As its not on today's theme, I'm going early with #bsbi #wildflowerhour. These are completely native daffs in a small reserve in Gloucestershire in the golden triangle, which was stunning yesterday. One person seeing this was nearly in tears...

Dear Shabana, Let's clear some things up around migration and remember we're talking about people's lives.

TIL that hair shaved from the heads of convict women incarcerated at the Parramatta Female Factory in the 19th century was used as a binding agent in the mortar in the building's stonework. Convicts often had to build their own prisons, but the corporeal aspect of this is particularly poignant.

1908: the Lancet, one of the most respected scientific journals, calls for 18 age limit on reading in bed amidst a moral panic surrounding children becoming "addicted" to novels, which were "designed to keep kids hooked" and destroy their attention/mental health

I’m going to be looking out for a shoe shop that sells cheese now (department stores don’t count - you have to pass the awful makeup counters) but this is great wisdom from Naomi’s therapist

Pepys clambers over fences to escape arrest - never a dull day for Sam!

Aw, how lovely! A rare sighting of a telegraph pole with its young.

A brief escape to the 17th century, where one writer is giving his suggestions for heartfelt inscriptions on poesy rings to a lover Truly a lost golden age of roman-... oh wait no never mind #17c

Artists have always loved to sketch! Sketch of a sparrow from Egypt dated c. 1479–1458 BC. Some 3,500 years ago in Egypt, artists used flakes of limestone as sketchpads! MMA excavations 1922-23, Deir el-Bahri. 📷 The Met www.metmuseum.org/art/collecti... #Archaeology

Hannah is the Green Party candidate for Gorton and Denton. She is also a plumber and dog rescuer🐕💪

1903: Don't build a fire station! It will arouse desire for a library.

First up - let me tell you about this event tomorrow night with @thelrm.bsky.social I'm like the Ancient Mariner about this book - grasping people by the arm, and telling them with a glittering, paranoid, neurotic eye that THEY MUST READ IT!

🔎 High-resolution multi-sensor technology reveals low collision risk to seabirds in offshore wind farms These results highlight the need to revise collision risk assessments by applying high meso-avoidance rates and very high micro-avoidance rates for seabirds🕊️ 🌍 Read more:https://buff.ly/VmQ7gGC

Italian voice actor Carlo Bononi was the voice of all of the characters on Pingu. A trained clown by trade, he used a theater technique called grammelot, which consists of "speaking" in a mix of babbled gibberish noises. He improvised all the voices live and unscripted.

I am braving the horrors of rail replacement buses to get to this, so please come 😆

It's St Agnes Eve - traditionally the coldest night of the year. Here's to warmth + hope to come, & the promise that ice will melt.

Excellent discussion of native vs non-native garden plants for wildlife from @katebradbury.bsky.social open.substack.com/pub/katebrad...

Had an intriguing editorial discussion recently: how did people in the past talk about 'minutes' when they didn't have watches or standardised times? How does that affect your thinking? Come down an Elizabethan/Jacobean rabbit hole with me. 1/

Not long to go… have you signed up for the #BigGardenBirdwatch yet? 👀 www.rspb.org.uk/whats-happen... 👈

If fracking were to be permitted in the UK, as proposed by Reform, some of the country's most exquisite countryside would be impacted, as shown in the British Geological Survey diagram below: share.google/4iPmjendxnR7...

The White House says the Smithsonian Institution must submit materials about current and upcoming exhibitions and events for a review that will determine whether they express "improper ideology." n.pr/4583d8f

Watery pleeps

Interview with Paul from the Chuckle Brothers in the Guardian asks if he'd ever like to do Shakespeare. He says, "To me, or not to me, that is the question."

🚨 BE IN THE AUDIENCE for Natalie Haynes Stands Up for the Classics S12! Ticket application is NOW OPEN for our February 4th recording. Good luck, everyone! www.bbc.co.uk/showsandtour...

"‘It’s surreal’: US sanctions lock Intl Criminal Court judge out of daily life. Canadian judge Kimberly Prost is unable to use credit cards or access everyday services (Uber, Alexa, Ticketmaster...) in what she calls an attack on the independence of the judiciary." www.irishtimes.com/world/us/202...

‘The potato’s imprint became a waxing moon, a row of beans, a set of scans, the inside of a skull. One single potato which held so much.’ In 2025, for Annie Lord, love and grief took the shape of wreaths, potato prints and frost flowers www.caughtbytheriver.net/2026/01/shad...

Writers, send me all your energies - I’m diving into my huge draft and have two months to turn it into the finished book I’ve been planning for five years. Lucky I love editing!

A quiet happy new year to all from my favourite hill, looking out over the Sussex High Weald last night. In moonlight so bright we needed no torches, we found a perfect waiting moment for the turn of the year. I wish you all stillness and peace this mid winter.

Oh yes please to long, quiet, serious documentaries where we’re allowed time to absorb complex and surprising things without some bouncy narrator leaping from rock to rock and emoting about how amazing This Fact is for a second before rushing off

Christmas is hard for many. The years roll, the ghosts at the table increase. We’re haunted by the absence of voices, of laughter engines who drank and ate with us. This can be day of remembrance rituals. For what it’s worth, Hooklanders near and far are in my candles today. Be gentle on yourselves.

Every year, about this time, somewhere deep in the Perigord, it happens. Magdalenian spirit-reindeer awake from their deep, cavern-dark slumber, and take flight. 🦣🦌🎄

This morning I found a small glow of energy. Boots on, through the mud to the river. She’s struggled so much this year but look how beautiful, strong and full of life she still is (and there are Mayfly and Stonefly for sure beneath the ripples). Thank you, small river. #river #ecology #sussex

On the shortest day, have cheer - the light will return! This photo was given to me a few days ago by my friend Clare Nettleton. It shows winter sun lighting up the window I made for Grace’s Room, at Williton Hospital, Somerset. It is of Exmoor …

"The Hamoun wetland, straddling the Iran-Afghan border on the Helmand River, once covered some 1,500 square miles and was home to abundant wildlife, including a population of leopards. Now it is mostly lifeless salt flats." e360.yale.edu/features/ira...

My most reliable source of suggest of joy here brings us TWO owl pellets today ...

I'd like to chat to one or two people, ideally women (I've already talked to a load of men) who've got into the Merlin app for identifying birdsong this year. For a nice positive story. Please drop me a line, thank you!

Really Sir Keir? "Watering down" protections against torture and inhumane treatment? On #HumanRightsDay?

There have NEVER been ‘unrestricted’ taxis for asylum seekers. Travel to medical appointments has ALWAYS required Home Office approval. Many of the people we support miss urgent care because they can't get there. UK Gov must stop scapegoating people for its poor management ➡️ tinyurl.com/fzsk3aen

#AshmoleanAdvent Day 8: Black Bear Cub Painted by Japanese artist Mori Shūhō, this small bear looks directly out at the viewer while it sits uneasily on a ledge amid the snowflakes. Shūhō was a member of the Mori School of artists who specialised in lifelike depictions of animals. 🐻 EA1964.95.F

Crypto investor Christopher Harborne, who has just donated £9 million to Reform, is also an aviation fuel entrepreneur. In other news Reform, which has pledged to scrap all Net Zero plans, just declared a £36,000 donation from Heathrow bylinetimes.com/2025/12/04/c...

Not religious at all, but I want to congratulate this #Massachusetts Parish for their nativity display this year. This is how to resist fascism. Courage in the face of cowardice. A true stand against injustice. Perfect response to "What Would Jesus Do?" based on all I ever learned about that guy.

1/3 **MAYORAL ELECTIONS DELAYED TIL 2028!** Labour: incompetent, scared & zero regard for democracy. The devolution agenda they sprung on us a year ago is in utter chaos, they are terrified of their plummeting in the polls, and - most importantly...

The "100 Notable Small Press Books of 2025" list is out today on LitHub! I read creative nonfiction for this project and will share my reviews in this thread - but you should really check out the entire list, so much goodness. lithub.com/100-notable-...

MISSING: Closing tax loopholes for private jets, taxing airplane fuel, a frequent flyer levy. Why does the Chancellor have such a blind spot for anything that might tackle the excesses of the aviation industry? #Budget

“We are ramping up sanctions on Russia,” she said. “We are freezing known Russian assets.” Then the punchline: “But let me be clear, I don’t actually mean the right honourable member for Clacton!” Nice.

I wish I didn’t have to share this. But the BBC has decided to censor my first Reith Lecture. They deleted the line in which I describe Donald Trump as “the most openly corrupt president in American history.” /1

“I’m not a serious thinker. I’m a writer: that’s very different. I think a writer’s intelligence has to be alive, has to be incomplete. It has to carry contradiction. It has to be sort of haphazard and amateur.” - Benjamín Labatut

wrote an article for @thebookseller.com outlining to the industry why small presses are the lifeforce & future of book production. Pls share esp w people who may not know what small press publishers do! www.thebookseller.com/comment/dont...

TONIGHT at Manchester Poetry Library & ONLINE. Celebrating Jean Sprackland's new book, Night Vision.