Interested in postgraduate study? Why not join me online at 6pm on Wed 29 April to find out more about our unique Ambleside-based MA in Literature, Romanticism & the Lake District (with full time & part time study options available): www.cumbria.ac.uk/events/open-...
For regulars and newbies - due to a calendar confusion we missed out on our normal date on 13th - so this month's Chronic Illness writing group through Open Book is this evening, 20th April - on the April theme of 'wonder' - sign up here -
Wow. This fine for 'not protecting' 'free speech' in UK universities is going to be the last nail in the coffin for universities isn't it? Because it's not about freedom. It's about protecting the ability for bigots to bigot in places of education, not the rights of students or staff. Slowest clap.
One of my rules of thumb for disability discourse is WHO speaks of and about disability. And if you pay attention to when families, relatives and caregivers speak on behalf of disabled people about disability, you will see traces of what I’m talking about. Not always, but all too often.
Winter 2018 was my 1st. I'd been wanting to for years but couldn't manage the cold without a wetsuit and couldn't afford one. In Autumn 18 I got a small writing grant - and as I was writing partly about swimming - got an entry-level winter wetsuit from Alpkit, swimming sock and gloves, and kept on!
The Marsh Marigolds at the #weedypond are now in full Sun Worship mode.
They started to come into flower in mid-Feb & they looked rather forlorn then.
There's a busy metropolis undeath their leaves which is full of invertebrates - "Downtown" for the Wrens...
@bsbibotany.bsky.social
#PetulaClark 🌿
Calling all Elizabeth Bowen fans! This will be available to view online. #BookSky 💙📚
A YEAR IN AN ORKNEY GARDEN? Yes please! I just pre-ordered THE APOTHECARY BY THE SEA by Victoria Bennett. Looking forward to the (virtual) book launch @samreadbookseller.bsky.social on April 28. Vik will be in conversation with the wonderful @pollyrowena.bsky.social 🥰
#naturewriting #booksky
Book cover: teal background with white writing and image of swimmer and trees. Swimming the Seasons, a freshwater almanac, Polly Atkin
open magazine on double spread with headline 'the magic of lake swimming' on left, and photo of hand underwater and fells over it, and bluebells and damselfly on right.
Mikle looking up as he stands in front of open magazine
3 week countdown to the publication of my little book about swimming all year round in the Lake District, #SwimmingTheSeasons from @saraband-books.bsky.social. In the May issue of Cumbria Life - out now! - you can read an intro and extract, and see some of my favourite May lake photos. #BookSky
Helpful webinar alert! On April 28th from 6-7pm ET, @thesicktimes.org will share how to find data on COVID-19 and other pathogens in your area, and interpret those data to inform safety measures for you and your community.
Register and more details here: luma.com/5mthaudg?mc_...
😘
Can't attend 🙁 but can buy a ticket 🙂!
Tonight! come along online if you can to hear me, Simon Maddrell and Anthony Capildeo #BookSky #Poetry #OnlineEvents #MutualAid
"it strips these very things of their intrinsic value and turns them into mere means to ends. Worse, these ends are not even of value in themselves."
Thanks to @jlimburg.bsky.social for sending me this piece that exactly articulates why the ever-swelling trend of turning everything into a "cure" devalues *everything*. Less of that sort of thing, now, please!
Last month I had the galactic honor of a lifetime to share remarks at Alice Wong's Celebration of Life. Today @thesicktimes.org published an extended version—which share how @sfdirewolf.bsky.social wielded Disability Justice to deliver #LongCovid advocacy's best moment (yet). /1
urgh. So sorry you've joined us / welcome and blessings / so glad the book are proving good company. There are so many of us. You've never alone no matter how isolating it may feel x
Deep breath… I’m newly living with chronic pain and finding it incredibly difficult. I’m very thankful for @pollyrowena.bsky.social’s memoir/essay Some of Us Just Fall and poetry collection Much with Body, which are helping me to feel less alone. (I also love the poems about tiny frogs…!)
Definition and quantification of the mirage effect.
AI 'mirages' mean tools used to analyze medical scans could fabricate their findings
MIRAGE: The Illusion of Visual Understanding 🧪
arxiv.org/html/2603.21...
Exposes fundamental vulnerabilities in how visual–language models reason and are evaluated, pointing to urgent need for private benchmarks.
The National Museum of Denmark’s photo shows fourty-four annular (ring-shaped) translucent turquoise blue glass beads strung on a modern circular thread and displayed against a black background. In 1885, Jens Jensen, a farmer, found the forty-four glass beads in a large cremation urn in the ploughed-over Kongehøj burial mound, near Humlum church, Denmark. The broken urn contained burnt bones, forty-four turquoise blue glass beads, and two gold spiral rings. The cremation burial is dated circa 1,100 BC. A research project published in 2015, analysed twenty-three blue glass beads from various Danish Bronze Age graves. The analysis showed that the glass of two of the beads originated in Egypt, and the others originated in Mesopotamia. The forty-four glass beads from Kongehøj at Humlum, originated in Mesopotamia. They date to the same long-distance exchange period as Baltic amber moving south. The research project links glass moving north with Baltic amber moving south, which points to complex, far-reaching trade and exchange in exotic goods some 3,000 years ago.
Beautiful blue glass beads from the Danish Bronze Age.
Found by a farmer at Humlum in Denmark in 1885. Glass analysis published in 2015 shows the beads originated in Mesopotamia indicating far-reaching trade networks some 3,000 years ago.
📷 National Museum of Denmark
#Archaeology
A week today! An online poetry reading for fundraising for mutual aid @fossilfreebooks.org with me, Simon Maddrell and Anthony Capildeo - join us on April 15th at 7pm online - #BookSky #PoetSky #OnlineBookEvent #AccessibleArts
There is no ceasefire in Lebanon. Israel has been bombing Lebanon non-stop since last night. If anything Israel is expanding its war on Lebanon.
You are being lied to
!Book launch Klaxon!
Join me and @elspethwrites.bsky.social on Tuesday May 12th - in-person @portybooks.bsky.social or online - for the launch of #SwimmingTheSeasons: a freshwater almanac @saraband-books.bsky.social. #HybridEvents #AccessibleArts #BookLaunch #BookSky #Swimming #LakeSwimming
Always anxiety when meeting a new medical practitioner. The risk of presenting as too knowledgeable, or drug-seeking, or complex, or mentally unstable... all which can be used to deny care.
Even deciding what to wear, how together to look, feels vital.
Especially this time.
“We’d welcome a crackdown on illegitimate use of badges to safeguard the deserving users.”
Staggering the AA put this out there on Blue Badge use. Talk about fraud if that’s an evidenced issue, sure, but “deserving” rhetoric in current climate is just dangerous. www.theguardian.com/money/2026/a...
Oh ffs, can we have a day where disabled people aren’t being told their getting too much money/cars/parking.
In our county, you only get a blue badge if you get the mobility component of PIP - PIP which is difficult to get. They’re not just handing out badges to anyone.
The Round Rabbit, brown cover with gold lettering and black decoration of repeated rows of black bunnies, some facing forward, some facing backwards.
Book Cover of the Day:
Mark your diaries! 📚🏊♀️
Our investigation in Byline Times exposes a network of global ultra-conservative groups using courts to target trans healthcare.
bylinetimes.com/2026/04/02/how-the-us-ch...
To celebrate the release of Brandon Taylor’s latest novel, Minor Black Figures, Brandon has sent us over a list of reading recommendations! 📚
All of his picks are on display on our pillar shelves, or you can browse them over on our website: www.theportobellobookshop.com/news/brandon...
