Sim Elliott

A walk from my house to the post office. Urban street trees, here Ulmus minor, are really important substrates for lichens & bryophytes. Probably Flavoparmelia caperata, Syntrichia laevipila, Alyxoria varia & Lecanora chlarotera. All common but important to record; as there are few urban records

Good job I can identify the liverwort Myriocoleopsis minutissima fairly easily with a hand lens; if I had left it to iRecord photo ID I might have recorded it as an Otter - their top suggestion. I can see the similarity.

Buongiorno, signore Opilio canestrinii. Canestrini's Harvestman; spotted by @colinpiper55.bsky.social. Male as has yellow "knees"; on underside of Hart's-tongue Fern in Limekiln Wood, Stanmer, Brighton. A non-native species probably from Italy First recorded in Essex in 1999. #harvestman

Seemingly the grave of William Edward Johnson 1812–1867 at the foot of the Soft-Shield Fern/Hart's-tongue Fern filled chalk pit in Limekiln Wood, Stanmer, Brighton. nothing about this on-line. Is it unusual for people to have grave stones in woods? @hellohistoria.bsky.social @lkremmel.bsky.social

Always fun to see Myriocoleopsis minutissima, Minute Pouncewort; it's Latin species' name is more apt: very minute! Pretty common in Sussex - if you use a hand lens. In Limekiln Wood, Stanmer, Brighton. An C18 wood around a former chalk pit; a very wet wood. @bbsbryology.bsky.social

Favoparmelia caperata with apothecia on Malus domestica in a 70 year old orchard (Home Farm Orchard Stanmer Park) Brighton. Fertile F. caperata relatively common on these apple trees. #lichenGBI

A very bluish Metzgeria violacea. I wondered why the vernacular name of M. violacea was bluish veilwort; now I know! Its blue when dry. Never seen it like that before. On Elder in chalk stream incised valley on scarp slope of South Downs; on a fab @bbsbryology.bsky.social Sussex Bryophytes trip

Squinancywort, Cynanchica pyrenaica, still in flower, outside its typical flowering period, on the south-facing wall of the relict chalk pit on Newtimber Hill, South Downs, yesterday. A microclimate with high albedo effect.

A “bristly bum” (basal scutellar bristles) parasitoid Tachinidae fly. RSPB Pagham Harbour. I think Cylindromyia brassicaria; “a rarity that is mostly recorded from coastal grassland” areas. (Falk). First records in Sussex 2025. Have iRecorded.

Fertile Physcia tenella on a fallen Oak twig. Leading a lichen walk at RSPB Pagham Harbour. #lichenGBI

Oh, Donald . . . That's not a gym. It's a gay bathhouse. And you have *never* looked like that.

"Post-mortem evidence suggests five Hen Harrier chicks found dead in nest on grouse moor in northern England had injuries consistent with being stabbed" I repeat: This evidence suggests that 5 helpless nestlings were stabbed while alive in the nest! And we call this a "nation of nature lovers".

www.theguardian.com/environment/...

Did a recce today for a walk I’m leading for @rbgkew.bsky.social Wakehurst volunteer guides. They particularly wanted to know what was on the introduced trees around the Elizabethan House. All the lichens I saw were common lichens of broad-leaved High Weald woodland. Lots and lots of Usnea cornuta!

Nice lichen combo on Quercus robur, at @rbgkew.bsky.social Wakehurst. Ramalina fastigiata, a Candellaris sp. (a candle flame lichen) and Parmelia sulcata. #lichenGBI

Gave my new hand lens - an Eric Zimmerman Lichen candelaris x10 - a run today at Wakehurst. Very good but It has no case or lens protection so I bought some babies’ socks to protect it; and added a GPS tracker! #lichenGBI

Cladonia incrassata. Nationally scarce, but can be quite abundant where it grows on Ardingly Sandstone in the High Weald. Only two outcrops at Ardingly Sandstone rock walk at @rbgkew.bsky.social Wakehurst have it; but it is abundant on those. KC+yellow, UV+ white. Sessile apothecia. #lichenGBI

This will be memory of my stay in Nancy. Children being assaulted by the state. Yes these lycéens were causing disruption - that is the nature of a demonstration. They aren’t terrorists, armed insurgents or an invading army. In Saint-Ouen-l'Aumône a 14 yo was struck in the head by a tear gas grenade

My last post on Verdun is a happy one. Children AND adults were clearly having a great time at the Verdun Lego & Playmobile fair organised by the L’association du passionné du Nord in the old covered market. I enjoyed it too. I loved Lego as a child; & used it & Playmobile all the time in education.

The bar “The Smoking Rabbit” has bitten the dust in Verdun. Verdun looks quite run-down. The poverty rate in the Commune de Verdun (Meuse, France) stands at 22.0% based on official INSEE data, which is notably higher than the national metropolitan average of around 15.4%.

Best bit in the Strasbourg Zoological Museum was Leopold Blaschka (1822-1895) & his son Rudolf’s (1857-1939) glass-made models of marine invertebrates & microscopic soft-bodied sea animals. Strasbourg's Zoological Museum has 63 of the glass models; the only ones in France in a public collection.

Extras in an Upper Rhine workshop Nativity ca.1448. Cow: I tried to get into Grunewald’s big gig; he said I wasn’t mystical enough. Donkey: at least you got a chance, he decided to omit the Asses. This Rhine bloke’s hay is good but no one will ever see us, visitors don’t go in the Schongauer room

Upper Rhine workshop. Legend of St James: Miracle of the Roast Chicken c. 1490 and Ron Mueck, Still Life, 2010 Conversation(s) Musée Unterlinden Colmar. A judge expressed doubt about St James’s surviving being hanged - but the chicken the judge was to eat, grew feathers & flew out of the window

Today: Colmar to see the Isenheim Altarpiece by Hagenauer and Grünewald (1512–1516). Always good to see, but the temporary exhibition Conversation(s) was more interesting “a transhistorical journey that places the museum's medieval masterworks in direct dialogue with modern contemporary pieces.

The lower the designation of train in France, the better the graffiti. Now on TER Fluo Strasbourg to Colmar train and I am welcomed aboard by a Cthulhuesque monster. As the SNCF website puts it “combining regional rail lines, connecting buses, and intermodal soft mobility solutions”

Lichenology after buying mineral water in a Monoprix in Nancy. Pleurosticta acetabulum. The Catalogue des lichens of the Association Française de Lichénologie says “Corticolous, on deciduous trees ... on trees along roadsides, in orchards, pastures, open woodland. No mention of Minoprix car parks!

One thing I learned from my architect dad when visiting functionalist European city suburbs in our 70s holidays (what fun we had), is “look up and you’ll see a modernist marvel”. Voilà: a telegraph pole outside the 1950 Marché couvert d'Haussonville; a market that stills sells food! Function & form

Some of Nancy’s Art Deco houses, in the Nancy suburb of Villers-lès-Nancy; a “trou normand” (a palate cleanser in a French meal) - cleansing images of frothy Art Nouveau excess from my visual cortex. My KOSY Appart'Hôtel is located here. The KOSY Appart’Hôtel chain is excellent value for money.

SNCF toilets provide a view to the underlying structural racist, misogynistic nature of French society. All of the toilets I have used (lots because I’m 64) are staffed by African French women; I haven’t seen a single African French woman in an SNCF ticket office. No different to the UK though

Probably the sign of a former boucherie chevaline (horse butcher shop). Nancy

When a police force uses tear gas against legitimately protesting teenagers in the Place Stanislas (the most well known of Nancy’s tourist destinations) it is clear that it thinks using force against teenagers is legitimate. France - and much of Europe - is descending into barbarism.

Maison de Lotissement 24-26 rue Félix Fure, created by architect César Pain. With a high degree of architectural coherence, the street signifies the wealth of the admirers of Art Nouveau. The Ecole de Nancy was not just about natural forms; it was also the cultural capital of an elite class.

This caught my eye walking the Art Nouveau route. A Commandery (Knights Hospitallers) church, Saint-Jean-du-Vieil-Aître. C12 Romanesque. The tower is all that remains. A symbol of the spiritual & temporal power of Hospitallers in C12. Given rights by Dukes of Lorraine to raise agricultural tithes.

Now in the fabulous Art Nouveau Excelsior Cafe In Nancy watching teenagers through the window make the police - armed with shields, helmets, guns and tear-gas - run way. De l'audace, encore de l'audace, toujours de l'audace, et la patrie est sauvée!"

Tourism in the centre of Nancy today. Avoiding the tear gas that the police set off at the drop of a hat! Not a legitimate way to deal with protesting teenagers. What a disgustingly oppressive place France is becoming.

On holiday for a bit of a rest and get tear gassed in central Nancy! I was following the students on their strike against cuts - good for them - a few let some fire works off & the riot police turned up with shields & tear gas. Massive overreaction. L’esprit de 1968? Possibly. Young people led.