May Flowers

The garden after an April which was middle-of-the-table warm and wet but the third sunniest, including five of our all-time sunniest April days and the earliest ever >12kWh event.
A2 is reading Desperate Undertaking* by Lindsey Davis, which was er um OK as thrillers about serial killers in ancient Rome go, but part of a series that would take too much effort to read all the way through.

Healthy Veggie Food

We had brassicas for Africa this week, and Gez is dieting for health, so our food for today was cauliflower cheese with coleslaw and a garden lettuce salad followed by fruit salad, after which we scored 11 on the GSQ.
A1 is reading The Edge of Darkness* by Vaseem Khan. A2 is rereading Death at the Sign of the Rook by the ever-enjoyable Kate Atkinson.

Jabs for the Girls

A2 went for the Covid jab and Salvation Army shopping experience today. Changes: very few punters, you no longer get a certificate and the nurse calls it a sharp prick instead of a sharp scratch or a little prick. And the wall of the long departed Jabberwock has been painted over again. [Aside: A1’s id number at boarding school was 37. But he had nothing to do with this. Honest.]
A2 is reading Tom Lake* by Ann Patchett, featuring three sisters in a cherry orchard.

Star Trails, and Meteors

The Lyrids meteor shower — a remnant of Comet Thatcher, no relation — has started, and though it doesn’t peak until the 22nd April, the sky was clear last night so we thought it was worth seeing if the Dwarf Mini could image them. It has a “star trails” setting, which takes a load of pictures with the wide-angle camera, combines them and produces  a video of the result. We left it running for 3 hours (producing over 1000 photos) and got this:

At about 5 seconds, a pair of short trails appears at the upper right, which we’re fairly sure are meteors as they’re pointing directly towards the shower’s radiant in Lyra/Hercules. We’ll try again later, weather permitting; the night of 21st is forecast clear.
(Ignore the ghostly artefacts — it was shot from indoors through an open window and caught some reflections from the glass.)

Welcome Comet C/2025 R3 (PanSTARRS)

Another marvel from the Dwarf Mini; captured by A1 in the wee small hours in a gap between trees.
More info on Roast with a bonus North America Nebula. Update: Here’s a better photo, taken the next morning:
Our bathroom book is The Single Helix 100 short science essays by Steve Jones, which has well-timed chapters: one for a no.1, two for a no.2.

Critter of the Day: House Sparrow

Passer domesticus, a very common but also extremely endangered bird. We’ve never photographed one before.
March was more or less average on the sun, rain and temperature fronts, but it was frequently unpleasantly windy. In like a lion and out like a lion.
A2 is reading The State of the Art by Iain M Banks.

Pie Day II and Mother’s Day Too

Dave was unable to join us due to an overdose of beer but the other mothers and children enjoyed this hearty vegetarian pie followed by a chocolate orange cake. Sadly without the Davester we only managed to scrape 10 on the GSQ.
Meanwhile, A1 has been on a Galaxy Quest…
…and found Bode’s galaxy in the Great Bear constellation. More images here, on our other blog.
A2 is reading The Four by Ellie Keel which was unmitigated tripe.

Critter of the Day: Tit

A little bird sitting on the weather station.
A1 is reading The Bells of Westminster* by Leonora Nattrass. A2 is reading Hag-Seed by Margaret Atwood. I don’t generally like reframings of well-known works of literature but Atwood’s reprise of The Tempest as an avant-garde production in a prison with the producer hell-bent on revenge was a joy and an education.