Alison Brackenbury

An enemy of literature (or of very amateur literary criticism)! I was peacefully reviewing when startled by a sinister scratching, apparently INSIDE the room. A squirrel, up to no good near our flimsy extension,is now in hiding along the fence. And the review is taking a distinctly Gothic turn..

From the windy West, I wish you a safe Saturday!

Poetry in Aldeburgh | poetry festival | Aldeburgh, UK Poetry in Aldeburgh runs an annual festival of contemporary poetry each November in Suffolk

Here are the poets...and the North Sea, under endless sky...
www.poetryinaldeburgh.org

Very much looking forward to Poetry in Aldeburgh, 6-9 November! A Festival that's especially precious to me. Meetings with friends old & new - & the North Sea! Especially keen to hear @poetclare.bsky.social again after a long gap.. Thanks to all who keep this Festival alive! LINK IN COMMENTS!

I must, belatedly, apologise for the imperfect typing which introduced my grandfather's 3 perfect sheep. I don't drink alcohol, but clearly should not be in charge of a phone keyboard after mid-afternoon! Luckily I write poems with a pencil stub, & drafted the prose of 'Village' on an ageing laptop!

Thank you! You have made my deciduous day... Together with a video of 2 crows delicately levering up most of the turf squares just laid by the poor groundskeepers at the University of Glasgow... But I'm sure you can tackle that! 'Couplets for Crows'? Grateful best wishes for National Poetry Evening!

I am really grateful for this!The words 'comfort zone' or 'challenge' always make me want to disappear into the far corner of my small garden with the robin for a few hours! I do think I should experiment more technically,but the barrier to that isn't fear but sheer laziness! Thank you for your art!

I'm fascinated by houses-there are 6, from cramped cottage to draughty Manor in my book 'Village'
The Lost Farmhouse(gone,I think) haunts us in good ways: traditions of generous coping,a desk I write on, cooking samphire!Here's 1 of Eliza's wedding plates from 1840s!
www.amazon.co.uk/gp/aw/d/B0FF...

I'm fascinated by houses-there are 6, from cramped cottage to draughty Manor in my book 'Village'
The Lost Farmhouse(gone,I think) haunts us in good ways: traditions of generous coping,a desk I write on, cooking samphire!Here's 1 of Eliza's wedding plates from 1840s!
www.amazon.co.uk/gp/aw/d/B0FF...

I am very touched by your reaction to the photograph! The original is faded.This is my family's legendary Lost Farm, near Lincolnshire's coast. It became a woman's empire. My great-grandmother Elza kept it going for 30 years after her husband died in the 1860s.She had their photos in a cheap locket.

Thank you! @laurasita.bsky.social describes the fleece so well! I'll add that expert shepherds oiled the long strands for shows,so there would be laborious 'hairdressing'. If only wool was popular for clothing in the UK! I love it, but wool is almost valueless & the longwool Lincolns are endangered!

It is great! 50 yrs later,my father knew this sheepdog's name!
This would be Jim's big day out, going in a studio.He & Fred scarcely left the flock. Fred's dogs later acted as childminders, as you can see in this shot from my book 'Village'! His very last dog, lovely 'Toots', gravely shook hands!

Thank you! This seems to be a studio photo-about 1920? a family idea?I know my grandfather Fred would not have wanted to go. I think he insisted Jim went too. He wouldn't have a camera or another photo of his sheepdog (possibly his 1st)? I have never seen a larger, woollier or more excited collie!

There are notable sheep, & shepherds in my new non-fiction Lincolnshire book, 'Village. The remarkable Joseph Lawrence kept notebooks with everything from his part in his local Mummer's Play to his remedy for 'Downfall' in ewes...Given to the Brackenbury shepherds!
www.amazon.co.uk/gp/aw/d/B0FF...

Fred knew'My grandfather was a shepherd'.That grandfather, William Brackenbury,b. 1830s, made his 'Mark' at his wedding. Lucy,his wife,could write. But, in old age, I've discovered, William became a 'Farmer' renting marshland,paying a worker & no doubt rearing valuable Lincolns! Was Lucy bookkeeper?

Thank you! A framed photo from my grandparents' 'tied' cottage... dated (from memory, 1920s). Almost certainly a post-win gift from one of the many Lincolnshire farmers for whom Fred Brackenbury, my grandfather, won prizes. You'll know how valuable prize Lincoln sheep were late 19th & early 20C!

Excellent! I do regret not giving a prize, in a competition for spring poems, to the child who ended their poem: 'GO, Snowdrop, GO!'

I thought you might like 3 almost spherical heep of the breed my grandfather finally tended: 'Romney Marsh'. My uncle took this pihoto in the 50s. The recipe for perfectly round sheep? Feed root crops lavishly, have at least 4 generations' experience (& cheat a littlle-(don't shear fully in May!)

These sheep were valuable because wool then was... Lincolns are 'longwools', as you can see from the tresses..which probably look dark because they've been painstaking oiled by the shepherd. Alas, they're now rare - like the traditional breed in Gloucestershire, where I now live: 'Cotswold Lions'!

Thank you! A champion 'Lincoln' from the 1920s, cared for by Fred Brackenbury, my grandfather. I expect you know the traditional saying: 'It is the sheep hath paid for all'? Selling prize sheep in the early 20th century could make a Lincolnshire farmer's fortune. The shepherd got a modest bonus...

Here, for Lincolnshire Day, is the free Lincolnshire book (in Kindle/computer/phone version)... includes sheep, horses & dogs (one Victorian dog was called Trowsers)!
And you can find details of the paperback!
www.amazon.co.uk/gp/aw/d/B0FF...

Also for #LincolnshireDay! My prose, non-fiction book, 'Village,' has unique photos. Here are more: a prize-winning Lincoln sheep,a century ago; my grandmother's grandmother's lost Lincolnshire farmhouse; my shepherd grandfather & dog Jim & a very young feeder of orphan lambs!
LINK IN COMMENTS!

Here, for Lincolnshire Day, is the free Lincolnshire book (in Kindle/computer/phone version)... includes chickens!
And you can find details of the paperback!
www.amazon.co.uk/gp/aw/d/B0FF...

To celebrate #LincolnshireDay a free Lincolnshire book,in Kindle/computer/phone version. (Paperback also for sale!)'Village' -stories of cheerful survival in 6 houses, cottage to Manor, 1841 - 1971, witches, wheelbarrows, dogs, spherical sheep & our pioneering historian Mrs Rudkin! LINK IN COMMENTS!

I think we have here Magpie Inkcap, Porcelain Fungus & Glistening Inkcap... Do correct me if I'm wrong.I'm sure you'll have no trouble matching the first two names to the striking fungi they evoke! A fine fungus season here in Gloucestershire! Is it for you?

Welcome to altocumulus clouds! (No, I didn't know their name until I checked. I just stared as they swept over me!)

The lit under-belly of the clouds faded in seconds... but the flowers remain. I hope you have a rose-lit day!

Thank you! Yes, I think the very clean Xmas bookmark may be from the 1960:either a very late production of my (sadly short-lived) aunt or a project of my busy grandmother in free moments in old age! She did make a weekly shopping trip to Barton on Humber & spotted items there! Grateful best wishes!

Absolutely! I come from Lincolnshire,which was part of the 'Danelaw' & I do have Scandinavian genes. But I also have significant Welsh & Scots genes, A village relative has these plus Irish genes. And when I researched my book 'Village' I found that some 20th C villagers had skilled black ancestors!

Definitely! Sometimes they give exact addresses in towns...although never, alas, in my Victorian village - just the village name. (Even Census Takers just wrote 'Village' for all but the biggest & most remote houses!) But they tell you, e.g. if someone died in a workhouse (like 1 of my ancestors!)