Really looking forward to this, and talking to @ysella.bsky.social all about England's chalky strangeness.

Can't wait to begin my journey of chalky weirdness across the tattooed hills with @jonwoolcott.bsky.social

I'm super excited too, to be in conversation with Jon at @thebookery.bsky.social on May 7th and for the chance to ask the questions that crop up as I read.

Devon friends, join us?

Scientists have released the closest images ever taken near the sun, captured by NASA’s Parker Solar Probe flying 3.8 million miles above the solar surface.

See more images of solar eruptions on the sun: wapo.st/3Irm3P3

June is Pride Month. Let's call out companies who show support for LGBTQ+ people while also advertising on GB News, a channel that pumps out LGBTQ+ hate. Tell these companies to pick a side - hate or Pride:

action.goodlawproject.org/pick-side-ha...

Alan Yentob: BBC arts broadcaster dies aged 78 He interviewed a raft of important cultural and creative figures over a lengthy career at the BBC.

The best boss and mentor you could ever hope to have. The best of the BBC. BBC arts broadcaster Alan Yentob dies aged 78 www.bbc.com/news/article...

6/ I love to feel part of a community of people using their voices to speak up for our interconnectedness, whether that’s writing, reading or activism - and for choosing love over fear.

This is the work 🧡🌱

#naturewriting #HopeInAction #SystemsChange
#BiodiversityMatters #WritersOnClimate

5/It’s a question that science is still wrangling with, she says, telling us about Lynne Margulis’s theory of collaboration versus Darwin’s theory of competition. Like Poppy, she sees the value in the dark and endings as well as in the beginnings, in embracing the gruesome and bizarre.

4/ Sophie, author of To Have or To Hold: Nature's Hidden Relationships, is a science communicator and former zoology student. Researching the book saw her travelling around the British Isles exploring the role and nature of symbiosis - asking is it a mutuality or a parasitism?

3/ Nature - its connection and exchange isn’t always pretty, she says, it can be complex. In indigenous stories and mythologies, the day starts in the evening, the new year starts in the autumn and this idea of new beginnings in dark times resonates.

2/Poppy, author of A Wilder Way, is an ecological gardener and writer writing from a ‘perspective of hope and change’, preferring to inspire and empower rather than add to panic around the climate crisis. She weaves folk stories into her writing, leaning towards stories about the world’s weirdness.

Sophie Pavelle, Poppy Okotcha and Emma de Saram in conversation and seated on stools in McCoys arcade, Exeter

An image of Poppy Okotcha's book A Wilder Way: How Gardens Grow Us

An image of Sophie Pavelle's book, To Have or to Hold: Nature's hidden relationships

🧵 1/Listening to writers ‪‪@sophiepavs.bsky.social, Poppy Okotcha + climate activist and creative educator @emmadesaram.bsky.social at Bookbag Exeter's latest Writing Nature event it was easy to feel that we still have hope.

And @righttoroam.bsky.social has
won!! The Supreme Court has upheld the right to wild camping on Dartmoor 🎉👏. Huge congratulations to all involved!
Now Government must step up & pass a comprehensive Right to Roam Act, to protect & extend public rights of access to nature across England

Gardening in drought Emergency tips for the continued dry spell

Gardening in drought - emergency tips for the continued dry spell www.wildway.info/p/gardening-...

Road Song Books (UK) is looking for novellas and narrative non-fiction (between 10,000 -12,000 words).

Visit roadsongbooks.com/contact-us/

Great photo!

Pleasing lines on my #dailywalk in mid Devon this morning.

I do like it - it’s so joyful! What is the first bird, I don’t recognise it? I can spot a redwing and a mistle thrush (?) Good to see thrushes, we used to see plenty of them but they’re thin on the ground here in our part of mid Devon. This blackbird is far more ebullient!

Wonderful! What a joy to watch. I love the way each bird brings a different characteristic to its bathing - my favourite, the watchful and considered blackbird. Thanks for this!

Lovely!

The cow parsley is in full froth and looks so beautiful with the afternoon sun filtering through it. The blackbird song is joyful too. 🐦‍⬛ 🎶

#gardening #wildgarden #nature

More Nightingale song from yesterday evening - 5.30pm.
#nightingales #ukwildlife #ornithology

"An exotic zoo of poems... they come at you with arms flung open and invite you in."

Thanks Alchemy Spoon for your great review of Mingle by @calebparkinpoet.bsky.social in the new Issue 15 www.alchemyspoon.org

Dive into Mingle at a delicious sale price of £7.99 ninearchespress.com/publications...

Isn’t it wonderful to see them back? We’re in mid Devon and they’re increasing in number each day. The housemartins are back too - just the swifts to go!

Let us know how you get on and any wisdom you have to pass on - I’m still at the proposal stage so always find it inspiring to hear about others’ journeys?

*incredulous and despairing*

Your work sounds fascinating Joanna, right up my street! Good luck with the querying :)

SWIFTS NEED US! Join swift campaigner Hannah Bourne-Taylor in Bridport on the 9th May.

Free and open to all. Scan the QR code for more info.

@hannahbournetaylor.bsky.social

#BookSky

That’s lovely @johngilbey.bsky.social! I’m in mid Devon too - near Crediton.

Paper Chain A reflection for Earth Day on our connection to each other and the natural world, with inspiration from writers on keeping faith, noticing, and living with uncertainty.

🌍 Writing for Earth Day - what if keeping it all together isn’t the point? What if the point is delighting in discovery, in all life’s small moments, about living in noticing and with uncertainty?

📖 Read: open.substack.com/pub/ysella/p...

#naturewriting #earthday #creativeessay #slowwriting