Nigello

Bees - honey and bumble - and flies and hover flies liked the recently blooming castor oil plant flowers in my front garden. Robins are louder and more visible now.

It’s sad that so few places are selling them. I’ve seen hardly any on people at all this year.

I did do just that at a grid that was a few feet up from this ponding, to help it from getting worse, even sans wellies! What’s your excuse, Super Slack?

There’s a huge puddle - more of a pond - at the corner of Barry and Upland, likely caused by blocked drains. I’ll report it but it’ll likely take ages to fix.

When a driver fails to stop for me at a zebra I always wave maniacally and point at them as they drive off to instil a sense of - well deserved - shame. A few flicks of the Vs if they start shouting at me as if I’m in the wrong also help.

Please take down the (plastic-based) cobwebbing before it gets blown into the street as so much litter (because nobody needs more mess) and/or gets ingested by wildlife or tied around birds’ feet. And no, it won’t pass as snow for those postcard-perfect Christmassy scenes if you just leave it there…

The original structure was banal and underwhelming but lionised by the smart set nonetheless. In its recycled guise it’s at least serving a purpose but it’s still ugly and suggests back-of-envelope thinking.

Take a picture and @ the firms involved. Get as many people as you can to RT or like it. Also @ ROSPA/disability organisations/MP etc.

Best to take it up with the owner. Nobody here has the power to make the change you desire despite their sympathy, unfortunately.

The big one in Forest Hill is up for sale, according to the firm and reported in the DM.

Any opinions (based on experiences of using them, especially the latest models - not Economy 7-type storage heaters). Thanks

Straw man (person) argument. It’s not a race to the bottom. Dunstan’s bin refuseniks and others may cause an injury one day…

All that money and time and effort spent on various versions of this junction and it’s still not done, and nor do the majority of cyclists abide by the law. Most go through on red and some who don’t just decide to ride on the footpaths, even with a dog in tow and cute kiddie on board.

Yea - house shakes are real. It could be heavy vehicles or just the volume of traffic. I’ve an email history of my complaints to Southwark Council, including the head of highways, stating that should I need to repair anything I shall hold it at least partly responsible as no action was taken to reduce the throughput of large, heavy vehicles (by means of width restriction or camera, etc.) Unrepaired speed bumps are also to blame.

Graffiti is not always art; maybe you’re thinking it’s a synonym for street art. Ugly, aggressive tagging doesn’t fit that bill. And not partaking in the EDF doesn’t necessarily mean a person cannot be community minded.

Yes, I saw the rooks (which I thought at first were crows) a few weeks ago, never having seen them before. Perhaps dry weather forced them to try new places for food.

Three cormorants in DP lake two days ago, early morning -great birds.

Some can’t move the bins, due to age or disability or true lack of space but others simple CBA, choosing to keep their front gardens full of bikes/pots/crap etc. when they ought to prioritise their bins. Dunstan’s from Upland down to the school is a case in point. Parents - usually mums - and their young kids in their scores have to step into the road because of some people’s selfishness.

It’s when you are on the point of having your post sent to the Lounge, where topics that aren’t to do with SE22 are meant to be.

I saw huge puddles at Goose Green earlier this year and elsewhere and reported it to James McCash and it was fixed. I don’t know whether drain clearing comes under the council or Thames Water.

The new pavements tend to pond after a heavyish amount of rainfall; the dipped kerbs all pond after rain. Conway can’t be relied upon to do a good job on paving - too many examples of poor results within a 1 mile radius - yet they still have a contract.

One for McCash and the council. I agree they ought to be removed if vandalised and nobody is in charge. Same happened at Whateley/Barry, I think. Please email your councillor with an image of it.

FROM MONOCLE 16/08/22 NB Westminster council Walking in London has become particularly unbearable in recent weeks – and it’s not just because of the rising temperatures. It seems as though the £20m (€23.5m) that e-scooter and e-bike company Lime invested in the British capital this year is finally bearing fruit. There are more riders, sure, but also more pavements blocked by these micromobility “solutions” left carelessly in the middle of thoroughfares, creating an obstacle course for pedestrians, particularly those with prams or in wheelchairs. And while I’m certainly not against increasing the number of e-bikes and (dare I say it) e-scooters on our streets to encourage people out of cars, users’ seeming inability to park them without making footpaths unpassable presents a major issue. London isn’t alone here: cities from Madrid to Minneapolis are dealing with the same problem but who has the solution? Well, this week, Westminster council began seizing “nuisance” bikes that are left strewn across its streets. I welcome this move but I don’t think it should be the responsibility of local councils to clean up the mess: micromobility companies need to step up. Holding them accountable would be a good first move: if a Lime bike (or similar) is parked incorrectly, the company should be fined in the same way that a car owner might. New York might be rolling out the infrastructure that will allow this to happen. The state legislature is currently working on a bill that will see cameras introduced to discourage cars from parking illegally in bike lanes, ensuring that those who ride have safe passage. Could there not be capacity for e-scooters and e-bikes littering footpaths to be policed by the cameras too? The logic stacks up: if cities and councils in the US, UK and Europe are intent on ensuring that people can cycle securely and comfortably, why not guarantee that they can walk that way too?

The only way to get the council to act is to email the local councillor. You can also ask individual landlords or business owners to clean up their vandalised property. Give it a go.