Some prefer meat and two veg in dollops
But for my money I prefer 'scallops'.
On hot buttered toast
Much better than a roast
And for something oh so posh!
Not that heavy on the 'dosh'.
Add an avocado pear
A treat to crush and share
With your sister, brother or mother
Or your passionate 'shellfish lover'.
George Roberts June 2026
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| Images captured from the Jodrell Plank Observatory using the 127 mm. Meade Apo Refractor and the Seestar S30. Data and image credit: Pip Stakkert. |
"The other evening, our imaging technician Pip was using the Seestar S30 to photograph the waxing gibbous lunar disc. He noticed that the 'Terminator' or 'daybreak on the Moon' was about to cross the prominent feature Sinus Iridum - The Bay of Rainbows. Sunlight had just touched the peaks of the crater walls creating the effect known as the 'golden handle'. This can just be seen top left in the bottom image". - Joel Cairo CEO of the Jodrell Plank Observatory.
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| Captured from the JPO and previously published on the blog |
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| 'Reynard's last Stand' - mixed media installation - June 2026 George Roberts |
As most of this blog readers might have guessed, I am very eccentric, so this weekend, feeling not at my best, I decided to ‘seize the day’ and create an art installation for our backyard. Like all art –there is an underlying ‘narrative’.
"Long ago on Maidstone Market in Kent, UK, a ‘cheeky costermonger’ offered me and my newly married wife, a red fox fur stole for 50p (it was a few years after currency decimalisation). The underlying threat being, if I didn’t cough up the dosh, said sad fox corpse would suffer the final ignominy of being dumped in the trash bin. Now even in those days, we were happily ‘woke’, so though neither of us wanted a dead animal skin for clothing, we decided to take the long dead fox off his hands.
Years passed while the Fox sat on a shelf in one of the spare bedrooms in our home. Then grandchildren started to appear and finally we reached the grand total of nine. ‘Sleep-overs’ at our house became a thing and the Fox became a night companion, protecting the children from the ‘black dreamers’ and ‘other nasty nightmares’. He was given the name ‘Reynard’ and was comprehensively loved by all.
Years passed, the grandchildren became adults, sleep-overs became much less frequent and Reynard sat alone and mute in my wife's sewing room.
A month ago, my wife discovered poor Reynard had become infested with mites but neither of us could bring ourselves to put the fox in the bin. The grandchildren found out about poor Reynard’s malaise and were insistent that Reynard should have a dignified end with due respect.
So we cremated Reynard in the backyard and up-cycled a redundant bird table and a charity shop vase, to create a permanently mounted memorial and art installation with his ashes safely stored inside for posterity".
'Reynard's Last Stand'
A very attractive starter or an accompaniment to a main dish. This french recipe is a colourful vegetarian treet. In my opinion it goes very nicely as a 'side' to accompany pasta.
Eric Hains
Eric Hains was a painter in oil, watercolour and acrylic. He exhibited at the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition, The Society of Architect Artists, London and Stuttgart and other Art Societies. His work has been purchased by the National Westminster Bank, Schroders Bank and Save and Prosper. Pictures may be seen in the permanent collection of Maidstone Art Gallery, Kent.
Hains was a Life Member of the Society of Architect Artists, London and Vice President of Maidstone Art Society.
What this little internet snap shot of Eric Hains doesn't say is that he was a kind and decent man, who when I was a school boy in Maidstone in the 1960s, went out of his way to encourage me, a complete stranger, to draw, paint, sculpt and become an architect because he recognised something in me worth developing and helping. He gave me holiday work as an architectural assistant helping me to fund my degree course at Manchester and even appreciated my humour. Most of us, if we are honest, owe some of our success in life to the kindness of others. This is my small public thank you to and celebration of Eric Hains a decent human being, architect and artist. RIP.
A scone, butter and jam: a perfect union between Britain, Denmark and France. At no point were my taste buds 'overrun' or my scone values compromised by foreigners.🤣
"It has been some time since my last aquarium post. Sadly I have had a number of deaths amongst the older fish in the tank.
When you add additional fish to an aquarium this stresses the existing fish stock. This is a fact however good the filtration system you employ or how well established is the tank.
Now, I guess all you tank enthusiasts have just got out your cylinder filters and are comparing sizes and performance?
A top tip from your old pal Syd Carp - ' when you carry out the weekly partial water change clean out the hose from the aquarium to the cylinder filter inlet using a bottle brush. You will be astonished at the amount of plant debris and general crud that builds up in this pipe. By cleaning this pipe, water flow, filtration and oxygenation of the water is significantly improved which in turn reduces stress for the fish."👍
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| The Nurse Diesel Memorial Fountain |
The pump in the garden fountain was in need of an adjustable pressure reducing valve to prevent the water splashing everywhere. Unable to find just what I required on-line, I decided to design and manufacture my own.
I used the parametric SolidCAD freeware for designing the valve and my recently acquired 'Bargain' 3d printer sourced from China for less than £130.
Two hours shed time from a standing start and all was done and printed.
Nowadays we have access to sophisticated technology at knock down prices. When I was a child, Alan Turing had just left Bletchley Park for Manchester. In those times, TV had just started and was in black and white, phones were attached to wires and transistors were still to be invented. Now we have AI self programming and directly challenging our intellectual supremacy on the planet. Whatever next?
The 'golden angle phi' may be found everywhere in the natural world and its mathematics provides the 'golden section' favoured by artists and architects over millenia.
Credit: Wikipedia.
The fern in the image above is arranged and unfurling following those precise mathematical rules.👍🪴
| As I was about to start a 'self portrait ', I decided to see what an 'artificially intelligent bot' could make of a preparatory 'chalk and charcoal ' sketch. Well, I was impressed with the likeness, composition and the line quality of the drawing prepared by Gemini Google.com |
Relatively speaking, the May full Moon sailed between the clouds as viewed from our garden in Oulton Broad, UK. Not ideal for astrophotography but the Seestar S30 smartscope made a tidy job of it in difficult conditions.
The faint blurry dot to the left of the brighter galaxy central bulge is the recent supernova in the edge on galaxy NGC 5907 in constellation Draco. The core collapse supernova represents one of the most extreme events in the Universe. If there were any living species within a few tens of light years of this collapsing star their future would have been exterminated. More will be posted on the Jodrell Plank Observatory blog in due course.
A classic national dish. Enhanced by sliced bread and butter. Garnished with tomato sauce and mayonnaise. Lemon sole is such a delicate and tasty flat fish. "What's not to like'
Does what it says on the tin. May not be to everyone's taste but everything including the kipper pate was made from 'scratch' apart from the pastry, which was acquired from the supermarket as a roll (life is really too short rather like the pastry)!
A very pretty conjunction between the huge gas giant planet Jupiter and our much much smaller but much much closer Moon.
On this eleventh day of April 2026 our furry companion, Reynard the Fox, was cremated and joined his woodland chums, who have gone before. "May the fox be with you"
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| Credit: NASA |
| The Artemis 2 spacecraft has now left Earth orbit on its way to the Moon. Having witnessed the Apollo Program as a young man, I have lived long enough to be alive for our long awaited return. |
I hope all goes well, the circumnavigation of the Moon is a success and the four astronauts return to Earth safely.
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| Credit:NASA |
As the world becomes more extreme and politicians increasingly pursue popularity over principle, expressing dissent digitally on the internet provides both a useful channel for releasing personal outrage and more worryingly, an indelible evidence trail for use by a future 'draconian state organisation' to target and eliminate opposition. Once information is out there, there it remains.
Big brother is watching us all and we appear to be 'happy' to openly share our innermost thoughts with him unbidden.
Gratinated oysters in a wine, cream and garlic sauce with home baked bread.
A tremendous supper!
The silver Moon and the golden Sun
Before each night and day are done
Both orbit and rotate
As did Kepler dictate.
Lighting a life-long journey along serpentine way
And just like Mars "helping us, work, rest and play"
George Doggerel.
Its art on a plate. The artist in question Tooty Roberts.
This is delicious with just a hint of Pasti in the very rich tomato based sauce. Reminded me of fun and good times in Venice.
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| 'George Swinbourne' (Professional Boxer, Fishmonger, Greengrocer and Landlord) George Roberts circa 1990. |
I don't believe I have ever posted this little drawing of mine, which has sat on a shelf in our dining room for the past thirty or more years.
As time goes by, I begin to look like him.
Fred was also an amazing card sharp and street magician. When I was a young lad, I used to be quite intrigued and a little frightened by this man, who would at the drop of a hat, demonstrate how to chew razor blades and eat light bulbs. Clearly kids, do not try either of these at home.
He fought in WW2 and was blown up and thrown from a jeep by the blast. His health was affected by this experience for the remainder of his life
My partner, being a teacher and historian, more latterly discovered, that Fred had been a male model for the life drawing classes at Camberwell College of Art.
The drawing of Fred above was created by the artist and college lecturer, John Minton.
Another male model at the College and a contemporary of Fred, was Quentin Crisp.
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| 'Mindscape' digital art George Roberts Jan 2026. 'Don't 'Dilly Dali' on the way. |
Girls and boys
Don't confuse intelligence
With saturated noise.
George 'doggerel' Roberts
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| Crab and Prawn Risotto |
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| Tartiflette with smoked salmon, sweet potato and mushrooms. |
The first being full on traditional Italian and the second being 'off road' French Alpine.
Nice and Tasty!
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| Soft Herring Roes on Toast |
Who doesn't like a misty 'Wolf Moon'? Cold last night on the Suffolk Coast and this morning it snowed. The plants in the backyard received a regular frosting and the birds were pleased to help themselves to fat, wire worms and sunflower seeds from the bird table.
