It may technically be 24 hours long, but when you have to put the light on mid-afternoon because it's so dark outside, a #November day feels so short!

Free entry writing competitions - and other stuff womagwriter.blogspot.com/2025/11/smal...

Some tiny gems here 🔽

Grumpy but Happy sounds about right. 🙁🙂👍

This month, we're launching our very first Lendwithcare Prize Draw to give you the chance to win an incredible hand-made item from an entrepreneur! For details on the prize, the artist, and how to enter, click here: bit.ly/3JuhWmg Good Luck!

🪬🧿 My artist journey needs your support! Please check out my products and repost them with friends. scottishwallart.com - Framable posters (Free shipping worldwide) luxurywoodenpens.com - Wooden pens epochofaodhan.com - My novel about Rosslyn Chapel #scotland #photography #art #edinburgh #alttext

Amazing how a #BookPost can brighten an otherwise cold, dark and very wet day. Thank you, @uncertainstories.com 10 out of 10 for your packaging skills - and the freebies. Love the design of your Broken Ground anthology. I think I'll be reading it very s-l-o-w-l-y to make it last! #ShortStories

Today's very short #LunchtimeRead and much needed laugh.

Any modern day poets out there with £2.5m to spare? William Wordsworth's house for sale. www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/1...

Now this is very interesting ... I much prefer to read 'real' books - the ones with paper pages - but I do have some ebooks on my iPad which are useful when I'm away from home. Didn't know how they're priced though. Just had a look at the ebook pages on bookshop.org Making a shopping list!

The theme of today's #BlueSkyArtShow is #Inside so here's a sketch of the view from inside my house when the washing line in my back garden is full. Plenty of wind to dry the washing today, but too cold to do any gardening out there! 🥶 #laundry #drawing #ink #ColouredPencil

Love this!

Couldn't resist buying this Michaelmas daisy plant at the market last week. Love that shade of purple! All I have to do now is find a space in the garden for it 🤔 #gardening #MichaelmasDaisy #AutumnColour

Experts warn of food shortages and civil unrest. Yet nearly half of Brits think climate change won’t affect them. This gulf in perception is why we’re staging the National Emergency Briefing on the #climate & #nature crisis. Has your MP confirmed they’ll be there? 👇 www.nebriefing.org

A reminder that Gaza wasn't the only place attacked by Israel last year. #Lebanon

Butterflies need two things to thrive: good weather and a healthy environment ☀️🌱 Join us in asking UK retailers to remove synthetic pesticides from sale for a wilder, butterfly-filled future for generations to come 👉 https://butterflyemergency.good.do/rescue-mission/

And still the roses come! My #DavidAustin roses - Roald Dahl and The Lady Gardener have bloomed all summer and are still producing new buds. Love them! #roses #gardening

Poor little Salvatore! (But his story made me laugh.)

Still a little bit of summer in the garden. #gardening #flowers

We welcome the news of a potential #ceasefire as a moment of hope, and a vital step towards ending the horrifying suffering of Palestinians and all hostages. We urgently need your support to scale up our activity in Gaza, please tap the link to donate: careint.uk/4eCS7u8

Today's 'Happy Ending' story.

Dr. Jane Goodall filmed an interview with Netflix in March 2025 that she understood would only be released after her death.

#SUBMISSIONS ARE OPEN We're looking for #microfiction and #shortpoetry that moves us and lingers long after reading. Delight us. Surprise us. Enchant us. Our full guidelines can be viewed here: www.thehooletsnook.com/submissions.... Please help us out and share! 🦉🙏 ✍️ 📩 #writersofbsky #flashfiction

Of course I follow my grandmother's recipe for traditional Welsh cakes - except I substitute her lard for #vegetarian spread, use half white, half wholemeal flour instead of all white, swap white sugar for demerara (and less of it), and add 2 handfuls of sultanas instead of one. #SameButDifferent

I'm sure the spider didn't choose to spin a web here in order to help the Perennial Pea plant grow higher, and the pea had no idea the spider would use its flowers as a comfortable hiding place while it waited to trap its dinner, but here they are living happily and helpfully together. #symbiosis

As a naturally s-l-o-w writer who edits every word at least 6 times, my first #NaNoWriMo was mind-blowing. Taught me to stop fussing and get the 1st messy draft out of my head as fast as poss. Still use NaNo mode when I need to speed up but would like to find similar community again. #WriteSky

Will be visiting soon! #TheHarris

Today's good news, Louise has decided to reissue #MrsNarwhal'sDiary Loved this book. Funny, touching, and I could relate to all the very real characters. It definitely deserves to be better known.

Love this little gem of a tale.

Today's #LunchtimeRead Wow! freeflashfiction.com/fiction/comp...

As the grandparent of a toddler who LOVES swings and slides - the higher and faster the better - I can so relate to this!

Today's good news.

🤔 Is it too early to buy myself a little Christmas present? #BookSky #IndiePress

Only from the #BBC. BBC National Short Story Award competition finalists. You can listen to the #stories live at #BBCRadio4 from Monday 15th September and at #BBCSounds. #fiction #literature

The emergence of Ellis and Stella on their attempted staycation:

Can YOU write a story in 75 words? Exactly 75 words? Paragraph Planet seeks your stories, and has been publishing one on its home page every day since 2008 paragraphplanet.com/submission.php #amwriting #flashfiction

Looks interesting ... 👀

One image to fit the #summer theme for today's #BlueSkyArtShow ? How about this #pastel painting of some lilac? Only wish I could learn to paint the gorgeous scent!

Got mine (she said smugly.)

Just to clarify ... My 75 words that were published on www.paragraphplanet.com yesterday told a purely fictional story. I do not poison, squash or throw away the slugs in my garden. They are gently relocated to my nature reserve - the uncultivated patch behind the shed.

Guess whose tiny tale has been chosen by @paragraphplanet.bsky.social today? www.paragraphplanet.com

Here's something to brighten up a dull, wet Monday. Already imagining the colourful garden I'm going to have next year! 😍🌻🌸💐🌼🌺🐝🦋 Thank you, @higgledygarden.bsky.social #gardening #flowers

How I used to hate those 'What I did on my holiday' essays! Problem was I was too honest. Wish now that I'd had the courage to make something up.

Our anthology call-out for writers in the North of England is open. We're delighted to have received a few submissions already! There's plenty of time to submit until the deadline at the end of September, so get scribbling - we'd love to read your words.

Weather just right for the beginning of St Anne's Kite Festival yesterday - breezy enough to keep kites aloft but warm sunshine, and the rain kept away! www.discoverfylde.co.uk/kitefestival/ #kites #LythamStAnnes #Lancashire #seaside

Any #entomologists out there? They're still here and still busy doing whatever they're doing! #insects #mystery

I do like a happy ending. #FlashFiction

Our summer short story submission call ends in exactly one month! The deadline is Friday, 26th September and details are on our website - see below.

Today's #LunchtimeRead One of those quiet stories that I think I'll be pondering over for a while ... ⛴️🧩👬

Can anyone in #Edinburgh help?