Everyone is away for the weekend to Alton Towers. I've stayed home to rat and dog sit.

Taking a break from learning tambour beading (which is SO hard) with a new kit from @londonembschool.bsky.social. This is my first time sewing French loops. One can only knot for so long before one's finger and thumb are wrecked! It's fun doing this in little installments.

Exciting new delivery! The knotwork kit from @londonembschool.bsky.social using my voucher for being learner of the month! Plus an extra treat, the very cute, tiny teacup needle minder. No more shoving needles in the settee arm and losing them inside...

Are there any mathematicians on here up for helping me to create a model equation to approximate an haematological problem? Just for fun!

Over in LinkedIn we've been discussing Early Career Researcher precarity and the influence of funding rules. www.linkedin.com/posts/pamela...

Nine years since I made my husband's Regency tailcoat. By hand! I had septic fingers from so many needle sticks. 😂 Then I got really really ill with pernicious anaemia and haven't made any Regency clothes since. :( But he'll be wearing this again for a Jane Austen Festival event this month.

How fun is this?! Tambour is tricky compared to needlework. 😅

Back from the beach → back to Parliament. In June the EAC urged a new framework for inclusive engagement in marine decision-making. We respond with practical actions from the MMO-Exeter work on social sustainability. hdl.handle.net/10779/exe.30... @exeter.ac.uk #MarineGovernance #CoastalCommunities

Fearless baby robin at the edge of the pond. They are always interested in what people are up to. #WildlifePond

Finally seen a dragonfly emerge after having our #WildlifePond for about 7 years! So cool. #rewilding

I was this years old when I bought my first brand new vinyl of songs I've never before heard and opened it and played it.

Happy #WorldOceanDay! The ocean is the great regulator and provider for the whole world and we should all be looking after it. Ask your local council to declare a #Motion4TheOcean today! oceanconservationtrust.org/ocean-advoca...

Wild garden is looking quite wild on this first day of June. As well as the magnolia and hazel saplings coming along nicely, there is a vast quantity of plantain - gives seeds over winter for birds - and wild strawberry - giving fruits to small mammals through the summer. #rewilding

What are people using as a combined email client on their phone now that BlueMail have self-sabotaged their app?

Listening to Laura Bates' new book. Would love to hear a response from @newyorker.com's Daniel Immerwahr and @wjscheirer.bsky.social on Ch1 where she highlights how they ignore the impacts of deep fakes on women when they say they've had no effects of consequence. #EverydaySexism

This year one of our buddleja bushes is infested with aphids. Apparently this is something unusual being picked up by the RHS. www.rhs.org.uk/biodiversity... You can report sightings here: survey123.arcgis.com/share/57f3eb...

I've finished my first of three tambour kits from @londonembschool.bsky.social. It's been interesting learning. I enjoyed the swirls and they were quick work, but the rows of stitches were boring, like cross stitch, and I'm not satisfied with my turns at the end of the lines. Beading next I think.

Finally! A decade ago we heard Mr Tawny shooting, year after year. Then one day Mrs Tawny rocked up. I've not heard Mr this year but I've been wishing to capture a Tawny on Merlin since I got the app and finally there was enough of a break in the traffic when I was outside the house and I got her!

Aw. Remembering my girl's Frozen party from a decade ago. I was Anna. I made her Elsa dress. And obviously we had animals and science because what else are birthday parties for?

How is person supposed to work like this? I can't get my chair by the desk! 🐶

My daughter requested this birthday cake this year. Her own design!

First rainy day in a while? Another year, another series of shit-pumps into the sea literally every single time it rains regardless of frequency or intensity.

Chumps using chatGPT to create action figures. This is where it's at. #RegencyAI

Box tree owners - it's time! Picked 5 or more bastard box tree moth caterpillar babies off the hedge today. New to this? You're looking for mottled and skeleton leaves. Leaves stuck together. Silk. And poos. The bigger the poos, the bigger the problem! #invasive #BoxTreeMoth

Remember how I was learning Grade 5 music theory 40 years after first learning to play the piano? I've got my result!

People often wonder what migraines really are. Speculate about blood pressure and so on. I can tell you definitely what migraines are. They are robbing Peter to pay Paul.

Spring is coming! Sat in the garden at lunch, for the first time this year. Off for a walk in the sun without a coat.

Having experienced this first hand I can confirm the truth if it. However I think they hate more moderate or nuanced people on the left more than anyone else, even those on the right. God forbid any evidence or reflection on values might enter a discourse! www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

Is Persil implying that periods are something we should be ashamed of? And blood shows bravery but not when it's period blood?

My written evidence to the Environmental Audit Committee on Governing the Marine Environment was published today. I focus on the human right to participate in environmental decision-making. committees.parliament.uk/work/8759/go... @exeter.ac.uk @exetermarine.bsky.social @accessnetwork.bsky.social

On my way to Carnforth today. Tomorrow I'm co-presenting findings from the Natural England project I've been leading on cultural values in the cockle fishery for the NWIFCA technical Sub-Committee. It'll be so interesting to share these qualitative oral history findings with decision-makers.

Last night I saw Pride and Prejudice* (*sort of) at Theatre Royal Plymouth. Man, it was one brilliant play. I love P&P almost as much as my family and deplore a bad adaptation. This was an hilarious and clever adaptation. Go see it if you can!

I had no idea about the origins of The Wave in Bristol as a place to support ocean connection. I really get behind this because ocean experiences are the first step to #MarineCitizenship. We should also be using our natural freshwater spaces to grow connections. #CoastalFutures25

Agree that AI cannot and should not be used to replace stakeholder engagement, but trying free chatGPT to draw on the public data is not the same thing as a skilled person using full chatGPT to integrate and summarise carefully constructed inputs managed by the user. #CoastalFutures25

Hello, I'm (virtually) at the #CoastalFutures25 conference today and tomorrow. First time sharing news from CF on the bluesky platform!

@timdowling.bsky.social I feel your hose pain. A few years ago we returned home at midnight on NYD after days away to find no power in the house and a curious sound. The kids were terrified. A rodent had chewed through the hose feeding the dishwasher and flooded the kitchen tripping the electrics.

Not a lot of news sharing because everything I'm working on right now is in the intermediate head-down, get to the end, share later, kind of stage. But here's an overview of what I'm doing as a taster for the heady flurry of papers and so forth in the coming 18 months.

Hello bluesky. I've done a bit of an update to the #MarSocSci starter pack. A flurry of new followers suggests it was needed. Let me know if you are engaged in marine social science and would like to be added. Suggest including the hashtag in your message so people can find you! go.bsky.app/Sj7NX5D

In work news, I'm helping to organise this social science mini-symposium at the Wind Energy Science Conference in Nantes in June. Check it out and consider submitting an abstract. The deadline is 31st Jan. #energy #WindEnergy #SocSci #MarSocSci wesc2025.eu/themes/ms9-0...

Yesterday I passed my mock grade 4 music theory exam with distinction. Had an extended break over Christmas but now I'm moving onto grade 5 where for which I'll actually sit the exam and achieve a qualification I should've got 30 years ago!

About to get the bus home or while away the last bit of working time doing something fun but work-like? Why not have a read of the new UN Ocean Decade #Challenge9 article advance-published in @icesmarine.bsky.social journal? doi.org/10.1093/ices... #CapacitySharing #OceanEquity #Participation

These last couple of days of leave, besides a bit of work, I've made this bookshelf display - Sakura Densya - that I got for christmas. Pretty good fun. Just need some new bookshelves so it has somewhere to live.

Finally completed my goldwork pear. Some bits I'm not happy about but not sure whether to re-do them or just leave it as my first goldwork to compare against in future. There may be new sewing arriving for Christmas so perhaps I'll leave as is for now.

Article in @washingtonpost.com about the building evidence base regarding health impacts from #microplastics. Link to the original scientific review paper and the newspaper article below. 🌍🧪🦑 #plasticpollution #onehealth pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/... www.washingtonpost.com/climate-envi...

I have been working so hard trying to complete some big things before Christmas so haven't been on here really. Can't really share most of my current work yet, but I can share that Grade 4 music theory is much harder than Grade 3! Slow progress in evenings with a tired brain.

Quite pleased with the wreath and table centrepiece I made a couple of weeks ago. Storm Darragh was very helpful for my evergreen foraging. Everything else comes from the garden. The heather is a new addition this year.

Aw Strictly. What a fabulous final four brilliant couples, and I'm so happy that Chris and Diane won. 😍 Eyes doth spilleth over tonight.

Completed the middle bit of cut work on my #goldwork pear at the weekend. Just the left bit to do then hopefully I can unpick and have another go at the stem. Nearly done. Much happier with this new bit.

I did a little Q&A for Coastal Catch Ups about being a marine social scientist. You can read it here: www.coastalcatchups.com/post/what-do...

Welcome @marsocsci.bsky.social! We already made a start. go.bsky.app/Sj7NX5D