AngstyPony

The Welsh Parliament is going through a raft of changes ahead of the 2026 Senedd elections.

Over the last couple of days I've heard a bird song I'm sure I've not heard before. Starts off melodious, like a thrush, then goes into a few staccato notes. Some kind of finch, I'm thinking.

William Gibson wrote "...she walked back...through that weird, evanescent moment that belongs to every sunny morning..., when some strange perpetual promise of chlorophyll and hidden, warming fruit graces the air, just before the hydrocarbon blanket settles in." I stepped outside this morning a couple of hours too late for that, and my lungs immediately sensed the heavy, choking quality of the air.

But checking on aqicn.org and DEFRA websites, I see they say air-quality here is good / air pollution level low.

Both of us cannot be wrong.

#AirQuality

<yoink!> - I'm grabbing this quote from an article @GreyShuck posted: “There is a real need for us to inspire people to connect with nature and to make biodiversity a central part of their lives – particularly in urban areas and less affluent communities” Well I did just that the other day, in a l-o-n-g wait for a bus to turn up. There was a small raptor perching on the streetlights, avidly hunting just before sunset. One time he came over into the trees and dived off them into the undergrowth, but didn't seem to catch anything. It was blunt-tailed, probably a sparrowhawk or a kestrel. This was right on the edge of the urban and less affluent community I live in, around a multi-laned highway. [Re the quote - why in "less affluent areas"?] 🪶

I have just made myself very popular with a local social housing company: I've brought to their attention, for the second time in about the last ten years, the miserable condition of a tiny strip of land at the end of one of their roads. It's no more than 3m by 2, and has a grassy bank and small trees, all planted by Nature. In spring the bank has primroses all over it, except that's not been so obvious since people started using it as a rubbish tip. It used to be OK, and so pretty. I've come to realise there's some obscure psychological reason for people going out of their way to screw up bits of natural terrain, so what can the housing company do? I've asked them why they don't just check the surroundings of their properties every so often and give them a quick clean-up. 🌸 😢

Gutted that this article did not contain the electrifying utterance by Sunak that driving at 20mph is against British standards. Plenty of other guff, though.

I'd forgotten how short&sweet these country diary entries are. Hadn't read them for years. (scroll up, scroll up) 🧊

I'm feeling wistful when I see the two crimson sweet-pea buds still clinging on, in the garden. It's been around two weeks now. It doesn't look like they're going to bloom. I can't remember seeing them this late in the year before.

😮‍💨 Today, to keep things simple, I didn't even bother trying to catch a bus. I saw two the whole time I was out, going the other way. It's like a skeleton service since a month ago. I can't see how it's going to keep going. 🛣️

"The data found urban areas outside the UK capital had an average of 14 buses an hour, whereas in London the hourly average was 120." - by 'urban areas', what size? Would have to look at their paper itself, but I can't find it so far.

Where I'm living, even 10 years ago we had about 8 buses within 5 mins walk from home, and now there are 3. And they aren't spread out evenly timewise, which would probably be impossible to attain along their entire routes. But it results in a poorer service overall.

Mike Childs, head of science, policy and research at Friends of the Earth, said: “To reduce pollution and cut emissions, we need the government to invest in our crumbling public transport system to make it far easier for people to use their car less and switch to greener ways to travel, like buses, trains and cycling.” Well we know that, but...

🚏 🚌 😢

It's two weeks since our local bus-services were shredded. Routes were discontinued and frequency reduced. We thought that would consolidate the remaining services regarding reliability.

I have just seen a few ladybirds hanging about on the branches of a fatsia shrub in my garden. They have been prolific this year. Wondering why they're not off hibernating somewhere.