Pete Martin
@onloughrigg.bsky.social
Lichens and other stuff from the beautiful English Lake District and beyond.
I wrote a thing about last weekends Borrowdale trip:
cumbrialichensbryophytes.org.uk/2025/10/24/b...
#LichenGBI
cumbrialichensbryophytes.org.uk/2025/10/24/b...
#LichenGBI
Borrowdale lichen trip report 19 October 2025
I know of three Cumbrian Borrowdales. The first, that we have visited repeatedly over the years, is justifiably famous for its lichens (as well as things like rain, tea bread, Yews and Gates). As for ...
cumbrialichensbryophytes.org.uk
October 24, 2025 at 12:58 PM
I wrote a thing about last weekends Borrowdale trip:
cumbrialichensbryophytes.org.uk/2025/10/24/b...
#LichenGBI
cumbrialichensbryophytes.org.uk/2025/10/24/b...
#LichenGBI
Spent a pleasant day out on a recce
October 21, 2025 at 7:39 PM
Spent a pleasant day out on a recce
Reposted by Pete Martin
How has the government got itself into the position of standing up for Israeli football hooligans, while criminalising peaceful supporters of Palestine Action?
October 17, 2025 at 2:38 PM
How has the government got itself into the position of standing up for Israeli football hooligans, while criminalising peaceful supporters of Palestine Action?
Reposted by Pete Martin
Today's @theguardian.com country diary is a poignant celebration of the life of 'uniquely talented naturalist, conservationist, educator & campaigner Jamie Normington' by @amyjanebeer.bsky.social. A funny, dynamic, inspiring man whose life, along with the mayflies, reminds us to live every moment.
Country diary: A springtime with an ending | Amy-Jane Beer
Kirkham Abbey, North Yorkshire, and Old Hutton, Cumbria: Among this year’s epic blossom and mass of swarming insects, a funeral holds particular poignancy
www.theguardian.com
May 30, 2025 at 7:50 AM
Today's @theguardian.com country diary is a poignant celebration of the life of 'uniquely talented naturalist, conservationist, educator & campaigner Jamie Normington' by @amyjanebeer.bsky.social. A funny, dynamic, inspiring man whose life, along with the mayflies, reminds us to live every moment.
Reposted by Pete Martin
I don't like the look of this lads
May 29, 2025 at 10:35 AM
I don't like the look of this lads
Final @btobirds.bsky.social heron count of the year this morning. One local heronry appears deserted, the other's bigger than I've known it. Have they moved from one to t'other? We'll never know...
May 27, 2025 at 12:15 PM
Final @btobirds.bsky.social heron count of the year this morning. One local heronry appears deserted, the other's bigger than I've known it. Have they moved from one to t'other? We'll never know...
It has been a good year for the Irises.
May 26, 2025 at 2:48 PM
It has been a good year for the Irises.
Reposted by Pete Martin
Just one university - UCL - employs almost twice as many people as there are working in fishing boats.
A reminder that more people are employed in the yoga industry than there are registered fishers working in the UK.
May 19, 2025 at 9:31 AM
Just one university - UCL - employs almost twice as many people as there are working in fishing boats.
Reposted by Pete Martin
Welsh temperate rainforest facing species 'extinction crisis'.
www.bbc.com/news/article...
www.bbc.com/news/article...
Celtic rainforest in Wales facing extinction crisis, ecologists warns
A rare lichen's last refuge on ancient oak felled by a storm puts a unique forest on the brink.
www.bbc.com
May 18, 2025 at 2:08 PM
Welsh temperate rainforest facing species 'extinction crisis'.
www.bbc.com/news/article...
www.bbc.com/news/article...
Reposted by Pete Martin
I mean technically we're an archipelago of strangers, but whatever
May 13, 2025 at 7:21 PM
I mean technically we're an archipelago of strangers, but whatever
Reposted by Pete Martin
Once again everyone will pay the price for a govt that refuses to confront the trade-offs it faces. Failing to fix or pay for social care not only makes social care worse, it makes local govt and the NHS worse. I suspect voters will care more abt that than 50k off net migration via care visas.
May 13, 2025 at 7:58 AM
Once again everyone will pay the price for a govt that refuses to confront the trade-offs it faces. Failing to fix or pay for social care not only makes social care worse, it makes local govt and the NHS worse. I suspect voters will care more abt that than 50k off net migration via care visas.
Made it out today, and explored the currently very dry beck: more Dermatocarpon luridum than I was expecting; a rather fine stonefly larva; an old metal and wire contraption. 4 species of warbler heard, otter spraint found, and I have Verrucaria samples to "investigate at a later date". #LichenGBI
May 6, 2025 at 4:59 PM
Made it out today, and explored the currently very dry beck: more Dermatocarpon luridum than I was expecting; a rather fine stonefly larva; an old metal and wire contraption. 4 species of warbler heard, otter spraint found, and I have Verrucaria samples to "investigate at a later date". #LichenGBI
Reposted by Pete Martin
I thought it pitched outside leg, myself
May 3, 2025 at 3:24 PM
I thought it pitched outside leg, myself
Reposted by Pete Martin
I’ve written about the strange way that just thinking about cyclists makes otherwise rational people furious, in the light of Jeremy Vine’s decision to no longer post his cycling video because of all the abuse.
www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
No wonder Jeremy Vine is hanging up his helmet cam – the rage we cyclists face is off the scale | Peter Walker
Why does cycling make so many drivers lose their cool? It’s partly ignorance, but demonisation by politicians doesn’t help, says Peter Walker, a senior political correspondent for the Guardian
www.theguardian.com
April 30, 2025 at 7:28 AM
I’ve written about the strange way that just thinking about cyclists makes otherwise rational people furious, in the light of Jeremy Vine’s decision to no longer post his cycling video because of all the abuse.
www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
Reposted by Pete Martin
Public service announcement: if, like me, you resent and despise the "AI overview" at the top of every list of Google search results (it's just WRONG), adding "-ai" to the end of your search terms will make it go away.
April 15, 2025 at 12:39 PM
Public service announcement: if, like me, you resent and despise the "AI overview" at the top of every list of Google search results (it's just WRONG), adding "-ai" to the end of your search terms will make it go away.
Reposted by Pete Martin
I wrote an article for @audubon.org about a gull I know, and it’s full of surprising facts about gulls in general. I hope you like it.
www.audubon.org/magazine/bal...
www.audubon.org/magazine/bal...
The Ballad of U10: How One Mischievous Bird Taught Me to Love Gulls Even More
After a chance beach encounter with a banded Herring Gull, cartoonist Rosemary Mosco dug deep into the surprisingly popular bird's life and adventures.
www.audubon.org
April 17, 2025 at 3:09 PM
I wrote an article for @audubon.org about a gull I know, and it’s full of surprising facts about gulls in general. I hope you like it.
www.audubon.org/magazine/bal...
www.audubon.org/magazine/bal...
Blue Sunday!
Earlier this morning on Windermere lake. Happy Sunday everyone!
@photohour.bsky.social
@lakedistrict.bsky.social
#windermere
#lakedistrict
@photohour.bsky.social
@lakedistrict.bsky.social
#windermere
#lakedistrict
April 6, 2025 at 8:36 AM
Blue Sunday!
Lovely morning yesterday at Thorneythwaite: new locations for Sticta sylvatica and Ricasolia laetevirens; crying-out-for-rain Wilson's filmy fern and new-species-for-the-site Leptogium cyanescens. The sunshine and shade was awful for photos; but great to be in. And a willow warbler singing too!
April 5, 2025 at 8:44 AM
Lovely morning yesterday at Thorneythwaite: new locations for Sticta sylvatica and Ricasolia laetevirens; crying-out-for-rain Wilson's filmy fern and new-species-for-the-site Leptogium cyanescens. The sunshine and shade was awful for photos; but great to be in. And a willow warbler singing too!
Mid-March, and once again the early wood anemones down by the river have opened. #WildflowerHour
March 16, 2025 at 8:04 PM
Mid-March, and once again the early wood anemones down by the river have opened. #WildflowerHour
A fine day at Tilberthwaite yesterday, exploring old copper works and slate quarries with Cumbria Lichen and Bryophyte Group. Blastenia (was Caloplaca) crenularia; Collema furfuraceum; Rhizocarpon oederi surrounded by Acarospora sinopica. Reds in the settling beds! #LichenGBI
March 14, 2025 at 8:21 AM
A fine day at Tilberthwaite yesterday, exploring old copper works and slate quarries with Cumbria Lichen and Bryophyte Group. Blastenia (was Caloplaca) crenularia; Collema furfuraceum; Rhizocarpon oederi surrounded by Acarospora sinopica. Reds in the settling beds! #LichenGBI
Couldn't resist the #YellowFlowers among the rubbish at the edge of the Co-op car park in Bolton Le Sands: Coltsfoot and Groundsel. #WildflowerHour
March 9, 2025 at 8:06 PM
Couldn't resist the #YellowFlowers among the rubbish at the edge of the Co-op car park in Bolton Le Sands: Coltsfoot and Groundsel. #WildflowerHour
Reposted by Pete Martin
Ambleside and Cumbria folk, have you heard of an Armitage family or any information about "Ellers", Loughrigg? Ellers is the name of a farmhouse near Loughrigg Tarn. This is from the late 1920s.
When I was over on the other place, I tried to start a little personal thing, it quickly ended mostly because I didn't want to deal with the shit hole. I figured I might try over here, where it is friendlier.
It will be adhock and tagged #DMRArmitage
It will be adhock and tagged #DMRArmitage
March 5, 2025 at 8:31 PM
Ambleside and Cumbria folk, have you heard of an Armitage family or any information about "Ellers", Loughrigg? Ellers is the name of a farmhouse near Loughrigg Tarn. This is from the late 1920s.
Out west for a couple of days
February 28, 2025 at 4:42 PM
Out west for a couple of days
Reposted by Pete Martin
For anyone interested in rainforest, Scotland, nature, etc, here is a link to a piece that my wife Alison wrote about Scottish temperate rainforest. She wrote it for the Native Woodlands Discussion Group newsletter in 2023. Hope you like it!
www.benandalisonaveris.co.uk/general/love...
www.benandalisonaveris.co.uk/general/love...
LOVE IN A WET CLIMATE
www.benandalisonaveris.co.uk
February 12, 2025 at 11:32 AM
For anyone interested in rainforest, Scotland, nature, etc, here is a link to a piece that my wife Alison wrote about Scottish temperate rainforest. She wrote it for the Native Woodlands Discussion Group newsletter in 2023. Hope you like it!
www.benandalisonaveris.co.uk/general/love...
www.benandalisonaveris.co.uk/general/love...
A morning's bramble bashing to reduce the shading out of Collema flaccidum, Pseudoschismatomma rufescens and Pertusaria pertusa on some favourite dying ash trees. Ooh look! Primroses are revealed... chaffinches sing. #LichenGBI
February 11, 2025 at 3:56 PM
A morning's bramble bashing to reduce the shading out of Collema flaccidum, Pseudoschismatomma rufescens and Pertusaria pertusa on some favourite dying ash trees. Ooh look! Primroses are revealed... chaffinches sing. #LichenGBI