Today’s Northern outlook. The wind is blowing and the clouds are muscular

Good morning

"Jeevan Vasagar traces humanity's responses to flooding over the centuries, from the deadly North Sea floods of 1953 to the catastrophic events of today" Looking forward to reading this. Out next month.

there he is on the right – polished clean in the Netherlands and now back in Latvia (traveled by sea!) photo by Lote, my cousin who works at the Riga Zoo and is partly responsible for all this! 🐳

Please, read the text, it’s SUCH A JOY!

–15C. how you doing?

I still think of this magnificent place from time to time. Something from my ‘previous life’ when I was flying around the world with a voice recorder in my hand before I found my home and decided to dedicate my time to the sea. arterritory.com/en/visual_ar...

filmed in Latvia, featuring Latvian actress Marlēna Sniega (Snow in Latvian) and based on a one-of-a-kind book – “The Chronology of Water”. can’t wait to see the movie

Nice feature on ‘The View From the Shoulder: A Portrait of Scottish Surfing’ in Coast magazine - more info on the book at birlinn.co.uk/product/the-... #surfing #scotland #books #booksky #history #photography #coast #surf

“It’s so neat because he knows that paper is precious, ink is precious and words are precious. Every word has to work so he’s constantly revisiting and honing it down to get the essence of it all. There’s no waste.”

this early monday morning I loved everything so much. snow in the garden, icicles, blue shadows.

Unstoppable force meets immovable object #surfing #scotland #photography #waves #surf

bookjotter.com/2026/01/12/tove-telegraph-tovetrove/ #ToveTrove #ToveJansson #Books #Reading @calmgrove.bsky.social

I started this year by merging beachbooks.blog and sea-library.com into one site. From now on there will be only Sea Library site with blogs, letters and books all in one beautiful place. Now I even have a landing page! Although I'd prefer a more sea related term. How about a docking page? Check out

Shadows & Reflections: @danzep.bsky.social reflects on a year of sharing stories of darkness and light www.caughtbytheriver.net/2026/01/shad...

good morning, winter garden!

moments from 2025

2016 – The Year that Made Me www.abc.net.au/listen/progr...

2016 was a weird, sad, and powerful year – full of tragedies and miracles. It started with Blackstar vinyl my dad bought on this day ten years ago. Later that same year, I nearly lost him, and part of him fell like a star. And then I fell in love with the sea and it carried me further on.

ten years ago I was on this same beach when the starman departed; this morning, as I got out of the water, a meteor streaked across the sky

Cape Cod: rising seas are changing these beaches, sculpting and eroding; this channel opened up to reveal a 19th century wreck, its mast just visible, like a distant sea monster

Cape Cod sunrise

Japanese artist Narumi Takada's 2021 textile piece, "Stepping on Fresh Snow" with snow created using punch needle and straight/satin stitches for the boot and paw prints #Womensart

COMING SOON!!!!!! Entire volume on blue whales by Whalewatcher, that I have been given the great honor of guest editing! So many amazing articles in prep already.

First day back in the office and my computer had died by 10, going out with this glitchy, ominous message.

Nova Scotia morning. #memory #fog

When the Moby Dick reading marathon runs out of chairs and you have to sit on the floor inside a dead whales mouth.

Update from 11 hours into the Moby Dick marathon: The “quiet room” is starting to fill up with people bedding down for the night. Real “night at the museum” vibes. The out-loud reading presses on in the museum auditorium downstairs, readers taking turns.

I'm running the 2026 TCS London Marathon dressed as a badger to raise money for Norfolk Wildlife Trust, the oldest of @the-wildlifetrusts.bsky.social – celebrating its 100th birthday this year. Please have a laugh at me and help save wildlife! 2026tcslondonmarathon.enthuse.com/pf/backtheba...

my best friend Nemo

frozen river Lielupe on this morning

My friend Nels tells me this will be our wirh Edinburgh in March, will be great

something for the Sea Library shelves!

Lunar halo over our house this evening.

happy new year all! delighted to have written this about Jeroen Hoekendijk's beautiful images of the sea hounds of the Frisian Islands www.theguardian.com/environment/...

Saw in 2026 by the Tay last night. Always think back to childhood new year's eves when we'd be taken outside at midnight to listen to glorious atonal cacophony of the ships' horns sounding on the Thames. Coming from a family of dockers it was a proper tradition.

a couple of hours before 2026 and we are here by the river in the moonlight

my long blog about a long year 🐍 happy new year to you!

look at that ice snake

a cold golden morning by the river

Patti Smith, who turns 79 today, on the loveliness of libraries and how reading changes lives www.themarginalian.org/2020/02/02/p...

snow storm, thunder, lightning, art academy lost its roof last night - what a weird winter!

Horizon and light, Pigeon Point, Tobago. Yes, I went in. Mildly stormy and glorious. #pigeonpoint #tobago #sea #horizon #rainclouds.

Nemo adores two things: swimming and snow. Here he is swimming in snow.

water library 29.12.2025.

A pair of happy hammerhead sharks (ca. 1735 Edo period Japan)

Reclining figure / Blackpool Sands