Bert Thomson

@westcoastsmirr.bsky.social

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Scottish, European, Scottish Book Trust New Writers Award. Born @ 312.2 ppm. MD Ant. Largs Thistle F.C.
books, writing, music, art, film, photo, nature, climate.
'cela nous concerne tous'

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Climate expert Chris Stark appointed to lead UK clean energy taskforcewww.theguardian.com ‘Mission control centre’ to work with energy companies and regulators towards goal of clean and cheaper power by 2030

Just read this by Claire Dederer What do we do about undeniably great art made by undeniably flawed people, some of them seriously criminal? There is of course, no definite answer and in the end each one of us has to decide for ourselves what we can live with, what we might excuse, to have that art.

S'il vouz plaît, faites ce qu'il faut aujourd'hui en France et gardez l'êxtreme droite à l'écart. Bonne chance.

En direct, législatives 2024 : suivez la journée du second tour, avant la publication des premiers résultats et estimations à 20 heures

En direct, législatives 2024 : suivez la journée du second tour, avant la publication des premiers résultats et estimations à 20 heureswww.lemonde.fr Le Rassemblement national espère arriver en tête, dimanche soir, malgré le fait que plus de 220 candidats, majoritairement du Nouveau Front populaire et d’Ensemble, se sont désistés dans l’entre-deux-tours pour faire barrage au parti d’extrême droite.

It's a total joy to see the back of the Tories after a desperate and failed 14 years. The concern though, is that Labour does too little in the next 5 years, and I do have those concerns. To quote E.M.Forster then, 'Two Cheers for Democracy ', not three.

As well as all the other good things happening today, it's our 43rd wedding anniversary so, a big night of celebration.

Today's the day. So long, you, toxic, selfish, hateful, greedy, planet destroying, pricks. Don't let the door hit your arses on the way out.

‘Here comes the sun’: Zadie Smith on hope, trepidation and rebirth after 14 years of the Tories www.theguardian.com/politics/art...

‘Here comes the sun’: Zadie Smith on hope, trepidation and rebirth after 14 years of the Torieswww.theguardian.com I used to shock US audiences with my stories of Britain’s excellent, accessible universities and healthcare. Then the Conservatives ruined the country. Now real change is on the horizon

The Waterboys tonight with daughters 1 and 2 at The Big Top on the recs at Queen's Park. Looking forward to it. There are three other bands, a couple of them excellent, but daughter no. 2 is enceinte, and so we'll give most of them a miss and get down in the evening. 'This Is The Sea.'

The Waterboys - This Is The Seayoutu.be The Waterboys - This Is The Sea, This Is The Sea (1985)Lyrics:These things you keepYou'd better throw them awayYou wanna turn your backOn your soulless daysO...

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Well done to the Aljazeera Inside Story team for this segment. We are rapidly shifting into a new reality and there is no question that we need *urgent* adaptation strategies alongside slamming the brakes on emissions to prevent a really bad situation from getting much worse. #ClimateCrisis

How extreme are global weather conditions so far this year?www.aljazeera.com Heatwaves set records, and floods and storms become more frequent.

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We need to get *everyone* on planet Earth to grasp this most vital truth, and into the fight for the natural world. No nature, no us. 🌏

Bristol today. Very little Banksy and no Colston at all. The council did for most of the Banksy, the citizens did for Colston.

Down in that England they've got now. In Laurie Lee's local for dinner last night. Cider with Diane.

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Henri Matisse La Tristesse du roi

#Alphabetchallenge #WeekW W is for Waverley and 'doon the Waater'

Richard Thompson last night at the Concert Hall. Committed as ever. Just great. This is 'Beeswing', his part elegy for Anne Briggs.

Richard Thompson - Beeswingyoutu.be I was nineteen when I came to town, they called it the Summer of Love They were burning babies, burning flags. The hawks against the doves I took a job in the steamie down on Cauldrum Street And I fell in love with a laundry girl who was working next to me Oh she was a rare thing, fine as a bee's wing So fine a breath of wind might blow her away She was a lost child, oh she was running wild She said "As long as there's no price on love, I'll stay. And you wouldn't want me any other way" Brown hair zig-zag around her face and a look of half-surprise Like a fox caught in the headlights, there was animal in her eyes She said "Young man, oh can't you see I'm not the factory kind If you don't take me out of here I'll surely lose my mind" Oh she was a rare thing, fine as a bee's wing So fine that I might crush her where she lay She was a lost child, she was running wild She said "As long as there's no price on love, I'll stay. And you wouldn't want me any other way" We busked around the market towns and picked fruit down in Kent And we could tinker lamps and pots and knives wherever we went And I said that we might settle down, get a few acres dug Fire burning in the hearth and babies on the rug She said "Oh man, you foolish man, it surely sounds like hell. You might be lord of half the world, you'll not own me as well" Oh she was a rare thing, fine as a bee's wing So fine a breath of wind might blow her away She was a lost child, oh she was running wild She said "As long as there's no price on love, I'll stay. And you wouldn't want me any other way" We was camping down the Gower one time, the work was pretty good She thought we shouldn't wait for the frost and I thought maybe we should We was drinking more in those days and tempers reached a pitch And like a fool I let her run with the rambling itch Oh the last I heard she's sleeping rough back on the Derby beat White Horse in her hip pocket and a wolfhound at her feet And they say she even married once, a man named Romany Brown But even a gypsy caravan was too much settling down And they say her flower is faded now, hard weather and hard booze But maybe that's just the price you pay for the chains you refuse Oh she was a rare thing, fine as a bee's wing And I miss her more than ever words could say If I could just taste all of her wildness now If I could hold her in my arms today Well I wouldn't want her any other way

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Paris By 𝘛𝘰𝘥𝘥 𝘞𝘦𝘣𝘣 (1949)

#alphabetchallenge #weekV V is for Viking and a home town that still trades on a Scots/Viking battle approximately 760 years ago. Practically yesterday.

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‘Memory is such a shifty and shifting process, constantly duping us. What we are remembering is not just the painting itself but its effect on us.’ Julian Barnes on art and memory: www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...

Julian Barnes · Diary: Art and Memorywww.lrb.co.uk We think we remember works of art rather well; and probably assume that the greater the work of art, and the more...

A wee warning for everybody. Grandsons 1and 2, one of them in the east highlands,one of them on the west coast, have both picked up ticks in the countryside this weekend. It may therefore be a summer for ticks and maybe long trousers if you're out in the country. Maybe buy some tick tools too.

#alphabetchallenge #weekT T is for train station. This is Wemyss Bay in Renfrewshire, Scotland. The first photo is a general view of the station showing the glass roof, ticket office and platforms, the second is of the passenger ferry ramp leading from the station to the Wemyss Bay/Rothesay ferry.

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Yep. www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

'utterly essential to Glasgow's sense of itself'

Glasgow’s burned-out marvel: will the restoration of Mackintosh’s School of Art ever happen?www.theguardian.com People wept in the street when the magnificent Mackintosh building was nearly destroyed by two fires. So why, 10 years on, is there still no plan – or funding – for its repair?

The Guardian view on the climate emergency: we cannot afford to despair | Editorialwww.theguardian.com Editorial: Top experts believe global temperatures will rise by at least 2.5C above pre-industrial levels by 2100. That frightening prediction must spur us to action

#alphabetchallenge #weekS S is for Solway.

This is a great picture, but not why I follow @richardmortimer.bsky.social .Taken cumulatively his feed amounts to a deeply humane portrait of ordinary English people and life there.(and god knows, I've spent a lot of time trying to understand the English 😀) Do yourselves a favour and follow.

Pub Portraits Mark, Live and Let Live

'the sunset on fire...' looking west from St Catherine's Loch Fyne, about two minutes ago.

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Caravaggio’s dramatic Death of the Virgin was apparently modelled on a drowned sex worker, with dirty bare feet, who'd solicited near the church where it was to be hung (c 1605). Guess what, it was rejected as unseemly & replaced with the work at R hyperallergic.com/483587/jewel...

#Alphabetchallenge #WeekQ Q is for Quant and two tickets for the V&A Mary Quant exhibition, at Kelvingrove last year.