iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Stephen Lowe Watson @stephenlowewatson.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

Ivy flowers are opening and it's literally buzzing with bees - ivy bees and honey bees, I think

Stephen Lowe Watson @stephenlowewatson.bsky.social · 12/09/2026

Today's #BirdOfTheDay theme from @helenbennett.bsky.social is #BirdsInAbstract A collared dove perches at the centre of our local web

Silhouetted dove perched on one of many wires radiating out from a pole, against a banded blue-grey sky

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Stephen Lowe Watson @stephenlowewatson.bsky.social · 31/08/2026

Our garden sparrows have been having quite a party, gorging on pyracantha berries #BirdsUpClose #BirdOfTheDay #Birds

A small brown bird (female house sparrow) on top of a branch with green leaves and bright orange berries. She has a berry in her bill.

Small bird with grey, black and chestnut plumage (male house sparrow) surrounded by green leaves and bright orange pyracantha berries

Two small fluffy brown birds (immature house sparrows) on top of a pyracantha bush covered with orange berries

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Stephen Lowe Watson @stephenlowewatson.bsky.social · 28/08/2026

A couple of shots of this morning's partial lunar eclipse, just before dawn

Partially eclipsed moon, rusty brown with a bright strip top left.

Partially eclipsed moon setting over wooded landscape in a deep grey-blue dawn sky. Only the sunlit portion is visible, giving the appearance of an upside-down crescent moon

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Stephen Lowe Watson @stephenlowewatson.bsky.social · 12/08/2026

A marmalade hoverfly on bog asphodel - taken back in 2017 at Chailey Common, Sussex

Hoverfly with black, white and orange stripes feeding on bright yellow flowers with bottle brush like stamens

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Stephen Lowe Watson @stephenlowewatson.bsky.social · 12/08/2026

A comparison of binoculars versus a cullender for partial eclipse viewing.

Two U shaped crescents form a double image of the sun at partial eclipse maximum. The hourglass is an artifact caused by the light passing between the binocular tubes.

Multiple U shaped crescents formed by light passing through a cullender on to a white card at partial solar eclipse maximum.

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Stephen Lowe Watson @stephenlowewatson.bsky.social · 12/08/2026

Lewes Castle photographed during this evening's partial solar eclipse. You can just about see the people eclipse-watching at the top of Mount Caburn behind it. #Sussex #SouthDowns

A rounded hill (Mount Caburn), mostly parched yellow-brown due to the drought; a white cliff at its foot, and in front the flint keep of Lewes Castle, on a mound surrounded by trees. A row of white houses at bottom right. Figures can be seen on the Iron Age hillfort at the hill.

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Stephen Lowe Watson @stephenlowewatson.bsky.social · 11/08/2026

A little mist drapes the Ashdown Forest ridges in the Sussex Weald at dawn

Yellow and orange sky over misty wooded hills, dim fields in the foreground

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Stephen Lowe Watson @stephenlowewatson.bsky.social · 11/08/2026

The old moon rose before sunrise this morning. Taken from the parched South Downs above Lewes looking towards Ashdown Forest. A late bat was still flitting around.

A thin crescent moon in a deep blue sky shading below through greens, yellows and orange over a dark landscape. The moon's Earth-lit disc is barely visible (the new moon in the arms of the old)

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Stephen Lowe Watson @stephenlowewatson.bsky.social · 02/08/2026

Rhapsody in Blue: a Holly Blue butterfly feeding on borage. The bees kept buzzing it away but it persisted. We watched it land on top of the flower and then climb round to the underneath to get the nectar. Photos: Zoë Watson @savebutterflies.bsky.social @sussexwildlife.bsky.social

Butterfly, pale silvery blue underwings with black spots resting on the back of a downward facing hairy blue borage flower.

Butterfly, pale silvery blue underwings with black spots clinging to the underside of a downward facing blue borage flower, with its proboscis inserted into centre of the flower. Light shining through the translucent petals makes them appear silver spotted.

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Stephen Lowe Watson @stephenlowewatson.bsky.social · 15/07/2026

Now reading: King Arthur's Place in Prehistory by W. A. Cummins (1992). His thesis: Arthur & Merlin were folk memories of a Bronze Age king and his architect, responsible for the final phase of Stonehenge. #books #legends #archeology #prehistory

Book cover: King Arthur's Place in Prehistory
The Great Age of Stonehenge
W. A. Cummins
14th illustration showing Merlin setting a lintel stone

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Stephen Lowe Watson @stephenlowewatson.bsky.social · 11/07/2026

Up at 5am to admire sunrise over the Sussex weald before watering the allotment, harvesting courgettes and picking blackberries for breakfast in the cool of the day

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Stephen Lowe Watson @stephenlowewatson.bsky.social · 22/06/2026

Sunrise over the Sussex Weald this morning, looking northeast from Landport Bottom, Lewes @southdownsnp.bsky.social @southdownsfans.bsky.social

Orange sky with light clouds over a misty landscape. Darker treetops in the foreground.

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Stephen Lowe Watson @stephenlowewatson.bsky.social · 20/06/2026

Today is #ShowYourStripes day - a day to show your climate stripes to raise awareness. These are for Brighton, the nearest available to use here in Lewes. You can get your stripes here: showyourstripes.info

A bar chart showing the rise in average temperature over the past century and more for Brighton, the nearest large town to my home. At the left the stripes are blue, showing cooler temperatures, at the right red for hotter ones.

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Stephen Lowe Watson @stephenlowewatson.bsky.social · 23/05/2026

Here's a Maigold rose for you - though this year she was blooming from early April

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Stephen Lowe Watson @stephenlowewatson.bsky.social · 23/05/2026

I don't think I've ever seen a nasturtium flower this early #gardening #climate

Orange-red nasturtium flower and part of leaf

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Stephen Lowe Watson @stephenlowewatson.bsky.social · 01/05/2026

A woodpigeon's May morning bathing ritual: "First I stretch my right wing, and then I stretch my left wing, and then I have to see off the jackdaw, and then I just sits in the water and thinks for a while...." #birds

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Stephen Lowe Watson @stephenlowewatson.bsky.social · 27/04/2026

Zoë Watson's sharp eyes spotted this Green Hairstreak #butterfly feeding from forget-me-knots today, otherwise I'd not have got a photo. @sussexwildlife.bsky.social @savebutterflies.bsky.social

Green winged butterfly with black and white striped antenna dipping its proboscis into a pale blue flower with a white and yellow centre.

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Stephen Lowe Watson @stephenlowewatson.bsky.social · 16/04/2026

I couldn't resist a blue tit amongst the apple buds #birds

Blue tit (small bird with yellow chest ,white face, black eye stripe and blue crown) perched on an apple branch with green leaves and pink flower buds

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Stephen Lowe Watson @stephenlowewatson.bsky.social · 22/03/2026

A dunnock keeping an eye on our local allotments #birds

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Stephen Lowe Watson @stephenlowewatson.bsky.social · 09/03/2026

A few more images from today's visit to Brandy Hole Copse, Chichester, a beautiful wood and very atmospheric in the mist #trees #nature #Sussex

Trunk of an oak tree reflected in a woodland pond

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Stephen Lowe Watson @stephenlowewatson.bsky.social · 09/03/2026

Reflections. Brandy Hole Copse, Chichester.

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Stephen Lowe Watson @stephenlowewatson.bsky.social · 06/03/2026

This morning, a small charm of goldfinches were still enjoying seeds on a lavender we didn't cut back after flowering (like you're supposed to!) #birds @rspb.bsky.social @sussexwildlife.bsky.social

Goldfinch (small bird with thick beak, red and white face, white spots on black feathers and flashes of yellow wing bars) perched on grey lavender seed heads

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Stephen Lowe Watson @stephenlowewatson.bsky.social · 24/02/2026

Just as Zoë and I were having a go at the old time Music Hall number "When the Summer Comes Again", this brimstone butterfly flutters past the window in the sunshine and poses on some ivy for Zoë. Magic! @savebutterflies.bsky.social @sussexwildlife.bsky.social #ukwildlife

Brimstone butterfly (yellow-green with brown spots mimicking leaf rust) resting on dark green ivy.

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Stephen Lowe Watson @stephenlowewatson.bsky.social · 23/02/2026

Male house sparrow snapped this morning stealing the jute twine I use to tie in roses. It'll make good nesting material. If he's not careful, the branch will spring up taking him with it... #birds

Male house sparrow on a rose branch with a moustache of brown twine threads in his bill, that he's just torn off from where the rose is attached to a chestnut arch.

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Stephen Lowe Watson @stephenlowewatson.bsky.social · 14/02/2026

It's that time of year when even ornamental tortoises feel the sunshine, smell the violets and dream of love

Front half of a grey aluminium tortoise among green leaves and violet flowers of Sweet Violet (Viola odorata)

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Stephen Lowe Watson @stephenlowewatson.bsky.social · 02/02/2026

A polar anti-vortex is centred on the UK right now. These are stratospheric winds; image from earth.nullschool.net#current/wind...

A false colour image of stratospheric winds (10hPa) showing a polar vortex (anticlockwise) stretched between Canada and Siberia, and an anti-vortex (clockwise) centred directly over Britain.

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Stephen Lowe Watson @stephenlowewatson.bsky.social · 01/02/2026

Think this might be a buff-tailed bumblebee enjoying the snowdrops in our garden yesterday - it was still January! Photo: Zoë Watson.

Bumblebee clinging upside down to white snowdrop flowers

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Stephen Lowe Watson @stephenlowewatson.bsky.social · 29/12/2025

#BirdOfTheDay theme is #BirdButts, according to @robcrank68.bsky.social. You asked for it, you got it. Goldfinch on lavender. Five gold rings today, too.

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Stephen Lowe Watson @stephenlowewatson.bsky.social · 27/12/2025

Ponies on the South Downs on the site of the Battle of Lewes, munching rough grass; helping to restore species-rich chalk grassland where, back in 1264, Simon de Montfort's rebels charged down towards Lewes Castle and victory over King Henry III and Prince Edward. #Sussex

Brown and white ponies grazing in front of trees and house roofs. Part of Lewes town is visible behind including the castle keep atop a high mound; behind that, chalk cliffs and grassy slopes of a rounded hill (Mount Caburn, with an iron age hillfort on top). Windover hill further distant.

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Stephen Lowe Watson @stephenlowewatson.bsky.social · 25/12/2025

Christmas rosebuds - Mme. Alfred Carrière and Maigold today.

A white rosebud just starting to unfurl against a blue sky

A yellow rosebud just starting to unfurl against a blue sky. A bit of clematis stem in the top left.

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Stephen Lowe Watson @stephenlowewatson.bsky.social · 19/12/2025

A grey wagtail spotted by the side of the River Ouse in Lewes on this morning's high tide #birds

Bird with long tail and slender bill, grey above and yellow below especially under the tail, wading among grass stems in shallow brownish water.

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Stephen Lowe Watson @stephenlowewatson.bsky.social · 17/12/2025

Someone's been busily burrowing in this woodland floor - and the entrance is decorated with candles. Candlesnuff fungus, anyway. Chailey Common, Sussex #fungifriends @sussexwildlife.bsky.social

A small hole in the ground with a pile of disturbed earth in front of it, surrounded by green moss (with grey stalks of candlesnuff fungus) and brown fallen oak leaves.

Close up showing grey fingers of candlesnuff fungus growing out of a mossy piece of decaying wood

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Stephen Lowe Watson @stephenlowewatson.bsky.social · 17/12/2025

Some fungi spotted on trees and fallen logs on Chailey Common, Sussex this afternoon. Yellow Brain is unmistakable; the other two might be Crimped Gill and Hoof fungus #fungifriends 🍄📸

A convoluted mass of bright yellow fungus attached to a branch covered in green moss and silver gray lichen

A cluster of pale grey-white fungi with wrinkled/crimped pseudo-gills attached to a dark grey log among dead leaves and grass

Dark grey bracket fungus growing on a silver birch log

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Stephen Lowe Watson @stephenlowewatson.bsky.social · 11/12/2025

A slightly gibbous half moon before sunrise this morning

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Stephen Lowe Watson @stephenlowewatson.bsky.social · 09/12/2025

Cleaned out our starling nestbox in which a brood was successfully raised this year. Sterilised with boiling water as per @rspb.bsky.social instructions. The box was from CJ Wildlife; the balcony is supposed to protect from predators but we thought it suggested a Tudor makeover. #birds

Starling's nest in box - lots of dried leaves and a few feathers

Starling's nest removed from box - lots of dried leaves and a few feathers

An adult starling flies from a mock-Tudor nest box hanging fom a brick wall. The bird has wings outstretched and mouth open.

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