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%x3 grid, 14 photos round a map where they were taken. From Top Left: Water Avens, bare tree branches in silhouette, looking back to wards Glasgow; a cuckoo on a post; orange tip butterfly, male with wings outspread; Green-veined white on cuckoo flower. Post with a loch behind; MAP; violet flower; primroses; bog cotton; two stonechats; small copper butterfly; painted lady butterfly; speedwell flowers.

Walked out to Dumcolm on Sunday morning. A quiet day, although it looked as if it was getting busy later. Lots of birds singing, lots of flowers showing. Warm, sunny until 9am or so, then light cloud.

As I came back to Loch Humphrey from Duncolm an osprey was fishing over the loch. Didn’t get a great look or photo, exciting anyway.

Green Woodpecker calling from the trees below the muir. Lots of cuckoos all morning, finally got a half decent snap along the fence around the native trees before the Loch. Butterflies, from about half eight lots of green-veined whites & orange tips. Less when the sun was behind clouds.A painted lady on the muir and then another on the paths above the wood. A small cooper sunning on the paths, while I watched it left and flew low over the herbage beside the path, a green hairstreak came up out of the grass and they circled around. Didn’t manage a snap of the hairstreak, first I’ve seen here. I stepped off the path to avoid a cyclist and saw a wee lizard wriggle away in the heather & moss at my feet.

Despite being a holiday weekend the paths were relatively quiet. There seemed to be some flora or fauna of interest all the way. lovely morning, 15 minutes drive from the city.

Map, notes & photos: walkmap

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Likes Pixabots — Free Pack of 2,000 Pixel Characters.

I made a tiny pixel character creator called Pixabots. It generates 10,752 unique combinations from four categories — eyes, heads, bodies, and tops — all bouncing on a little idle loop.

This pack is a curated 2,000 of them, ready to use. Free.

Pixabot character
Pixabot character
Pixabot character

Not sure where I saw this, there is a live editor at Pixabots — Pixel Character Avatars which is fun. Could be useful in class I think. Perhaps in Scratch when an uploaded gif is turned into a sprite with a costume for each frame.

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Read: An Artist of the Floating World by Kazuo Ishiguro ★★★★★ 📚

But as for the likes of us, Ono, our contribution was always marginal. No one cares now what the likes of you and me once did. They look at us and see only two old men with their sticks.’ He smiled at me, then went on feeding the fish. ‘We’re the only ones who care now. The likes of you and me, Ono, when we look back over our lives and see they were flawed, we’re the only ones who care now.’

Hazy recall, guilt, regret, memory, aging. The book itself floats, a little sadly, with some troubling feelings. Super.

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Read: Clown Town by Mick Heron ★★★★ 📚

Familiar world & characters with some interesting developments. A nice surprise at the end. I am surprised at how the series continues to be enjoyable & pleased the author has not needed to make things increasingly dramatic.

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Read: Same as it ever was by Claire Lombardo ★★★ 📚

but the strangest thing I remember about having young children is how interminably the time moves, just these days upon days upon days, and every single one of them feels a million years long, but then suddenly months have gone by, enough time for a new baby to be born or one of the kids to start kindergarten, or college for God’s sake

Took me a long a time to get into this one. The central character irritated at first. She did grow on me as I got further.