This is the cat in question, here seen trying to open a kitchen cabinet. (The bin is in front of it to prevent him from succeeding).

Office day today and there are macarons! Also the giraffe pen is back because it was still in my bag from the last away-from-home day

New pen acquired! It’s a giraffe

Mine looks like this. I kept my profile picture so people can see that it's me at a glance, but once you visit my profile it's immediately clear that I'm not there. The account is locked and you can click on the Bluesky link even from the locked profile.

I didn’t have a chance to go before today, so most of the cherry blossoms are already gone in Greenwich Park, but I found one tree that did its best.

I haven't lived in Canada for over 15 years, so who knows when and why I created the email address rolluptherim@gmail.com but Google is letting me know that it's deleting it. I'm sure it's just an abandoned inbox full of spam.

Now on my backpack: this excellent tree identification pin from @canopyrobin.com It’s interactive! Not just in the sense that it opens (which is already cool), but you can also scan it with your phone to get more tree identification info! I’m going to identify so many trees this summer :) #scicomm

My iPhone made me a “pet friends” collection with photos of the foxes that lived in the garden last year. Does it maybe think that they’re dogs or cats? Nope, the phone correctly identifies them as red foxes. Apple just thinks I keep foxes as pets.

Half day in the office so I could run some errands but I ended up wandering the heath

Have you played around with the JMail site yet? You can search the files it like a GMail inbox. The search for "Scienceblogs" brings up a whole bunch of discussions (including an email with a reference to Pepsigate).

London Euphonia Orchestra has started rehearsals for our March 7 concert, and tickets are extra cheap for another few days. (After Feb 7 they go up in price). It's a rare chance to hear a Louise Farranc symphony! www.londoneuphonia.com

A spoiler. This is the image I’ll be using for the next one

Some pictures from the @wcsj2027.bsky.social launch at the Royal Society last night. I was there to represent the European Federation of Science Journalism. The European conference is even earlier - in October!

Guys, I don’t think we’ve got a view of the aurora here. (North is looking toward that satellite dish) I can try out of another window but there’s even more light pollution on that side and I can’t open a window there right now because of sleeping people.

I read that as "whale fail" and was reminded of the fail whale.

I’m updating my scicomm guide for the first time since January 2020. I was expecting changes related to the post-covid world, but also had to deal with addressing AI and scrubbing every mention of the birdsite.

Oh no

This line aged weirdly.

Happy New Year! In the last few hours of the year I managed to find a safe temporary home for a stray cat that had been in our garden for the last few days. Here he is in our bathroom but he’s now with my catsitter and got inside before the worst of the fireworks and frost.

Santa doing some last-minute shopping in Waitrose

Looking at a weather report (not for London, don't worry) and it's giving me a number that I didn't even think existed. But I Googled it and apparently it's used when a negative number is rounded up to zero. So it's probably between -0.5 and 0 degrees here.

During two decades of watching “Love Actually” almost every Christmas, I’ve always been confused by Aurelia seemingly moving back from France to Portugal so suddenly. Today I spotted this graffiti. They’re in France! She just lives in a Portuguese neighbourhood somewhere in France.

Favourite neighbour

We’ve had a microwave in this corner for over four years and the cat only just discovered that he fits on top of it. That’s going to be a whole thing now, isn’t it?

This is Billy, aka Bill, Bean, Billy Boy, The Boy, William Underfoot

Remotely tuned in to the World Conference of Science Journalists today. It's not the same as being there, of course, but it's a lot better than entirely missing out. #WCSJ2025 #scicomm

yes, can I have a tabby-- oh, wait, never mind. Just found one in the sheet music suitcase.

This is what it’s all for: concert tonight in Paddington! www.londoneuphonia.com

Seen at Utrecht University Museum. Don’t you hate it when you randomly lose your eyes?

This whole interview is so good, and reminded me why Bill Bryson is one of my favourite authors. This question in particular!