Kenneth Branagh and The Tempest

The most emotional part of the ceremony for me personally....a stirring fusion of Shakespeare and Elgar.......

Caliban's Dream -- The Tempest

My dad used to recite this to me as a child to help me get to sleep.....just beautiful......

London 2012 Olympic Games Opening Ceremony: Isles of Wonder - BBC

London 2012 Olympic Volleyball - Poland vs Bulgaria

Team GB Women score vs Brazil 1-0

Now that was a great build-up and a very well-taken goal. The atmosphere at the game was superb and the crowd...70,000.....that will certainly raise the profile of the tournament.......the women are so far putting the men to shame......

Alice Cooper - Schools Out (the muppet show 1978)

Three Men vs. Fifteen Hungry Lions - Human Planet, Grasslands, Preview -...

No more shades of grey for me........

Following on from the brilliant marketing strategy by Sainsbury's - placing the erotic novel 'The Fifty Shades of Grey' in a display alongside Duracell batteries, I will unfortunately no longer be using one of my oft-repeated truisms in my Citizenship and Geography lessons......invariably with any issues-based learning it soon becomes clear to the students that there are rarely right and wrong answers and that usually problems require solutions that involve compromise and result in advantages and disadvantages...basically, life is unlikely to be simple: not so much black and white, more varying shades of grey in between. This comment, which I have happily used for almost a quarter of a century without incident, has on two recent occasions led to uncontrollable guffaws and snorting, particularly when I revealed at first that I quite genuinely had no idea what they were laughing about. Now I do know their hilarity makes sense.....oh well, another little avenue of nonsense has been blocked, possibly temporarily, but my own confidence in my dissemination of 'wisdom' has taken a knock....last week I said something in class which I thought was quite profound - so profound I can't quite remember it - only for a student to nod appreciatively and supportively and say 'I SO agree with that Mr M.....I heard that saying on Kung Fu Panda............'

Rubber bands vs Water Melon - The Slow Mo Guys

Sea Bed Hunting On One Breath - Incredible

Jet stream shifts north again......

It looks as though things might just be about to get better on the weather front....just in time for the holidays......

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-18868494

Amazing footage of a hovering Kestrel.......

I saw one of these amazing small falcons hovering over the road verge near my house this morning. Look at the way its entire body moves in the wind but the head stays fixed....incredible mastery of the air and a fantastic video.

Hugh Laurie - I get knocked down

Spotted Flycatcher living up to its name....

Some birds are so unobtrusive it would almost be possible to miss them completely....the spotted flycatcher is one such. It arrives relatively late in May, is not spectacularly-coloured and does not possess a striking song. But it holds a special place in my heart. I used to watch them as a boy up on Harrow on the Hill when they were relatively abundant and family parties were quite visible in late Summer. I used to have a favourite 'perch' - an old brick wall - where I would sit and revise in the shade on hot afternoons close to Harrow School Lake and they would feed around me, making sorties out from their favourite twig and catching an insect with an audible snap. If you listen to as well as watch this clip you can actually hear it. Fabulous stuff! It is a shame they are now so scarce, but a pair have bred at Wilstone reservoir so I shall be paying a few visits there in the next couple of weeks.

Desmond Dekker & The Aces Israelites 1978 [ Reggae At The BBC ] Sneak Pe...

Altered Images - Happy Birthday 1981

Hummingbird Hawk-moth

When you see one of these in the garden for the first time it is quite  an amazing experience....these moths really do look like humming birds. They are active during the day, incredibly agile and, as their wings beat so fast,  emit an audible hum. They do not survive our winters but migrate north from southern Europe. They are particularly fond of red valerian flowers, which we have growing against our house walls. Follow the link to report your sightings in the UK
http://www.butterfly-conservation.org/sightings/1096/hummingbird_hawk_moth.html

Jet Streams and why the Uk is experiencing the worst Summer in living memory......

The Importance Of Being Idle............

I lost my faith in the summertime, cos it don't stop raining, the sky all day is as black as night, but I'm not complaining..........

Love this song.......Paolo Nutini - Candy (Video)

Alice in Wonderland - Johnny Depp and Tim Burton continue to make movie ...

9, New Animation from Tim Burton (HD)

"Coraline" Official Trailer

Dustin Hoffman and Geena Davis...great scene from Accidental Hero (1992)

Great film this and I think one of Dustin Hoffman's best performances.....and very few people seem to have heard of it! I suppose it is TWENTY years old now.......worth a look if you get the chance.

Black redstarts in East London.......

Black redstart is a rare breeding bird in this country but there are a few pairs surprisingly in East London. I heard a male singing from a derelict site near the Three Mills studio in Bromley-by-Bow. They like industrial sites and thrive on the midges hat emerge from pools of stagnant water. They first colonised old bomb sites after WW2 and have kept a toehold in London ever since. I filmed this bird singing on migration a few years ago...not recently - we haven't seen blue sky like that in years!!!!!!!!

Sand Martin Fledgling Close Up

I have spent three days this week visiting the OlympicPark in London and have thoroughly enjoyed the experience....in particular looking beyond the new infrastructure and noticing the minutiae of the landscape that seem to pass unnoticed by the majority of people. Alongside the river Lea there were numerous sand martins feeding, some of whom had taken advantage of artificial holes in the concrete bank as nesting sites. They are not rare birds - more 'scarce' - but to see them feeding in such an urban location was new for me and a real treat.

Old London, New London, Unfinished London, Finished London......

Dark London, Damp London, Wild London........

Reasons why I love teaching geography..........

Noah place like home........

Considering the wet weather we have been experiencing for what seems like months now, I have decided to put in an offer on this property.........

There is no such thing as a seagull..........

This beauty is a Sabine's gull, a bird which normally breeds in the Arctic and outside the breeding season is highly pelagic, wandering the seas far from land....I have seen one only once in my lifetime...... from a boat off the Scilly Isles many years ago. I particularly love the wing pattern. This individual has turned up at Startops reservoir near Tring in Hertfordshire, about as far away from the sea as you can get and when I finished watching it yesterday evening it was roosting on the barley straw bales in the middle of the water. Quite a rarity indeed. For many, gulls have a bad reputation as being loud, aggressive plunderers but if you think they are all the same then look again and you will start to appreciate them for what they are....intelligent, beautiful and successful opportunists........

Kaiser Chiefs - Ruby....how did the Kaiser Chiefs get their name?

Great band and great video....reminds me of what has happened around Canary Wharf in Docklands. The band are big Leeds United fans and derive their name from the South African football club from whom they signed one of their greatest ever players, Lucas Radebe. Saw the band before kick off at the last game of the season in 2008.

A little-bit-of-bread-and-butter-and-no-cheeeeeeeese.......

Stood and listened to a yellowhammer this morning before I got in the car to go to work....not the most technically-accomplished of songs but so much part of the soundtrack that accompanies our open countryside on hot summer days....along with the skylark audible in the background. Looks like another dull week ahead....please can we have some hot sunny days so that I can go to Pitstone Hill, lie back in the grass and listen to yellowhammers, corn buntings and quail......