An island of yarrow in a sea of beige. Botanising is usually joyful. Increasingly my plant walks are 💔seeing the impact of heatwaves + drought. I know plants are resilient (my PhD research was on droughts in grasslands), but I still spiral thinking about wider consequences for ecosystem + humanity.

This "AI companion" is following me as I read. Distracting & stalker behaviour. Semi-unstructured thoughts: these tools supposedly save time: What's the cost? Why does everything need to be fast? What about the potential human & knowledge connections lost? Impact on student critical reading skills?

Sea campion dancing in the breeze off the Pembrokeshire coast. #WildflowerHour

A little bunch of thrift on the Pembrokeshire coast 💜 #WildflowerHour

Question for marine biology peeps: I've seen so many jellies washed up on the beach on the Pembrokeshire coast in Wales! 🪼 Is this random? Is it marine heatwave related? Something else? 🧪

Bindweed clambering over nettles. #WildflowerHour #ClimbingPlants

Had a right gigull the other evening with @geologyjohnson.bsky.social 😂

Orchids with a view! Found a big bunch of orchids growing on the edge of the cliff around Whitby. Couldn't get close enough to ID. #WildflowerHour

Spiny restharrow spotted in abundance at the beach around Whitby 💜 #WildflowerHour

A lovely kidney vetch spotted on my walk today 💛 #WildflowerHour

My fellow educators please read and sit with this thread on student perspectives on AI use in education. In my training workshops, I start with setting out the ethos, including use of AI (citing @olivia.science et al.'s "Against the Uncritical Adoption of 'AI'..." paper.👇🏽 zenodo.org/records/2008...

Plants always find a way... Garlic mustard growing out from a bus stop seat. #WildflowerHour

Self-heal on a grassy verge 💜 #WildflowerHour

Plant species of the week for me was lady's bedstraw which I found a few popping up in the cemetery and also in a nearby meadow near some inquisitive horses. #ChurchyardFlowers #WildflowerHour

Yorkshire fog coming into flower in the garden after #NoMowMay, with other grasses (perennial rye grass, cock's-foot) about to/or in bloom too 💚 #LawnFlowers #WildflowerHour

I know garden snails get a lot of hate, but they are actually kinda rad 🐌 They are part of a clean-up crew, munching their way through rotting plants with their scrapy "tongues" (radula) and recycling nutrients back into the soil ♻️ Also they have blue "blood" (hemolymph) 💧

The opening section from the latest UN report on environmental impacts of AI is wild. What are we doing???!!! unu.edu/inweh/collec...

I can’t believe I got to chat with Kimberlé Crenshaw recently 🔥 Her work on critical race theory and intersectionality has been hugely influential to so many of us. For me personally, her work (and others) laid the foundation for the Academic Wheel of Privilege I co-created: osf.io/preprints/me...

Ox-eye daisy 🤍💛💚 #WildflowerHour

Bee orchid for #OrchidChallenge First time seeing one blooming in May in Oxfordshire! #WildflowerHour

Cucumbers are ripening quick. I have about 10 more getting close to this size! Time to think about pickling 💚

These temperatures are wild. Someone told me their elderly neighbour died yesterday in part due to heatwave. I've adjusted my working hours to cope (it's 27 deg C in my north-facing room). Many of my seedlings have been injured/died as their thermal safety margins were surpassed. #ClimateBreakdown

Germander speedwell putting on a little #WildflowerShow 💙 #WildflowerHour

This plant has so many fun common names: cleaver, sticky willy, goosegrass, velcro plant, catch weed. #WildflowerHour

Beautiful ❤️ reminds me of some pictures I took in and around the Whitby area a while back.

I've been closing a few tabs in my #ADHD brain and computer lately 😅

Happy Fascination of Plants Day to my fellow plant peeps! plantday18may.org Here's a pic of me getting all excited about being in the company of monkey and lady x monkey hybrid orchids recently. Thanks @geologyjohnson.bsky.social for capturing my plant joy!

White clover looking lovely in the early evening glow 🤍 #WildflowerHour

My veggie babies are coming along nicely 🥹 First time growing aubergine and I'm excited to see what happens🤞🏽

Yellow rattle starting to emerge in the meadow in my local area 💛💚 #WildflowerHour