Nick Langley
@nicklangley
Retired freelance journo & editorial consultant* to conservation NGOs. Badly healed achilles tendon; now e-bike & urban rambling. Allotment, cautiously. Big reader. *Facilitating stakeholder engagement by correcting grammar & spelling. Will edit for food.
People flocked to see the nashi pear tree blossom on our (Cambridge) street last year. Same thing: drought stress after dry spring.
Masses of small early fruit on the feral plum trees on our common -clusters like bunches of grapes. Good for jam though.
Willdfires & extreme fire risk are top of the news bulletins. Yet Asda in Cambridge is still selling these. #DisposableBBQs
"Sitting for prolonged periods is associated with health complications"? Stanley Green vindicated at last. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
I've been proud of my ability to recall the scientific names of a lot of common British birds, so get a bit pissed off when they're changed. But why do gannets now share their generic name with mulberries? No confusion likely, I suppose.
Despite the weird weather, Cambridge is enjoying a bumper opium crop.
Sainsbury's, Cambridge city centre yesterday. Voluntary retail agreement says: "Retailers will remove disposable BBQs from sale once an extreme heat event has been declared as imminent." It's been the hottest late May Bank Holiday ever, with warnings issued. #DisposableBBQs
This from Cambridge Independent a couple of weeks ago. Some traders made this self-fulfilling by alienating customers. Otherwise I don't believe it Interesting picture selection, winter, early or late. Most days you have to be careful not to cycle into people stepping off the crowded pavements.
The only two remaining tables in the permitted barbecue area in Lammasland, Cambridge. There's a brick table they're supposed to use. Spoiled for everyone. (Pics taken yesterday)
Tony Blair "Demon eyes" image from the Tories' New labour New Danger poster, 1997. Maybe someone could do an update.
Asda has stacks of 1000s of disposable barbecues for people to take into our visibly parched countryside, after 2 months of drought. Wasn't there talk of banning them? (13 mm of rain combined for April & May locally. 30 year average to 2020 was around 40 mm for each month.) #DisposableBBQs
M&S still claiming that they're turning off some fridges to keep other fridges cool. Looks like a pretty catastrophic failure to me, now that these hot spells are becoming regular.
And already too much for Marks & Sparks's fridges. "This fridge has been turned off to help our other fridges stay cool."
Denying kids every Englishman's right to slither over in dogshit when playing football on the nearest patch of grass. Because of woke.
And no rain yet. What is the point of these forecasts? I particularly loved the one that flipped from 90% to 10% within the hour it was supposed to be predicting.
Apparently it's going to rain in the next hour. Always the next hour.
So if Green or Labour had dropped out they'd have seen him off. What happened to tactical voting? More money will be wasted in court trying to strip out the LTNs in the London borough where less than a third of households have access to cars. Cui bono? Anyone looking into it?
With #£5million to spend on personal security you'd think #Farage could afford better than these porky puffed-out old gits.
How things change. US wartime posters. I guess it depends which states those free Americans live in. www.theguardian.com/artanddesign...
Something about that bare chest inflicted on us all made me think of -wait a minute- oh yes...
I asked someone at #Blackwells what was wrong with the #search on their website; and they claimed it was all fine. These are first three rows of hits I got when I searched for Sam Miller's Fathers. (The hb & pb were the first to come up on the #Waterstone's site.)
Sorry to be name-ist, but I think Andrew Fishwick Mahon is a bloody stupid name, to go with his bloody stupid face & his bloody stupid hat. Just exercising my right to free speech, as I'm sure he'd agree. lancashire.thelead.uk/p/reform-can...
MP's reply pasted into Alt text The problem with "Local leaders know their communities best... councils will be empowered to make the decisions that are best for their areas" is that many Cambridge councillors' believe, as one phrased it, that "tackling #pavementparking would be electoral suicide".