@linuxlucy@mastodon.org.uk
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linuxlucy

@linuxlucy@mastodon.org.uk

Tech. Cycling. Nature.

Mostly posting wildlife photos.

Based in Manchester, UK

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linuxlucy, to manchester
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The Trees Not Cars campaign is making a renewed push for some much needed green space in central Manchester. They've been pushing for the former Central Retail Park in Ancoats (on Great Ancoats Street, right next to a Primary School) to be made into a park. The council thinks we need new offices and don't care about the extra pollution or the quality of life for those living nearby.

Please sign the petition, every signature helps.

๐ŸŒณ๐Ÿ“๐Ÿ›๐ŸŒณ๐Ÿ“๐Ÿ›๐ŸŒณ๐Ÿ›๐Ÿ“๐ŸŒณ

https://you.38degrees.org.uk/petitions/trees-not-cars-a-new-park-in-manchester

linuxlucy, to Birds
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Moorhen chick.

April, 2024. Tameside, UK.

linuxlucy, to random
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My partner and I recently travelled to four different places in the Netherlands over 8 days, by train. Here's the ๐Ÿงต.

We had to take a taxi to/from Stockport station because our local train service wasn't running (a story for another thread), but otherwise we used trains/buses/bikes/walking to get around. No planes or cars.

We saw lots of interesting things, climbed a hill, ate food food and generally had a lot of fun.

A double decker train in Rotterdam station. The sun is shining and an empty platform is visible in the foreground.
Screenshot from the Interrail app showing summary statistics of the journey. In particular, 2,074 km travelled, on 12 trains, over 18 hours.

linuxlucy,
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We arrived in London at 8.30 in the morning, having set off at 6am and really needed a coffee at that point (fortunately there's a good place next to the British library on Euston rd).

We found that train stations in the Netherlands are really easy to navigate & well laid out. We had some tight connections at times, but these turned out not to be a problem.

The final photo here shows Rotterdam station with our Eurostar train on the right. The small grey rectangles in the roof are solar panels.

St Pancras station next to the Eurostar terminal, with the sun shining through the glass roof.
Rotterdam station, overlooking the platforms, with a Eurostar train on the right and other local services either side.

linuxlucy,
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The interrail app is really good and makes travel easy. You don't need internet access to look up trains or to add them to the pass, but you do need internet access to activate a ticket (this makes sense but was annoying on a few occasions).

Seat reservations aren't normally required in the Netherlands, which makes travel really flexible with an interrail pass. Even for some of the longer journeys, we didn't need to decide when we were travelling until late in the day.

linuxlucy,
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We weren't in Utrecht for long, but it was a lovely city. Very pretty and very walkable.

I also ate (veggie) bitterballen and hagelswag. We also hired bikes and rode out into the countryside.

Hagelswag (aka a bottle of chocolate sprinkles).
A traditional canal scene, with a small bridge, some bicycles and some old narrow buildings on either side.
A row of old cottages, with a bike chained up outside. There are some purple flowers growing around the wooden window frames of the cottages.

linuxlucy,
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Next up, Maastricht. This was quite a surprising city, more generally European than traditionally Dutch. It also had hills and caves and a bookshop in an old church.

A view of the river Maas with the old stone bridge in the distance. Buildings, including a church are visible on the right and trees to the left.
A view out onto an old limestone quarry, with some small rolling hills in the background.
The evening sun is shining low in between some old, tall buildings. There's a bicycle leaning up against the wall on the left.

linuxlucy, to random
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Sharing this graphic to help put today's attacks by the Tories on cyclists into some kind of perspective.

Their hate has real world implications, from cyclists being less safe as a result of harassment/attacks and by shifting the discussion away from the infrastructure improvements that would make everyone's lives better and safer.

๐Ÿšด๐ŸŒ

linuxlucy, to Birds
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One smol step...

I was fortunate enough to spend some time with a family of moorhens a few weeks back. It's taken me a while to edit the photos, but this is the first photo of one of the chicks.

April 2024, Tameside UK.

linuxlucy, to wildlife
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I had a great lunch companion today, a sleepy wood mouse.

Phone photo, obviously, because I don't carry a real camera when cycling. As an aside, it was great to see so many people of all ages out cycling today.

๐Ÿ๐Ÿšฒ

#wildlife #wildlifePhotography #UKWildlife #mouse #mice #phonePhotography

pwaring, to Bread
@pwaring@fosstodon.org avatar

People who make their own bread or soup: is it possible to do this without using a lot of salt but still have an acceptable taste? I really like both bread and soup but anything pre-made has huge amounts of salt in (2g for a tin of soup, 0.5-0.8g for every couple of slices of bread or a roll, so a serving of soup + bread is often >50% of the RDA for salt).

linuxlucy,
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@pwaring In addition to the books you're getting on Sunday, I recommend taking a look at this book. As it's focusing on budget recipes they have very few ingredients, which makes it good when you're just starting out. It's also got an excellent list of the things you need to kit out a kitchen.

You only need a saucepan for making soup, even a blender of any kind is optional just as long as you don't mind it being a bit chunky.

https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/253666/a-girl-called-jack-by-monroe-jack/9780718178949

linuxlucy,
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@pwaring would you like opinions on your kitchen? ๐Ÿ˜

Is it a combined oven + hob? I would definitely recommend replacing it with an induction hob, if you can, although it might require an electrician. What would change if you replaced the kitchen? E.g would you change the layout or would a new counter allow you to get a different size hob?

pwaring, to random
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Is there an authoritative way of finding out whether the public has access to a road (or part of) in England? I've just walked past a business unit on the continuation of what I'm pretty sure is a public highway and a speaker told me to 'leave the site immediately or response will be deployed'.

linuxlucy,
@linuxlucy@mastodon.org.uk avatar

@pwaring this might be something that one of your local councillors might be able to help with? Failing that, there's a very geeky discord of active travel folks that might be able to help (WalkRideGM); I can send a link to join if you're interested.

davidho, to random
@davidho@mastodon.world avatar

Found my dream car

linuxlucy,
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@tshirtman why not just ban the larger cars then?

linuxlucy, to Birds
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This is not my swan..

This mute swan visited my local patch for a few days, with his mate and a friend. Unfortunately, the resident swans weren't a fan, so all three have now been chased off. I was hoping to be able to provide more details because all three swans were ringed, but all I can say is that he was ringed as a female swan either in Failsworth or Salford Quays and is at least two years old ๐Ÿคท.

#swan #birds #birdsUK #birdPhotography

linuxlucy,
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This is (still) not my swan..

Same swan as the previous post, just a slightly different angle. The facial knob (yes, it's really called that) is clearly visible in this photo and is quite pronounced, although not as large as our resident male swan. The beak is quite pale, which I think is a sign that they're still quite young.

Feb 2024. Stockport, UK.

#swan #birds #birdsUK #birdPhotography

linuxlucy,
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This is (also) not my swan..

This is an (almost) four year old male, ringed two years ago in Sale. He visited Failsworth in December and met up with at least one of the others there. Unfortunately, he was being chased by the resident pair and the other visiting pair, but he seemed quite happy and healthy otherwise.

I know this because the ringer keeps some very good records and is happy to share the info when a report is made.

Feb 2024. Stockport, UK.

#swan #birds #birdsUK #birdPhotography

linuxlucy,
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This is my swan!

His name is Ivan and he's around ten years old. He's been on my local pond for about the last 5 years and he's the reason we don't have the 3 new mute swans, the black swan, greylag geese and quite a few other birds. It's his territory and that's the way he likes it.

It's just possible to see the blue plastic ring on his right leg. It's those rings and the work of quite a few volunteers that means I could tell the story of these swans.

#birds #birdsUK #swan #birdPhotography

linuxlucy, to cycling
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Did you know that Manchester is the European capital of cycling in 2024?

Station South in Levenshulme held a launch event today. I stopped by briefly and had a look. It was a bit underwhelming and I'm still not sure what it's going to bring to the city. Station South felt great as ever and were holding no less than five separate group rides, but then they do that regardless.

https://mcrcapitalofcycling24.com/about-us

linuxlucy,
@linuxlucy@mastodon.org.uk avatar

The swag sums it up really; a focus on sharing info about existing initiatives and hi-hiz, which is really more car infrastructure than anything to do with improving cycling. I suspect most of it will be used by our household for winter walking.

It's frustrating because TFGM have some fantastic cycling initiatives: https://beeactive.tfgm.com/cycling

It's really the lack of safe infrastructure that's holding the city back. It's not clear to me how much of this money will go towards that.

xvilo, to random
@xvilo@mastodon.org.uk avatar

Sorry for the prolonged downtime, the OS disk got full and I was occupied with work questions so I did not notice it being down. Enlarged the disk for now (yes, the postgres db hit a fair 125 gbs)

linuxlucy,
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@xvilo thank you!

That's a pretty big database..

linuxlucy,
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@xvilo ๐Ÿค

linuxlucy, to wildlife
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Black swans are native to Australia and New Zealand. However, they're present in the UK as a result of being released or escaping from captivity. There is now a very small breeding population in the UK. I couldn't find a population estimate, but there's been a 78% increase in numbers since 1995.

This one arrived on my local patch this week and had quite an effect.

Jan 2024. Stockport, UK

#bird #birdsUK #birdPhotography #wildlife #wildlifePhotography #swan #blackSwan

linuxlucy,
@linuxlucy@mastodon.org.uk avatar

After arriving on my local patch, people are now stopping and excitedly talking about the new swan, asking if she's okay and still there, rather than walking by with a simple nod. The locals are protective and keeping her fed in the hope she'll stay.

Maybe she'll be a catalyst for more people learning about nature and wanting to protect it, or maybe the volume of visitors will scare her off and people will move on to the next thing. Who knows.

#blackSwan #swan #bird #birdsUK #birdPhotography

linuxlucy, to climate
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This is a truly excellent blog post, one in a series about the climate crisis. However, it's more than just that. It has something for everyone and is packed full of facts and references.

Did you know that we spend ยฃ7billion a year on aviation subsidies? Or that fuel duty has been frozen for over a decade? Or even that making bus travel free for everyone would only cost ยฃ2billion?

There's some practical advice at the end too.

https://mastodon.green/@Philsturgeon/111691522942400180

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