Delighted that @nicolawriting.bsky.social 's 'Ghosts of the Farm is Book of the Month on @caughtbytheriver.bsky.social website. Trust me, the horses alone are compelling... but then the story unfolds of one woman's entry into farming...& so much that still haunts us today! Read a tempting extract!

CD Review ! @jonwilksmusic.bsky.social ' 'Needless Alley'. A joy! So much appealing 60s music, I now realise, came from the very young... But later songs can be rueful, witty & wise. Here they are..with guitar work which ranges from energetic to langorous: both lovely.

Amiable wooden monsters...formerly known as trees! Deer? Crocodile? Dragon? And possibly a melancholy elephant? What do you think?

FREE! The Kindle edition of Village', my non-fiction book is FREE today Sun 21 Sept. Next offer may be in winter! You can spend autumn with my 'witches' & shoemaker's daughters: real & cheerful village survivors. Kindle Edition readable on phone/computer! LINK IN COMMENTS!

In the strange Sunday glow of a September garden, a geranium, a verbena and a sedum (grandly renamed hylotelephium!) wish you a very good morning!

Kestrel!

See stars and hear me read of stunning winter skies from my book, 'Village'. The Kindle Edition, readable on phone or computer, is FREE on Sunday 21 Sept after 10 am. Last offer for 3 MONTHS! Next time, winter stars will be riding high... SEARCH FOR ALISON BRACKENBURY VILLAGE AMAZON

Fruits of the earth - rather broadly interpreted! - at Cranham, Gloucestershire! In the case of the crab apples, fruits ON the earth...!

Cranham. Gloucestershire, at the weekend... reflections, openings and almost tropical skies! I wish you a lit evening!

The villagers tell me eagerly that 'Village' (Kindle) is 68 in Historical UK Biographies! 'Is that a very short list?' I ask. They reply reproachfully that 'Village' celebrates generosity, & that is mean! I apologise. Off they go, hoping to be 67... If you'd like to help, there's a LINK IN COMMENTS

1 village,1 book, 6 houses,& many lives! The Victorian shoemaker's daughter,'Singlewoman',scrubbing floors to keep her son, the ladies of the Manor.. #OnePlaceWednesday Celebrates cheerful survival! Paperback-or Kindle edition, readable phone/computer,99p SEARCH FOR ALISON BRACKENBURY VILLAGE AMAZON

Just to let you know that there is a crow event in our neighbourhood. All crows are invited...

All our Oct-Dec events are now live on our website! We've got James Joyce. We've got Jane Austen. We've got an 18+ LATE. And many more reasons why you should make the trip to Reading. merl.reading.ac.uk/whats-on/aut...

'There are lots of people in England, out of the 55 million, that can only put up with a certain amount of poetry. 16 small pages is enough for most of them.' J.L.Carr, novelist & publisher, Miles Jupp's choice for Radio 4's 'Great Lives'. LINK IN COMMENTS!

Unfortunately,someone else loves the cyclamen under the bushes as much as I do!

A tiny constellation of autumn cyclamen, excitingly, now growing their curled explosive seed!

Gloucestershire poets! Here's the Buzzwords competition with a section just for you-deadline now 30 SEPTEMBER! All poets: 70 lines, excellent judge @rorywaterman.bsky.social, chance to read your poem, cash prize, support for Buzzwords,a most welcoming inclusive poetry event! LINK IN COMMENTS.

FREE Kindle Edition of 'Village' today Sunday 14 Sept! -also readable on phone/computer. Read all my village's true stories of loss, love & laughter. Here's the cheerful end of the story of our last 'witch'. LINK IN COMMENTS TO FREE KINDLE EDITION

FREE Kindle Edition of 'Village' today Sunday 14 Sept! Also readable on phone/computer. Read all my village's true stories of loss, love & laughter. LINK IN COMMENTS TO FREE KINDLE EDITION

The early ominous pink of the sky - with restless birds- was mirrored by rain-revived roses, broad hylotelephiums and the delicate trumpets of abelia... We all wish you a rosy Sunday!

A Victorian village love story - startling but true? But it turns her village still more bitterly against Mary Ann. What II know of her story - & her remarkable partner's- are in my non-fiction book, 'Village'. Kindle Edition FREE this Sunday Sept 14! SEARCH FOR ALISON BRACKENBURY VILLAGE AMAZON .

Our Lincolnshire village's last suspected 'witch' marries! Nor was Mary Ann old,but she was scandalous! There will be 2 more videos of her story. Follow me to keep up (& you can read more in my prose book', 'Village'. Paperback £9.99 Kindle edition 99p!) Kindle Edition FREE this Sunday Sept 14th!

The Kindle Edition of 'Village' is FREE this Sunday, Sept 14th. 'Village' has six 5-star reviews... N.B. This can also be read on a computer or phone if you download the free Kindle app. 1 more free day after this,then no more for 3 months! Search on Sept 14 for ALISON BRACKENBURY VILLAGE AMAZON

Our village's last suspected 'witch'! From stories as late as the 1930s!There will be 3 more videos telling Mary Ann's story,with many twists. Do follow me to keep up (& you can read more in my prose book, 'Village'. Paperback £9.99 Kindle edition 99p!) SEARCH FOR ALISON BRACKENBURY VILLAGE AMAZON

Our village's last suspected 'witch'! From Lincolnshire stories as late as the 1930s!There will be 4 more videos about Mary Ann, with many twists. Do follow me to keep up (& you can read more in my prose book', 'Village'. Paperback £9.99 Kindle edition 99p!) SEARCH ALISON BRACKENBURY VILLAGE AMAZON

A procession of black clouds....and a single point of brightness. Can you see it, to the right? Is this Venus, vanishing? We all wish you a very good morning!

Crawled under a bush in the day's last glow to find my (self-set) cyclamen! After the storms, amongst the roots, we send you very best Sunday evening wishes!

Hovering!

In my favourite'Natalie Haynes Stands Up For the Classics', @nataliehaynes.bsky.social, @nikitagill.bsky.social & Edith Hall consider 'The Women Poets of Ancient Greece'. I'd like to read the poem in the voice of a deserter's abandoned armour,or the mock-heroic lament for..a puppy! LINK IN COMMENT

In early autumn, a quiet, glowing, and harmless presence is felt in our garden. That of the hornet hoverfly: Volucella zonaria to its learned friends!

One piece of chocolate was absent-mindedly consumed before I even took the picture... But these delectable poems will not disappear! Thank you, @dislaney.bsky.social & @candlestickpress.bsky.social Candlestick Press, for including mine in the assorted 'Ten Poems about Chocolate'!

There's much to be said for autumn! I wish you a fruitful day.

Boater' by @jobellwriter.bsky.social : my nightly read! Just finished! I shall miss our daily canal adventure. How much I learnt! I did know that before canals,sturdy native ponies,packhorses,carried goods on tracks. I never knew how vital they were. 1 canal boat carried far more than 100 ponies!

In case one rainbow is not enough... Have a triply good evening!

FREE Kindle Edition of 'Village', Sun 31 Aug! 'Village' celebrates cheerful survival- especially of working-class women. But you will also find the true story, from the Manor, of the young farmer with a stableful of hunters, who.would end his life as a 'Groom'. How did this happen? LINK IN COMMENTS!

The Kindle Edition of my non-fiction prose book 'Village', set in Lincolnshire, will be FREE on Sun 31 August. There are limited numbers of these offers-just a couple more to come,& that's it for 3 months! So the villagers advise, brightly,while gathering sacks, children & old prams to go gleaning!

After finishing my prose book, 'Village', I'm tackling my huge pile of drafted unfinished poems. I made a 'Favourites' folder. Almost every poem jumped in. Cunningly, I made a 'Favourites-Work-on-First' folder. Guess where every poem is now happily heading...! Have a very good weekend!

Today is punctuated by a glorious Comma!

A failed nectar robber! I expect you know of nectar robbing? Instead of crawling into a narrow flower,(& pollinating it),an insect- possibly quite a large insect-simply bites through the flower & extracts its nectar! Unless, like this new bumblebee queen, it's simply too heavy...

From the Sunday Times. The World Health Organisation calls antibiotic resistance 'one of the top global public health... threats.' What is the most recent estimate of the percentage of antibiotics given to farm animals (often in factory farming, worldwide)? Over 70%

'Bright water...' by @marrrtha.bsky.social Martha Sprackland in summer's 'Poetry Review' @poetrysociety.org.uk, read on an August day bereft of rain...

'Ruins' by @stickinthewheel.bsky.social. Music of dark weird loveliness with grim snatches of ancient poetry - Anglo-Saxon? Yet, unmistakably, a voice from our world... 'Kings fell often Stood under storms High arch crashed Stands yet the wall stone Hacked by weapons'...

'When I died, I woke to a skylark song'... 'Passion' is alive with birds (except the shearwater,its 'stomach full of plastic'). Its poems note 'The crowns of trees do not touch each other'. 'I like to think they do this out of love'. @profdavidmorley.bsky.social , 'Passion', @carcanet.bsky.social

The fruits of Cooper's Hill, Gloucestershire- one of the dearest places I've discovered since I stopped horse riding and explored beyond the circuit of a pony's patient plod... I wish you a fruitful Sunday evening!

Do you love folk music? Here's a 2 hour treat! BBC Radio Shropshire, bless them, have let the wonderful Genevieve Tudor loose amongst the riches of Shrewsbury Folk Festival! Sun 24 Aug, 8-10 pm - or Listen Again via BBC Sounds! (I wonder if she's next to the chocolate brownie stall this year!)

Village' is FREE today Sun.24 Aug. in its Kindle edition.Readable on computer or phone if you download the free Kindle app-very easy! Available on same page as 'Village'.Villagers add that this version's searchable.Some had scandalous Victorian Sundays throwing stones at Methodists! LINK IN COMMENTS

The Kindle Edition of 'Village' is FREE to download during this Sunday, Aug..24. N.B. This can also be read on a computer or phone if you download the free Kindle app (so easy, even I can use it). Search on Aug 24 for ALISON BRACKENBURY VILLAGE AMAZON & learn the latest cottage scandal- from 1854!

Who destroyed the wasps' nest behind our garage? Larvae all gone, just a few forlorn adults & large delicate pieces of comb. A fox (with a very sore nose)? I have never seen a badger in our Cheltenham suburb, but a young fox regularly excavates my mulched borders. Theories about nest-robber welcome!

Looking forward to tutoring the ‘Writing Nature’ course @grantamag.bsky.social this autumn, as my new book comes out! Details on an open day, below.

Happiness is finding on BBC Sounds 1 and a half unheard episodes of Lucy Beaumont's l 'To Hull and Back' and THREE of @johnfinnemore.bsky.social 's'Cabin Pressure'.I almost had stomach ache at tea because I laughed so much at the latter: the one when they try to drop boiled sweets from the plane..