Phil Banting
@philbanting
Christian, married to Miriam, #LibDems, #Remain. Active in Christ Church Selly Park, #Stirchley and beyond. Instagram @philbantingbrum. Twitter @philbanting (dormant).
A nice footbridge leading to Carmarthen Station (the King Morgan bridge)
I have used the same method on other occasions to view partial eclipses, and have just mounted the binoculars once again in preparation for tomorrow's big event - ready to party like it's 1999. The eclipse won't be total here, but still well worth seeing as best we can.
We attracted quite a crowd, including a reporter who took our photo for the local newspaper.
The binoculars had their finest hour many years later when, in 1999, we travelled as a family to Romania to view a total solar eclipse by the shore of the Black Sea. I mounted them on a tripod and projected the image of the Sun as totality approached.
The brown, brown grass of (my mother’s) home (actually there’s a bit more green than in many places)
I note that Paraguay are playing Germany in the World Cup tonight. But what does Paraguay look like? Since you didn't ask, here's a photo of the only bit I've ever seen, viewed from Tres Fronteras in Argentina. A small ferry over the Rio Paraná supports cross-border shopping.
On the other hand, Google can cheerfully come up with a 27-digit prime number - not that I've checked it, and there can't be infinitely many of them, since the number of 27-digit numbers is finite.
And another. I have to say that I've never heard of their "famous" motivational saying, but in any case I'm not easy to motivate.
This is utterly bizarre. I will continue to not use Google search, nor its AI.
Jolly voting weather 😎 And the good news is that girls can also vote these days
The power of renewables: a sunny but windy day is enough to almost squeeze out gas as a means of GB electricity generation. We need more capacity to eliminate gas altogether even under these exceptional conditions, and far more to power the country all year round.
Strange quirk of the @westmidrailway.bsky.social website: the mobile site doesn't allow purchase of tickets from Pineapple Road, because the station name doesn't come up in a search. It does work in the desktop site though. www.westmidlandsrailway.co.uk/stations/pin...
#FingerpostFriday comes to you from outside Wells Cathedral: Harry Patch, one of the longest-lived First World War veterans, was awarded the Freedom of the City in 2008
Maybe this narrative will encourage others to take on the challenge of the Pineapple Ring. It’s easy enough to do if you have an hour to spare - because that’s exactly how long it takes. It can of course be done in the opposite direction, or even split up into chunks.
“Here we go,” I heard, as the train got moving for the final leg of my journey. Trees restricted the view from the height of the Lifford embankment: a small price to pay for living in such a wooded area. I left the train at Pineapple Road and watched as it carried further adventurers on its way.
Kings Norton station has, for me, a rather desolate feel. Platforms 1 and 4 are in use but the central section is completely abandoned. I found a group of elderly men chatting about how long it had taken to get the Camp Hill line stations - closed in 1941 - back into service.
Five Ways, University, Selly Oak, Bournville - these stations have been in operation for many years, and the landmarks are very familiar to me. The line follows the canal for much of the route.
Passengers were already waiting on the platform to board for the return journey, since the train merely shuttles between here and Kings Norton every half an hour. I had other plans though, and headed for platform 12 to take the Cross City line.
I resumed the journey as the train took the long curve through Bordesley, glimpsing a canal and commercial sites as indications of past and present industry. Soon the train made its entrance to New Street Station.
Visitors will find that, as villages go, Moseley is rather urban, and there are many signs that it is highly political.
I broke my journey at Moseley Village, making the most of the opportunity to explore this famous suburb. This being only the second day that the line was open there were some trainspotters about, though my guess is that there was probably a busier media scrum on the opening day.
I boarded at Pineapple Road on the hottest day of the year so far, enjoying the views of Highbury Park as we headed towards Kings Heath station. The train was busy but by no means full.
This week's opening of passenger stations on the Camp Hill line in south Birmingham has made possible a new and highly compact railway experience: the Pineapple Ring. Starting and ending at Pineapple Road station it involves making a complete circuit via the Camp Hill and the Cross City lines.
Spotted on Instagram. Clearly AI needs tighter guardrails to protect against the creation of bioweapons such as this. (You can tell it’s AI generated because the wings have the wrong number of feathers.)
#FingerpostFriday Trees along the Millennium Mile, Market Harborough