WE Brits sometimes use unusual language when we talk about the weather. The Daily Mirror reports on a survey of 2,000 people to reveal the words and phrases most likely to be used.  These include ‘it’s raining cats and dogs’, ‘blowing a gale’ and ‘throwing it down’. Other popular phrases include ‘it’s the calm before […]

THE BBC informs us that although 24 million old-style £1 coins have been returned to the Royal Mint in the last year, that still leaves 145 million outstanding.  This is despite the fact that people have been unable to spend them in shops since October 2017. The round coin was replaced  in March 2017 by a 12-sided version, to help crack down […]

MUSUEMS in East Anglia have been successful in a campaign to stop an early landscape painting - thought to be the first painted in the open air - by the artist JMW Turner, leaving the UK, reports the Guardian.

A private buyer at an auction held in Etwall, Derbyshire, has picked up a fascinating piece of history, reports the Daily Express. The buyer spent £12,500 on a hunger strike medal awarded to a militant suffragette, which was found after more than 100 years gathering dust in a drawer. Apparently the Medal of Valour was […]

THE BBC puts the spotlight on 81 year old Mavis Paterson, from Glenluce in Scotland, who at 81 has become the oldest woman to cycle the 960 miles (1,540km) from Land's End to John O'Groats. She took up the challenge in memory of her three children who all died within four years of one another. […]

WE Brits love our hedgehogs so much that a new traffic sign will be appearing on UK roads warning drivers of their presence. The Independent says that the signs will be placed in areas where accident rates are the highest in an aim to reverse the decline in small wildlife numbers, especially hedgehogs. Government minister […]