Hugh Pumphrey

@hughpumphrey

Retired from Sch. of GeoSciences, Uni. of Edinburgh, UK. Still works a bit on . Walking, singing, Linux, bellringing, astronomy, geology, geophysics and meteorology. Dislikes extreme right or leftwing politics and nationalism.

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Hugh Pumphrey@hughpumphrey· 20d

OMG MELONS!!!! I grew the same variety last year and they did exactly sweet Vauxhall. This must be a genuinely warmer summer than last year in the Lothians.

A photograph full of leaves with a small green melon upper right. Two other, smaller melons can be seen lower down in the photo.

Hugh Pumphrey@hughpumphrey· 24d

Tired of water taking literally tens of seconds to find its way out of your watering can? Meet the SPLURGINATOR. (. . . which is a very Dad-DiY solution to a watering can whose spout was made from a very inferior type of plastic compared to the rest of the can.)

Bloke holding a green plastic watering can with a length of drainpipe glued on where the spout should be.

Hugh Pumphrey@hughpumphrey· 24d

Hooray! The tomato ripening season is starting at last.

Close(ish)-up shot of some tomatoes which are beginning to ripen.

Hugh Pumphrey@hughpumphrey· 24d

Oh joy. It is baby seagulls falling out of their nests week. Which means that the town is infested with clueless birds wandering about trying to work out what is eatable (or, in this case, drinkable).

Miserable-looking brown bird with webbed feet standing on a road surface next to a puddle

Hugh Pumphrey@hughpumphrey· 25d

It is that time again. I may well have an acid tummy this evening but I am not likely to suffer from scurvy for a good while.

$Ripe blackcurrants (Ribes nigrum) on a bush. A small fraction of the whole bush fills the image; the individual currants are shown clearly.$

Stainless steel colander containing about 0.5kg blackcurrants.

Hugh Pumphrey@hughpumphrey· 25d

Quarter peal scored!

Handwritten record of a quarter peal. The text reads:

On Sunday 19th July 2026 the Haddington Society of Change Ringers rang a quarter peal of 1260 plain bob minor on the back six.

The names of the ringers are listed. Bell #4 was rang by me, Hugh C. Pumphrey.

Hugh Pumphrey@hughpumphrey· 26d

Yesterday's quake off the coast of Mexico detected in Edinburgh on both the gravity meter and the @raspishake.bsky.social . #seismology

Gravity meter output showing signal from M7.3 quake near Mexico detected in Edinburgh.

ShakeNet app save image showing signal from quake near coast of Chiapas, Mexico, detected in Edinburgh

Hugh Pumphrey@hughpumphrey· Jul 8

That "summer" business that the Londoncentric media has been moaning about for weeks has finally arrived in SE #Scotland. After a few minutes in the garden I could feel my ears burning; I had to resort to the floppy holiday hat.

Old bloke in greenhouse wearing a floppy bush hat. The greenhouse is producing some cucumbers.

Hugh Pumphrey@hughpumphrey· Jul 8

Gooooozbriz!

Stainless steel colander containing green stripy spheroid fruit, between 1cm and 2cm across.

Hugh Pumphrey@hughpumphrey· Jul 8

Cluster of three earthquakes yesterday on the Reykjanes ridge, detected in #Edinburgh on the gravity meter. Oddly, none of them were detected on the @raspishake.bsky.social , despite being only 1600km away. Are ridge quakes lower frequency than fault quakes? #seismology

Gravity meter output showing three quake signals in one day.

Hugh Pumphrey@hughpumphrey· Jul 5

Someone I ran into while out on my bike a few days ago.

Head of a roe deer sticking up out of a field of wheat. It is a telephoto shot with a rather shallow depth of field; the deer is in focus but the wheat behind it and in front of it is fuzzy.

Hugh Pumphrey@hughpumphrey· Jul 2

Cleared some weeds off a garden wall today, saying hello in the process to our feeping new neighbour and its parent.

Top of a chimney stack, featuring a chimney pot with a capping ventilator, an adult herring gull, and its baby.

Hugh Pumphrey@hughpumphrey· Jun 29

Maybe he got it here. (He would have been on holiday in Turkey; this is near the back entrance to the ancient city of Ephesus (Efes).)

Market stall with a big sign that reads "GENUINE FAKE WATCHES".

Hugh Pumphrey@hughpumphrey· Jun 27

Also, it is artichoke season, which means it is time for some artery-hardening hollandaise sauce. (2/2)

Cooked globe artichoke on a plate next to a bowl of a yellow substance.

Hugh Pumphrey@hughpumphrey· Jun 27

Some of the best bits of a British summer: picking the fruit while listening to Test Match Special. (1/2)

On some grass: a portable radio and plastic containers of raspberries, strawberries and tayberries.

Hugh Pumphrey@hughpumphrey· Jun 27

I am glad I visited the national mall when I did (December 1988) when you could loiter wherever you wanted. You could even go up the monument in those days and get an aerial view through a tiny window.

View west down the national mall from the top of the Washington monument, showing the reflecting pool and the Lincoln memorial.

View east along the national mall in Washington, showing the capitol.

Hugh Pumphrey@hughpumphrey· Jun 27

The radio predates the move of Radio 4 to longwave; it was made when Radio 2 was using that frequency; I have used it to listen to Radio 4 longwave for the entire existence of the service. (2/2)

Dial on the top of an old transistor radio showing "BBC [radio] 2" at 1500 [metres wavelength].

Hugh Pumphrey@hughpumphrey· Jun 27

When I came home last night I switched my old portable radio to "L", and, for the last time, listened to a few minutes of #BBCR4 's 10pm news on 198 kHz / 1500m long wave. At 1am today, while I was asleep, the long wave service was turned off. (1/2)

Front view of a very old transistor radio (ITT KB tiny 33)

Switch on the back of an old transistor radio with settings "V" (or "U") for VHF (FM), "L" for Longwave (AM) and "M" for Medium wave (also AM, and what Americans call AM).

Hugh Pumphrey@hughpumphrey· Jun 26

Honestly, those of us along the east coast are getting a bit tired of all this heatwave talk. It is not very summery here. (Photo credit worldview.earthdata.nasa.gov )

Satellite photo of Britain; a big blob of cloud over the North Sea is spilling across the coast everywhere between Whitby and Dunbar, with other clouds to the north.

Hugh Pumphrey@hughpumphrey· Jun 26

I'll take it, I guess, especially because the Orange Shitgibbon hates @mayor.nyc.gov quite so much. Guess I feel more kinship with the mayor since hearing on #BBC5Live yesterday that he follows England cricket --- a fellow sufferer.

Results from https://britmonkey.com/2020s-political-compass/ showing user is kinda middling, with closest match being Zohran Mamdani.

Hugh Pumphrey@hughpumphrey· Jun 25

This is what it looks like at ground level; my house is inside that fog bank. (2/2)

View from a road on a hillside looking down to some flat countryside with fog rolling in from the sea and covering some of the land.

Hugh Pumphrey@hughpumphrey· Jun 25

It may be hot in many parts of Britain. But here on the Lothian coast the haar is rolling in and it is quite chilly for the time of year. (Photo from worldview.earthdata.nasa.gov ) (1/2)

Satellite photo of Britain and part of Ireland. Most of it is cloudless, but a bank of sea fog covers the west part of the North Sea, spilling inland at various points along the east coast of Britain.

Hugh Pumphrey@hughpumphrey· Jun 25

Me: Why has that parsley got hardly any leaves on it? Me, after a closer look: Sheesh, look at you, you fat squishy green gluttons. (I think that they are the caterpillars of the Silver Y moth.)

Parsley plant with four fat squishy green caterpillars munching away at it. They have a thin whitish line down their sides.

Hugh Pumphrey@hughpumphrey· Jun 25

Quake in Japan that happened only a few minutes after the Venezuela event (itself two separate quakes) also detected clearly in Edinburgh on the @raspishake.bsky.social . Fortunately, this one appears to be far enough offshore to cause little damage.

Shakenet app save image showing quake off Japan detected in Edinburgh

Hugh Pumphrey@hughpumphrey· Jun 25

Last night's big quake in Venezuela detected very clearly in #Edinburgh on both the gravity meter and the @raspishake.bsky.social . Based on #BBCR4 this morning it sounds like really bad news. Gravity meter now needs someone to unstick it.

Hugh Pumphrey@hughpumphrey· Jun 24

These campanulas are a weed that turned up by itself and has spread everywhere. They are rather charming at this time of year.

Greenery and blue flowers around the base of a big orange plantpot containing a dark green bush.

Close-ish photo of some green leaves and blue flowers, with a bit of an orange plantpot on the right.

Hugh Pumphrey@hughpumphrey· Jun 21

The elder is still in flower and the air is thick with the scent of it. It is like necking a pint of that bottle-green elderflower cordial. (3/3)

Green leaves and white frothy flowers against a blue sky

Hugh Pumphrey@hughpumphrey· Jun 21

Clear, too: lovely views west to Snowdonia from Prestatyn hillside. Summer is proceeding on: the rosebay is starting to flower. (2/3)

Pink flowers in the foreground, hill, village and farmland in the middle, distant mountains on the skyline

Hugh Pumphrey@hughpumphrey· Jun 21

Sneaked out for a Father's day / midsummer stroll: just so lovely to be out on a sunny day with the wild flowers all burgeoning. (1/3)

Footpath with vegetation encroaching from both sides. The left-hand side is dominated by a froth of white lacy flowers.

Hugh Pumphrey@hughpumphrey· Jun 19

Earthquake off the coast of Kamchatka detected in Edinburgh on both @raspishake.bsky.social and gravity meter.