I have succumbed to a virus, I don't know if it's Covid, but I have a stupid tickly cough that has kept me awake for two nights and prevented me from attending a geology workshop that I have wanted to go to for a year. I am so fed up with life at present I'd like to disappear to a tropical island and never come back.

'At least 32 transgender and non-binary people have been killed in the US this year, the Human Rights Campaign said yesterday in its annual report.

America's largest LGBT political lobbying organisation found that transgender people of colour made up 81% of known victims, with more than half (59%) of victims being black. Trans women accounted for 81% of the deaths.

The report said the number of fatalities was likely to be an underestimate because deaths of trans people often go unreported or victims are misgendered.' (Associated Press)

According to the Guardian, these fish along with another species of wrasse start off as female but become male as they age, becoming more colourful as they do so. Nature seems to have it the wrong way round to my thinking but they are beautiful fish.

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/oct/19/discover...

It's about a boy who can't get into boys' summer camp to play baseball but eventually persuades his father to let him go to girls' baseball camp where he learns something about himself and wins the tournament for them. It's in several parts I remember that. Any ideas?

I'm sorry folks, But I was out dormousing most of the day and I didn't sleep that well, I haven't for a number of days, so I'm too tired to do much at all. I'll post something as soon as I can but not tonight.

Thanks for your patience.

Angharad.

The first is my anniversary of a change of lifestyle which occurred on July 14 1986 when I went into my office in a skirt for the first time.
I am still amazed that there weren't more challenges and now 36 years later no one seems to care.

Second, it is 7 or 8 years since my son took his own life. I try not to despise my daughter-in-law, but it's hard.

Sorry about last night's Zoom get-together, I messed up on the settings and tried to correct that which made things worse. I now have it under control and if Wendy is not available to host it, I shall. I will wait and see if Wendy is home if not will post an invite here on the blogs. My apologies for last night.

The latest research shows what we suspected, women are left out of the authorship of many scientific papers, we all know of Rosalind Franklin and DNA, it seems it's still happening. I hope that when I am able to continue my research, I am able to publish, it isn't ground breaking stuff but I hope it will show one woman is trying to buck the trend.

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2022/jun/22/female-scien...

I have had stroke. ill post when i feel up to it

old photo while I was looking for a book. I'd forgotten it was there, and taken probably about 1988, so I'd have been 35 ish and without grey hair or wrinkles and rather too many pounds lighter as well.

I have an assignment for university to finish and I haven't had time to write. Hopefully, things will be a little better next week.

I'm just very busy at the moment, did some teaching today on a conservation course helping some youngsters get to grips with surveying mammals and invertebrates at the local agricultural college where they also do conservation and wildlife courses. So I've had no time for writing today as my own courses are becoming increasingly demanding. I'll post when I can and try and at least keep Bike going.

Thanks for your patience.

An article from the Guardian details the murder of a Kurdish transgender woman by her brother, who may well get away with it.

It strikes me as perverse that it's acceptable to murder someone for being themselves but not for someone to live as they feel comfortable. This young woman was doing nothing to hurt anyone, so why kill her? The term honour killing is bizarre, it's a disgraceful killing and the disgrace is for the people who perpetrate and condone such murders. Shame on them.

Real life has caught up big time this week and I have an assignment to complete in the next couple of days, I am really busy also my elderly neighbour has also become increasingly needy and confused and I can't abandon her but she really soaks up the time. So sadly, I haven't time to write (except bloody carbon cycle and not carbon fibre, and grassland ecology) and most of that is calculations in gC per m squared per year.

Anyone who thinks the Open University is a soft option is probably too stupid to do a degree with them.