi (6/10), Lidl (7/10), and a small Morrison's (2/10). Later it'll be a petrol station Tesco, petrol station M&S, a Co-operative, and a medium Sainsbury's. Quite enough prowling of the food aisles for one day.
My favourite word for a mobile phone is the Zulu umakhalekhukhwini. It means something along the lines of "the one that wails in your pocket" I should also mention (because I'm currently in Sweden) that in 80s Swedish slang a mobile phone was sometimes known as a yuppienalle, or "yuppie teddy bear"
I still, somehow, have my 50 metres swimming certificate from primary school. Might keep it now, for use in any future research or postgraduate applications.
The Freddy Mercury hoovering display team were also a particular highlight...
Made a post on MetaFilter about the 'performative reading' thing. The comments so far are, well, very MetaFilter. www.metafilter.com/210133/Perha...
Thanks; that made me cackle deliriously.
Rain; cold rain. The cat less willing to go out. Much cooler today; shorts and sandals off, longer trousers and sensible shoes on. Windfall apples. Leaves turning. The roof back on the posh neighbour's Porsche Boxster. A Christmas TV advert. The naturists are clothed in their garden. Autumn vibes.
The last evening walk in rural Worcestershire for this summer.
Tis the season. Mince pies in the shops. Strictly contestants announced. Cakes baked and pickling with Brandy (and whisky in the case of the Dundee cakes). Not @nigella.bsky.social (sorry) but Delia recipes!
One of the neighbours thinks the cat has "evil eyes", which I've never really considered as, well, it's ridiculous. Having said that, I do feel oddly uneasy about returning to base after sunset because of the way the cat lurks and watches me.
Not linking to right wing papers, so here's screenshots from two of the Scottish ones today. A branch of Home Bargains is evidently the place to go at the moment for your Santa suit, Christmas trees (artificial) and decorations (inside and outside) and general festive and yuletide tat.
are we serious.
Back at'cha! bsky.app/profile/silv...
Who actually has the mental capacity to deal with this scene right now 🎄
Without downloading any new images, where are you mentally?
What did you do this August bank holiday weekend? Casually bought some mince pies 👀👀
I'm taking my version of Excel to the vet. It's sad, but it's time.
Can't believe the Guardian are seriously entertaining an article which is essentially 'is my Furby communicating with me via a secret language'.
What, no. Did you cry at the HAL deactivation scene in 2001: A Space Odyssey, @theguardian.com? Please get back to quality journalism. (quite happy to kick the plug out of the power socket and if that makes me some kind of "AI euthanist" then so be it)
Unsure why some folk still have prolonged arguments over facts they can quickly look up on their phone. Recent examples: - Can you get drunk on Night Nurse cough medicine? - Does baguette contain a 'u'? - When do the binmen next come? - Does Switzerland have a navy? - Is Tallahassee a real place?
A lot of banging and snarling as the cat brought something through the cat flap. Turned out to be a Labubu. Well, most of a Labubu; there was, I think, an ear and a leg missing (I am not familiar with this particular plush toy). Could be worse. Labubu's don't bleed. (except in your nightmares)
Might get the tree out of the loft tomorrow, as there's no more bank holidays till Christmas.
No roast. Did microwave a miniature Christmas pudding, though demurred from covering in brandy sauce and setting fire to it as it's 26C. Though, now you've said roast, am kinda tempted tbh.
Review #1. Sainsbury's 6 months matured Christmas pudding. Microwaved well. Quite moist but held its body; no fragmentation. The cider taste is there, albeit faint. Heavy on sultanas; not excessively sweet. Colourful in sunlight. 7/10. A good snacklet, and a solid start to the 2025 festive season.
It’s *fucking* AUGUST.
Delaying microwaving the first Christmas Pudding of the 2025 festive season as it's 27C here.
25th August 🙄
Hello from Worcestershire :-) bsky.app/profile/silv...
It's the crossover time of the year where it's possible to visit a large supermarket and buy an inflatable paddling pool, Halloween candles, festive lights, and a Christmas pudding, all in the same shopping trip. (Easter hot cross buns appear to be an all year round food now, so they don't count)
In Sainsbury's, browsing the Christmas puddings and mince pies (ignoring the stack of tubs of chocs). A modest selection of both and the initial mince pie prices are up on last year. The puddings look better value at the start of this 2025 festive food season. Update: purchase made; review later.
Ooooh, lovely. Where was this?
"There was a roundness and firmness to her, a clean, strong roundness..." would be George Costanza's reply if asked to describe the former lover he still yearns. (say it in his voice and conclude with "...Jerry")
From the Scottish Patter group (with this picture). "Tried biscuits in gravy. Not sure why Americans rave about it so much."
A photo you took that brings you inner peace.
Seen in Birmingham (2/2). Met up with a friend who I haven't seen in 10 and a bit years. Some great memory tripping, of Brum Bloggers and the myriad of people within various social and online networks in Birmingham. Afterwards, an excellent Cotteridge chippy and this sign within. For the font.
Seen in Birmingham (1/2). Had a few hours in Bournville (pretty; of chocolate fame), Cotteridge (first time; nice houses) and Kings Norton (well, two out of three ain't bad). A barge with a cafe, on the canal next to Bournville station was doing a good trade. Interesting ice cream options.
It's the exchange. Opposite the Library of Birmingham, on the other side of the square. Now owned by the University of Birmingham, but the cafe area is open to the public, is decently priced (a limited food menu) and good opening hours. It's become a place for various groups to meet up.