Laura Parker

August: harvesting. From A Farmer's Year, Claire Leighton. 1933

Ooh. Want to read this. Such a versatile, extraordinary writer.

Ooh grateful for this question - and answer. Have noticed a lot of these on oaks round here - but acorns also.

"Quick! We've got nothing to fill our regular page 3 Cotswolds slot!"
"Just make up anything, add a few 000s to the numbers and name any old celeb" by #TheTimes correspondent Ad Nauseam.

WL op-ed: Hook, line & sinker – the truth about fish farms Claims that farmed fish are a sustainable and ethical source of protein are fantasy, warns Amy P.

wickedleeks.riverford.co.uk/opinion/wl-o...

A double-page spread in The Scotsman Magazine titled "Building a life to last." The article features Kristie De Garis and explores her memoir Drystone – A Life Rebuilt, which reflects on trauma, racism, addiction, and healing through the physical craft of drystone walling. The left page includes a header photo of a drystone bench in a wooded area, captioned: "A drystone bench for Dhanakosa Buddhist Retreat in Balquhidder built by Kristie and Luke De Garis." A large central photograph spans both pages, showing Kristie standing in a green field wearing a denim shirt and jeans. Smaller inset images show her walling and sitting on a dry stone wall. A pull quote in bold reads: "In each place, the stones teach me something new. And I leave something behind." At the bottom, the publication note reads: Drystone – A Life Rebuilt by Kristie De Garis is published by Birlinn, £14.99.

I have a piece of writing in The Scotsman Magazine today.

Go check it out, it's really good.

#Scotland #Writing #Books

Excellent piece Kristie. (I've managed to squint and read most of it from the photo!)

Lucky me to have received this new wonder by @nicolawriting.bsky.social. Delighting in being reacquainted with the vocab from a horsey teen past: surcingle, martingale, chafney bit. Much more to enjoy, too.

No, but Being a Beast was quite something. Will also add to list!

Lovely. I've also been writing about eels - just fascinating! A long history alongside us and another connection we have lost.

Now I really want to read this!

Lovely empty windows: @lauraparker.bsky.social tells the story of a 1928 lifeboat tragedy, as memorialised in the windows of an East Sussex church www.caughtbytheriver.net/2025/07/love...

It's the futility of their mission, and the loss of the town's whole fishing fleet. No wonder it was so widely mourned.

Betony flourishing in N Yorks. #wildflowerhour

My piece about how lifeboatmen on a futile mission came to be commemorated in glass by Scottish artist Douglas Strachan.

Stage with backdrop saying 'Fairport's Cropredy Convention' in Fairport conventions' signature cursive font. (Wikimedia commons)

Children at Cropredy Primary School will sing to 6,000 people at the Fairport Convention in Cropredy next month, after the school overhauled the curriculum to have the children learn about local history and folk music, plus geography and art via the waterways round Fairport this year.

Beautiful betony in an old-fashioned hay meadow in Yorkshire, where everything feels unbelievably lush compared to the parched south.

The cover illustration and title of the book, showing a dam at the head of a large reservoir, edged by trees and surrounded by hills

Ladybird book in the Spotlight

‘Public Services: Water Supply’ 1969
[Deep sigh]

Artist: John Berry

Sounds brilliant. Great topic - and title. One on the list for 2027! Congrats!

You can leave them behind in pubs.

It's all ludicrous: the reporting, the astronomical made-up prices, the ridiculous idea that anyone would cut down a wood to gather cow parsley. All pt of a regular stream of Cotswolds Bollx™️ that newspapers are compelled to print, most weeks.

Maybe he wants to put in a bid for the area.

Florist 'literally cutting down a whole wood' to supply cow parsley for weddings, for which he can charge £100k. Where to start...in today's Sunday Times.

Lovely pics! Pleased to have my gold-stamped copy of the book.

We're very proud of the first 3 books from Writers Review Publishing - and more are on the way! Find out more about us, and about each book & author, at www.writersreviewpublishing.co.uk. @judithallnatt.bsky.social @maryhoffman.bsky.social @lindanewbery.bsky.social @sheenawriter.bsky.social

Let's see what today's rain does to this - field crispy as coir matting.

True

High water bills, filthy rivers – and now drought. This is England's great artificial water crisis of 2025 | George Monbiot In its refusal to nationalise water, it’s clear the government operates in the interests of private capital and not of the country, says Guardian columnist George Monbiot

High water bills, filthy rivers – and now drought. This is England's great artificial water crisis of 2025 | George Monbiot

Summer's turning...

That's great, definitely a vote of confidence!