Sharks!! in the Thames!!! with venomous spines!!!!: [S]harks including tope, starry smooth-hound and spurdog -- a slender fish measuring some 23 inches and covered in venomous spines -- have been found. Spurdogs can be found in deep water, and the spines in front of the shark's two dorsal fins secrete a venom that can cause pain and swelling in ( Read more... )

Great White Sharks discovered having a Close Encounter, Doing Their Wild Thing.
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The guerrilla rewilder shaking up British farming: Derek Gow is winning over doubters in his bid to reintroduce storks, beavers, wildcats, water voles and much, much more.
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National Trust encouraging people to tune in to the sounds and sights of nature and will ( Read more... )

Maybe the glass is falling hour by hour, etc, but there is some evidence that just because the waste remains and kills, it does not, actually, Professor Empson, need to keep on doing so, and in modestly cheering news of the day:
River Thames home to 138 seal pups, finds annual count. English river’s ecosystem is thriving, 62 years after being ( Read more... )

I have seen a trendy interior design book-related thing -
And it is AWESOME:
The bookcase staircase. (Though I'm not entirely sure about those 'stair treads full of books'.) (Or shelving books flat rather than upright, but these are details.)
Some of those other amazing ideas are more WTF? than awesome as such.
And, paging The Pursuit of Love, why ( Read more... )

Another television drama I have no desire to watch
Presumably somewhere out there are people writing serious contemporary dramas that do not feature the maiming and murder of women. Good luck to them, you have to say, because what chance does their work stand of ever seeing the green light of commission ( Read more... )

There was delicious pheasant and lentil soup for supper on Friday evening, with cornmeal muffins that, as my cornmeal muffins are wont, broke up rather. I am not sure if this is due to some failure of mine in the making-up process, the Wrong Sort of Cornmeal, or something to do with the baking tin (too much batter for the cups?). ETA: or, in this ( Read more... )

This has been a lovely day, large swathes of it spent with
( Read more... )

Last batch - these are small random things that I tried to capture.

( Under the cut )

Somehow I seem to have got onto Harvey Nichols mailing list: the latest begins
Channel your inner lady of the manor.
Inner Lady of the Manor NO CAN HAZ.

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On possibly related topic, am currently reading in ebook Elinor Glyn's The Reflections of Ambrosine. Feeling strong desire to smack Ambrosine herself and her French aristo grandmother with some ( Read more... )

Men Are Terribly Poor Stuff, reprised yet again: Online dating: Cyber Cyrano for hire - Too busy to chat up the suitors in your online dating account? No problem. Matt Prager will simply assume your identity and do it for you. Can I get a loud, collective *EEEEUUUUWWWW*? At least Christian had already seen and fancied Roxanne when he asked Cyrano ( Read more... )