Our look at some of the significant happenings 100 years ago this month.
1. Birth. Hans Werner Henze, German composer (d.2012)
9. In Portugal, General Óscar Carmona takes power in a military coup.
10. A bolt of lightning strikes Picatinny Arsenal in New Jersey; the resulting fire causes several million pounds of explosives to blow up in the next 2-3 days.
Some things, and thoughts, from June which I didn’t otherwise write about.
Monday 1
Looking at the trail camera shots for the last week I noticed that one of our (at least three) foxes has a striped tail. It was very noticeable side on at a distance, but less so when I saw the fox walking away from the camera. Sadly no useful image as it was low light and a low-res camera.
Tuesday 2
This afternoon we had not one, but two big thunderstorms. The first (about 14:30) was the larger and longer with some really torrential rain. It then drizzled on and off all afternoon until the second storm arrived about 17:00. Then it cleared to leave a nice sunny evening.
Thursday 4
A couple of evenings ago, there was a wonderful fire-breathing dragon in the western sky.
Not a brilliant photo as it was a grab shot, through the window with my phone – and a few minutes earlier the cloud had been less linear and more dragon-like.
Sunday 7
What a dismal day. Grey, windy and should have been raining. Inside I felt completely drained, stressed and depressed. Everything enlivened slightly by an evening meal of steak and chips with a bottle of Champagne.
Monday 8
Phew! We’re solvent again this month.
Friday 12
Spent the last few days fighting off an attack of vertigo. Not the worst attack I’ve had, but enough to stop me doing much.
Monday 15
Still trying to get rid of the last vestiges of the vertigo; it’s left me really drained. Meanwhile Boy Cat had the right idea this morning lying in a sunbeam.
Thursday 18
So yesterday I felt fine; vertigo gone away. Awoke this morning with it back with a vengeance; much worse than last week and ended up horizontal for the majority of the day. So now have a call out with the doctors.
Friday 19
Head feeling a bit better. Weather feeling uncomfortably hot and sticky.
Sunday 21
I’m surprised we haven’t got local Ice Cream Van Wars. We have at least three which seem to tour the locality, each with a more irritating jingle than the last. But they never seem to coincide; maybe they have a rota worked out. (Unless, of course, it is one van with three different jingles.)
Monday 22
So Starmer has chickened out of being PM. Idiot. See my blog post for more thoughts.
Tuesday 23
Blimey, I was woken just after 3 this morning by an epic thunderstorm. Lots of very bright lightening, and massive rolls of thunder, although none right overhead. This went on for at least an hour as I dropped off to sleep again about 4. Heaven knows how much rain we had with it. And then today has been relentlessly hot and humid; so uncomfortable.
Wednesday 24
Record breaking temperatures: the UK’s hottest ever June day. Unbearable.
Thursday 25
It hasn’t felt quite so unbearably hot today, possibly because there’s been a nice breeze all day. It’s just as humid and sticky though. And again record breaking temperatures.
Friday 26
The supermarket have cancelled our weekly delivery today. They say they’ve had “system problems”, whatever that means. I’ve put the order in again for Sunday morning, but had to do an expensive “top up” delivery from the local store – which took them forever to organise. And it all wasted the whole morning. Still at least the supermarket have had the grace to give us £10 off our next order; 20% would have been better compensation.
Saturday 27
The buddleia is in full bloom for several days – so early! – and not a butterfly in sight.
Sunday 28
Phew! Well at least today has been significantly cooler – it’s still warm, but just comfortably summer hot, rather than desert hot. And there’s been a good “seaside” breeze for most of the day. Actually not a bad day to play cricket, although some bowlers wouldn’t have relished the breeze.
In other news, customer services at the supermarket got a fairly snotty email today (not that it will do any good). Our rebooked delivery was scheduled for 11:00-12:00 and finally arrived something after 13:00 with a driver who couldn’t have been less interested and engaged with his job. They’ve not had an impressive weekend.
Monday 29
Out yonder we have a small mulberry bush in a tub and today, for the first time after several years, we had a handful of small black mulberries. There really weren’t enough to do anything with, so I put them in a mixed fruit salad with some raspberries and blueberries (plus a little sugar and a tot of peach schnapps). They worked well and added a little something to the other fruit, although I’d be had pressed to describe the actual taste of the mulberries. Mind you, they don’t half stain; it’s taken several good washes to even start getting the purple dye off the fingers.
Tuesday 30
Yesterday I found myself wearing a pair of shorts almost all day. Yeah, so what? Well it was the first time for a week that I have worn any clothes at all because it has been so hot – except for a couple of hours on Saturday and Sunday when I knew I was likely to have to go to the door. At most times I had a pair of shorts to hand in case the doorbell rang. It’s summer, it’s hot, and I’m always warm (I have a good covering of blubber!), and our house is naturally warm. So why wear clothes? Why not be like this all the time? Oh wait, I do; even in the depths of winter I seldom wear more than a pair of legs and a t-shirt around the house and at this time of year it is at most a pair of shorts. As regular readers will know I can’t be doing with all this fuss about nudity and the like. We all know what’s under each other’s t-shirt and jeans, so really where is the problem. There is no legal prohibition on nudity, either in private or in public, unless one is deliberately causing someone else harassment, alarm or distress, or performing a sexual act – all of which is enshrined in Police and CPS guidance. So be comfortable. Go attired or not as you wish.
So here we are with this month’s bumper bundle of links to items you didn’t know you shouldn’t have missed.
Science, Technology, Natural World
As usual let’s start at the bottom … Really, just how many elementary particles are there? Pick a number! [LONG READ]
At the other extremes … Space is unimaginably bigger than you think.
And if your brain wasn’t fried enough already, there’s a suggestion that light is the shadow of a dimension we can’t see.
Now to the relatively mundane … for a long time scientists have been trying to understand the mysterious creatures of the deep oceans. [LONG READ]
Which just shows we really do not understand biology … There are some mysterious blobs in cells – even after 100 years scientists are only now beginning to understand what they are and their importance for life. [££££]
How do societies survive power struggles? Ask the wasps.
So why do cats sit in that “loaf position“?
From cats to dogs … scientists have recently discovered the rare and elusive Amazonian Short-Eared Dog in the forests of Bolivia and Peru.
Good grief! Japan’s 2011 “Fukushima” earthquake was so powerful it moved the location of the whole of Japan! [££££}
Health, Medicine
Well, yes … we could indeed at this moment be living through a hantavirus pandemic, but thanks to a lot of quick action by many countries we have avoided it. Which is exactly how public health should work.
What does body odour tell us, and why do we care about it so much?
Here’s (yet another) look at the health and history of pubic hair. [LONG READ]
Meanwhile here’s a look at sunscreen, what it is and how it works. [LONG READ]
Sexuality & Relationships
A cultural look at various aspects of the vagina.
Followed by the new craze of the Vaginus Maximus.
Now here’s an interesting one … an only slightly surprising suggestion of Viagra for women. Read the follow-on articles too. [LONG READ]
And then there’s a look at sexual burnout and bridging the resulting intimacy gaps.
[Images very NSFW] It’s the rarity factor! A look at why we’re biologically wired to desire redheads.
History, Archaeology, Anthropology
A select group of researcher are allowed access to Spain’s amazing cave paintings and one lucky writer gets a personal tour. [LONG READ]
Archaeologists believe they have discovered a simpler, and older, version of Stonehenge.
Amongst other things it seems that Bronze Age people were also pigeon fanciers.
I just don’t know how they do this … the charred scrolls from Herculaneum are being deciphered.
A metal detectorist in Somerset has found a stunning gold Roman ring.
A medieval manuscript containing early versions of the Merlin and Grail legends, which has remained in private hands for 700 years, is being auctioned by Christie’s.
So to put the record straight, here’s everything you need to know about the Black Death.
London
Here are some 1920s London Tube Maps, from before its current Harry Beck iconic design.
Greater London has a surprising number of overlooked Art Deco railway stations. (No, not the tube stations!) [LONG READ]
What was the mysterious Whitechapel Mount?
Food, Drink
Why does beer taste different on draught, in a can, or from a bottle?
Scientists are at last starting to unravel the importance of cork to the chemistry of wine. [££££]
Lifestyle, Personal Development, Beliefs
DDA banding. It’s an accessibility thing.
A naturist’s look at what people’s arguments against nudity are really saying. [LONG READ]
What if seeing naked women actually reduced objectification? (Men too?) [LONG READ]
Shock, Horror, Ha ha ha!
And finally in New Scientist “Feedback” discovers Halupedia, an online encyclopaedia that is 100% AI generated. [££££]
Enjoy!
Each month I offer you something to think about to get the brain working. This month …
We pass the anniversary of our death every year without knowing.
I don’t generally comment on politics and current affairs, but I’m going to offer the following two (probably unpopular) thoughts.
The author of The Empty City Blog contends that:
Getting rid of six Prime Ministers in ten years is a sign of a working political system. It is that we keep appointing poor Prime Ministers that is the problem: an input issue not an output issue.
Wrong!
It is the product of relatively unthinking, sheep-like MPs not understanding enough of the system**, naïvely believing the grass is always greener on the other side, and being preyed on by self-serving commentators and billionaire media owners with their own divisive agendas (after all it sells copy and makes them money). The media have forgotten what their role is: to report what’s happening, not to wage personal vendettas.
[** Unless they’ve worked very closely inside Number 10 no-one has any idea of the complexity at that level. And no new Prime Minister has a flying clue what’s hit them.]
We’ve lost the understanding of peoples’ role and place in the system (and that doesn’t have to mean rigid, traditional roles); the ability to see beyond the brick wall; and the confidence to allow people to get on and do the job they’ve been entrusted with. Meanwhile the media have run off with the sausages.
But this isn’t new. Just in my lifetime we did it to, inter alia, Alec Douglas-Home, Ted Heath and Jim Callaghan.
And it is stupid that we have eight (soon to be nine) living former Prime Ministers. Two or three maybe, but nine shows just how dysfunctional the system is.
FFS grow some spine and learn to tell the media to f*** off.
If Andy Burnham becomes Prime Minister it will be a disaster and he’ll not last two years.
He’s out of touch with Parliament, and will effectively have to relearn the ropes. Most new MPs seem to have a tough time adjusting to the role and finding their place in the system. He should not, and should not expect to, walk straight in and carry on as if he’d never left.
This means that should he become Prime Minister in short order, he will have even less clue than most as to what has hit him when he walks into Number 10.
But worse …
He seems to be divisive (which is what’s got him here). He’ll overtly favour the North with no thought about the South – regardless of the fact that the South is well over 50% of the population and GDP. And it’ll be all about his ideas – aka. the only right ideas – with little or no regard for advice or experts.
So it’ll be another government along the same lines as Boris Johnson – somewhere between farce and fiasco.
Plus watch the vanity projects for the North.
All of which could just result in a backlash in favour of Farage and Reform, which will be an even bigger disaster.
A good Mayor, doesn’t ipso facto make a good Prime Minister!
Here be this month’s collection of recently encountered quotes; and it is bumper offering this month.
In crisis communication, a well-known formula is: outrage x hazard. So even if the hazard is low, if concern is great, you’d better be speaking with clarity, acknowledging uncertainty, listening to the questions, concerns, and confusion, and bringing people along for the ride.
[Katelyn Jetelina, @yourlocalepidemiologist]
President Trump seems to have an unsatiable need to be the centre of attention. International relations are a serious matter; they concern people’s lives and the stability of entire regions. At times, it feels as though the whole world is being forced to take part in a multibillion-dollar therapy session to compensate for the attention he may not have received in childhood.
[Mohammad Javad Zarif, Iranian Vice President for Strategic Affairs]
To meet a person you are going to marry requires filtering through a lot of people … If you socialise much less, it takes you much longer to find a match if you find one at all … If you spend lots of time socialising with your peers in the real world, your standards [for a potential partner] are anchored in the real world. If you spend your time on Instagram, your standards are anchored to an artificial sense of what is normal.
[Lyman Stone]
Owners of dogs will have noticed that, if you provide them with food and water and shelter and affection, they will think you are god. Whereas owners of cats are compelled to realize that, if you provide them with food and water and shelter and affection, they draw the conclusion that they are gods.
[Christopher Hitchens]
The Seven Social Sins are:
* Wealth without work.
* Pleasure without conscience.
* Knowledge without character.
* Commerce without morality.
* Science without humanity.
* Worship without sacrifice.
* Politics without principle.
[Frederick Lewis Donaldson]
As it fell upon a day
In the merry month of May,
Sitting in a pleasant shade
Which a grove of myrtles made,
Beasts did leap, and birds did sing,
Trees did grow, and plants did spring;
Every thing did banish moan …
[William Shakespeare; “Sonnet to sundry notes of music” from The Passionate Pilgrim (1598)]
And God said “love your enemy”, and I obeyed him and loved myself.
[Khalil Gibran]
Man is the most insane species. He worships an invisible God and destroys a visible Nature. Unaware that this Nature he’s destroying is this God he’s worshipping.
[Hubert Reeves, Canadian-French astrophysicist]
Beautiful young people are accidents of nature, but beautiful old people are works of art.
[Eleanor Roosevelt]
The aesthetic evaluation of women before their intellectual evaluation is not a modern phenomenon. It is not an internet glitch. It is not something Andrew Tate invented between supercar videos. It is one of the oldest organising principles in human civilisation.
[Clare Macnaughton]
And the female aesthetic appreciation of the male. Indeed I suggest this is the bedrock of of sexual selection in all species.
Clothes hide the body, but nudity reveals the woman’s soul.
[Christian Dior]
A woman’s body has the beauty of nature. For her, undressing is like the sun dissipating the clouds.
[Auguste Rodin]
Adult life boils dawn to four simple things: Everything is expensive. I don’t know what to eat. I’m tired. Ibuprofen.
[unknown]
Every tiny creature is carrying a life that matters deeply to itself. The bee searching for water, the bird hiding from storms, the frog resting in cool grass. They are not background decoration. They are living souls trying to survive beside us.
[unknown]
Everything is determined, the beginning as well as the end, by forces over which we have no control … Human beings, vegetables or cosmic dust, we all dance to a mysterious tune, intoned in the distance by an invisible piper.
[Albert Einstein]
My daughter, then just shy of five … collapsed our entire chain of species inheritance into a single anthropomorphic figure that she called “my monkey grandma”.
[Stephen Phelan, Guardian, 2 June 2026]
The longer I live, the more convinced I am that this planet is used by other planets as a lunatic asylum.
[unknown]
Here are the answers to this month’s six quiz questions. If in doubt, all should be able to be easily verified online.
Geography
Answers were correct when questions were compiled in late 2025.
All in June
WH Davies
A week ago I had a fire
To warm my feet, my hands and face;
Cold winds, that never make a friend,
Crept in and out of every place.
Today the fields are rich in grass,
And buttercups in thousands grow;
I’ll show the world where I have been–
With gold-dust seen on either shoe.
Till to my garden back I come,
Where bumble-bees for hours and hours
Sit on their soft, fat, velvet bums,
To wriggle out of hollow flowers.
Find this poem online at Poetry Soup
This year our Ten Things column will present a selection of words (of five or more letters) with a different ending each month. This month …
Words Ending in -va
So how many of those words did you know? And how many do you use?