An evanescent flash of colour on a drizzly day, but now the rain has washed the clouds away and the telescope is out watching Markarian’s Chain. Many frames were ruined by passing satellites; curses Elon Musk.
A2 is rereading MaddAddam by Margaret Atwood. Reading this trilogy in sequence has been a magical experience.
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Ring round the Sun
It’s too cloudy for astronomising but the clouds have their own magic. A2 is rereading The Year of the Flood by Margaret Atwood.
Happy Easter Everybody
Here are the younger generations enjoying their meal of roast beef, potatoes, peas, carrots, broccoli, Yorkshire puddings and gravy without posing, smirking or gurning. And here is the festive cheesecake and their Easter gifts of fake bakes.
Sadly we only scored 7 on the GSQ. Worst this year.
Storm Dave
Dave blew in today and rattled all the trees but the night is calm and clear and A1’s telescope is out looking for pinwheels and cigars.
A1 is reading Eyes of the Void by Adrian Tchaikovsky. A2 is rereading Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood.
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.
Ivy at the Dinner
Faye’s boyfriend Ivy joined us for Gez’s pre-birthday dinner of stroggers (unfortunately Ivy doesn’t eat beef; sorry Ivy) and A1’s sumptuous carrot cake at which we scored 10 for the third week in a row on the GSQ.
A2 is reading Use of Weapons by Iain M Banks.
Moon Shot
A1 is reading Shards of Earth by Adrian Tchaikovsky and A2 is reading The Player of Games by Iain M Banks so here is a lovely half moon (thx Dwarf Mini) to go with our science fiction enjoyment.
Bread Head
There’s a man with a naan at the head of the table at our curry and crumble dinner at which we scored a contested 10 (some say 11) on the GSQ.
A2 is reading The Bookseller* by Tim Sullivan.
Pleiades
So here are the Seven Sisters, low in the sky, photographed in the front garden under a street light, and the Dwarf Mini still made a decent shot of it.
A1 is reading The Jigsaw Man by Nadine Matheson.
Moon of Eid
A delicate crescent moon for Eid, Nowruz, the vernal equinox and the International Day of Happiness.
A2 is rereading The Sub by Thomas M Disch.
Blooming Dandelions!
Spring is here, the sun is up and the weeds are out in force.
A1 is reading The Bookseller by Tim Sullivan. A2 is reading Guards! Guards! by Terry Pratchett.
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.
Pie Day
It’s π Day so we had shepherd’s pie for tea.
A2 has been reading Noughts and Crosses by Malorie Blackman; a book that is currently in the news on its twentieth anniversary as an iconic example of racial role reversal.
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.
Happy International Women’s Day, Ladies!
Here’s a delicious cherry bakewell cake to celebrate, after the main dish of pork in cider and before we scored 12 on the GSQ.
A1 is reading Quantum of Menace* by Vaseem Khan, who should stick with Indian detectives rather than pseudo-American thrillers and (as here) feeble James Bond tie-ins.
A2 is reading The Bells of Westminster* by Leonora Nattrass.
The Sword in the Lake
This mythical object is actually 2 sticks in a puddle, gilded by sunlight.
A1 is reading Nonesuch by Francis Spufford. A2 is rereading Back to Blood by Tom Wolfe.
A Nice Coq
Dish of the day was coq au vin with mash, spring greens and garlic puff pastry spirals, followed by apfelstrudel with runny custard and the GSQ at which we scored an OK 11.
February 2026 was the third coldest, second wettest, and all-time least sunny February on our records.
Booktally Day
It’s Booktally Day! Since we started counting we have read 3390 books; a mere 240 up on last year, but many of them were enormous, eg IT, ICE and assorted Neal Stephensons.
Out today is Nonesuch by Francis Spufford (see above) which A2 is about to read. A1 has just started rereading House of Suns by Alastair Reynolds so he’ll have to wait his turn.
Fly Me to the Moon
Our last post was about dinner at the ivy and tonight a boy called Ivy joined us for our family dinner but nobody thought to take a picture. Instead here are a couple of shots from A1’s Dwarf Mini telescope: some iridescent starlings and the crescent moon.
The menu for tonight was spag bol followed by nectarine cake and the GSQ at which we scored 10.5.
Pigeon Having Dinner at the Ivy
The incessant cloud and rain continues so no astronomy pictures but here is a pigeon enjoying the ivy.
A1 is rereading Elysium Fire by Alastair Reynolds. A2 is rereading number9dream by David Mitchell.
Happy Pancake Day, Ramadan, Chinese New Year and Birthday Bob!
So much to celebrate! We had more food than you can shake a chopstick at, followed by A1’s sublime chocolate cake with 10 candles and 10 Lego minifigures sunk knee-deep in ganache.
A1 is reading HHhH by Laurent Binet. A2 is rereading Valis by Philip K Dick. We scored a most excellent 11 on the GSQ.
Critter of the Day: Goldcrest
Regulus regulus, so good they named it twice. We have never spotted this King of the Birds before but it’s easily overlooked, being barely bigger than a bumblebee.
A1 is rereading Inhibitor Phase by Alastair Reynolds. According to our records, I originally read this on 5 Sep 2021. But I have absolutely no memory of it at all — and I would have remembered it, as it’s a much-anticipated continuation of AR’s Revelation Space sequence, with many recurring characters. Excellent, though the ending is a bit of a cop-out.
A2 is reading HHhH by Laurent Binet, an absolutely brilliant non-fiction novel about the attempt to assassinate Reinhard Heydrich, documenting the writer’s struggles with his subject and including many encomia to Prague, which A1 and A2 also love.
Mist-trees
Another foggy day as a change from the unremitting rain.
A1 is rereading Machine Vendetta by Alastair Reynolds.
Chicken Tonight
Another family dinner. A1 roasted a delicious chicken with roast potatoes, Yorkshire puddings, carrots and broccoli and A2 made a wobbly trifle. We did this week’s and last week’s GSQs and scored 10 on the first and 10.5 on the second.
A1 is reading It’s Not a Cult by Joey Batey, a debut horror/fantasy novel about an alt-folk band in northern England who manage to conjure up a legion of Solkats — small gods of trivial things like empty glasses and bruises. JB (day job: actor) claims to have been writing for years without getting published, and you can perhaps see why: it’s horribly over-written. Some interesting ideas and touches of humour, but he’s clearly been paying obeisance to the Solkat of purple prose.
A2 is reading Century Rain by Alastair Reynolds.
Winter Blooms
18 months or so ago we took pictures of the weathered logs blocking the entrances to Scott Hall Playing Fields. Whether it is the age of the logs or the time of year, they are all now blooming with magnificent structures. Here are a few:
A1 is reading Wild Animal* by Joel Dicker, a typically convoluted thriller, with two pretty loathsome intertwined families and a jewellery heist.