Friends of Charles Darwin RSS feed has moved…

For technical reasons I won’t bore you with, the canonical URL (web address) for the Friends of Charles Darwin combined RSS ‘metafeed’ (which lists all the site’s latest articles, newsletters, reviews and blog posts) has changed to:

http://friendsofdarwin.com/metafeed.xml

The (non-technical) reason for the change is to make the feed more user-friendly for people who happen to land on the page, but who don’t understand what an RSS feed is for.

The old feed URL should continue to work just fine. But if you’re already subscribed to the feed, you might want to update to the new ‘official’ version.

Apologies for any inconvenience. I’ll try to ensure this doesn’t happen again.

Hello, Ukraine! 🇺🇦

I am delighted to announce that the Friends of Charles Darwin have their first member from Ukraine: Kateryna Ocheretna of Kviy. Welcome! (And keep going, Ukraine!)

We now have members in 104 countries.

Ukraine

The Darwin bicentennial oak, 12 years on

Twelve years ago today, I planted the Darwin Bicentennial Oak in my garden. I am pleased to report that it is still doing well.

Darwin Bicentennial Oak, 2009 (before)
Darwin Bicentennial Oak, 2009 (before planting)
Darwin Bicentennial Oak, 2009
Darwin Bicentennial Oak, 2009
Darwin Bicentennial Oak, 2009
Darwin Bicentennial Oak, 2009
Darwin Bicentennial Oak, 2011
Darwin Bicentennial Oak, 2011
Darwin Bicentennial Oak, 2013
Darwin Bicentennial Oak, 2013
Darwin Bicentennial Oak, 2015
Darwin Bicentennial Oak, 2015
Darwin Bicentennial Oak, 2016
Darwin Bicentennial Oak, 2016
Darwin Bicentennial Oak, 2017
Darwin Bicentennial Oak, 2017
Darwin Bicentennial Oak, 2018
Darwin Bicentennial Oak, 2018
Darwin Bicentennial Oak, 2019
Darwin Bicentennial Oak, 2019
Darwin Bicentennial Oak, 2020
Darwin Bicentennial Oak, 2020
Darwin Bicentennial Oak, 2021
Darwin Bicentennial Oak, 2021

I have now spent twelve years gathering material for the longest time-lapse movie ever. Or should that be shortest?

The Darwin bicentennial oak, 11 years on

Eleven years ago today, I planted the Darwin Bicentennial Oak in my garden. I am pleased to report that it is still doing well.

Darwin Bicentennial Oak, 2009 (before)
Darwin Bicentennial Oak, 2009 (before planting)
Darwin Bicentennial Oak, 2009
Darwin Bicentennial Oak, 2009
Darwin Bicentennial Oak, 2009
Darwin Bicentennial Oak, 2009
Darwin Bicentennial Oak, 2011
Darwin Bicentennial Oak, 2011
Darwin Bicentennial Oak, 2013
Darwin Bicentennial Oak, 2013
Darwin Bicentennial Oak, 2015
Darwin Bicentennial Oak, 2015
Darwin Bicentennial Oak, 2016
Darwin Bicentennial Oak, 2016
Darwin Bicentennial Oak, 2017
Darwin Bicentennial Oak, 2017
Darwin Bicentennial Oak, 2018
Darwin Bicentennial Oak, 2018
Darwin Bicentennial Oak, 2019
Darwin Bicentennial Oak, 2019
Darwin Bicentennial Oak, 2020
Darwin Bicentennial Oak, 2020

I have now spent eleven years gathering material for the longest time-lapse movie ever. Or should that be shortest?

The Darwin bicentennial oak, 10 years on

Ten years ago today, I planted the Darwin Bicentennial Oak in my garden. I am pleased to report that it is still doing well.

Darwin Bicentennial Oak, 2009 (before)
Darwin Bicentennial Oak, 2009 (before planting)
Darwin Bicentennial Oak, 2009
Darwin Bicentennial Oak, 2009
Darwin Bicentennial Oak, 2009
Darwin Bicentennial Oak, 2009
Darwin Bicentennial Oak, 2011
Darwin Bicentennial Oak, 2011
Darwin Bicentennial Oak, 2013
Darwin Bicentennial Oak, 2013
Darwin Bicentennial Oak, 2015
Darwin Bicentennial Oak, 2015
Darwin Bicentennial Oak, 2016
Darwin Bicentennial Oak, 2016
Darwin Bicentennial Oak, 2017
Darwin Bicentennial Oak, 2017
Darwin Bicentennial Oak, 2018
Darwin Bicentennial Oak, 2018
Darwin Bicentennial Oak, 2019
Darwin Bicentennial Oak, 2019

I have now spent ten years gathering material for the longest time-lapse movie ever. Or should that be shortest?

Maureen Brian, FCD (12 June 1942 – 31 July 2018)

I was sad to learn via Facebook that Maureen Brian died earlier today. She had been unwell for quite some time.

Maureen lived just down the hill from me, and was single-handedly responsible for arranging PZ Myers’ appearance at the Hebden Bridge Trades Club in 2014.

PZ Myers and Maureen Brian
Maureen Brian with PZ Myers in a Hebden Bridge church(!) in 2014.

After I got to know her, Maureen told me she had met me (sort of) once before: on Charles Darwin’s 200th birthday of all dates! She was the person standing behind me in Hebden Bridge Post Office as I bought an entire sheet of Darwin Bicentennial stamps, which were issued that day. She said she’d been very concerned I might have bought the post office’s entire stock, as she was also after a set!

I’ll miss her occasionally outspoken updates, and frequent ‘likes’ on social media.

See also: PZ Myers - Maureen Brian has died