Gill (@Fleurfox) header
Gill (@Fleurfox) profile picture

Professional gardener. Wildlife watcher & photographer. Ex NHS nurse defeated by the system. Still aiming to laugh at least once a day.

London UK
Joined September 2009
Photo by Gill (@Fleurfox)Photo by Gill (@Fleurfox)Photo by Gill (@Fleurfox)Photo by Gill (@Fleurfox)Photo by Gill (@Fleurfox)Photo by Gill (@Fleurfox)Photo by Gill (@Fleurfox)Photo by Gill (@Fleurfox)Photo by Gill (@Fleurfox)Photo by Gill (@Fleurfox)
👍 ‘WE’RE RETIRED FROM ACTIVE DUTY’ 👍 This is true.
I'm not 67 YET but getting closer, but ALL of this is true! I need to make a very PUBLIC announcement on behalf of those of us who are 60-something. If you see a 67-year-old who seems a little boring now, understand something… WE ALREADY GOT IT IN. Like…GOT. IT. IN. 😂 We’re not sitting home on Friday night because we never knew how to have fun. We’re sitting home because WE’VE HAD ENOUGH FUN FOR THREE LIFETIMES. We went to parties in farmhouses, machine sheds, gravel pits and cornfields. Nobody sent a location because THERE WERE NO CELL PHONES. Somebody just said, “There’s a party out at Johnson’s.” Which Johnson? Nobody knew. But somehow 75 people found it. We cruised Main Street for hours with absolutely nowhere to go. Gas was cheap, the music was loud, and somehow 11 people fit into a car made for five. We drank Boone’s Farm, cheap beer and mysterious concoctions somebody handed us in a plastic cup. Nobody asked what was in it. You drank it and trusted the process. We closed down the bar and instead of doing the responsible thing and GOING HOME… somebody would yell: “RED ROOSTER!” Or… “LET’S GO TO THE BOONDOCKS!” And suddenly at 2:30 in the morning, the whole crew was sitting around a table eating eggs, hash browns and greasy breakfast food like we’d just finished a hard day’s work. Then somebody would say: “Well…might as well stay up now.” 😂😂 There was no Uber. No GPS. No Life360. No Find My Friends. There was just somebody saying: “Follow me. I know a shortcut.” And for reasons nobody can explain… WE FOLLOWED HIM. We made entire weekend plans without sending ONE text message. “Meet me there around 8.” That was the plan. And somehow everybody showed up. We did stupid things. We did REALLY stupid things. And the greatest gift our generation ever received was: THERE WERE NO CAMERA PHONES. There are events from approximately 1975 through 1985 that exist only in the memories of the people who were there. AND THAT’S EXACTLY WHERE THEY NEED TO STAY. So yes… Now we’re 67. We like our recliners. We like comfortable shoes. We like restaurants at 5:00. We like being home by 8:00. And if somebody calls at 9:30 and asks: “What are you doing?” The answer is: “Why the hell are you calling me this late?” 😂 We’re not boring. WE’RE RETIRED FROM ACTIVE DUTY. We’ve already closed the bars, stayed out until sunrise, made questionable decisions and somehow lived to tell about it. So when younger people see us peacefully sitting at home and think: “Man, you guys are boring.” Sweetheart… YOU’RE NOT LOOKING AT BORING OLD PEOPLE. YOU’RE LOOKING AT RETIRED LEGENDS. And thank God there isn’t much photographic evidence.
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A message from the residents of Unst, Shetland to the SaxaVord Spaceport which as applied for a licence to start dropping large, disused rocket components into the sea north of Shetland. It's website highlights its “founding commitment” to “minimise our environmental impact on earth and in space”. It adds: “We will work with launch operators to track returning components and record jettisoned material entering the marine environment.” Yeah right...
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Ik zit al 10 minuten te gieren van het lachen 😂 – at Almere, Nederland
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On Monday afternoon I was watching a flock of over 50 Barnacle Geese at Spiggie, Shetland and found an individual wearing a colour ring inscribed 'S3'. Today I received the news from Dr. Larry Griffin that the bird was ringed as an adult female at Nordenskiold, Svalbard over 11 years ago on the 27th July 2015!
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Someone asked if I knew he was there. Oh yeah, I knew. 😁 Also, has anyone else seen that business man arm reach over from the corner of your screen and point at the “promote” button, yet? I honestly jumped. That was a little rude.
You never know what you'll find when you really pause to look at a photo.
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Gut das es solche Menschen gibt👏👏👏
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It's nearly the end of October, the clocks have gone back, and once again we are moving steadily into the darker months. 🌙 If you need a little more light in your life then don't forget that Orkney Library & Archive have a collection of loanable WINTERING WELL KITS! 💡
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Drone debris falls on Kyiv like steel rain. The mayor keeps us informed about the damage it causes. We pretend we have umbrellas to hide under. Saturday evening. Drone attack again. I look out of the window to check whether it’s raining or not.
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#StormBoelo in Aberystwyth tonight. Video by @ViningSmith
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Best social media advice of the day!
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Do you like honey? Of course you do. The trouble is, if you buy cheap ‘honey’ in squeezy plastic bottles with a label saying it’s the produce of several countries, it may well contain little to no genuine, 100% bee-made nectar. Chances are it’s just composed of synthetic syrup.
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Look! The ash plume from Taal Volcano’s eruption this evening was momentarily streaked with volcanic lightning, as recorded by the Buco (VTBC) and Calauit (VTCT) observation stations of Taal Volcano Network. #TaalVolcano teapawt.org/phivolcs_dost/status/2…
LOOK: Sped-up thermal camera footages of minor phreatomagmatic eruption at the Main Crater of Taal Volcano that occurred at 06:06 PM today, 08 October 2026 and lasted five (5) minutes based on seismic and camera recordings of the Taal Volcano Network. #TaalVolcano
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LOOK: Sped-up camera footage of a minor phreatomagmatic eruption at the Main Crater of Taal Volcano, which occurred at 04:52 AM today, 22 October 2026. The event generated a plume that rose 1200 meters above the crater, as recorded by the Daang Kastila (VTDK) thermal and Lower Calauit (VTLC) IP Cameras. Alert Level 1 is maintained over Taal Volcano. #TaalVolcano
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LOOK: Sped-up camera footage of a minor phreatomagmatic eruption at the Main Crater of Taal Volcano, which occurred at 11:41 PM yesterday, 21 October 2026. The event generated a plume that rose 3000 meters above the crater, as recorded by the Daang Kastila (VTDK) thermal and Lower Calauit (VTLC) IP Cameras. Alert Level 1 is maintained over Taal Volcano. #TaalVolcano
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Perhaps it didn’t make the news in your media. Yesterday, russia damaged the Book Chamber of Ukraine in Kyiv. It holds 15+ million books, newspapers, magazines and maps published in Ukraine since 1917. The collections are now at risk from moisture. Windows in the storage areas were blown out.
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Anyone who wants to start painting you don’t have to buy expensive brushes and paint. I picked up an £8 set of acrylic paints in the Works that came with three small brushes and a plastic palette
Postcard painting of Rinsey, Cornwall
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We are all seeing this, right?
One of Putin's closest envoys sharing a meme of the USA and Russia attacking the UK and EU — 'Together'. Can we all see what is happening yet? 🤬
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“A beautiful deal”, "a rotten fish" and a very long journey back to Russia. My reflections on a dramatic week. And Valentina has sent me a present. #ReadingRussia
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A hare with ears of gold, taking the air this morning just after sunrise. ✨
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Some amazing photos of my Grandad, Ralph, from a calendar of 1966. Very little except scaffolding has changed in thatching since then. #dodsonthatchers #dodsonthatching #masterthatchers #ruralcrafts #cambridgeshire
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