Hugh Pumphrey @hughpumphrey.bsky.social · 04/10/2026Sunrise has now definitely moved south of that roof and is visible from the bedroom window. By midwinter it will be well off the right edge of the picture, behind the cement works. 030
Hugh Pumphrey @hughpumphrey.bsky.social · 01/10/2026One of my retirement projects was an all-out war against my least-favourite insect: the gooseberry sawfly (Nematus/Euura ribesii). At least partial success: the bushes still have leaves on and are now losing them due to autumn rather than horrid larvae. 020
Hugh Pumphrey @hughpumphrey.bsky.social · 01/10/2026Great moments in Scottish literary history. David Macbeth Moir (pen-name: "Delta") tries to work out whether his tablet understands sufficient unicode to represent Greek letters. (Do plz dig down into this chain of QPs to get to the good ones from @ncdominie.bsky.social and @threadinburgh.scot .) 040
Hugh Pumphrey @hughpumphrey.bsky.social · 30/09/2026As someone who has played creepy Uncle Max in an amateur production of "The Sound of Music", I very much recommend this thread to my hordes of followers. Do not miss the alt text in that first post. 040
Hugh Pumphrey @hughpumphrey.bsky.social · 29/09/2026Great moments in Scottish pet-keeping history. John Muir reaches up and fails to grasp his poorly-tamed seagulls as they make a successful bid for freedom. 241
Hugh Pumphrey @hughpumphrey.bsky.social · 28/09/2026Ah, yes. Sir Peter Moneybags: a man liked by exactly nobody who works at @edinburgh-uni.bsky.social apart from his clique of overpaid senior management wonks. I was a bit offended to be elbowed into early retirement, but, frankly, I am glad not to be working there any more. 071
Hugh Pumphrey @hughpumphrey.bsky.social · 27/09/2026This is good stuff from Denmark --- even better than the pastries. 050
Hugh Pumphrey @hughpumphrey.bsky.social · 27/09/2026I was offered two spare places on a boat trip down the coast from Dunbar to Siccar Point: a recreation of James Hutton's 1788 trip [1]. The weather was fab and we could see some parts of the unconformity that are hard to view from on land. #geology (1/2). [1] en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_H... 2122
Hugh Pumphrey @hughpumphrey.bsky.social · 25/09/2026This is mildly entertaining. I got up to 16 after a few tries, but most of my chains had length zero. Any length requires a long run where one MP is a well-known character. A pair of backbench nobodies and you are sunk. 010
Hugh Pumphrey @hughpumphrey.bsky.social · 25/09/2026Ol' frogface summed up more succinctly and accurately than I have seen up to now. 020
Hugh Pumphrey @hughpumphrey.bsky.social · 24/09/2026QPing for your enjoyment. Sadly, none of these look as if they would lock the (possibly Georgian) original lock on my front door. 121
Hugh Pumphrey @hughpumphrey.bsky.social · 22/09/2026What did you actually say, @alex.scotlibdems.org.uk of @libdems.org.uk ? I mean, if Scotland doesn't exist, where am I sitting? It might not exist in the form that frothing-at-the-mouth nationalists want, but, looking out of the window, it definitely seems to be here. 440
Hugh Pumphrey @hughpumphrey.bsky.social · 20/09/2026Only heard today that the BBC is closing its medium-wave transmitters (AM to Americans, although you can do amplitude modulation at any frequency.) radiotoday.co.uk/2026/06/bbc-... WTF? Why have I not heard of this before? Are they going to improve the DAB signal in Dunbar so it works in my car? 000
Hugh Pumphrey @hughpumphrey.bsky.social · 19/09/2026I don't have anything to contribute to this thread, but if you have not read it you will definitely enjoy doing so. 010
Hugh Pumphrey @hughpumphrey.bsky.social · 17/09/2026You gotta watch this. (Thanks to @dreadships.bsky.social for posting it.) Not some AI nonsense: it is a real ship; I found it on marinetraffic.com 061
Hugh Pumphrey @hughpumphrey.bsky.social · 17/09/2026This is fabulous. Makes me pleased with last week's bench renovation. ( bsky.app/profile/hugh... ) Aside: loud boo-ing to BBC Gardener's world magazine, whose "2 for one gardens" app is the only app so far to whine that my Android phone was not new enough for it. 020
Hugh Pumphrey @hughpumphrey.bsky.social · 17/09/2026Constructed this bench from parts that were cluttering the MiL's boilerhouse. Hard part: sourcing the bolts. 1-⭐ review for B and Q Rhyl whose "nuts and bolts" section appears to have been played with by a tribe of feral 4-year-olds. 130
Hugh Pumphrey @hughpumphrey.bsky.social · 17/09/2026This is your weekly-or-more-frequent reminder from me that it is long past time that the UK govt and all the more serious political parties abandoned X. 030
Hugh Pumphrey @hughpumphrey.bsky.social · 14/09/2026I have seen at least one post stating without reason that the idea of sending RNLI Xmas cards to the Refukkers would not work. Many thanks to @ncdominie.bsky.social for explaining why it won't work. 000
Hugh Pumphrey @hughpumphrey.bsky.social · 13/09/2026Must have been his last £36M because he clearly cannot afford £15 to pop into the nearest Turkish barbers to get his hair tidied up. 010
Hugh Pumphrey @hughpumphrey.bsky.social · 11/09/2026I don't remember ever having my start word in #Wordle be an anagram of the answer before today! A pity that wordle does not have a "No grey squares" award to go with its "Sea of greens" and "Wordle in two". Wordle 1,910 3/6 🟨🟨🟨🟨🟨 🟨🟨🟩🟩🟨 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 030
Hugh Pumphrey @hughpumphrey.bsky.social · 10/09/2026People QP-ing their rivers, so here is the Weaver in Frodsham, Cheshire, back in the day when it was still heavily polluted by the industry upstream in Northwich. (That is me crewing and my late father at the helm in the leading boat.) 010
Hugh Pumphrey @hughpumphrey.bsky.social · 09/09/2026This was reposted today by @astroroyalscot.bsky.social and I found myself reading it. Very thought-provoking and definitely worth a bit of your time, especially if you are worrying about the effect of LLMs on how we do science. 120
Hugh Pumphrey @hughpumphrey.bsky.social · 09/09/2026Fab! (Although #LaTeX nerds be fuming because @ellecordova.bsky.social has failed to mention any of the Computer Modern series . . .) 130
Hugh Pumphrey @hughpumphrey.bsky.social · 08/09/2026I posted last spring about a visit to China ( bsky.app/profile/hugh... ) and thanked the @royalsociety.org for funding it. Filling in the final report on that grant reminds me to post the paper that resulted from the grant: doi.org/10.1038/s432...doi.orgResidence time of Hunga stratospheric water vapour perturbation quantified at 9 years - Communications Earth & EnvironmentStratospheric water vapour injected by the 2022 Hunga eruption has now entered a steady decay phase and is expected to return to its pre-eruption range around 2030. This estimate combines satellite ob... 110
Hugh Pumphrey @hughpumphrey.bsky.social · 06/09/2026Fell down a cavernous internet black hole this morning when I found fruitid.com . Spent ages trying to identify the apple that I know only as "MiL's large purple cooker". (I think it might be Red Victoria: fruitid.com/index.html#v... .) The tree was there when my in-laws bought their house. 220
Hugh Pumphrey @hughpumphrey.bsky.social · 05/09/2026Seems a reasonable decision. Not sure I am that fond of the new Equal Earth projection, but I understand why it was needed. At least the UN did not go for that Gall-Peters abomination. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...bbc.co.ukUN votes to adopt new world map to reflect Africa's true sizeThe Togo-sponsored resolution was backed by 164 nations - with the US as the only nation to vote against it. 000
Hugh Pumphrey @hughpumphrey.bsky.social · 03/09/2026Any of your lot banned, @privateeyenews.bsky.social ? You were discussing which party conferences you all wanted to attend on your latest podcast. 000
Hugh Pumphrey @hughpumphrey.bsky.social · 01/09/2026Winter is coming; I know this because I can now see the Sun fom my bedroom, shortly after sunrise, over the sloping roof of that building. In a few days I will be able to see the sunrise without going up to the storey above. #astronomy 150
Hugh Pumphrey @hughpumphrey.bsky.social · 01/09/2026This is a thing that I have experienced when talking to actual geologists, when I am merely someone who has read some books on the subject. (Tagging @bgs.ac.uk and anyone from the School of GeoSciences at @edinburgh-uni.bsky.social ) 221
Hugh Pumphrey @hughpumphrey.bsky.social · 30/08/2026Please insert a different fuck into your floppy fuck drive. 100
Hugh Pumphrey @hughpumphrey.bsky.social · 29/08/2026Post covering this story from a more direct source at bsky.app/profile/bgs.... and for those of you with an account at a university library, the actual paper is at doi.org/10.1130/B388... (Odd coincidence: one of the authors is my predecessor as ringing master at @stmaryskirk.bsky.social )doi.orgThe Wash Igneous Complex of eastern England: A candidate Avalonian source for Sandbian tephra in Baltoscandia and implications for closure of the Tornquist Sea | GSA Bulletin | GeoScienceWorldThe Wash Igneous Complex (WIC) is a component of a Sandbian (Late Ordovician) calc-alkaline magmatic arc that extends from the Lake District in northern 000
Hugh Pumphrey @hughpumphrey.bsky.social · 24/08/2026Well played, ma'am: this had me laughing out loud just after breakfast. 030
Hugh Pumphrey @hughpumphrey.bsky.social · 21/08/2026This thread is fascinating: well worth your time if you have ever caught or eaten a fish out of the North Sea. (I do wonder what this lady in Burgos cathedral would make of it. Whatever fish she has caught is certainly not a tuna. bsky.app/profile/hugh... ) 020
Hugh Pumphrey @hughpumphrey.bsky.social · 21/08/2026As El Niño is all over the news today I thought I would make an update of Figure 1 in this paper doi.org/10.5194/acp-... (free access). Based on MEI (which moves earliest) the current El Niño is already as big as 2015-16 and still going up. It is expected to beat 1982–1983 and 1997–1998. (1/3) 110
Hugh Pumphrey @hughpumphrey.bsky.social · 20/08/2026Everyone else is posting their tomato glut, so here is mine. 041
Hugh Pumphrey @hughpumphrey.bsky.social · 20/08/2026Not sure how accurate this thread is, but it is pretty funny. 010
Hugh Pumphrey @hughpumphrey.bsky.social · 19/08/2026QP-d as I suspect that some of you will enjoy it, especially @dreadships.bsky.social , if he has not seen it already. 010
Hugh Pumphrey @hughpumphrey.bsky.social · 18/08/2026This from @carolecadwalla.bsky.social is worth a read. I continue to be glad that I took my own advice and did not post bad takes on the Jason Arday story. 000
Hugh Pumphrey @hughpumphrey.bsky.social · 17/08/2026W00t! I grew some carrots that were not full of carrot root fly. The secret appears to be to grow them under a fine fleece mesh. 030
Hugh Pumphrey @hughpumphrey.bsky.social · 17/08/2026In another reply to this, and as a followup to the #DominieAufUrlaub sequence, here is a short thread of #Hugodevacaciones , all from the cathedral in Burgos, northern Spain. To start with I didn't expect a King of England. (1/3) 111
Hugh Pumphrey @hughpumphrey.bsky.social · 17/08/2026Now that I have had time to think about the experience of the total #eclipse , here is a 🧵with some photos and some comments; maybe some if it will be useful if you are planning for the August 2027 event. Tip 1: order your eclipse glasses early. Do not attempt to buy from a shop on the day. (1/11) 170
Hugh Pumphrey @hughpumphrey.bsky.social · 16/08/2026It's plum time! Better go and make some jam . . . 070
Hugh Pumphrey @hughpumphrey.bsky.social · 16/08/2026Quarter peal made it into the comic[*] while I was on holiday. [*] This unflattering nickname refers to the Ringing World: the journal of record of bellringing. 020
Hugh Pumphrey @hughpumphrey.bsky.social · 15/08/2026Heard the news re Jason Arday this morning. Rarely have I been more glad to have taken my own advice. 030
Hugh Pumphrey @hughpumphrey.bsky.social · 15/08/2026Last night's earthquake in Indonesia detected clearly on the gravity meter at @edinburgh-uni.bsky.social . (But not on the @raspishake.bsky.social --- typical for a quake at a great distance.) 190
Hugh Pumphrey @hughpumphrey.bsky.social · 12/08/2026After reading about this as a child, I have now, at nearly 62 years old, seen it at last. #eclipse #astronomy 1101