In a neglected corner of the garden, a pot of “weeds” bursts into life. I’ve been watering an empty-looking pot for ages, and here is my (ephemeral) reward! Except, now it’s on the internet it will no longer be ephemeral and will last forever of course! Eternal Buttercups: that’s a generous reward.

I’m on a diet, but it turns out that, appropriately for a geomorphologist, I’m in stable equilibrium: in the last month I have gained exactly the same amount as I have lost. Yea! Cake and chocolates for lunch to celebrate. Am I doing this right? #diet #nutrition #cake #geomorphologist

Good morning from Marbury on the #Cheshire #Shropshire border. My #sunrise #sky today.

Is #ff #FollowFriday (still) a thing? Well, anyway, here's a recommendation from me: @mariapopova.bsky.social for a regular diet of thoughtful and interesting ideas on art, culture, religion, nature... a "search for meaning, from science and philosophy to poetry and children’s books".

Objects in the rear view mirror may… be a dog! Wasn’t that a Meatloaf song?

I confined myself to the little bookcase within arm’s length of my spot in the living room, and these jumped out to get my list rolling. But there’s a twist: one of them was written after its movie and is the book of the film rather than there being a film of the book. Answer in alt text.

For context, (we were talking about being influenced by other writers' styles and about pretentious drivel), here from long ago is the opening of my first half-serious attempt at fiction, circa mid 1990's. It ended up being short (less than 10,000 words) but was the first thing I actually finished!

Re-reading Milan Kundera after 40+ years I'm struck by how much my own writing from that period was influenced by his style. And even now I see his influence in how I write and think. #amreading #amwriting

There's a Clive James song lyric: "it's lovely but it doesn't mean a thing." That perfectly describes my fiction writing. I've written lots (finished a couple!) and line-by-line they have pretty moments but they're a bit rubbish when you stand back and look at them from a sensible distance.

Good morning from Marbury. We took a different path this morning but still came upon the sunrise. I’m going to log that as a Robert Frost moment although I can’t pin down an exact match. #poetry #sunrise

Good morning from Marbury. My early-morning skies today.

And this morning’s textbook cloud example seems to be a bit of stratocumulus.

Good morning from Marbury. Today’s sky started a bit Rothko but then suddenly came over all Disney. #sky #rainbow

Some text-book clouds in this afternoon’s sky. Flat bottomed cumulus with cauliflower heads.

My sky this afternoon.

Good morning from Marbury on the #Cheshire #Shropshire border. My #sunrise #sky today (looking west into the incoming showers).

Ah, my smart-watch is getting to know me.

My filing system, wherever it is now (on drives, in clouds?) is bursting with scraps and fragments. They seem to have spread like termites into every folder. This one just slithered out like an unintended consequence. I have no idea what it was about, what I was thinking or why I wrote it, but

I used to begin one tutorial by declaring "There are two types of student in this world..." not saying what the two types were, but asking the students to discuss and decide which type each of them was. That kept them very usefully engaged for an hour, and then for the rest of their time at Uni!

Same old, same old…. Another day, another beautiful sunrise. Good morning from Marbury on the #Cheshire #Shropshire border. #sunrise #countryside

My new watch hasn’t equilibrated to my natural stress level yet and doesn’t recognise “normal” when it sees it!

A quiet corner of my study. Includes photos of Greenland and Iceland, my ice axe, a painting with characters from several old westerns, bookshelves, a souvenir parrot from Ecuador (1986), several model lifeboats including one kindly gifted by a student, and some model railway paraphernalia.

Self portrait Cast in shadow, not stone With T.S.Eliot.

We can see the stars Only if we live in the Darkness between them.

We get up about 4.15, have breakfast with some TV-news, and have our early-morning walk about 5am. There are advantages and drawbacks to that routine but one bonus is that we often get to see the sunrise across the fields at the end of our lane. #countryside #sunrise #EarlyBird #MorningRoutine

#Caturday. Me and the cats poring over the map, planning our next steps.

We live not only in a physical ice age, in which glaciers affect the landscape, but in a cultural ice age, in which our understanding of how glaciers fit into the planet’s life affects our whole view of the world and our place within it.

A likely future: water wars... essentially glacier wars. #glaciers #ClimateChange #environment #politics

Glaciers: through the eyes of artists as well as scientists.

Ah... I see my excellent book "Glacier: Nature&Culture" no longer features prominently in the publisher's new catalogue! I fade (plummet) into history. At least I'm still on their website (if anyone would like to buy a few copies ha ha!). UK, US & Worldwide via: reaktionbooks.co.uk/work/glacier

I always say that although my #library might seem to be disorganised to the point of chaos I’m confident that I can quickly lay my hand on any #book. Today proved me wrong twice! But I tracked them both down, and in the end they both turned up in sensible places… in the local meaning of “sensible”.

“ And Lo! The hunter of the East has caught the Sultan’s turret in a noose of light.” (Omar Khayam). Or, in my case, the early morning sun is catching the top of the shed. Is it just me, or does everyone find that everything reminds you of some poem or other?!

My current status: sitting on the sofa eating custard creams with the dog.

My sky this afternoon. Close to the #Cheshire #Shropshire border.

Good morning from Marbury. My #sunrise #sky and early walk this morning. #Cheshire #countryside

One for my #glaciers friends. I used this in my course handbook for a few years back in the 1990's. #sketch #cartoon #drawing

You can learn a lot about yourself from the GPS track of your supermarket visit.

Good morning from Marbury. My #sunrise #sky today. #Cheshire #countryside #EarlyStart

Tentative. Twice shy. Nobody saw me come back Or knew I had gone. #haikuchallenge (rebirth) #poem #loss #grief

The sky is beginning to look as though it thinks it’s summer. My sky today. Fair weather cumulus. #SkySky #sky #clouds #Cheshire #countryside

“Does your dog get on ok with the cats?” #dog #collie #cat #dogsky #catsky

Good morning from Marbury. A bright, frosty morning.

In the end the publisher preferred this one as the cover painting. I wondered if it was a bit garish, but I was so pleased that they (and my co-author) let me do the cover image myself that I didn't argue too much! Here: the actual cover, the bit of the painting that we used, and the whole painting.

Looking through some of my old paintings. I like this one, looking out to sea. #Painting #Art #Landscape #Seascape This was one of the candidates for the cover image of my "How to do your dissertation..." textbook.

I live in a Rothko painting. Good morning from Marbury. #Cheshire #countryside

I loved this poem It justified my compulsion for travel Which I did and Discovered the blank Spaces on a Colonizer’s map were Somebody’s ancestral lands

No. Too good. Stop. This is my place, where the blank spot on the map holds me:

Blackout Poem (original text Joseph Conrad, Heart of Darkness). #poem #poetry #art #writing #redacted that river was the farthest point of my experience Then I got a passion for maps and all the glories of blank spaces on the earth I would go there. The blank space.

Good morning from Marbury. How’s your day looking?

First ducklings of the year. Good morning from Marbury.