@ianhunt@mastodon.green
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ianhunt

@ianhunt@mastodon.green

Former Higher education worker at Goldsmiths | #GPEW | writer on art/sometimes architecture and social housing | reader -- ecology, environment, literary modernism & -wasm, contemporary poetry | mind-wandering | London, UK | he/him

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ianhunt, to pakistan
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Pakistan floods, one year on. 'Speaking at the launch of the report in Islamabad, Waseem Ahmad, chief executive of Islamic Relief Worldwide, stated: “No amount of financial aid can compensate those who have lost loved ones and seen their homes and everything they own destroyed. But we need to see climate justice, where the biggest polluters pay for the damage and destruction caused by climate change.' https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2023/aug/05/a-year-on-the-devastating-long-term-effects-of-pakistans-floods-are-revealed

ianhunt, to random
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Silent spring. This Pyracantha hedge (London, UK) last year was covered in insects . . . yesterday just a solitary Andrena scotica and a few honeybees and flies. Impressionistic records of insect population can't be more than that. Local weather conditions this year (esp that late frost) may be something to do with it -- has there been any discussion of this? But still, it's eerily silent. https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/may/28/conserve-insects-or-birds-will-vanish-with-them?fbclid=IwAR3BqZ1VlWy_ZsoPJD-C9sGFZJUTsGl-Pb2dts9zuT3wGDY1d-TYiCfXhH0

ianhunt, to random
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Tipula vernalis -- first one I've seen, a sign of Spring -- at Gillespie Park, , reclaimed from railway and industrial land. A common cranefly with an interesting wing pattern and striking green eyes. matters in different ways, and just as much, as .

ianhunt, (edited ) to random
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  1. Short thread. The stage of the Guildhall, King's Lynn, is doing the journalistic rounds as a heartwarming story today. Tree-ring dating confirms the boards were in place when is thought to have acted here. The Guildhall, is an amazing building, and also a rather dusty and neglected community resource -- which always made the 'Shakespeare was here' story a good one. https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2023/oct/05/boards-trodden-by-shakespeare-found-under-floor-of-norfolk-guildhall
ianhunt, to Sheffield
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Excellent exhibition in at Weston Park Museum: City of Rivers, on to November 2024. City museums inherit natural history, art and industrial & collections. This exhibition draws on and combines these and is packed with interest; it also pays tribute to those who are doing what they can to protect rivers (of course, it can't say 'co-operative control of water now'). I learned of it through poet Harriet Tarlo whose words are included. https://nowthenmagazine.com/articles/new-exhibition-set-to-transform-sheffields-view-of-itself-as-a-city-of-rivers-weston-park-museum

ianhunt, to random
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A week or so either side of northern summer we are able to watch the sun set between buildings on the other side of the courtyard, from the front door of flat (on top floor). The jasmine in the big pot is out and scents the air. For a moment, everything feels all right.

ianhunt, to random
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Late for -- we were working! Getting saplings out of the meadow on our plot at community garden. Tufted Vetch flourishing this year. That, and Meadow Vetchling are main pea family plants here; also Smooth Tare (lots), Hairy Tare (first time I've seen it on this patch), White Clover and one clump of Birdsfoot Trefoil. Much more ragwort this year; and Hogweed made first appearance. Grass and plant growth in general less, owing to lack of rainfall.

ianhunt, to Geology
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River Lavant, Chichester is a 'winterbourne', it runs dry in the summer. Parts that run through the city are paved -- you can walk it, dodging bridges. First visit to this interesting city -- I would like to return in winter or spring and see how much water is flowing. I think the immediate here is Greensand? No, chalk -- learning how to use the BGS map again. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Winterbourne_(stream)

ianhunt, to random
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Rokhaya Diallo on false secularism and Islamophobia in France https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2024/apr/12/ban-headscarves-france-secularism-exclusion-intolerance

ianhunt, to random
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Firebugs (Pyrrhocoris apterus) at the northern edge of their range in the UK. Described as 'nationally scarce' in my fairly recent insect book. They are clearly taking advantage of global heating. These were in Gillingham, Kent, yesterday, on a sunny bank. I will them as they are easily recognized and are one of several species that can help to track insect range in relation to climate.

ianhunt, to Hastings
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Lady's Smock Cardamine pratensis in Alexandra Park, . In Cabbage family. This was my first look at the park, which is a phenomenal place for wild flowers -- it is threaded through by streams. Book says it flowers in April so like everything else in this part of the global north it's early.

ianhunt, to random
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I have not been able to work on the local elections for in London this time round -- sickened and alas not surprised to read this https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2024/apr/27/tory-staff-running-network-of-anti-ulez-facebook-groups-riddled-with-racism-and-abuse

ianhunt, to random
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William Shoki and Bruce Baigrie in Africa is a Country: 'Ultimately, what supporters of Palestine must come to grips with is that neither the Algerian or South African cases offer a perfectly replicable pathway to ending apartheid in Israel.' https://africasacountry.com/2023/10/free-palestine

ianhunt, to random
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Good account of what's happening in the major oil companies right now & the role of the break even price. Kate Mackenzie. 'The buybacks, as much as they might be a repellent illustration of windfall profits arising from wars, are being conducted instead of investing in more upstream investment. Of course, this logic doesn't align with the much-repeated idea that “oil companies will have to be involved in the transition,” but neither do the actions of oil companies.' https://heatmap.news/economy/oil-companies-are-preparing-for-a-lucrative-decline

ianhunt, to random
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Good morning from my station at the washing up -- even the base of the mortar does good editorials on weather, history, carbon and

ianhunt, to books
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Was alerted to this list of recommendations (not all 'new' books) by Sascha Akhtar -- whose translations of Hijab Imtiaz Ali are included. Reminder that I needed to read Kim Hyesoon, among others . . . https://wordswithoutborders.org/read/article/2023-08/translators-recommend-women-in-translation-wwb/?src=mailchimp&mc_cid=27d6befe28&mc_eid=a220de40b0&fbclid=IwAR2gxxlpbyKT2Vlg4MIDeLdZfuaFjcPofCDj9b4-gbTwql3qN_ddbAocx_o

ianhunt, to Bloomscrolling
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Among the early flowering plants: Draba verna -- Common Whitlowgrass, in Brassicaceae. Growing here on moss forming on old concrete in front of some garages. Self-fertilising; flowers 'March-May' -- well, scratch that. This was on Feb 14, Kent, UK, one of many plants flowering early. Greetings to all people.

ianhunt, to pakistan
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Sign in my local shop, Kentish Town, London.

ianhunt, to random
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Clematis vitalba, in Buttercup family, with a honeybee. In a small park by a church on the way to the shops.

ianhunt, to climate
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See you in court. 'The UK is one of 32 countries being taken to the European court of human rights on Wednesday by a group of Portuguese young people. They will argue in the grand chamber of the Strasbourg court that the nations’ policies to tackle global heating are inadequate and in breach of their human rights obligations.' https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/sep/23/uk-one-of-32-countries-facing-european-court-human-rights-action-over-climate-stance

ianhunt, to random
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1 of 3/ Jenny Erpenbeck, Heimsuchung, 2008, translated as Visitation, 2010. I seem to have read very few C21 German writers, but have finally made a start on Jenny Erpenbeck, in Susan Bernofsky's brilliant translation, unaccountably not attributed on the cover of the book. Place and a building is centred here, not character as such -- or even 'history' as some kind of stand-in character.

thisismyglasgow, to glasgow
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I've always been intrigued by the similarities between these two buildings. On the left is a 1770s tenement on Gallowgate in Glasgow (containing the Heilan Jessie pub), while on the right is Charles Rennie MacKintosh's iconic 1902 Hill House in Helensburgh. Given that MacKintosh lived in Dennistoun until 1892, he would likely have passed the Gallowgate tenement, and I wonder if it acted as an inspiration for him.

ianhunt,
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@thisismyglasgow That's a v interesting post and I bet you are right -- that strong visual connection constitutes one of those many small theories one carries about that eventually make it into

timwaterman, to random
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Typical of Boys-Smith's narrow approach to call out the untidiness of 'snail trails' or 'street scars' but we really ought to think the whole mess through. Do we need a limited materials palette? Should utilities be buried/what's the carbon footprint of that? etc. https://www.theguardian.com/society/2024/feb/09/call-uk-utility-firms-higher-fines-street-scars-pavements

ianhunt,
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@timwaterman The narrowness of UK streets creates all kinds of problems for necessary adaptations and utilities too (they should all be nationalised and turned into co-ops ofc). I am spending more time out of London and I see narrow A-routes where every front garden is paved for cars, and a two-tier class system defined by whether people rely on buses. It would be possible to reimagine utilities provided differently, alongside and as part of cycle tracks. Massive investment in public transport!

ianhunt, to pakistan
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Deaths, injuries -- from building collapses and electrocution. Terrifying. 'Pakistan, which has the world’s fifth largest population, is responsible for less than 1% of global greenhouse gas emissions, according to officials. However, it is one of the most vulnerable countries to the extreme weather caused by global heating.' https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/jul/07/pakistan-monsoon-floods-punjab-province-deaths

ianhunt, to UKpolitics
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Comment on the UK General Election 2024 just in from a community garden near me.

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