‘Brycheiniog’s sting of rumfire cheek’ ‘The acid reflux of excess’ ‘A ribboned skull and rarebit verse’ Leigh Manley in our Christmas - Winter anthology. ❄️ 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 🔥 🥃 www.blackboughpoetry.com/news

‘It Rains with Wings’ by Regine Ebner ‘we lay down our swords and make peace with the cowboy moon.’ From ‘Mountains that See in the Dark’ 🤠 🌙 🇺🇸 www.blackboughpoetry.com/regine-ebner...

Frey: "This notion of inflammatory comments -- c'mon guys. I dropped an F bomb, they killed someone. Which one of those is more inflammatory? I'm going with the killing somebody."

Late afternoon in Olney water meadows

All of us have our outlook shaped by experience. Here is me, aged about 9, with my foster sister , Olaitan, on my knee. My brother Peter behind, and my other sister, Foluka, to my right. This would have been 1967/8

Well worth a listen

Listen now: Heather Blurton talks Richard the Lionheart with The Medieval Podcast! 🔉 buff.ly/Os2N5W1 📚 buff.ly/n9MbJJX

1/2 The Gospels (particularly Mark) contains the motif of the "Secret Messiah". Few see who Jesus is. Even his closest disciples viewe his life & actions as if through a veil. Only those on the edge understand the nature of the Light he represents (Samaritans, thieves & outcasts). Chan Buddhism...

Jesus came to give sight to the blind , Donald Trump and J D Vance intend the reverse.

Finches flock to the frosty fields in today's @theguardian.com country diary by Amanda Thomson. #countrydiary #naturewriting

Today's #BirdOfTheDay theme is #ShortBeaks, any bird with a short beak. Here we have the Reed Bunting, a visitor to the winter garden here. @robcrank68.bsky.social

Whoever did catechesis for VP Vance seems to have misled him into thinking Herod was one of the good guys ☹️

Morning.

Good morning

Now my kids are a little older it's lovely that I can introduce them to the classics, AA Milne, JM Barrie, E Nesbit, and together we can enjoy the experience of not having the first fucking idea what anybody is talking about.

Rail tracks…

On the Bittern Hills of Dorset. Purbeck where in a tiny space there was sun, rain, cloud, and rooks.

Starlings in their fleecy slippers #Shetland #snow

Good morning

UK Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper: "Let me be very clear... Greenland is part of the Kingdom of Denmark... The future of Greenland is a matter for the Greenlanders and Danes, and no one else."

Got a very irate comment yesterday about not doing a Quiet Riot on this, told we "missed the boat" while others had put out emergency eps. So, I listened to a couple. They contained minimum insight and maximum outrage. I'm PROUD we took 12 extra hours to get a guest who actually knows their onions.

Such a golden light in the Stour Valley earlier. Lapwings, Linnets, Fieldfares, aplenty... #Dorset #Landscape

Nothing but grip of claw, and the eye's complacency, The innumerable clanging wings that have put out the moon. Yeats

Rutger is looking for suitable candidates interested in getting a PhD on the interface of soil biodiversity and plant ecology in the face of changing climates. Rutger is a great ecologist, botanist and allround good dude in a nice lab and a great part of Germany, so this is a nice opportunity!

Reading a new biography of Katherine Mansfield and am surprised at myself for author quibbling with the description of Zennor being just outside St Ives. Whenever I visit I walk along the coastal path, which might have affected my perception 😊

The conversation on Threads

The Robin noticed that the Fieldfare had been distracted, chasing a Blackbird away from the appletrove. Better make the best of my chances thought the Robin, nervously... #Robins

Looked for a peer-reviewed piece of scientific research to back up this blanket claim that LTNs cause more pollution not less. In fact this is a typical hit piece from the Times, which looks at one LTN, that hasn't even started yet. The "analysis", done by The Times hacks, isn't worth a jot.

The giant Silver Heron on the Isle of Wight is probably the tallest in the world, and when installed in 2024 immediately became our favourite. We love its classic Toes Over the Edge stance. #HeronArt

We call this... Herondipity - the faculty or phenomenon of finding heron moments not sought for.

Good Morning

'A man who conquers himself is greater than another who conquers a thousand times a thousand men on battlefields. Be victorious over yourself and not over others. When you attain victory over yourself, not even gods can turn it into defeat' (Dhammapada). ☸️

What with all the news at the moment I needed to find something appropriate to read before going to sleep,

Is this the new American empire’s equivalent of a mandate?

The #BirdOfTheDay theme today is #caughtinmotion & the alternative theme is #BirdsofPrey - here we have both. A pair of young White-tailed Eagles exchanging nesting material, during an early spring courtship display. Absolutely breathtaking to witness. @robcrank68.bsky.social #UKWildlife #Raptors

‘the wild green blisters of usurping Spring’ ‘The weather prophets are unanimous’ David Birkett’s ‘Switching on the Christmas Lights’ 🎄 🥶 👑 www.blackboughpoetry.com/news

These long nights with very hard frosts are the times when Wrens are triggered to nest communally. Take care not to disturb sheds or outbuildings as night time approaches, if you have Wrens in the garden. They only approach in the deepest gloaming & can be hard to spot. @lizaadamczewski.bsky.social

If Nicolás Maduro stands trial in the United States and gets convicted of 34 felonies, does that mean he’s qualified to be our next president now? Just checking what the standards are these days.

‘As much heart & plot as any good novel’ Really thrilled to be chosen as Book of the Year by @lissakevans.bsky.social for @writersreview.bsky.social! #booksky @chelseagreenbooks.bsky.social

1/2 I'm very much enjoying this book. I'm sceptical about the more cultural/historical portions of the book. Hickel makes too many vast generalisations about Western anti-nature (blending diverse religions, epochs, & philosophies under the label of dualism). He tends to romanticise animist cultures.

Evening sun

‘Those January mornings when the sun comes up a gold, unraveling ball’ ☀️ Anthony Paticchio with a poem in the Christmas-Winter anthology. 👣 www.blackboughpoetry.com/news

The overlap between places we want to dominate and places that have oil is striking

Maybe rather than kidnapping Maduro Trump was trying a new way to recruit a sympathetic political adviser.

"The otter will frisk on the river bank like a puppy," from "Our Wild Animal Neighbors" in the January 1918 issue of Harper's Monthly Magazine.

Inheritance tax changes in today's @theguardian.com country diary by Andrea Meanwell. #countrydiary #naturewriting

Marco Rubio is reportedly saying Maduro will stand trial in US courts. Which means it’s now the US administration’s position that US courts can hold foreign presidents, but not the US president, accountable for crimes.

Maduro is a brutal and oppressive dictator of Venezuela. Trump has no legitimate legal basis for military action against Venezuela under United States or international law. Both of those facts are simultaneously true.