Radio 4’s Jane Austen season is absolutely brilliant and wonderful. There is nothing like Radio 4 anywhere in the world, it is so precious.

@theguardian.com, @rorycarroll.bsky.social & Angela Giuffrida There's no such thing as 'a reverend'. Reverend is a title not a role. It's like 'mrs'. You wouldn't refer to someone as 'a mrs'. The word you were looking for here was 'minister'.

I would be intrigued to see the 'photograph of Edward the Confessor' which the King has given to the Pope. Taken on a very old Box Brownie, perhaps...

"Dear Sweet Blessed Little Baby Jesus, please watch over our armed thugs as they turn away the stranger, persecute the foreigner and harm the least of our brothers and sisters."

“When a foreigner resides among you in your land, do not mistreat them. The foreigner residing among you must be treated as your native-born. Love them as yourself, for you were foreigners in Egypt.”

A Leviticus quote to remember when nativist authoritarians rant about "Judeo-Christian values".

'tis the first rose of summer. 🌱
Joseph's Coat. #Gardening

Labour's new policy - of humiliating trans people by requiring them constantly to self-identify - we believe puts the UK (again) in breach of its obligations under the European Convention on Human Rights and will seek a declaration of incompatability. goodlaw.social/0r6l

One of the most common ways to curse someone is to use their teeth: take a tooth and you have a direct connection to their bones, so medieval European thought went, and thus witches sought teeth. Folklorists suggest this may be the origins of the tooth fairy. #FolkloreSunday

We're celebrating, as ever, the start of Super Bowl 2025 with this Superb Owl.
🦉

#tidesouttuesday on the River Thames looking towards the Dartford Bridge

#rspb #bgbw
Total count from my RSPB Big Garden Bird Watch in stormy, wet Kent this afternoon: 1 bluetit, 1 wren. Can't say I blame the birds for staying in, though...

When did people start misidentifying the twelve days of Christmas as Dec 1-12, rather than Christmas Day to Epiphany? It seems to have crept in over the last few years and now I'm getting loads of marketing emails offering 'twelve days of Christmas' deals. I never used to hear ppl saying it.

On a scale of 1 to infinity, how stupid is #greggwallace to take on "middle class women of a certain age"?

The camellia in the front garden produced a few fruits this year, like hard small crab apples, and lo, I noticed today that they had split open to reveal the seeds inside. Did I sow them? Of course I did. They will prob come to nothing (very slowly), but let's live dangerously! #gardening

It might be mid-November, but try telling that to my cosmos and strawflowers