Burt Bacharach...

All pop songs should be as good as those written by Burt Bacharach, who died yesterday. He was never in fashion (who else in the music business is called Burt?), but never out out fashion either. He wrote most of Dionne Warwick’s hits, including the heartbreaking Walk on By, and provided Aretha Franklin with her biggest UK hit, I Say a Little Prayer. I love this lyric from Do You Know the Way to San Jose: the American dream going sour in the space of six lines.

LA is a great big freeway
Put a hundred down and buy a car
In a week, maybe two, they'll make you a star
Weeks turn into years, how quick they pass
And all the stars that never were
Are parking cars and pumping gas.

Licensed today: adjacent betting shops in Boston, Lincolnshire…

Hen Harrier...

It’s heartbreaking to see how women and girls are being treated in Afghanistan, under the despotic rule of the Taliban. And it’s laughable to watch Church of England clerics try to find a form of words which will express their distaste for gay people, without driving them out of the church altogether. Anyone who tries to make excuses for religious intransigence deserves a good slap.

Had a late-afternoon visit to Blacktoft Sands, hoping to see some roosting raptors. I was in luck, with a sighting of a female hen harrier. Very different from a Marsh harrier: lighter, slimmer, more graceful in flight, and – the clincher – the white rump (pic: Imran Shah, Creative Commons)…  

Charles Darwin...

Charles Darwin anticipated the criticism that might greet the publication, in 1859, of On the Origin of Species. He fought against confirmation bias by actively trying to find fault with his own theories, and knew what it would take to falsify them. “If it could be demonstrated that any complex organ existed which could not possibly have been formed by numerous, successive, slight modifications, my theory would absolutely break down” (though, in a more confident tone of voice, he added: “but I can find no such case”)...

Reedling hide...

Spent the morning at Blacktoft Sands where this new hide, called Reedling, now occupies the site where the old Xerox hide used to be. The lower deck of the double-decker hide is now accessible to wheelchair-users. A few feet away from where I was sitting, watching the wildfowl, a barn owl was roosting. Other raptors included a sparrowhawk, careening through the trees, and a sky full of marsh harriers…

Today is Groundhog Day...

If I had to pick a favourite film, it would be Groundhog Day, directed by Harold Ramis. For years I’ve wondererd what it would be like to watch the film every day for a year, but, unlike this guy, I never got round to it. The key line of dialogue may be Bill Murray’s melancholy musings, to a pair of drunks in a bar: “What would you do if you were stuck in one place, and every day was exactly the same, and nothing you did mattered?” Yet, despite the high-concept premise, the film never flags. I might have to watch it every day for a year, as well, to really understand how the trick was accomplished...

Licensed today: a rune stone – part of a cross (possibly 9th century AD) – in the church at Great Urswick, South Lakeland… 

World Hijab Day...

Today is World Hijab Day, a date in the calendar founded ten years ago, apparently. The veiling of Muslim women is still a highly contentious issue, and even in a book of 155,000 words, I can't offer a definitive opinion on the subject. However, by focusing on the freedom of the individual, the human right of autonomy, the issue may become a little clearer. I am not ‘for’ or ‘against’ the hijab, or any other kind of veil; these are, after all, just items of clothing. What I am ‘for’ is a woman’s right to choose; what I am ‘against’ is religiously mandated compulsion.

Licensed today: a narrowboat entering Standedge Tunnel on the Huddersfield Narrow Canal, at Tunnel End, near Marsden, West Yorkshire…

Brexit regret...

Today is Transfer Deadline Day in the world of football: one of the great days in the social calendar, along with the second Sunday after Ascension. At 11pm today we shall also be marking the third anniversary of the moment that the UK left the European Union. The consensus amongst economists is that Brexit has been harmful to the UK economy, with the IMF saying it expects the UK to be the only G7 country where the economy will shrink this year. Nevertheless, Rishi Sunak is marking the Brexit anniversary by claiming the benefits will “continue to empower communities”. According to Downing Street, Brexit is “a huge opportunity to deliver on the prime minister’s priorities to the British public”. The public themselves have other ideas, with a recent poll suggesting that 57% of us are suffering from 'Bregret' and would like to re-join the EU.

Licensed today for an excellent fee, just like the ‘good old days’: a yacht for sale at Derwent Water Marina, in the Lake District…