The ‘class 05’ diesel shunter DL26, nicknamed ‘The Rat’ was built in Hunslet in 1957. It spent most of its … More
Author: Pete
I am semi-retired after a career in medical sciences. I now work from home doing independent research and consultancy amongst other things. One advantage of this is that I do have time to indulge my interests including birdwatching, natural history, steam trains and history particularly ancient history.
Comet ISON fizzles out
It seems that any hope that comet ISON would be visible again from Earth is dwindling. Hope centred on the … More
Naturelog: Wednesday 4th December
Watching the garden in the late afternoon and noticed 3 Thrushes in a tree. I wondered if these were the … More
Naturelog:Tuesday 3rd December
Working at home today and there is quite a lot of activity in the garden. The first Mistle Thrushes of … More
Views of Amsterdam (5)
Some of the boats which use the waterways of Amsterdam
Greek gods of health and healing
Statue of Asclepius in the British Museum Asclepius was the son of Apollo and was the god of healing and … More
Great Cormorant
The Cormorant is one of our commonest waterbirds in the UK and can be seen pretty much everywhere across the … More
Comet ISON – to be or not to be?
Watchers waited with anticipation to see whether there would be anything left of comet ISON when it emerged from the … More
Patch update November
Things finally began to get busy on the patch. We had the return of the Finches (Chaffinch, Goldfinch and Greenfinch) … More
Blood Moon
Photo by Paul Russell (http://www.flickr.com/photos/11481133@N04/) I had never really given a lot of thought to the term ‘Blood Moon’ until … More
Pete's Favourite Things 