Great day on the #QueenElizabethOlympicPark #QEOP today, volunteering with the #ParkChampions.
Met an original calypsonian who sang with Lord Kitchener, a former motorcycle #speedway racer, and the widow of a Hollywood great.
And the sun shone all day!
Sign the petition.
#stopSLAPPS
www.megaphone.org.uk/petitions/st...
Illustration of a journalist with a red X over their mouth holding a microphone. Text urges action against lawsuits targeting local journalists for informing readers. UK Anti-SLAPP Coalition logo present.
The Government has a duty to protect people from legal bullying. The first step? A clear commitment to stamping out SLAPPs in the King’s Speech. Silence helps abusers. Action protects us all. #StopSLAPPs
Not to forget our own “local” @newhambookshop.bsky.social
Nor the support offered to independent book shops via @bookshop-org-uk.bsky.social
A rectangular enamel pin designed like a Penguin Books cover with orange, white, and black sections, displaying "PENGUIN BOOKS," "SHOP INDIE," and a penguin logo, on a wooden surface.
Shout out to a couple of wonderful #IndependentBookshops we visited during a recent trip to Cornwall.
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Blackthorn flowers, in close-up. Five-petal white flowers, with multiple long stamen (longer than the petals), each stamen tipped with a bright yellow anther. In bright sunshine, the stamen cast shadows across the petals. White buds, not yet opened, on the same stem.
Blackthorn stem, smothered in small white flowers & buds, against a bright blue sky.
Not rare, especially in the fields & hedges near me, but I do love the first proper showing of the spring of blackthorn under a sunny sky.
#wildflowerhour
#HainaultForest
Dead hedge: 1.2m tall stakes, set 1.5m apart, with smaller branches stacked between them to create a barrier. Behind that, a blackthorn hedge with a few early blossoms; above, a bright blue sky.
If it takes 4 hours for a ranger and three volunteers to construct 8m of dead hedge, how long will it take for someone to pull it apart…
Hedge building at #FairlopWaters with #VisionRedbridge Nature Conservation.
View from the London Stadium towards Stratford - Sadlers Wells East, Stratford Cross, and the London Aquatic Centre, beneath a bright blue sky.
From the Olympic Park today - bright sunshine all day, clear blue skies.
#ParkChampions #QEOP
ArcelorMittal Orbital, Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park Towrr of red steel pipes & girders set against a clear blue sky.
Back at the Olympic Park - first day this year that has properly felt like spring!
#ParkChampions #QEOP
An important read from Dr Amanda Cole, for anyone who wants to understand #Tourettes
🫶
Clarnico commemorated with a studio painted in the colours of a packet of Trebor Refreshers, on the Gantry at the Broadcast Centre, Here East, overlooking the North Park at the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park.
And, reputedly, in the Sweetwater neighbourhood.
#PoemsOnTheUnderground Now celebrating its 40th anniversary!
@london.gov.uk
We checked that the café was open before we set off!
I’ve not seen any muscovy ducks in the park for many years.
But we do have Egyptian geese, which apparently are most closely related to shelducks, and not true geese.
Large, feathery seed head (“panicke”) of common reed, Phragmites australis, backlit by the setting sun, against a bright blue sky.
Reed beds (Phragmites australis) against a blue sky with backlit high clouds. Overhead, electricity cables run towards a pylon on the skyline.
About 40 minutes along Wharf Road. But a detour after 15 minutes puts you into Stanford Warren, and the reed beds are spectacular.
Saw the old Bata factory from the train, yesterday, on our way to Stanford Warren & Thameside Discovery Park. Never knew the history…might have to buy another book!😉
Hazel catkins (male) plus flowers (female). Pale yellow catkins, just opening, on the end of a stem; tiny crimson flowers above.
First hazel flowers.
@wildflowerhour.bsky.social #WildflowerHour
We could do with that being enforced for the deliverüber riders on their electric bikes…they’ve all got batteries, after all.
“War has always been a test of human skill and courage, not of gender. A bullet doesn’t care which body it shatters and nor should history.”
Row of mis-matched terrace houses, some looking newer with scaffolding still in place.
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The plot occupied by no.67, opposite Bathurst Rd, is 3x the size of others along that road, but the properties (65a & 67) are aligned with the line of the road (and have been for many years, if the OS maps hosted by Library of Scotland were accurate.
New extension/new build on no.67.
I have just submitted my application to rejoin!
Re Ilford Sports Ground, and the “sports view” house on Coventry Road - it is not there, now (or I looked in completely the wrong place.
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I was meant to be looking for early cricket scores in the #IlfordRecorder at @redbridgemuseum.bsky.social ...but spotted this!
@ilfordhistory.bsky.social
"Otters in the Roding
Otters (says a London correspondent) are more numerous than many people imagine. They work the River Roding, for instance, as close to London as Buckhurst Hill and Wanstead Park."
- Ilford Recorder, April 27th, 1906
🦦
@paulpowlesland.bsky.social @wrenwildlife.bsky.social
Happy “Epping Forest Day”, to those who celebrate.🌳🌳🌳
Between 3–5am in the morning, before the tube opens, tens of thousands of Londoners are already commuting to and from work. Who are they?
Fascinating piece from Katharine Swindells for @londonermag.bsky.social
Brilliant talk today from @lucytsmith.bsky.social for @fovm.bsky.social .
Fascinating insight into the process of creating the illustrations, many for @rbgkew.bsky.social
Just the other week I visited the Fuelling the Railway Revolution exhibition at the rather wonderful #AucklandProject #MiningArtGallery (Bishop Auckland, County Durham).
Amazing how quickly steam-driven railways spread across the country.