Your annual reminder: 🍂Leaves are Not trash🍂 Leaves are Opossum blankets 1/2

Please don't leave Halloween pumpkins to rot in your garden, or dump them in the countryside. Eating mouldy pumpkins can make hedgehogs, birds and other animals poorly. Instead, dispose of pumpkins in a covered compost bin or council food waste bin. More: littlegreenspace.org.uk/features/5-i...

STORM BOELO at 1540 UTC. EUMETSAT.

😆 They've been waiting to use this graphic since this year's list of storm names was published, haven't they? #StormAusten #Austen

Dan Holley@danholley.bsky.social · 4d ago

A busy day for our teams @metoffice.gov.uk with Storm #Austen expected to bring impacts to SW England and W/SW Wales early Friday, and then Storm #Boelo across more northern parts of the UK over the weekend... 🌀 www.youtube.com/watch?v=-xwV...

Storm Austen is meteorologically beautiful, probably won’t be saying that when the 60-70mph gusts and driving rain arrive first thing tomorrow morning though.

Spotted this hiding behind a pot while I was doing a bit of tidying and battening down the hatches ahead of Storm Austen arriving. Lattice Stinkhorn I think? I don't think it had much of a smell to it though - does anyone know if it's worse at a particular point of its lifecycle? 🌱

Photographer Peter Maier captured this jaw-dropping timelapse of a cloudburst over Lake Millstatt in Carinthia, Austria. Original post

Heat pumps and insulation would cut UK living costs more than new oilfields, study suggests

Heat pumps and insulation would cut UK living costs more than new oilfields, study suggests

Warm homes plan would create 50,000 jobs, compared with about 1,100 for Rosebank oilfield, thinktank finds Insulating Britain’s homes and investing in heat pumps would do more to cut the cost of living, create jobs and boost the UK’s economy than drilling for new oil, research suggests. The government’s £15bn warm homes plan, currently under threat of cuts as ministers seek budget savings, would slash £1bn a year from household energy bills across the UK, concentrated on those on low incomes, according to research by the thinktank E3G. It would also provide a £1.6bn yearly boost to the economy, and about 50,000 new jobs spread across thousands of small businesses. Continue reading...

theguardian.com

Microsoft drops huge AI datacentre project in Essex over power supply concerns

Microsoft drops huge AI datacentre project in Essex over power supply concerns

Development by UK firm Nscale heralded by ministers as largest of its kind in the country loses its anchor tenant The development of a huge AI datacentre hailed by the UK government has received a fresh setback after Microsoft pulled out of the project over concerns about power supplies. The development by the British company Nscale, heralded by ministers as the country’s largest AI datacentre when it was announced in 2025, was planned to open at Loughton in Essex next year. Continue reading...

theguardian.com

"When lamps are lighted in the town" (1968) Artist: A Buchanan

Fake cobwebs like these may look spooky – but what's really scary about them is that they can trap & injure wildlife, including birds, insects & small mammals. And fake webs aren't recyclable – so will end up in landfill for many years. More: www.littlegreenspace.org.uk/features/5-i... #halloween

Aww, that'll be Monty's last regular GW in 2 weeks' time. I'm guessing we might see him if there are winter specials though. Have a good weekend #gardenersworld chums!

This a million times. People of colour being dragged on to debate maniacs about imaginary labels & race science is an abomination. proper ‘how German are you’ Nazi shit Note that people like me with white migrant parentage never asked to defend our identity Englishness. Is. A. Made. Up. Thing

Sathnam Sanghera@sathnam.bsky.social · 2w ago

Dear tv and radio producers. Thankyou for the invitation. But, no, I do not want to appear on your show to defend the idea that I am English, after 50 years of living and working here, because the increasingly feral right want to turn this into a "debate" and you cannot see how you're being played

This is my kind of garden. So colourful and exuberant. Fabulous! #gardenersworld

Ah well, that explains why my geum karked it this summer - it was in full sun baking away! #gardenersworld

Also, in addition to the wonderful slow living ethos, I read today that we import about 70% of our apples in the UK now. 70%! How wonderful to grow your own apples so you're not adding to those food miles. #gardenersworld

This bird🪶needs a handbag to go with its fancy pants.

Photography by Douglas 🍁@darkwaterphotos.bsky.social · 3w ago

Making my way downtown, walking fast, faces pass, and I’m... probably looking for a field mouse. 🪶🦉🦅 #OhMyDouglas

Please don't cut back hedgerows until wildlife has taken all the autumn berries! #gardening #nature

Kemi Badenoch wants to exempt the family home from inheritance tax. But that creates a perverse incentive for elderly people to *upsize* to save IHT. That could double the cost of the policy, and push £100bn+ from savings into housing. A 🧵 on bad tax cuts.

This is a wake up call post written by my chum Tom Ingall. When farmers start saying its not worth growing a crop because of #ClimateChange, that's the start of a slippery slope to high food prices, changed menus, loss of national food resilience and much more. #farming #resilience #potatoes #food

Unofficial BBCNews (UK) Bot@bbcnews-uk-rss.bsky.social · 3w ago

Why hot summer could lead to smaller potatoes in supermarkets

As a society, we have forgotten that the phone still works when you hold it up to your ear

the tech industry is about to invent books

Clean Air Night is moving to 17th November! With winter just around the corner, we’re calling on health and air quality organisations to help raise awareness about the health harms of wood burning. Sign-up to our newsletter to hear more: globalactionplan.org.uk/contact#sign...

In reflection, these leaves fallen across a puddle, have found a way back into their parents’ arms.

I see Michael Sheen has gone for the time-honoured Pretending To Be Welsh strategy. #CelebrityTraitors

I don't know who the talent bookers are on #celebritytraitors but they've played another blinder. What a cast!

For today's #OnlineArtExchange, let's wander into the golden haze of John Atkinson Grimshaw's "Autumn Regrets" (1882). A masterpiece where Victorian stillness fades into a brilliant canopy of amber leaves, capturing that quiet, bittersweet feeling of seasons turning. @artukdotorg.bsky.social

If you'd need a little giggle, the replies are worth a moment of your time.

Aidan O’Brien@aidanobrien.bsky.social · 4w ago

Yuge day for American Bluesky, as many are getting their first experience of the quaint and traditional British rural pursuits, "dogging" and "flytipping"

'Have you got a copy of Fly Tipping by RAF Fairford? You do? Oh that's wonderful. My name? Fairford. RAF Fairford.'

Me, part way through looking at several hundred photos of Gannets taken at @rspb.bsky.social Bempton Cliffs today. #Birds #BirdPhotography #UKWildlife #ECK 🌿