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alexbrightsmith.bsky.social
AlexBrightsmith
@alexbrightsmith.bsky.social
81 followers 100 following 130 posts
Serving the gods of true & fair presentation dutifully by day. Writing beautiful untruths by night.
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Reposted by AlexBrightsmith
bardseybirdobs.bsky.social
We are recruiting. If you want to find rare birds and witness spectacular falls & live among 30,000 Manx Shearwaters get your application in for the Bardsey Island Assistant job (Mar-Oct 2026) before 10 Dec.

Apply here: tinyurl.com/2026-Assista...

#RareBirdAlert #BardseyIsland #ConservationJob
November 27, 2025 at 1:26 PM
alexbrightsmith.bsky.social
Accidentally arrived at Asda five minutes before the doors open. There is a sparse little crowd. My we are *glum*.
November 17, 2025 at 7:59 AM
Reposted by AlexBrightsmith
kizzythesecond.bsky.social
If you want a digital image of a pet or person in time for Xmas - hmu!
A face-only portrait of a Saluki with a soppy face. Underneath it reads: pet & people pix P.o.a DM for details!
November 16, 2025 at 5:54 PM
Reposted by AlexBrightsmith
xkcd.com
Car Size

xkcd.com/3167/
4-panel vertical comic. (1) 100 Years Ago [two people standing next to bicycle with small car nearby] PERSON 1: It’s too dangerous riding a bike with these cars around. I should get a car, too. (2) 50 Years Ago [two people between smaller car and bigger car] PERSON 2 with short hair: Small cars are less safe in collisions with larger vehicles, so I should get a bigger one. (3) Today [two people between big car and even bigger car] PERSON 1: Everyone has huge SUVs now. If I don’t get the biggest one, I’m putting my family at risk. (4) Soon [two people next to large armored car with spiked clubs attached] PERSON 2: If I don’t install more whirling spike clubs, I’ll be destroyed by all the other drivers who...
November 14, 2025 at 9:15 PM
alexbrightsmith.bsky.social
The weather outside is tragic
A tabby and white cat draped forlornly over the scroll of a wing backed chair, staring listlessly through the net curtains at a day that is, in his defence, comprehensively dreich.
November 14, 2025 at 10:12 AM
alexbrightsmith.bsky.social
With scientific hidden partition? Really? This is why I hate shopping.
A fluffy grey and white cat peeks beseechingly from the open top of a pristine cat carrier. Above the text extols the carrier's features, its portability and breathability, its suitability for cats and dogs under five kilos for travel and outings, and its scientific hidden partition
November 12, 2025 at 11:05 PM
alexbrightsmith.bsky.social
FB, usually as scatter-brained as I am, has been trying to sell me support socks with single minded devotion for almost a fortnight.
November 10, 2025 at 7:54 PM
alexbrightsmith.bsky.social
Was at a family thing & was glommed onto by a 10yo with a camera (literally tied to his wrist for safekeeping) who wanted someone to pose for him by this pond / needed to gull an adult into supervising him so that he could go closer to it.
Glad I fell for it since it made a lovely #SundayPixMirror
A generally quite dull pond, clearly done on the cheap (small plastic fountain, no planting, liner showing around the edges) forming a perfect mirror for fluffy white clouds in a blue sky, and for the mature trees standing some distance off
November 9, 2025 at 9:10 AM
alexbrightsmith.bsky.social
Wellington also loves books. She may think she's safe from Campion up there.

(Aptly enough for #SundayPixBooks, Campion's litter mates are Wimsey and Maigret.)
A large, fluffy, slightly baleful looking tabby arranged neatly in the K-L section of our general fiction (she's obscuring a full shelf of Stephen King, and resting across a selection of Kipling, le Carre, and Elmore Leonard)
November 2, 2025 at 8:58 AM
alexbrightsmith.bsky.social
It's funny how sometimes you set everything up right with your 'real' camera and get something meh, and sometimes you snap a quick phone pic rather than type up a list and the light just loves you
#SundayPixBooks
A pile of very small, very battered, religious books, including a lady's pocket size book of common prayer, balanced on the arm of a chair, their red and black bindings and gold lettering catching the sunshine perfectly.
November 2, 2025 at 8:50 AM
alexbrightsmith.bsky.social
Campion still lubs Wellington. Everyone else is still mystified (especially Wellington).
A tangled mass of cats on a pajama-clad lap. Campion, an absolute tank of a tabby and white boy, has draped himself over Wellington, green eyed, fluffy, and thoroughly pinned down.
November 1, 2025 at 12:02 PM
Reposted by AlexBrightsmith
himmapaan.bsky.social
If anyone has good photographs of European goldfinches that they're happy for me to use as painting references, I'd be so grateful. Thank you. 💛

Please share among birders, if you would! 🙏🪶
October 28, 2025 at 5:07 PM
alexbrightsmith.bsky.social
Happy Birthday Wombat

#SundayPixWombat
#Glint
A slightly tawdry hair grip, decorated with a faux enamel flower studded with fake crystals, thrust through the hat band of a rather shabby black felt Stetson.
October 26, 2025 at 10:01 AM
Reposted by AlexBrightsmith
magentakoru.bsky.social
To give @wombat37.bsky.social a day off and as a thank you for all the years of #SundayPix we have had, share your pictures of him or anything that reminds you of him using the hashtags

#SundayPixWombie
#SundayPixWombat
#SundayPixWombat37

PLEASE RT FAR AND WIDE!

End
October 24, 2025 at 8:27 AM
Reposted by AlexBrightsmith
xkcd.com
Shielding Chart

xkcd.com/3158/
Comic. Confusion matrix showing renditions of different combinations, colored yellow, tan, or gray. [Air: gamma rays Y, neutrons Y, alpha particles G, light Y, sound Y, heat Y, swords Y, toxic dust Y, radio Y, sharks G] [Lead: gamma rays G, neutrons T, alpha particles G, light G, Sound Y, heat Y, swords G, toxic dust T, radio G, sharks G] [Water: gamma rays T, neutrons G, alpha particles G, light T, sound Y, heat Y, swords Y, toxic dust Y, radio G, sharks Y] [Vacuum: gamma rays Y, neutrons Y, alpha particles Y, light Y, sound G, heat T, swords Y, toxic dust Y, radio Y, sharks G] [Oven mitts: gamma rays Y, neutrons Y, alpha particles G, light G, sound T, heat G, swords Y, toxic dust Y, radio Y, sharks Y] [Armor: gamma rays Y, neutrons Y, alpha particles G, light G, sound Y, heat Y, swords G, toxic dust Y, radio G, sharks T] [Biohazard suit: gamma rays Y, neutrons Y, alpha particles G, light G, sound Y, heat Y, swords Y, toxic dust G, radio Y, sharks Y] [Faraday cage: gamma rays Y, neutrons Y, alpha particles Y, light Y, sound Y, heat Y, swords Y, toxic dust Y, radio G, sharks Y] [Shark cage: gamma rays Y, neutrons Y, alpha particles Y, light Y, sound Y, heat Y, swords Y, toxic dust Y, radio Y, sharks G]
October 23, 2025 at 8:10 PM
Reposted by AlexBrightsmith
scotnational.bsky.social
Planning permission has been granted for the first broch in 2000 years to be constructed in the Highlands
First Iron Age broch 'in 2000 years' approved for Highlands
www.thenational.scot
October 21, 2025 at 7:17 PM
alexbrightsmith.bsky.social
Technically Monday, but since I'm in denial about that, some #SundayPixLeaves
The last glory of a hanging basket on a bright autumn day. One proud trumpet in white and cerise, but a foreground of small and varied leaves, a spike of something that looks like rosemary, with slightly bristly needles, and riotous curves of thick leaves already fading to red along their veins and edges Looking up though the branches of a weeping willow, dark crooked branches, bright spiralling streamers of pale green leaves, a glimpse of white and blue beyond
October 5, 2025 at 11:25 PM
alexbrightsmith.bsky.social
As long as the mention is of happy healthy great northern divers living their best lives, obvs
October 5, 2025 at 11:13 PM
alexbrightsmith.bsky.social
Sharing partly because Bardsey Obs is a beautiful place that does good work, but mainly because, thanks to Arthur Ransome, any mention of a great northern diver makes me smile, however tired and ohhelltonorrowismonday-ish I may be feeling.
bardseyobswarden.bsky.social Steve Stansfield @bardseyobswarden.bsky.social · Oct 5
Today’s sea passage.
0700-1100
Long-tailed Skua: 1 imm
Sabine’s Gull: 4 (1ad)
Leach’s Storm-petrel: 2
Grey Phalarope: 2
Little Gull: 1
Great Skua : 3
Arctic Skua: 9
Great Northern Diver: 2
Pale-bellied Brent Goose: 1
Yellow-legged Gull: 1
October 5, 2025 at 11:12 PM
alexbrightsmith.bsky.social
And, apparently on this day eight years ago, taking some roses to drop off at Granny's grave, in passing. They were not roses that travelled well, but they just about made it.
#SundayPixRailway
A small section of table in a railway carriage, with a sliver of green-brown blur just visible through a strip of window. The table holds a bottle of pepsi, a railway ticket, and two wide pink old fashioned roses with their stems carefully wrapped in foil.
September 21, 2025 at 6:16 PM
alexbrightsmith.bsky.social
I forgot to post this for infrastructure a couple of weeks back, so it can be #SundayPixRailway even though Galton Bridge station is the least interesting part of it.
A summertime view along a canal that runs through a wide, deep cutting. Two bridges cross it. The nearest is the broad, almost flat iron span of Telford's Galton Bridge (built for the road but closed to traffic for decades), disappearing into the trees without apparent support. The second is the brick arch of a railway bridge, both piers almost visible amongst the greenery.
September 21, 2025 at 6:06 PM
alexbrightsmith.bsky.social
I was thinking I hadn't been near a #SundayPixRailway in ages, but then, there's this (though only the track's dedication to maintaining a steady elevation in the face of local conditions makes this obvious - it's slightly sinuous and surprisingly narrow)
A well made footpath, perhaps six feet wide, curves away out of sight between steep banks and woodland. The path is deeply shadowed but the trees are brightly sunlit
September 21, 2025 at 4:47 PM
alexbrightsmith.bsky.social
Vaguely wondering how Tanner, big sprawly boy though he is, was managing to take up so much space ...
Two tabby cats, their coats almost identical, lie curled up nose to tail, like a big snoozy doughnut
September 21, 2025 at 4:37 PM
alexbrightsmith.bsky.social
I would absolutely agree with this except that I looked it up on YouTube a while back and ... well what can I say? I was eight.
anonopin.bsky.social Anon Opin @anonopin.bsky.social · Sep 19
Manimal deserved a second series. I know it was cancelled over 40 years ago but I still resent it every time I turn on the TV.
September 20, 2025 at 10:37 AM
alexbrightsmith.bsky.social
From the Oratory to Bishop Asbury's Cottage via my employer's AGM. That was quite a day. The cottage was closed, mind, because the 45 minute bus trip somehow took an hour longer than scheduled.
A very dull cottage stands against a dull sky. The facing side is painted white, with a door and two small, oddly placed windows. The end wall is red brick, with a circular blue plaque to declare its history, and the roof is dark clay tiles with a single chimney stack. The foreground is taken up by a rough lawn and a bed of something that might be lady's mantle starting to die off. A view along a cloister - worn flagstones, stone columns supporting birch arches. To the left you can glimpse a brightly sunlit courtyard with low box hedges surrounding gravelled squares.
September 18, 2025 at 5:30 PM