Daily Archives: Sunday, February 1, 2015

  • Greenwash Capital moves to non-existent website

    Steve WoodsBristol, Oddities, Tech

    In a new move Bristol City Council has started advertising websites for non-existent domains as part of its tenure as European Green Capital 2015.

    I’m indebted to Redvee for the photograph below.

    sign for a non-existent solar park and website

    Not only does the solar park itself not exist, neither does the domain shown on the sign, as a simple whois search reveals.

    whois search for lawrencewestonroadsolarpark.co.uk

    I wonder how much money has been wasted on the publicity for a non-existent solar park and its accompanying (and equally non-existent) website.

    Would anyone from Bristol City Council care to comment?

    Update 02/02/2015: a subsequent whois search today revealed that the domain in question was registered by a PR person working for Bristol City Council this morning and that the registrant contact details are currently awaiting validation.

  • Sign of spring

    Steve WoodsBristol, Language

    As we enter another month and a chill northerly wind drives temperatures down, it’s encouraging to know that signs of spring are appearing.

    Along with the appearance of snowdrops (posts passim), the swelling of hazel catkins is another early sign of an impending change of season.

    The photograph below was taken yesterday at the junction of Stapleton Road, Trinity Road and Lawford’s Gate in Easton.

    image of catkins

    According to Wikipedia:

    A catkin or ament is a slim, cylindrical flower cluster, with inconspicuous or no petals, usually wind-pollinated (anemophilous) but sometimes insect-pollinated (as in Salix). They contain many, usually unisexual flowers, arranged closely along a central stem which is often drooping.

    Hazel catkins are the male flowers of the plant.

    The female flowers – as shown in the photo below – are much smaller and harder to spot.

    image of female hazel flower

    The change from winter to spring was admirably encapsulated by the final couplet of Percy Bysshe Shelley‘s 1819 Ode to the West Wind.

    The trumpet of a prophecy! O, wind,
    If Winter comes, can Spring be far behind?