Rosie Wench's Cottage

In the UK the rutting season for deer is generally between September and November. Stags will lock antlers with each other as they compete to mate with the most desirable doe. (During this period, the stags will sometimes charge at humans, especially if they have a dog with them.)

I have seen very few wild deer in Dorset, but in the area around my main residence in Kent they have become a very real problem in the last few years. Just last week one of my Kent neighbours had her car seriously damaged when a fairly small deer ran out onto the road in front of her. Fortunately, the lady was not injured... but she was severely distressed. (I do not know about the physical, or mental state of the deer... Apparently, it picked itself up and ran back into the wood.)

General advice: If you see a deer on, or near the road slow down and be ready to hit the brakes... they are rarely on their own. If one runs across the road, it is likely that others will follow... and, few have any road sense.

On a more light-hearted note:

A colleague at the MoD (who did not have a driving licence), once asked me, "Why do they put deer crossings in places where cars are driving at speed, instead of putting then in villages where the traffic slows down a bit?"

Held every four years, The Dunmow Flitch Trials exist to award a flitch of bacon to married couples from anywhere in the world, if they can satisfy the Judge and Jury of 6 maidens and 6 bachelors that in “twelvemonth and a day”, they have “not wisht themselves unmarried again”.

That last photo is the whole reason I went to a panorama instead of saying at home, I wanted trees around to see the pinhole effect, and I wasn't disappointed!

Oh these are great, thank you for sending them my way, how cool is that.

Was bummed we didn't get it here, but was jazzed for the folks in Europe that did get to see it.

I've got some like that last one from the last time we got one here too, they're fun.

LONDON -- Public executions returned to the streets of Iran last week as the regime clamps down on public dissent following months of war with the U.S. and mass protests in January, according to recent statements from human rights groups and family members of those executed.

Cranes were used to set up hanging ropes in Isfahan, a central city in the country, to execute three young protesters.

Amirhossein Safari, 27, Abolfazl Sepahi, 23, and Alirez Sepahi, 25, were brought by van to Isfahan's Alikhani Street to be hanged for alleged crimes related to protests against the regime in January, according to human rights groups.

The Islamic Republic regime in Iran has executed at least 56 people on national security-related charges since March 19, including 27 individuals in cases linked to nationwide protests in January, United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk said in a statement Wednesday. More than 100 others are at risk of execution on similar charges, Türk warned.

Iranian lawyers inside the country told ABC News that the real number of people at risk of execution on charges related to the protests against the regime could be higher.

In the Alikhani case, 12 young men were sentenced to death and several others were sentenced to five to 10 years in prison, according to Iranian judiciary and human rights sources. Of the 12 men sentenced to death, four have been hanged and eight others currently await execution.

Protest at the scene of Isfahan's public execution

In the early hours of Tuesday, July 28, when news circulated about the regime's planned execution of the three young men, scaffolding was installed at Isfahan's Alikhani Square, with a crane brought to the scene as security forces gathered.

It raised fears that the executions could be carried out in public. Soon, a group of citizens gathered at the site.

Eyewitnesses told ABC News that the van transporting the defendants arrived at the location, escorted by a truck with a machine gun on its back to scare off protesters at the execution scene.

Videos shared online showed protesters chanting slogans, clashes breaking out and people fleeing as security forces moved in.

The defendants arrived at dawn, just before the morning prayer call, the time when the regime's laws mandate execution sentences be carried out.

Many Iranians reacted to the execution on social media by sharing posts about how the morning prayer call scares them, as it has now turned into a reminder of a "death song" to them.

While Safari and Abolfazl Sepahi were hanged Thursday, Alireza Sepahi did not reach the gallows and was taken to a hospital after he collapsed from what human rights groups described as heatstroke or a heart attack.

Torture and forced confession on prisoners and pressure on families

Several relatives and friends of the defendants in the Alikhani case told ABC News that the regime has forced their children to confess. They said the defendants have been subjected to different forms of severe physical and psychological torture for days and were not allowed to have a lawyer of their choosing.

The families asked not to be named for their own security and to prevent additional pressure on their young men on death row. In some cases, the court refused to accept evidence that the defendants had not been at the scene of the alleged crime at the time, the families added.

"They have tortured them for days to confess to murder," a family member said.

Even the pro bono lawyer for the defendant, who was assigned by the judiciary, did not have access to the case during the trial and was still refused access after the death sentence was issued, according to the family member. They also said the lawyer and defendant's parents were informed about the death sentence only after it was issued by the court.

The U.N.'s Türk condemned the death sentences in this case in his statement last week and expressed concern over the judicial process and reports of what the statement described as confessions that have "allegedly been obtained under torture and other ill-treatment."

"The death penalty is incompatible with the right to life and irreconcilable with human dignity," Türk said. "Such punishment has no place in our world."

Executions of protesters in Iran surge since start of war, human rights groups say

Amnesty International condemned the recent hangings in Iran in a statement Tuesday following the hanging of Safari and Sepahi, warning that among those prisoners on death row are three whom the organization said were arrested as children.

"The muted response from the international community emboldens the Iranian authorities to continue their deadly rampage. UN member states must take urgent coordinated diplomatic action to press the Iranian authorities to halt further executions," the Amnesty International statement said, in part.

Family members and friends of those on death row have repeatedly been warned by security and intelligence forces not to talk to the media and have been warned not to contact families of other defendants in the same case or else they would face consequences.

"The whole family's life is on fire. It is not just the life of one single person at risk. We are all at risk," a family member's relative told ABC News.

BUT the only actual requirement for womanhood is to be FEMALE.

This is why I'm a traditional kind of woman, personally. But for women in general, I believe in the freedom of expression that a biological sex foundation gives us.

You're a tom boy, butch, a 'Bull Dyke'? You're all woman, because you're female.

Grab your friends, and head to very distant lands.

Grab your Backpack, Grab your socks, too.

Travel across the land, searching far and wide.

Cruise on down Main Street, relaxed and feeling good.

Turn onto Conjunction Junction after you pass the Electric Company.

Avoid Duckburg, as it’s a duck-blur of race cars, lasers and aeroplanes. Mr. Rogers Neighborhood is far safer, as is the town of Bedrock.

Honestly- You can go anywhere, just take a look. It’s in a book. But don’t take my word for it.

Narnia - of course.

The Lake District World of Beatrix Potter

The English Countryside of Little Grey Rabbit

Prydain (Lloyd Alexander)

The Hundred Acre Wood

Windsor Gardens and Portobello Road in London ( Michael Bond's Paddington)

Wimbledon Common (The Wombles)

Rumbury Town ( Arabel Jones and Mortimer the Raven - Joan Aiken)

Mr Rogers Neighbourhood

Sesame Street

•

It was first published privately in Italy in 1928, but because of it’s graphic descriptions of sex and it’s use of some very naughty four letter words it was banned in many countries around the world, including Britain.

In November 1960 Penguin Books won a court case brought under the Obscene Publications Act. Immediately after the trial, the full unexpurgated version of Lady Chatterley’s Lover was made available to the public in the UK.

But it's also sad, because the graphic language comes as part of a very beautiful love story.

Connie Lady Chatterley and Oliver Mellors aren't simply 'playing around'. They truly have fallen in love and mean to be together.

Here in Lancashire we got 90+% coverage of the sun, just after 7pm.

We used the classic 'pinhole in card, projected onto white paper' method and got a very passable view of the proceedings.

We didn't get darkness like they did in the South West. But there was a very atmospheric dim light.

That's literally what "misinformation" is to them if you haven't figured that out yet. Independent thought, forming your own conclusions, not believing their lies or following their narratives, not lying for them to keep the public blind to their crimes, etc is "misinformation" its not that the information is wrong or a lie its just inconvenient, so it has to die.

All that stuff sounds like it was written by George Orwell! 😳

Dammit. I'd sooner people be able to just have their say, and then I have places where I can find out what's backed by evidence and what isn't.

But unlike the adult in this strip, Calvin’s dad actually APOLOGIZED for yelling at him when he saw how guilty his kid was:

Parenthood makes one have to plan how these situations will be dealt with. We've never had cause to regret taking the path of

'We'll be much less cross if you tell us about it, than if we have to find out about it.'

It requires a lot of self discipline. Child admits to something, so you make the effort to react calmly, and focus on guiding them to put things right.

'Yes, it was was wrong to do it, but you did right by telling us. Now we can help you to learn from it.'

And I feel for Calvin's Dad here. We're just human, we don't always handle it right. There are times when we mess up and get more cross than necessary.

It's as important for a child to hear that we're sorry for that, as it is for them to be sorry for what they did.

Puppy smile