Back to my flat in Leeds after a wonderfully refreshing Christmas and New Year break in Cambridgeshire. Well apart from yet another awful cold. My flat is now a balmy 15.4°c so I'm huddled under a blanket. Still warmer than the 11°c it was after 1.5 weeks without heating. And more importantly 1/2

Ended 2025 the right way after a year that has been a lot in my personal and professional life. Finally visited the wonderful @stainedglassmuseum.bsky.social in Ely. Absolutely fantastic and can highly recommend.

I'm very intrigued to watch this tonight. www.bbc.co.uk/mediacentre/... Archives used for their purpose of providing evidence of the survivors experience of the sinking and told in their own words.

Over the last few months I have had the privilege to be involved in the preservation of the fantastic discovery of historic wallpaper from 1883 during the refurbishment of the Ramsden building on the University of Huddersfield's campus. www.hud.ac.uk/news/2025/no... 1/5

Well that's the Internet won for all time, thanks to te the Dutch Digital Heritage Band. www.youtube.com/watch?v=m8Qf... #digitalpreservation #digipres #wdpd2025

Lots going on in life atm, including moving to a new flat this coming weekend. But I've got my priorities straight with the packing and that's the main thing.

Lots going on in life atm, including moving to a new flat this coming weekend. But I've got my priorities straight with the packing and that's the main thing.

Very sad to learn of the death of Tony Harrison. I studied V for A Level, and then had the privilege of working on his archive for a short time at the University of Leeds and meeting him which was such an honour. www.theguardian.com/books/2025/s...

Just seen Next to Normal at the beautiful Hebden Bridge picture house. What an emotional wringer of a musical. I don't know how the cast managed to perform that every night. I am wrung out after just watching it once.

Tonight is reconfirming my wish to go to the Last Night at some point.

Bill Bailey confirming himself as a genius.

Last Night of the Proms it is. Have watched Part 1 and now very excited for Part 2. Bohemian Rhapsody in the Royal Albert Hall. Wow.

Just another day in the life of an Archivist. I do love getting the hi-vis and hard-hat on at work at the moment. Any excuse!

Fund. Cataloguing. Hire. Cataloguers.

Yesterday I had the honour and privilege of meeting HRH Princess Anne and showing her our current #archive exhibition @heritagequay.bsky.social before she was whisked off to receive her honorary doctorate from @huddersfielduni.bsky.social.

I didn't think it was possible to like Jonathan Bailey more than I already did but think this may have taken it to the next level www.facebook.com/universalpic... here's hoping he inspires some future musicians!

It’s going to be super warm the next few days so here are my #toptips in no particular order for #stayingcool in the heat that I circulated to the team earlier. They are all common sense and it does help working in #archives but sure they are applicable elsewhere too!

No way is Jagged Little Pill 30 years old.

Currently attending #mouldymonday online. Fabulous event so far and learning lots. Really enjoying the case studies.

As threatened I went to the Hay Festival and saw this talk www.theguardian.com/books/2025/m... Jacqueline Wilson and Kate Mosse were both on form. Mosse particularly when talking about AI. Anyway it seemed a fitting one to go too seeming as The Ghost Ship is my current read.

Out of office on. Travelling to Llandrindod Wells for a couple of days to see friends, go sightseeing and maybe pop by the Hay Festival.

My mum has just got various quotations for selling her house... my childhood home and will be putting it on the market soon. All the feelings right now.

Debates within my family about the white paper as I mentioned impact on students and the sector. The response care homes will struggle as well, but record number of people each week getting citizenship, way up even on last year. Is this true?

Deeply disappointed by the rhetoric today from the govt that migration is a bad thing and pandering to the far right on this.

It's not often I'm on the first train from Headingley in the morning (which is surprisingly busy) but I'm off to visit Deepstore and go mining for archives! Should be a fun day.

Utterly delighted and privileged to be back at @unileedsnews.bsky.social this afternoon for the inaugural lecture of @jontopham.bsky.social It brings back many memories of studying @hpsleeds.bsky.social 2010-2015 when Jon was my supervisor.

The sleuthing that's gone into this is excellent. When #bookhistory #archives and Bill Shakespeare and Anne Hathaway all come together as one www.theguardian.com/culture/2025...

Great to see @huddersfielduni.bsky.social is now OK Bluesky.

Lovely to hear #RuthGipps #Trio Op.10 on @bbcradio3bot.bsky.social right now. We have lots of Gipp's scores in @soundandmusic.bsky.social #BritishMusicCollection @heritagequay.bsky.social but had never heard her compositions played before. See heritagequay.org/archives/?au... for more of her work.

You can take the girl out of the archives but not the archives out of the girl... had a fantastic day today at Peckworth House @nationaltrust.org.uk finally made it about 15 years after first trying only to find it closed. Well worth the wait and the beautiful weather. Esp loved the wellie idea...

When a headline just screams no mine's bigger than yours...

Ooh apparently there's a partial eclipse. Instantly looks directly at sun. Don't recommend.

Discovered on the train. Feel sorry for whoever left them behind. I guess that's next year's mothers day card sorted though!

Ha great moment on the train this morning. Conductor checks my season ticket from Headingley to Huddersfield and goes gosh that's expensive! I was like I know! The best bit... my season ticket isn't even full price as get a couple of months off through my work scheme.

Had to leave this gorgeous girl behind to go to work this morning (staying with us for a few days) but got to listen to some lovely birdsong in the surroundings of Headingley Station. All birds picked up in the few minutes I was waiting for the song.

Turns out I didn't get them. Too many others in the same boat wanted them too 😥 got kicked out for being a bot multiple times and when I did manage to select tickets it would then say these have already gone. Annoying!

Living my best teenage life today at the age of erm 37 😱 Five tickets for Leeds Arena in Nov go on sale at 10am and I can't wait!

Utterly fantastic cataloguing achievement but this photo is giving me the heebie-jeebies. Yes I know it's probably just for socials but as institutions don't we have collections care standards to uphold when posting? Where's the proper weight, the book cushion, why are books on top of each other?

The problem for a leaning bookcase? Build another bookcase next to it! *not shown is just how sideways the bookcase was. Now how to arrange the books. By author? By genre and author? Not by colour as Callum suggested. Pffft!

Incredible #archivefind today. A hidden minute book for the Huddersfield Mechanics Insitution inside another minute book! Discovered today in @heritagequay.bsky.social Has anyone else ever come across this? Calling all #Archivists #Conservators #archivemystery

Fantastic news

Finally visited Wentworth Woodhouse at the weekend. Will be interesting to go back in the future to see the remarkable efforts to preserve the house continue. The efforts being made to monetise the property to fund the restoration are pretty impressive even if I came away a lot poorer!

www.theguardian.com/world/2025/j... in today's news fishies get lonely too 💔 but it's happy again now and that's all that matters

Think the @nikerunning.bsky.social app went a bit funny on my run. Pretty sure this isn't the route I took around Kirkstall. Did see the canal was still a bit frozen in places though.

A rare and much needed afternoon chilling and reading after a very busy week at work preparing for stock moves.

Snow in Leeds today. Currently staying nice and cosy at home but tempted to attempt some sledging later on...

I've taken the plunge and finally joined this other place. Will be deactivating my 'X' account in due course once I've finished finding contacts from there on here. Is there a quick way to find people I was following on there? Or is just a build up from scratch jobby?