Is it her companionable constancy that makes the moon so easy to anthropomorphise? Her relative closeness that leads us to attribute her with thoughts and feelings, with sentience?

smokestained, 2 nights after full, unmoved by friday night fireworks

Birdsong is something that can be a vital part of your well-being for years without you noticing or appreciating it, like having intact internal organs.

Follow Coates for this and other entertaining (though not always poet and wombat related) anniversaries.

Time to take those decorations down, please.

People take Halloween decorations down but leave bits behind, so I've been de-fake-cobwebbing hedges near me, so that small birds don't get caught in remaining filaments of the horrible synthetic stuff.

Today's Flighty's plot blog post is November has started - flightplot.wordpress.com/2025/11/06/n... 🌱 #UKGardening

All Souls' Day, and in the blue dusk light, carrying a lantern, Old Fox walked down to the churchyard. A barn owl called down from the tower, and was answered somewhere in the trees.

❄️It's time for Old Fox to plan his Advent Calendar! Throughout December, I will be writing one frozen fragment each day, blown in by the North Wind. Join my patreon or buy me a chocolate on Ko-fi & write Christmas in the message, a theme or a dedication, & I will add you to my list of 24 windows❄️

❄️It's time for Old Fox to plan his Advent Calendar! Throughout December, I will be writing one frozen fragment each day, blown in by the North Wind. Join my patreon or buy me a chocolate on Ko-fi (ko-fi.com/annelouiseav...) & write Christmas in the message & I will add you to my list of 24 windows❄️

I've removed the paywall permanently from this piece, which is a chapter from my novel Villager (republished today), told entirely in the form of an online village message board. If you like it, you'll probably like the book. If you don't, you won't... www.tom-cox.com/the-village-...

Reminder to anyone who needs it today: Reading books (at home, on the bus, in Starbucks); owning books; loving books; discussing books. None of these things are “performative” unless you’re selling tickets.

UK-based people: If you read this excerpt & enjoy it & decide to buy the book today, let me know & I'll send you a ltd edition postcard of the map from the book AND one of my dad's time-travelling cat postcards. P.S. I recommend Blackwell's (free delivery): blackwells.co.uk/bookshop/pro...

"It is very little that we can ever know of the ways of Providence or the laws of existence; but that little is enough, and exactly enough." ~ John Ruskin 𝗢𝗰𝘁𝗼𝗯𝗲𝗿 𝗚𝗼𝗹𝗱 (1889) 🎨 John Atkinson Grimshaw

I have never in my life been able to ‘unzip’ the string closure on a paper sack. What am I doing wrong?

The ghosted glass that watches us may be stained with more than kiln-baked paints. For some panes have spectral eyes as well as those gifted by the artist. When held in their enduring gaze, many remark that it is not a benevolent looking. – #CLNolan

Does anyone know what's happening with the #SocialBodies project at the University of Birmingham @unibirmingham.bsky.social please? The website doesn't seem to be working. Crestfallen. #18C #C18 #EighteenthCenturyists

And check this out. If you’re in the Bristol area come come come!

For me, the purest thrills are doubtless those found in nature. The afterglow endures — outlasts that of the best artificial experience, or any material purchase. Nature is entirely wholesome. Nothing is forced or staged. No fads or fashions, clauses or caveats.

The next club is announced! Next April, we are reading from 1961 #1961Club

When humans look at something we find beautiful our brains release dopamine, lifting mood & if we connect with what we're looking at oxytocin, giving us a sense of belonging. A tiny posy I made in a thimble, with real flowers I grew👇 If you like it it'll alter your brain biochemistry for the better:

Pleaae take one day at a time.

Today's @theguardian.com country diary by @amyjanebeer.bsky.social on the City of Troy labyrinth in North Yorkshire.

@rspb.bsky.social @rspbscotland.bsky.social I'm going to let you answer this.

Note to self: the clocks go back tonight.

The go-ahead for #BerwickBank is a death knell for thousands of seabirds. With many already in crisis, it must be stopped. Please support the letter-writing campaign. www.rspb.org.uk/whats-happen...

#OldFox'sCottage #GhostStories

"Act boldly, without delay and introduce game shoot licensing" - open letter to Defra Ministers from Northern England Raptor Forum Chair raptorpersecutionuk.org/2025/10/24/a...

#OldFox #GhostStories

If a story touches your heart, send Anne a hot chocolate (Ko-fi) in appreciation. If they all do, join her Patreon. All tiers have access to all the tales (& recipes). Wolf & Old Fox will send you a very sweet welcome card when you do. Today is a good day to subscribe.

@annelouiseavery.bsky.social's Patreon - "Off the Paddington Canal" #OldFoxCommunity (Old Fox, Miss Stevenson) Today is a good day to subscribe. www.patreon.com/posts/off-pa...

Just sharing Anne's scary stories. 💚🤍💚 She's a lovely writer and regularly posts tiny stories on here based on art work. She's such a kind, comforting presence to follow on bluesky.

☕️ If you like my stories, then why not support my daily writing and buy me a nice hot chocolate over on Kofi. It's very, very helpful at the moment, as I can't work as much as I would like because of my health. ko-fi.com/annelouiseav...

Old Fox's series of ghost stories begins on my patreon today with "The Scarlet Crown"! A collection of blood-tingling, gothic stories of unquiet graves, haunted rings & long-dead Roman legions. Join for these & thousands of other tales & recipes! patreon.com/annelouiseav...

Every time I think I might at last be able to 'draw breath' and have a 'normal' day, something new happens to set me back again. For friends and anyone who's missed me here, I'm likely to be only sporadically present for a while yet ... Take care. #TheChronicLife

This became a staple of the Help The Witch tour in autumn 2018. I think I just about got the Somerset accent right by the end, after a few failed gos.

Friends! The story of Julia, Doris, Marguerite & me is 3wks old! Would love to get their incredible, forgotten story out there & into the hands of readers. People have said wonderful & generous things, including @sallycoulthard.bsky.social …1/2 #booksky #GhostsoftheFarm Grateful for a repost! x

Letters to the sea keep sailing toward me, and it’s such a lovely thing to read them and share them with you. I hope you’re thinking of writing your own letter to the sea one day, too. In the meantime, you can read what Frieda from California has to say: sea-library.com/2025/10/14/0...

A nice bit of colour this morning here in Glastonbury. Photo taken from St Michael's tower on Glastonbury Tor shortly before sunrise.

And this morning the Shed is a cowrie shell, containing the wealth of nine oceans...

Read it, and weep.

Quick! Rush to join my patreon this month, where you'll find a golden treasure chest of new autumnal recipes and a creaking, web-wreathed wardrobe rattling with ghost stories! Every tier receives a special card in the post from Old Fox and Wolf! patreon.com/annelouiseav...

I encountered Katherine Blower's Walter only recently, but I am a huge fan already. Her images of the friendly ghost she created manage to be simultaneously bleak and comforting.

This is excellent

For sale! A very beautiful and rather large antique French carpet - roses against a black ground. 295x195 cm. The photo below shows it folded up. £100 or reasonable offer. Not including postage, but happy to drop it off around Oxford/West Oxfordshire. DM or reply below for details.

'Embroidery.' (1817) The paintings of Georg Friedrich Kersting have proved perennial objects of admiration, not only for their atmospheric use of colour, their meditative serenity and (what we all need from time to time) a sense of seclusion from the outside world.