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152/365: Victoria Road Cemetery, Cradley Heath
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I nipped up to Merry Hill this morning, and although it was a slow start weather-wise, things improved quite a bit later on. Today's photo is of Victoria Road Cemetery in Cradley Heath, not directly attached to a church but an overflow space for Christ Church in nearby Quarry Bank. Despite initial appearances, the location pictured here is in a very urban area -- you can just see the houses in Victoria Road itself beyond the trees to the right. The cemetery had newly mown grass, but it otherwise seems a little on the neglected side, with a lot of plants growing over graves as seen here. On the plus side, its relatively untouched nature makes it a little oasis for wildlife, although I didn't see anything interesting during my brief visit.

As for the Merry Hill part of the day earlier on, the main downside was that I managed to drip brown sauce (from a bacon butty) onto my white polo shirt. Go me. Fortunately Merry Hill is a biggish shopping centre, so an emergency Primark run sorted out the immediate issue. (Basic cotton T-shirt, quite a pleasant teal colour, £2.50.) Whether the brown sauce will come out of the polo shirt is a good question, but I have reasonable hopes. It fortunately wasn't an expensive shirt in the first place -- though not quite as cheap as the T-shirt I bought today! -- so I'm not going to expend vast amounts of effort on it. I can always keep it for doing gardening in or something if the stain doesn't disappear.

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147/365: Ozzy the Bull, Birmingham
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I had to be in Birmingham today for boring reasons, and the city was even busier than it usually is. The New Street Eats street food festival started today, and there was a major open day for prospective students at the University of Birmingham. Still, it wasn't as bad as it is in the run-up to Christmas! Today's photo may well look familiar as I've posted Ozzy before, just not as part of the 365 project. The concourse at Birmingham New Street station (the UK's busiest outside London) is now the permanent home for the mechanical bull that was built for the Commonwealth Games in 2022. His name, Ozzy, is a nod to Ozzy Osbourne, who grew up in Aston -- although he was actually born in Marston Green, over the border in Warwickshire.

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146/365: Windy Ridge house sign, Bewdley
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Although quite warm, it was really pretty gusty today. I didn't get out for much of a walk as I had too much to do, but I did at least manage to get a photo to keep the 365 going! Given the weather, I felt this house sign was a reasonable choice. Not very exciting, I know, but it's what you're getting. :P The forecast currently suggests another short heatwave is possible imminently, albeit more likely in the east -- there could be quite a big temperature gradient, with the west being much cooler. The east meanwhile seems certain to get up into the low 30s. The question which side of the line I in Worcestershire will fall!

Every time I look at American politics beyond the Preposterous Kumquat in the White House, I realise how little I know about it. From a British perspective Zohran Mamdani comes across like, let's say, Zarah Sultana -- and she'd be considered too left-wing to win the mayoralty even in liberal London. (The incumbent, Sadiq Khan, is generally fairly moderate.) But then New York City's Democratic majority is far higher than London's Labour lead, and the existence of Trump may be persuading lefties that they need radical politicians. Of course, what's popular in NYC won't necessarily win a Presidential election, and that (as when Corbyn was Labour leader here) may cause tensions down the line.

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144/365: Outdoor tables, Severnside South, Bewdley
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Fantastic Test victory over India today! I must admit, I was among the many yelling at Ben Stokes over choosing to field after winning the toss, but I can't argue with the outcome. It wasn't a classic test of bat and ball as apart from Bumrah in the first innings there wasn't much to write home about with either side's bowling attack. Still, you can only beat what's put in front of you -- and we did. Test cricket may be struggling in global terms, but England v India is generally worth watching. For once, "England bat deep" actually mattered, and India's tail folding in the second innings was what kept England's target reachable. A proper five-Test series this year, so what a way to start off!

The Iranian theocracy is a bloody terrible regime that executes huge numbers; disappears, tortures and otherwise oppresses its citizens; and is no kind of heroic state, regardless of what one may think of Israel or the US. I have no more time for the kind of protestor who actively supports Khamenei and his ilk than I do for the kind who decades ago used to portray Stalin as a goodie purely because he was an enemy of the Americans. I suspect more than a few of these idiots think supporting Iran is showing some kind of pan-Arab solidarity with Palestine. Newsflash to those guys: Iranians are not even Arabs.

In everyday news, I arranged my diabetes review today, which as usual with my local practice was a quick and painless operation. For those who aren't aware of how these things work, every six months I have a blood and urine test, and a face-to-face meeting with a specialist nurse, to see how I'm managing. Every other meeting, ie annually, I have a more detailed appointment which includes things like a comprehensive foot health check. It's that which I've now booked for next month. As for today's photo, it's not that interesting but I didn't get anything better. Some pub and café tables on Severnside South in Bewdley.

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143/365: In Case of Flooding artwork, Bewdley
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The most exciting thing I did today was have a couple of mugs of latte. It was that kind of day. Oh, and I also had a cheery online discussion with someone online about the end of the world. More specifically, what might bring about a massive crisis that a) wasn't among the usual suspects of nuclear war, Black Death-level pandemic etc; and b) was either largely unknown to or largely dismissed by most people. We settled on a new Carrington Event, which would be utterly catastrophic -- no electricity would see the collapse of modern power and food distribution, just for a start -- and for which the average of (admittedly widely spread) expert opinion is that there is about a 10% chance of it happening in the next 50 years, so well within the lifetime of many people alive today. Sure, 10% is low, but a vanishingly tiny chance it ain't.

Cheery, eh? On a more prosaic note, though, here's today's 365 image. I'm not sure whether this really qualifies as an art installation, but I don't see why not! It's been above this window in Dog Lane, Bewdley for many years now, although the construction of flood barriers more recently has meant that the house in question now never floods. Admittedly I'm not entirely sure how a fish would help you if it flooded, but maybe the idea would be to eat it to calm yourself down! :P