iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Mark Annand @markannand.eurosky.social · 20/10/2026

The halcyon years when there was a view from the plinth that carried Exchange station all the way across the cleared city centre to Forster Square.

The site of Bradford Forster Square from Exchange Station, summer 2011.

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Mark Annand @markannand.eurosky.social · 19/10/2026

Tinned soup suppliers in grim lockstep. Cream of celery soup would be good, pls and thq.

Sets of tins of soup, different suppliers.

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Mark Annand @markannand.eurosky.social · 13/10/2026

Hadn't thought of that connection. Indeed, Green Park Station was Bath's 'Gateway to the North' and @twotunnelsbath.bsky.social happened because for once, the people mattered.

Green Park Station. The Two Tunnels campaign launch piggybacked on the anniversary event marking the line's closure.

7F locomotive brought to Green Park by Steam Railway Magazine.

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Mark Annand @markannand.eurosky.social · 13/10/2026

Good. *Sends unsolicited heron pic*

Looking towards Scapa Flow to Graemsay High Light and the distant lights from the oil terminal on Flotta. A crescent moon in the sky and a heron fishes from the shore. Street lights on the road and a single lit window in the Double Houses. The view from Southend, Stromness, around 4pm, Christmas day 2006.

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Mark Annand @markannand.eurosky.social · 12/10/2026

Apologies, I didn't take a 'Context' photo, I'll revisit it as the following isn't helpful either - it's from the opposite end of the tunnel. The issue is in the crown of the arch and looked to be a few metres from this portal. I was hoping that the reflection would show it but noooo....

Sydney Gardens Tunnel number 2 reflections.

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Mark Annand @markannand.eurosky.social · 10/10/2026

Sydney Gardens number 2 tunnel. An issue with the roof. On Friday 9th October, vibrations from work to the road above appears to have encouraged several masonry blocks in the arch to attempt escape. Tunnel closed to navigation, towpath closed to horses. Paging @hamishharvey.bsky.social on this...

Sydney Gardens No. 2 Tunnel on the Kennet and Avon Canal: several blocks from the crown of the arch have seen fit to descend somewhat. From the east portal of the (closed) tunnel, it's difficult to see exactly what is immediately above them at this point.

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Mark Annand @markannand.eurosky.social · 10/10/2026

... that took her from the Thames to Hampton Loade on the Severn, and into the depths of Dudley Tunnel. More in the Alt text. Tyho, all 26 feet of her, thought to be still going strong, though it's some time since she's seen the B.C.N.

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Mark Annand @markannand.eurosky.social · 10/10/2026

A thread that touches on one William Prynne (At one point a resident of Swainswick, Bath), albeit the previous manor house. bsky.app/profile/bart...

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Mark Annand @markannand.eurosky.social · 09/10/2026

This brought a response to the effect that with SWR and GWR rolled in to the nationalised railway, this would certainly put no additional obstacles in the way (of reinstating the at one time successful and in growth train service between Bristol and London Waterloo...)

The old normal. A late afternoon London Waterloo - Bristol service portion, close to the gateline at Waterloo Station.

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Mark Annand @markannand.eurosky.social · 07/10/2026

The likes of this is good as it has biographical information, but landing a copy probably involves a hairy public library interlibrary loan. (His most popular book is out of copyright and has been digitised + available online.)

Book cover: Simon Evans anthology published by Tomkinson, Kidderminster.

ISBN 0 9504718 5 2

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Mark Annand @markannand.eurosky.social · 07/10/2026

Despite moving from fork to mouth, at TFW customer services, butter remained reassuringly solid as they responded 'Oh, certainly not' - a few minutes before a particularly seedy pair of Class 151s hauled themselves squeakily in to sight round the curve from the Holyhead direction. My face. ⬇️

A lovely red dragon in the windows of Chester cathedral.

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Mark Annand @markannand.eurosky.social · 05/10/2026

View from the car park, 2011. Previously widened and carried 5 lines, currently carries two. In the middle distance, a length of the historically curious Bordesley Viaduct. (Not that the structure was sentient, it didn't have an inquisitive nature...)

Southern approach viaduct to Moor Street Station, view from that car park on a cold day in April 2013. The structure currently carries a pair of tracks, formerly carried five. Also, the curious Bordesley Viaduct in the middle distance.

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Mark Annand @markannand.eurosky.social · 26/09/2026

2026 M&S Bath Southgate window display. The minimum viable product approach to window decoration. Some of us have to take a daily walk past this.

Marks and Spencers Southgate Bath window display, austere doesn't cover it.

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Mark Annand @markannand.eurosky.social · 24/09/2026

Good and appropriate that certain bus services now provide a catafalque.

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Mark Annand @markannand.eurosky.social · 24/09/2026

Bath bus station just after five pm. With many of its services not calling there, half of it is tumbleweed, screens off, a paper notice to advise of bus departure locations ten minutes across the city centre..

Bath bus station just after five pm. With many of its services not calling there, half of it is tumbleweed, screens off and a paper notice to advise.

The board advising passengers from where their buses will depart.

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Mark Annand @markannand.eurosky.social · 23/09/2026

Flew to the bird bath, turned its back on the water, crapped in it, then flew away. Why do pigeons do that?

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Mark Annand @markannand.eurosky.social · 14/09/2026

Forton. While you're there, admire the shape of the northbound side's lift. *That * one was quite the special order. Also, count the buttons...

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Mark Annand @markannand.eurosky.social · 03/09/2026

I know the shape has evolved with time, but what a work of art is that hill figure. Very familiar to people on today's trains, for an entire century the horse must also have been a companion to the people crewing boats on the canal there.

That white horse brooch, an early work from Rhiannon.

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Mark Annand @markannand.eurosky.social · 03/09/2026

Checking today's photo, no droplets, but just noticed the... cables, which are there in the previous photo, and in places, are fungus-coloured, suggesting their origin. But there are now more of them...

That bracket fungus, a day or two later and, no droplets. Still cables, and more of those.

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Mark Annand @markannand.eurosky.social · 03/09/2026

So, Aquila 'Red' instrument strings. A purchase best accompanied by a second set - of the equivalent 'Nylgut' strings. Then, when you fit them, should one or more of the more, er, 'complicated'... 'Red' strings not survive, you'll have a fallback that will likely fit right in. More in alt text.

Banjo bridge crossed by 3 Aquila 'Red' strings and two nylgut strings for 1st and 5th. The instrument is ancient and light, and turned out not to tolerate the combined tension of these 5, so, changes were made - the 4th 'Red' string removed and discarded, the third moved down to 4, the second to 3 and a 'Red' 1st string fitted to 2, while the 1st and 5th were retained as light gauge nylgut strings and banjo is now happy with those and benefits from qualities that the new strings bring.

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Mark Annand @markannand.eurosky.social · 02/09/2026

Bracket fungus on a neighbour's garden tree.

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Mark Annand @markannand.eurosky.social · 28/08/2026

Crimple Viaduct from *that* crag. Photo from October 2013.

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Mark Annand @markannand.eurosky.social · 24/08/2026

Not sure if the @bathnes.bsky.social has a mechanism to sell felled tree trunks for reuse. There's good structural timber in some of the stuff that's now on the ground.

Stand of black pines, some have been felled. Hedgemead, Bath

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Mark Annand @markannand.eurosky.social · 24/08/2026

Council's felled a few tree, mitigating some of the evening gloom. Bit soon for a correlation/causation tie, but outside last night, somewhat insecty, good to see, and even better, the battiest evening ever.

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Mark Annand @markannand.eurosky.social · 24/08/2026

Not heard the 'Black market food movement by rail during WW2' aspect of this. Obligatory GCR infrastructure photo.

GCR trackbed: view across Catesby viaduct to Charwelton Tunnel.

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Mark Annand @markannand.eurosky.social · 23/08/2026

Certainly built with sheep in mind rather than alpacas (which, there, would soon be airborne).

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Mark Annand @markannand.eurosky.social · 23/08/2026

Article says 26 feet so taking back any talk of 24. Here she is with another skiff, Tyho, so, yes, two 26 footers...

Ewen and Tyho on a backwater on the Thames above Oxford.

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Mark Annand @markannand.eurosky.social · 22/08/2026

Perhaps small urban riverside spaces are more connected to the great wild world than one would suspect. It's a while ago - & the photo is from the Greenwich peninsula - there was a willow avenue which I think has been swept away, but that summer hosted several of these. Lime Hawk Moth caterpillar.

Lime Hawk Moth caterpillar, Greenwich peninsula, 2008.

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Mark Annand @markannand.eurosky.social · 22/08/2026

Growing from the grade 2 listed building on the approach to Cleveland Bridge - the 'Eastern Dispensary'. It's not a shrub - it's actually the top of a sycamore tree that has managed to emerge from its point of origin in the building's basement, two stories below ground level.

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Mark Annand @markannand.eurosky.social · 19/08/2026

One week on from the eclipse, and the crescent moon growing in the daytime sky, and I be like 'Oh, hi Moon, you been up to anything lately?'

Blue sky between trees, and at middle left, the waxing crescent moon.

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Mark Annand @markannand.eurosky.social · 19/08/2026

Wilts and Berks canal needs funds - not to oppose the interminably-planned reservoir east of Abingdon but to ensure that if it swallows miles of the route and several restorable locks, the work doesn't impose hundreds of millions of pounds in costs upon the canal's restoration. wbct.org.uk/donate/

Pewsham lock flight, Wilts and Berks canal. Photo from 2009: this flight is now substantially restored.

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Mark Annand @markannand.eurosky.social · 19/08/2026

The mechanism that results in bike stands slowly gathering a (very) assorted collection of locks. What is it?

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Mark Annand @markannand.eurosky.social · 19/08/2026

Niche: if you need an end loop for an Aquila Red musical instrument string, avoid using a bowline knot. Currently trialling a perfection knot: watch this space...

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Mark Annand @markannand.eurosky.social · 14/08/2026

Looking east into Wiltshire's Box valley near Bath: much of the haze is smoke from distant wildfires in Wales (behind the camera).

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Mark Annand @markannand.eurosky.social · 12/08/2026

If you were underwhelmed by today's eclipse from the UK, you'd probably have felt the same about the August 21st 2017 eclipse from Shetland. This was just about its maximum... xjubier.free.fr/en/site_page...

August 2017 eclipse from Lerwick, Shetland.

August 2017 eclipse from Lerwick, Shetland - with added roof lines.

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Mark Annand @markannand.eurosky.social · 12/08/2026

Another lens flare. Or, a triple star system that includes a black dwarf, caught here as it eclipses another member of the system...

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Mark Annand @markannand.eurosky.social · 12/08/2026

Forcing a recalcitrant phone camera to record this. The lens flare by Kelston hill...

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Mark Annand @markannand.eurosky.social · 12/08/2026

Gathered in the cemetery round a laptop, watched the excellent esa feed. Joined by a lovely Hungarian family - a lot of impromptu translation ensued. East of Majorca, the sun has now set, taking the total eclipse with it. From Lansdown, Bath, the event gently unwinds. #eclipse

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Mark Annand @markannand.eurosky.social · 12/08/2026

Lansdown, Bath, eclipse time. The heat's bleeding away. A gleam of reflection from the tidal Severn estuary.

Lansdown, Bath, hillside and eclipse watchers. A gleam of reflection from the tidal Severn estuary.

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Mark Annand @markannand.eurosky.social · 12/08/2026

The eclipse now thoroughly under way from Bath, but here's a Westray memory group. Bookmark by Wheeling Steen gallery. Ceramic drain fragment by who knows who.

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Mark Annand @markannand.eurosky.social · 12/08/2026

Another view. Unusually for an open cluster, spectrographic analysis reveals only very weak absorption lines from CH₃CH₂OH.

Astronomers in the field, Lansdown, Bath.

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Mark Annand @markannand.eurosky.social · 12/08/2026

Lansdown. The Bath astronomers gather for eclipse duty. Pls do not read the alt text thq.

A distant open cluster of astronomers, magnitude 5.4. Easy observation with the naked eye given dark skies, or with field glasses.

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Mark Annand @markannand.eurosky.social · 08/08/2026

Mid-morning in April 2026. Briefly, that huge Severn tidal range has brought the water to the village of Pill on the Bristol Avon. A cat gazes at the recurrent strangeness.

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Mark Annand @markannand.eurosky.social · 05/08/2026

The previous-era Caledonian Sleeper sometimes ran with things missing. I'm bringing to mind January 2017, & the leg to Fort William. ✅ Traction power. ✅ Crew. ✅ Passengers. ✅ Clear skies and stunning sunrise. ... and, a walk to the seated carriage revealed... ✅ Catering. ❌ Heating. ❌ Lighting.

January 21st 2017: Corrour Station from the Caledonian Sleeper.

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Mark Annand @markannand.eurosky.social · 05/08/2026

I can now catch an electric bus - but there are no plans for its route to connect to the bus network or the railway station. Once at the station I can catch an electric train - equipped to run on fossil fuel as plans to electrify the line ground to a halt several years ago with the job half-done.

Class 80x roof equipment and pantograph, stowed.

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Mark Annand @markannand.eurosky.social · 01/08/2026

*Picks self up* End of a row of the same, a vehicle's width in length, set in a road surface perpendicular to the pavement. It's there to prevent people in vehicles reversing into the set of cycle stands but it also makes for a first class trip hazard, yes?

A bit like a kerb, but perpendicular to the kerb, vehicle is parked next to the pavement and it delineates the end of the parking bays.

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