The Ladybird look, 1976. The crimplene trouser-suit Artist: Martin Aitchison

Goodnight from The Dominion cinema in Ashcourt, where half the audience has left after the first 10 minutes of ‘The Dead Watch’. Goodnight from the Welcome Rest roadside restaurant at Northway Corner, where the lights have suddenly turned on despite it being abandoned since 1973.

We should have no surprise that the city dreams itself as being beside the ocean even when it is miles from the salt-kissed shore. We should have no surprise the city dreams itself as being bordered with Ancient Egypt or Faery. In its nightly shifting of streets, our stories dance and sing.

Trk 333 of 365: it's hard to believe, but someday I will die. This is the song I would like to have played at my funeral. Attention "Tomorrow Never Knows" fans: it has backwards monk chants. Free streaming & download. #musicsky #🎧 #musicchallenge #musiciansky jetwelder.bandcamp.com/track/its-yo...

The city is layers of story. Sometimes it is told in occulted stone symbolism, sometimes in street names and haunted hodology. Thousands of narratives with no editor. Thousands of tales seeping into the city's own strange dreams. No wonder it imagines fabulous things. – #CLNolan

'Penge' by Paul Bartlett macbirmingham.co.uk/courses/tuto...

My very first bird beer mat. The book shows every mat and then its reverse on the following page. darrenhaymanart.com/products/bir...

'The Market Porter pub in Borough Market' (2019) by Liam O'Farrell liamofarrell.com

Today, Labour is going to announce a return to PFI for the NHS- which is a total disaster. But they’ve renamed it the “NHS neighbourhood rebuild”. Don’t be fooled 🚨 I’ve explained what’s going on in this piece I’ve just written- open.substack.com/pub/jujuliag...

UNBOUND AUTHORS: Leftover copies of your books in the UK (MacMillan) warehouse will be pulped within the next week or two. DM me for a link to the warehouse stock list and contacts. If you have no dosh, another publisher (Wilton Sq) is willing to buy the books & distribute on a 50/50 profit split

THREAD. 3 years ago, with no warning, a brilliant orange farm cat wandered over from the draughty barn where he had been living, in rural Cornwall, and decided he wanted to live with us instead. We decided to call him Jim. This is the first photo I took of him, on that night: December 1st, 2022.

I have now added this to my shop. For your information. www.chloecumming.com

if you want to understand tailoring, you only need to watch mid-century movies, when actors were dressed by tailors, not brands. in the 1944 film cover girl, gene kelly's suit drapes beautifully, moving with him, not against him. collar stays on his neck, even as he dances.

We are now further away from the theatrical release of Raiders of the Lost Ark (June 12, 1981) than it was from the year it takes place in (1936). We have reached the Indiana Jones event horizon.

Since we are once again dealing with "the only silent era comedians of note were men" I feel I need to stand up for the ladies. Marion Davies!

Mentally replacing every "ChatGPT says..." or "we asked AI..." headline with "bold, bin-raiding raccoons may have a surprising answer."

Other work by the Ladybird artists ‘Stopham Bridge in Autumn’ Artist: SR Badmin

This is one that I haven't shown for a very long time: "Dagenham" by Elwin Hawthorne which is undated but just "might" come from 1935, judging by his oil painting of "Halbutt Street, Dagenham" which dates from that year. #ElwinHawthorne #EastLondonGroup #Dagenham #Essex

Goodnight from Jack Hurley, still taking helpful directions from his dead wife as he pushes their Vauxhall Victor F towards Burwood. Goodnight from Chas Foster, fixing newspapers to the windows of his shed so no-one can see him making illegal sprite traps. Goodnight from Hookland.

Trk 330 of 365: a straight-up rock number from 2009. Some good melodies and crunchy guitars... you might even call it "power pop adjacent". And what a production! Yay! 35 more tracks to go. Free streaming & download. #musicsky #🎧 #musicchallenge #musiciansky jetwelder.bandcamp.com/track/what-a...

Give me sunlight, a comfortable chair and a wall of books! This makes me declare myself a most satisfied soul. For the library is a territory of wonder. It is home to a thousand wise voices who know words that open gates to the imagination. – #CLNolan, BBC National Programme, 1934 #Libraries

‘The Porter’ (1972) This was the first piece of Ladybird artwork I ever bought. It drew me in. Artist: John Berry

People ask why I followed The Hum wanting trite answers about a disaffected youth looking for direction. Walking The Hum pylon-to-pylon gave me spiritual direction, but no-one wants to hear about my devotional relationship to the land's electric leys. – Trippy Pete, ex-Pylon Person #VOH

A kookaburra on a Theaksons beer mat. This one was a commission. More bird beer mats and book available darrenhaymanart.com/collections/...

‘It will take forever’ The 277 bus. New painting. darrenhaymanart.com

For some folk Nokes, UFOs are a religion. They’ve got to testify. If it isn’t the Space Gospel at told to them by Commander Ril of the Planet Skareg, it’s that Meldon Hill is a holy place of galactic convergence. I wish all of the preachy bastards would get beamed up. – #DICallaghan

On this day 24th November 1877 the novel Black Beauty was first published. Anna Sewell said she wrote the novel "to induce kindness, sympathy, and an understanding treatment of horses" Artist: Harry Wingfield

I'm still sulking but I sent this card to show that if you can have dirty week-ends in Bridlington - we can have dirty week-ends in York.

Don't know if you'd be interested in a bit of work on Saturday 1st July, they're booking people to roam around in wild animal costumes uptown.

This is "Grove Road, Bow" by Harold Steggles that is undated but I suspect that it comes from c.1930/31. Recent research has revealed that this was actually a view from the Malmsbury Road School (where some of the art classes were held) down Guerin Street: (map from National Library of Scotland).

Other work of the Ladybird artists. ‘Evening party at the big house’ Artist: Ronald Lampitt (1958)

I’ve just written this… open.substack.com/pub/jujuliag...

Had a blast & a great in-depth chat with Justin Lewis @whenisbirths.bsky.social for his textcast, First Last Anything. We talked about my childhood relationship to music - how it shaped me, the (3) bands I was in & what I am doing now solowise. Cheers, Justin. firstlastanything.co.uk/2025/11/23/f...

We have allowed superstition to become a word loaded with negative judgements. Is someone who believes in the ghosts of felled trees, the persistence of Wood Sprites and their revenges against the axe superstitious? Yes, but this should not be assumed as a bad thing. – Dr. M. Benn #FolkloreSunday

Journalist challenge: Use “Machine Learning” when you mean machine learning and “LLM” when you mean LLM. Ditch “AI” as a catch-all term, it’s not useful for readers and it helps companies trying to confuse the public by obscuring the roles played by different technologies. 🧪

Those solitary stones that keep silent watch, that persist across the rise and fall of our own petty kingdoms, are storytellers. When we learn the language of the Long Neolithic they speak across time. It is beholden on us to listen. – Dr. K. Brophy #StandingStoneSunday

it is absolutely the tech companies fault that people now assume they’re doing something evil and sneaky even when they actually aren’t (regarding the latest Google kerfuffle) like, no kidding that people have zero willingness to cut big tech the benefit of the doubt anymore

“Across this cloud-dappled sky skeins of wild geese are flying” (What to Look for in Autumn, 1960) Writer: EL Grant Watson Artist: CF Tunnicliffe

PLEASE this. And also to scientists writing press releases, too - calling something "AI" when it was actually your student spending 12 months fitting and validating a model is disingenuous

Winter conducts its slow seduction. It has disrobed the trees, its cold kisses make them shiver. Revelation of their wooden bones offers us a new, intimate language. They speak of swelling dark and coming ice. They speak their lover's secret names. – #EmilyCBanting, 1981 #Winter

If you have been sharing that Malwarebytes article on the Gmail thing, you should note the giant correction up top. www.malwarebytes.com/blog/news/20...

Above the high tide mark the shore was a confusion of rope scraps, nets beyond mending and broken boats. To go omen hunting in this zone could only produce prophecies of woe. The augury walker had to go beyond this and search the sand for wave-gifted signs. – #DAKilroy

On this day 22nd November 1859 Cecil Sharp, founder of the English folk-song revival was born. (Here he’s pictured overhearing a gardener singing) Artist: Martin Aitchison

Goodnight from the abandoned Rocket Test Centre at RAF Nook, where police have yet again been called about a group of teens indulging in Scooby-Dooing trespass. Goodnight from Samantha Rendell, gripping her cave wolf snow globe as talisman against the dark. Goodnight from Hookland.

#NowPlaying Pearls Before Swine - The Use Of Ashes, including the better song called "Rocket Man".

This is a great favourite of mine, "Smithfield Spires" by Harold Steggles from 1931 His view must have been taken Holborn Viaduct & I particularly like the way that he's incorporated his signature in to the signage on the building! #HaroldSteggles #EastLondonGroup

#CLNolan gives a warning about the beasts that live in the ether.

There are lonely churches to be found where old saints live in strange stone boxes. When we say saints, that word has to encompass those spirits of place which were there long before the cross came along. Relics of both Christian and folk faith may be the same bone. – Dr. M. Benn

New night painting. ‘I think I can find my way’ 197 bus darrenhaymanart.com/collections/...