A picture of snowdrops and purple crocuses.

Not quite spring yet but so lovely to see flowers in the garden after such a miserable winter 🥶

GenAI has polluted image search results, especially for animal pics. It’s now basically impossible to find accurate art references.

Enter this: a repository of open-access, AI-free images of wild & exotic taxa. Artists creating *without AI* have blanket permission for derivative/transformative use.

Important info for pet owners, but the manufacturers, suppliers and regulators are at fault.

Flea and tick treatments are a concentrated dose of insecticide/pesticide. They end up in our canals and rivers, on your clothes and skin and those of your children, and now this...

REAL HOPE. REAL CHANGE. TAX THE SUPER-RICH Green Party Promoted by Chris Williams on behalf of The Green Party, both at PO Box 78066, London SE16 9GQ

Billionaire wealth has risen 3 times faster in 2024 than 2023 according to @oxfamgb.bsky.social with 60% coming from either inheritance, cronyism and corruption or monopoly power.

This gross level of wealth hoarding is unjust and unsustainable.

Now is the time to tax the super-rich properly.

The introduction of new kitten continues (week 3!) 😒.
The curmudgeonly one is still resisting. So supervised visits still necessary.
Kitten’s crime? Apparently smells funny… and possibly too cute. #catsofbluesky #kitten #caturday

I think me and this stoat surprised each other today. They seem to have a den in an old pipe at the back of the pond.
When I’d backed away enough, off they went, hunting in the meadow. #stoat

REAL HOPE. REAL CHANGE. Labour slashing billions from DWP's disability benefits bill. BIG Issue Green Party Promoted by Chris Williams on behalf of The Green Party, both at PO Box 78066, London SE16 9GQ

👋 Hi Labour. We have an idea...

Rather than taking money off disabled people - some of the poorest people in society - you could tax the super-rich properly and raise billions to help fix our crumbling public services 👍

🤭

Can we have a big shout-out for dandelions? These wildflowers will be back in just a few weeks - offering a vital early food source for all sorts of insects, including bees & butterflies. Please let them grow - this short film (made by our daughter) shows how they can boost biodiversity!

View across the Shropshire hills.

Spider web trails stringing off a wired fence.

Absolutely lovely day, far too nice to be indoors!

Local lanes full of spiders air-travelling across the road to the opposite hedge🕷️

#Shropshire #LongMynd

Just deleted my Threads account.

Zuckerberg has to understand we went to threads because of what Musk did to X.

Now he’s sucking up to Trump he should know it is in all our powers to make Threads and eventually Instagram and Facebook a graveyard.

Knockout sunrise this morning over the Long Mynd.
I can’t remember when we last had such a long, cold spell. 🥶
Praise be to the god of greenhouse heaters.

Taters 🥶

a collage of nine photos of a gray bully pup wearing an increasing number of polka-dotted party hats from one to nine.

This is Maisy. She gets an additional party hat for each birthday, and she just turned nine. 13/10 may this tradition go on forever

I love a spider Orchid and this one is looking awesome in the greenhouse at the moment.
Brassia ‘Sea Breeze’
#orchid

Taking a mushy stroll to the neighbours for a belated mince pie.
Hope this melts before freezing again 🫤

The damning statistics that reveal the true cost of Brexit, five years on www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/poli...

Well quite. This is mostly a result of bad ditch management by a local farm and the road flooding for weeks… and don’t get me started on tractors etc not paying road tax 🤨

Never trust a Shropshire puddle. 🕳️
#shropshire #pothole

It might be -3C outside, but you wouldn’t know it looking at Paph USA.
8 years old and still putting the hot in hothouse 🔥 #orchid

This little box of springs came to live with us a few days ago.
Bluesky, meet Kenzo.
#catsofbsky #cats #kitten

A much needed (mince pie powered) walk up the lane to the Long Mynd.
Home now to make left overs soup (not mice pies).
#shropshire #Longmynd

You’d think she pays the bills
#catlife #caturday #catsofBsky

A little late for Christmas - A big Mistletoe at the Shropshire Discovery Centre.
Low down on its host apple tree too so good to get up close 🧐

Nice to have you aboard! We'll be in touch soon with more about actions you can take to help grow this, both nationally and near you.

Sign up to help.

Enough is enough.

Cancel your direct debit after Christmas.

takebackwater.uk/signup/thank...

This is the way.

Wallaby hops.
With Susie Blake via Victoria Wood.

Recycled jars

Green chilli sauce making this aft.
Home grown green chillis obvz, lots of garlic, rice vinegar, soy sauce, fish sauce, sesame oil and lots of lime juice for zing.
Bosh! Straight in the freezer to go with, er, everything!
#homegrown #chilli

Candlesnuff fungus in the orchard.
It’s bioluminescent apparently.. I’m going home now though, so you’ll have to take my word for it.
#Funghi

A standing illustration showing 40 scale drawings of different prehistoric creatures with a human figure. The human is stomped on, eaten, ripped to pieces, smacked, stabbed and many other ways to come to an end. The drawings are all black silhouettes, spread over a white background

40 WAYS TO DIE IN THE PREHISTORIC. Enjoy!

These illustrations were made as scale drawing for a book about prehistoric creatures. Thought it would be fun to have a bit more interaction between the animals and human figures