Urban Wild 2026

It's a scorching bank holiday weekend, which also marks the start of half-term I gather. There is a series of 'urban wild' events taking place across Southampton, including a festival today on the Common.

We saw several acts, including...

The Red Star Socialist Choir, who did several numbers, including a song about diversity to the tune of YMCA.

A folk group, Angling for Farthings, who played several songs with a local connection, including one about cabin boy Robert Parker (who was victim of cannibalism).

Shanti Green who did sea shanties. Perhaps they should have done the Robert Parker song, though they did do a version of the Wellerman (not this version though).

And, finally (before we left), The Guillotine Union Boys - another political act, singing about (inter alia) fascism and Elon Musk (two different songs) and a version of Which Side Are You On?

Voted

This morning, I voted in our local elections. That is, I either exercised my democratic right or discharged my democratic duty, depending on your view.

It's the first time I've voted in-person since the introduction of photo ID requirements. (I have postal voted in the meantime.)

I was curious how long the process would take, so I timed myself. I left the house at 8:22 (so this doesn't include getting ready to go out, since I was doing that anyway). I had voted by 8:29. At that point, I was on my way to work, so didn't go straight back home - but I had gone out of my way to get to the polling station.

So, it was about 8:35 by the time I was back on my normal route to work. So, one could say about 15 minutes total or perhaps 10 (because it would have taken me some time to get that far anyway).

I'm always slightly resentful of the fact that our polling station is in the opposite direction from work, so I was interested to learn that experiments are underway that might allow voters more choice over where (and when) they vote. That's something I'd welcome.

Slightly ironically, I then spent much of the day writing against the idea of compulsory voting, in response to this recent proposal. I may have more to say about that later.

Picket

I'm not on strike, but many staff at Southampton Solent are, so today I popped along to spend a couple of hours on their picket line.

We were joined by (UCU General Secretary) Jo Grady - which was expected - but also by one of my undergraduate students, which was more of a surprise.

It's a boy

While the pigeon may be gone, I have another photo update from my garden. The small holly bush has flowers.

I had hoped that flowers might mean berries later but, after some quick online research, these look like male flowers to me. That's a bit of a shame, because it means no berries.

Sad pigeon update

Disambiguation: it's not the pigeon that's sad...

Unfortunately, our pigeon nest appears to have been abandoned. 

I don't know what happened. I can't see any sign of eggs, though I assume there were some at some point.

 

Weston Shore

We had a few days of nice weather over Easter, so decided to have a day out in (at?) Weston Shore yesterday. We took the bus into the city centre, stopping off at Cafe Thrive to pick up a takeaway lunch, then back on the #17 out to Swift Road, from where we walked along part of Shoreburs Greenway past Jurd's Lake. (This is apparently a butterfly trail, but we didn't see any particularly interesting wildlife.)

When we reached the shore, we stopped to eat our lunch on a bench looking out over the water, then we walked along the shore back towards Woolston. We passed a few cyclists and dog-walkers, but I was surprised how quiet it was given that it's still Easter holidays. Maybe we picked a good day to come in that respect; the day before was warmer and sunnier (probably too warm to be walking around in the midday sun) and the next day (today) there was apparently a kids' litter pick

We had a quick stop in Mettricks (which would have been convenient for lunch, if we hadn't already eaten, but was busy), then got the bus out again to further along the shore and walked back to the Greenway and did that bit again but in reverse. From there, it was back on the bus into the city centre and home again. All in all, a pleasant little jaunt.

Pigeon nesting

 We were away for Easter but, before we left, I'd noticed a pigeon or two taking an interest in the bush in our garden. I thought they might be building a nest and, indeed, it looks like that was the case:

I don't know whether I'll be able to post regular updates, because I don't want to disturb her/them* - but I'll try to if I get a chance.

*Edit: later research suggests it may actually be the male who sits on the eggs most of the day.