Today, on the BBC's World Service, Vibeke Venema interviews Annie Ernaux: www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/w...

Oidhche Shamhna – a South Uist #Halloween Ethnomusicologist, photographer, folklorist, & scholar Margaret Fay Shaw (1903–2004) recorded a traditional Hebridean Halloween on South Uist in the 1930s, in photographs & on film —via the National Trust for Scotland #Gaelic www.nts.org.uk/stories/oidh...

Following the discovery of mosquitoes in Iceland, Dr Andrew Jennings, @thinkuhi.bsky.social Associate Professor in Island Studies, discusses the need to build resilience #islands in the face of rapid climate change. @adammarkham.bsky.social #climatechange open.substack.com/pub/resilien...

Shaetlan has finally been recognised as a language in its own right. The recognition comes after the local language was given its own ISO code by SIL Global, the organisation that handles the international Ethnologue database has been tasked with the handling of international language ISO codes.

It began with meadow pipits and ended with a rainbow over the Sloy dam. Raindrops like pearls cast by bright sunbeams, sparkling slabs of glistening granite, scrambling up the craggy scree slopes and hauling my body 3000 ft high to panoramic views of the Arrochar Alps, Loch Lomond and beyond.

Gaelic is on the verge of extinction. The rural housing crisis caused by an explosion of second homes & buy-to-lets is one of the major driving forces. Next week MSPs will vote on my proposal to increase the tax rate on those buying second homes in communities where Gaelic is still widely spoken.

Summer is not quite over yet: A beautiful day-flying hummingbird hawk-moth in a Shetland garden earlier this week.

My latest Clyde Built Radio show is now up, where I rediscover my love for Kim Gordon and quite clearly forget to iron my trousers.

My poetry collection, Bodily Fluids, is now available to preorder from @brokensleepbooks.bsky.social 💦💘 www.brokensleepbooks.com/product-page...

Please excuse my absence, I have been staring at the floor.

Whan du telt me hoo du thowt o ‘luck’ as nae mair as chance, de happy hubbelskju o aentropie, I thowt onnly o de ben-end o my grandmidder’s hoose an aa her talismans o tat… —Roseanne Watt, “Lukkie” #poem #poetry #Shetland www.scottishpoetrylibrary.org.uk/poem/lukkie/

A big day ✨

THREAD: 🚨 Leaked Israeli government documents just dropped. Here’s what they reveal: Israeli media outlet Channel 13 published internal war cabinet transcripts from March 2025. They confirm that the Israeli government knowingly pursued a strategy of starvation in Gaza.

Front page! It was a real pleasure to work on this story with @craig-nisbet.bsky.social @stkildawhs.bsky.social @ellingbry.bsky.social on the first drone census of the gannet population at St Kilda, which has determined that it is once again the world’s largest colony #NTSSeabirds shorturl.at/PQxSg

Results from the 2023 #StKilda Gannet census are to be published in the December issue of #ScottishBirds, revealing relative stability in what is once again the world's largest colony, despite fears that #HPAI may have had a greater impact on the population #NTSSeabirds @scottishbirding.bsky.social

A dark day for Scotland’s seabirds. We're incredibly concerned that Scottish Government have granted consent for the Berwick Bank offshore windfarm, which could catapult some of our most vulnerable species toward extinction 🚨 We will carefully scrutinise the details and consider our next steps.

We love to see it!

NEW: The Scottish community-owned island of Eigg has announced a boycott of Israel The island of 120 people has backed BDS and its sole shop will stop stocking goods from Israeli firms www.thenational.scot/news/2533509...

Israel is starving Palestinians in Gaza. Israel is starving Palestinians in Gaza. Israel is starving Palestinians in Gaza. Israel is starving Palestinians in Gaza. Israel is starving Palestinians in Gaza. Israel is starving Palestinians in Gaza.

LOVED Daisy LaFarge’s Lovebug. Ironically I have been too lovesick and heartbroken to ~consume~ anything related to love of late, but this both joyfully and horrifically demonstrates the destined symbiotic nature of all living things, the network, as opposed to the hierarchy, of it all.

WeTransfer just changed their TOS giving themselves permission to train AI on any content you transfer and produce derivative works based on content you transfer that they are allowed to monetize and you are not allowed payment for. Stop using WeTransfer.

At climbing sessions near Lviv in west Ukraine, the Mountain Seed Foundation gives children and families impacted by Russia's war an opportunity for respite on the rock, helping them to cope with trauma.

When I was 22 years old (10 years ago now), I embarked on my first long-distance trail, with the assumption this may help cure my CPTSD in some form along the way. But it merely enhanced it, exacerbated it, in that I came out of it #NOTHEALED. I felt cheated, that there was something wrong with me.

Oh does it turn out that going out into nature can't cure rare neurodegenerative diseases? huh.

I am SO HERE for The Salt Path scandal. Up yours, the “nature cure”. Happy fucking Sunday.

Back on Clyde Built Radio with a new regular show called Fragments ✨ Expect the mellow and the melancholy, the sweet and the sexy. Love to play some of my most favourite recent listens in this wee green booth.

Mapa Gàidhlig na Seachdaine Glaschu ~ Glasgow buff.ly/beYkbTP #AinmÀite #Gàidhlig #Cleachdi #Placenames #Gaelic #Maps

Please sign:

THIS!

"The nature cure is only [an example of how] we exploit our environment for human gain, in which we seek to mine the hills and dredge the seas for the green gold of well-being. If we go to nature expecting it to heal us, we are not going to it for its own sake." www.plough.com/en/topics/li...

the plan is to distract and deflect and overwhelm and numb until everyone is dead. and then they will say it’s in the past, and they will move into Gaza, and the western machinery will roll on as it always has. hard not to see proscribing Palestine Action is part of this plan

The Scottish Languages Bill has passed this evening @parliament.scot. The results of the vote at Stage 3 were: ✅ Yes - 112 ❎ No - 0 There were no abstentions. The Bill gives the #Gaelic and #Scots languages official status in Scotland and includes changes to Gaelic and Scots education.

Delighted that we passed the Scottish Languages Bill today, recognising for the first time in law that Scots is one of our native languages and strengthening measures to support both it and Gaelic. 🧵 I passed about 50 amendments to strengthen the bill in various ways, inc:

Canna House has officially reopened after a 9 year period of intricate restoration and repair, allowing visitors to roam amongst Margaret Fay Shaw and John Lorne Campbell's former home, their extensive collection of belongings and historic Gaelic archive. A total dream to work on this! Go visit!

Another world is possible if we fight for it.

Amazing corncrake content coming out of Mingulay!

Madleen proves that Gaza is closer to us than Israel wants it to be. Israel seeks to keep Gaza distant, isolated, and inaccessible. Yet Madleen shows that you don't have to be a superpower to reach Gaza. All it takes is the will and courage to stand against tyranny and injustice.

Birds on the front lines weave their nests from fiber optics.

Everything is inextricably linked: colonialism, capitalism, climate, fossil fuels, genocide. All of it. www.theguardian.com/world/2025/m...

In coming years, eco-apartheid will become more prominent worldwide as colonial violence is used to maintain and safeguard Western interests and profits. We are seeing this future in Gaza today.

Latest Dog Walk Report is about land, language, liberty, and how the fight for land access rights should be international and universal

Nature does not have a responsibility to “heal” us, and this perpetuates the idea that it is something far away, over there, and other than us. I will repeat this statement for all of eternity. Great piece by @louisekenward.bsky.social, we need more stories like it, please.

Here we go. I don't have much to say about this one to encourage you to read, and the title will turn many of you away - and maybe it should - but I don't know what I would do with myself if I didn't get this one out:

Seeing several posts over the past few days from writers and journalists defensively justifying their silence online in the midst of Israeli apartheid and the erasure of Palestinians. Firstly... maybe it's not about you? What a privilege it is to remain silent whilst others scream.

A brilliant and moving article from @katejarmstrong.bsky.social on the impact of experiencing an accident in the mountains, complete with both insightful personal experience and advice for those going through the same things.

Here's a glimpse into the people, places, life, and culture of Palestine before the 1948 Nakba. 📷 Browse through what Palestine was like: aje.io/7tepix

Last week I spent time in Rùm, where I climbed the craggy, volcanic terrain of Hallival in the dark, solo, where I spent the night with a third of the world’s population of Manx shearwaters; their wings slicing the air and coarse crooning for company. One of the most special nights of my life.

I’m going to be over there in a few days. The Isle of Rùm from Mallaig. All of the blue.

we will never let you edit posts. you must wear each typo as an albatross. you will bear the weight of your hubris