When everything tide-touched becomes property of the King-Under-the-Sea, high tide is a crucial matter. Even more so when it comes to the county's causeway islands. No-one wants to get trapped on Os or Far Gore. No-one wants to spend even an extra hour on Strood. – #MattAdams

In Icelandic we have 'Ókind' for monster. But the translation is un-sheep. So everything not a sheep is dangerous.

Walking in a waking dream I watched nineteen deer pour from ridge to glen-floor, then each in turn leap, leap the new-raised peat-dark burn… —Kathleen Jamie, “The Hinds” from THE BONNIEST COMPANIE (Picador, 2015) #poem #poetry www.panmacmillan.com/authors/kath...

Don't forget to show your support for antifa drag queens this remembrance sunday

As @beinghumanfest.bsky.social gets underway, I'm deep in storytelling thoughts about lovers and traders; displacement and transformation; grit, pearls, and stories. Just a few tickets left for my upcoming performance/workshop at Unity Theatre, Liverpool: www.beinghumanfestival.org/events/cress...

"Taking the fear out", an old Cypriot ritual: * A pan face-down over a fire. * Think of what you fear, the ritualist's hand on your head. * Two caged birds close by. * Water poured onto the pan so it hisses. * Leap over that and the fire. * The birds will absorb your fear. #WyrdWednesday

The unicorn listened intently. Somewhere in the forest, someone innocent was singing. The unicorn followed the sound, found the singer, and laid down with their head in the singer's lap. "bottles of-" The young orc fell silent, smiled shyly, then resumed singing. "Beer on the wall..."

I am trying something in November. National novel-reading month, basically. It is the PERFECT month for reading (at least in the Western hemisphere). naomialderman.substack.com/p/november-i...

"The Festive Big Green Book Swap" is back! Let me know the kind of stuff you like reading. I'll match you up with someone with similar tastes. I'll post you both a book I think you'll like (+ choc & tea)! Read, chat & eat choc! Just £15 DETAILS HERE! biggreenbookshop.com/index.php

Massive thanks to everyone who took part in today's first ever Dusking gathering for storytellers. It was such a joy to hear you raising your voices, sharing a weird, wise old tale, as the shadows deepened around us - and as the Liverpool sky put on a wondrous show!

One for Halloween, on a myth that really never seems to die. lucyallengoss.substack.com/p/we-are-not...

I love how magnificently the ptarmigan blend into the hillside at this time of year, as they turn gradually white as the hillsides do (when the seasons turn on time). They needed it today with two young golden eagles out looking for food.

Heron and Rubik's cube.

I don't know why everyone is doing Ozymandias remixes but a) I'm glad they are and b) this is my favourite do far: two poems they are constantly in my head now mashed together.

According to the Franciscan writer Peter of Trau in 1385, the famous scholar Roger Bacon made medieval magic video-chat mirrors at Oxford, but the students found them hella distracting so they were destroyed. Imagine if Bacon had put games on those things.

Here's another #buyastrangerabook offer! @poorlarkin.bsky.social is offering to spend up to £30 on books for kids. So if there's a particular book that you'd like to get for a child, be it your own, or a nephew/niece, or any kiddo that you know who'd like a specific book, get in touch. UK only

I’ve spent the day so far with Wyatt, Glück & Celan. Odd poet combination. But a common message. Don’t compromise. Read, learn & work at your craft of course. But ultimately write for what’s in your ‘poetic conscience’: an idea of excellence, a vision of eternity. Do that & the rest falls into place

#blackandwhitefilm of the day: The Small Back Room, 1949. Fascinating dark war drama from always-interesting Powell and Pressburger sees David Farrar fight the loss of a leg and alcohol to find the secret of a new German weapon on @talkingpicturestv.bsky.social at 1.05pm youtu.be/Uhw5du2xAjM?...

Marvellous Minoan cups made by Bronze Age potters about 3,800 years ago! Which is your favourite? ❤️ Heraklion Archaeological Museum 📷 by me 🏺 #Archaeology

Remember, if someone has the unmitigated gall to claim that spending the entire weekend reading Agatha Christie, drinking multiple cups of tea, and consuming a copious amount of pastries “doesn’t sound exciting", then your well-being is simply not important to them.

The rituals of folk faith often derive their potency from reenactment of story, a reconnection to the imaginative power at its core. There is rarely such thing as a ‘simple folktale’. – Dr. M. Benn #Folklore

"If a book told you something when you were 15, it will tell it to you again when you’re 50, though you may understand it so differently that it seems you’re reading a whole new book." Happy birthday to Ursula K. Le Guin, born 21st October 1929

Some of our most powerful rituals of connection require no wand, no knife, no fire. The witch walks and land folds itself into her. In contemplation of nature's mysteries, she has a knowing she is part of them. We are not divorced from any part. – #EmilyCBanting, 1982 #WitchSky

Edna Cooke, 1920

Just occasionally, folklore records a reported glimpse of a Fox Bride’s marriage. However, as those who stumble into a grove illuminated by a hundred floating rushlights to see a skulk of wedding guests rarely return, this scarcity is somewhat understandable. – #EmilyCBanting #FolkloreSunday

‘We all know that stories can be used to entrench prejudice and suspicion... [But] calling lies lies will not suffice. Only more stories, illuminating, reinvigorating, exploratory, different stories, can oppose the disinformation and rumour-mongering’ Marina Warner FBA on.ft.com/47uubZ0

or, in the words of the Nac Mac Feegle: “Free Men! Nae king! Nae quin! Nae laird! Nae master! We willna' be fooled again!”

Wanting to go, all the leaves want to go though they have achieved their kingly robes. Weary of colours, they think of black earth, they think of white snow… —Norman MacCaig, “Autumn” in The Poems of Norman MacCaig (Birlinn, 2009) #BookWormSat #poem #Poetry birlinn.co.uk/2022/10/21/p...

Sheets cracking like sails in the wind. #uist #WashingLine

As Halloween creeps closer, I'm chuffed to have been invited to share spooky tales with the young folk of the Warwickshire Wildlife Trust. Online, laid-back, and free to people aged 18–30 who live, work, or study in Coventry, Warwickshire, Solihull, or nearby. www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/webinar-fo...

And I saw the Madonna in the Triceratops’s eyes (mystical/surreal experiences at Frieze Masters, ongoing series)

This extraordinarily vibrant green-glazed jar was made in China in the 8th century.

Today's the 959th anniversary of the Battle of Hastings, so obviously I'm reposting my scenes from the Bayeux Tapestry in Playmobil.

For those that like the seaside sinister with its haunted promenades, cursed piers and cadaver gulls, Brighthaven may be a worthy destination. - J.B. Priestley

Cover of L&NER’s Wandering On The Continent booklet, 1937

Got a new pair of specs, got my paper (very nearly) drafted, and I'm off to Brighton in the morning to deliver a keynote - combining live storytelling and ecopoetic reflection - at this fantastic symposium: www.techne.ac.uk/training-and...

My dad has turned up this photo from a visit "many years ago" to the Forth Bridge. I think it's taken from what he calls the howff, just below track level, used by the maintenance workers. I guess when you're engaged in a proverbially endless task, you need a wee cup of tea once in a while.

As October begins, we contemplate how the sea wind had its way with this now-fungal saint.

‪Just a month from now, it'll be time for #Dusking. This laid-back storytelling gathering is a chance to come together, sharing atmospheric old tales, as darkness gathers around us. At Studio 1 at The Bluecoat, Liverpool, Saturday 1 November Full details and booking: shorturl.at/mvL3S

Tony Harrison’s poem ‘V.’ is to be performed in the Leeds cemetery that inspired it. The day of site-specific readings will now also serve as a tribute to the poet, who died last week. Read the article: www.theguardian.com/stage/2025/s... Book tickets here: www.slunglow.org/v-a-homecomi...

George Formby in South Africa. Worth reading for the quotation from Beryl Formby which ought to go into the anthologies. ayewellhmm.wordpress.com/2021/01/23/g...

“A circle outdoors is part of the place it is in, sometimes as far as the eyes can see, while indoors the circle and materials demand more attention” Norfolk Flint Circle, Richard Long, 1990 @tate.bsky.social Bankside

Scientists rappelled down cliffs to reach the nests of bearded vultures, which have a diet of bones and paint their feathers red with mud. Inside the nests were perfectly preserved human artifacts from the Middle Ages. By me, for Nat Geo: www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/arti... 🧪

A lovely 2017 appreciation of the great poet and dramatist Tony Harrison (1937-2025) by Blake Morrison in the London Review of Books (@lrb.co.uk): www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v3...

I hand over an invisible ‘Tree Of The Day’ award to the most charismatic tree I see on each of my walks. Here are just a few past winners of this esteemed but still largely unknown prize.

In memory of the great poet Tony Harrison, my own school of eloquence. Image c/o library.leeds.ac.uk/special-coll...

Looking for a moment to pause, breathe, and reflect? This laid-back storytelling gathering is a chance to come together, sharing atmospheric old tales, as darkness gathers around us. At Studio 1 at The Bluecoat, Liverpool, Saturday 1 November Full details and booking: shorturl.at/mvL3S

"For... interesting holidays". Something about the spookily lit trees in the foreground makes this feel like the kind of poster you'd catch sight of on a mildewed wall in the early minutes of an MR James adaptation. (SMG: collection.sciencemuseumgroup.org.uk/objects/co23...)

RIP Danny Thompson. Here's a playlist featuring just some of the hundreds of songs that were graced by his bass playing. Includes Nick Drake, Pentangle, Donovan, John Martyn, Sandy Denny, Marc Bolan, David Sylvian, Kate Bush, Talk Talk, Lilac Time, Julian Cope etc ▶️ open.spotify.com/playlist/4XS...