It wasn’t all bad

Rare Andean flamingos in a wetlands reserve in Gloucestershire have laid eggs for the first time in 15 years thanks to Britain’s recent heatwave, which mimicked conditions in the wild. Six birds at WWT Slimbridge laid a total of nine eggs, but none were viable because the birds are infertile. The long, hot summer also caused a rare Chinese tree, an Emmenopterys henryi, to blossom in a Cardiff park for the first time since it was introduced a century ago.

Youtube gained an unlikely group of stars last week as a channel for Italian grandmothers, or nonne, making pasta, went viral. The Pasta Grannies channel is run by Vicky Bennison, the British food writer, who travels to kitchens across Italy to film women making different pasta varieties by hand and serving them in local style. The channel was started in 2014, but gained a sudden following last week after it was featured on news websites. The videos have now been viewed 1.8 million times. Bennison, 59, seeks out the nonne, who are aged up to 95 years old, through Italian friends, strangers and village mayors.

A stone was finally unveiled this week to mark the grave of William Blake, after a two-year amateur investigation by a couple to pinpoint its exact location. Carol and Luis Garrido, fans of Blake’s poetry and art, came to visit his grave in Bunhill Fields in London in 2004, but found only a stone saying that his remains lay “near by”, due to confusion caused by WW2 bomb damage to the cemetery. Following their discovery of his final resting place, and years of fundraising by the Blake Society, the memorial was revealed on Sunday.