Glancing out of the bedroom window into the pocket park behind the garden this morning, I saw something in one of the trees and thought-

'Bright green bird?'

Trying to look more closely, or at least with more concentration, I thought it appeared to be to be generally psittacine. And was subsequently joined by another. Then one of them did a very ( Read more... )

Walking home this evening, I saw two blokes in the next street with what I took at the time to be two foxhounds -

Evoking thoughts about, well, we have urban foxes, the next thing is presumably the urban foxhunt.

(What with the panic when a fox was reported to have attacked two children, never mind that there is a constant stream of reports of dogs ( Read more... )

Fox! In the garden! This morning!

***

Have joined LinkedIn following being sent an invite to join Network of someone I know and who might plausibly be adding me. Can someone explain to me in simple terms the point of it all and how it works? Am bafflement at the moment.

***

Ow Ow Ow Euuuuuwwwww. Maybe it's a put-on? Rather hope so.

Do get that some ( Read more... )

Fox! in the garden! jumped the fence!

***

Slow British Library wifi is slow. But free.

***

In a case for annulment of marriage, on the grounds of the husband's impotence, I cannot help feeling that an additional reservation about his manhood would have been registered by the court on discovering that, being in North America on holiday in late ( Read more... )

To a concert at Kings Place (about which we were a bit meh, but that is probably because we are not great aficionados of modern British classical-idiom song).

Kings Place is on the Regent's Canal.

And just in the area immediately behind Kings Place (the bar/restaurant overlooks it), which is some sort of docking space with those residential ( Read more... )

How the city hurts your brain, which various people have been linking to.

And, okay, perhaps you have to have some acquaintance with early C20th wails and moans about urban degeneracy to feel sceptical about this.

But is living your life in wild nature really any less stressful? Yes, you feel at peace as you wander round Walden Pond listening to ( Read more... )

How cool is this?

River rescue: project launched to breathe life into waterways buried under London concrete and brick

Also. third 'In Praise of...' leader on the same.

And, further in Dept of 'Tired of London? Tired of Life!'
London teenagers... benefit from having the best access to play areas, parks and other activities ( Read more... )

Not enough WTF in the world: The Criminal Injuries Compensation Authority yesterday refused to automatically review the cases of at least 14 rape victims who had their payouts cut because they had been drinking when they were attacked, despite admitting the reductions should never have been made. And Zoe Williams comments Victimhood isn't a matter ( Read more... )

Advantages of middle age:
- the decreasing likelihood of one's bosom being regarded as the psychic equivalent of the King's Touch (or possibly the Holy Grail?)
- young men offering one their seat on the Tube (at least, on the days when one is looking particularly like the Lay of the Last Minstrel on a very bad day)

***

Random acts of senseless ( Read more... )

Michele Hanson has one of her moments of sense, re some judge who has been moaning and whingeing on about dysfunctional families:
[H]ave families really got any worse? And is it even their fault if they are breaking down ( Read more... )