Aidan Baker

The lesson of the lost oak: why one Suffolk man’s mission matters Suffolk tree-lover David Hopkins talks about the work of adding to the Woodland Trust's 'Ancient Tree Inventory'

My latest for _East Anglia bylines_ is an interview with a retired classics teacher seeking to add a pedunculate oak to the Woodland Trust's Ancient Trees Inventory.

26 Bridges - Westminster - Day 19 - Bloomsbury Festival Bridge: Westminster Bridge Writer: Aidan Baker Artist: Clare Trowell. Title of poem: Red Title of artwork: Westminster Bridge The work: Framed linoprint, showing red bus crossing Westminster Bridge am...

26 Bridges, Day 19
Westminster Bridge. Poem by me! Artwork by Clare Trowell. 5 Transport for London bus routes cross Westminster Bridge, and I spent a Saturday and a Sunday morning in January riding all of them end to end.

YouTube video by Aidan Baker Colour poems

Me reading five colour poems to Mill Road Poetry in Hot Numbers, Cambridge

The 26 Bridges project (my own assignment was Westminster Bridge) is live. go.rallyup.com/26bridges/Ca... .
The Westminster Bridge artwork is a fine print by Clare Trowell. My poem will appear, alongside Clare's print, on Wednesday 8 October. Meanwhile -- bid for the print!

Music by Arvo Pärt The Estonian composer Arvo Pärt celebrates his 75th birthday on 11 September 2010. Allow me to blog a poem that I wrote in 1987, attempting...

Happy 90th birthday to Estonian composer Arvo Pärt!
Here's a poem I wrote some years ago, inspired by his #CantusInMemoryOfBenjaminBritten -- a piece which i have loved since I first heard it, probably some time in 1981.

Looking after the land A trustee of a charity making waves in Thelnetham explains how they are helping restore the Little Ouse's natural conservation function.

And that list doesn't include the Little Ouse Headwaters Project eastangliabylines.co.uk/environment/... , whom I wrote about in November 2022. But I think my #CharityDay posts are done now.

Libraries and the war in Ukraine Retired librarian Aidan Baker looks at the response of British librarians to Russia's war on Ukraine.

And when the war broke out in Ukraine I wrote about the response of the Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals, the professional body for librarians #CharityDay eastangliabylines.co.uk/news/world/l...

AgeUK and ‘People at the heart of care’ Melanie Wicklen tells Aidan Baker what she and her AgeUK colleagues think of what's in the social care White Paper.

And AgeUK eastangliabylines.co.uk/news/welfare... -- an old article but today's #CharityDay

Singing and winning: Saffron Walden fosters young talent Meet Claire Middleton, first prizewinner in the 2023 Granta Chorale carol competition, a multi-talented musician with a promising future

This is about Granta Chorale eastangliabylines.co.uk/lifestyle/cu... #CharityDay

How Diss is becoming a ‘Town of Sanctuary’ A movement countering the media portrayal of migrants is putting roots down across the country

This is an article about City of Sanctuary a few years ago, worth remembering on #CharityDay eastangliabylines.co.uk/news/welfare...

Cambridge celebrates the talent of refugee musicians Iranian refugee Rouzbeh Parsa will premiere his Kamancheh Concerto in Cambridge on 24 May, in a concert of works by refugees

And I wrote for @eastangliabylines.co.uk about the choir I sing in, Cambridge Philharmonic Society eastangliabylines.co.uk/lifestyle/co... #CharityDay

Inside the remarkable, lifesaving world of East Anglia’s Air Ambulance East Anglia’s air ambulance flies eight times a day – but it’s your donations keeping them airborne

Most recent for #CharityDay is East Anglian Air Ambulance eastangliabylines.co.uk/news/health/...

Today is #CharityDay. I've written about quite a few charities for @eastangliabylines.co.uk . See coming skeets.

Caught in an unpleasant middle Activists in Diss tell of their counter-demonstration in solidarity with migrants in the Park Hotel, and their plans for the future

For _East Anglia bylines_, I interviewed people who'd taken part in a counter-demonstration outside a hotel housing asylum seekers in Diss, Norfolk. bit.ly/4ftzDOc

Wrote this for Ledbury carnival programme bit.ly/4os2G99

How Diss is becoming a ‘Town of Sanctuary’ A movement countering the media portrayal of migrants is putting roots down across the country

I wrote this last autumn, for @eastangliabylines.co.uk . I don't know how things have changed in this evening's demo in Diss.

eastangliabylines.co.uk/news/welfare...

Road surface smoothed over

Road surface smoothed over

Road pothole marked some weeks ago in Race for Life colour (pink/purple) and more recently and robustly in yellow.

A view along a street in which more than one pothole has been marked in yellow.

As promised this afternoon, an update to @eastangliabylines.co.uk bit.ly/4kQmUGC about potholes in Cambridge. The repair in Mill Road that had become a hump has now been smoothed down. The Race-for-Life-coloured potholes on Riverside now have the council's 'mend in 21 days' yellow round them.

Just now, I biked past the Mill Rd pothole I'd written about, and was delighted to see it had been repaired! I'll go back before dark, and get a picture. Readers who know more than I about potholes can then give a view of its future.

Congratulations!

Potholes, dragons and pothole slayers – Cambridgeshire’s massive challenge Potholes in roads: Cambridgeshire repairs up to 66,000 of them in a year, but they are still a nuisance to drivers and cyclists

I wrote about potholes for _East Anglia bylines_, and learned on the way some surprising things like the existence of dragon patchers and C roads. bit.ly/4kQmUGC

I was, which is why I phrased as I did: "decisions about investment in roads and other local infrastructure. ... If preventing potholes is more use than repairing them..."

Inside the remarkable, lifesaving world of East Anglia’s Air Ambulance East Anglia’s air ambulance flies eight times a day – but it’s your donations keeping them airborne

I interviewed East Anglia Air Ambulance people for _East Anglia bylines_ about their work. bit.ly/4kON2lu

I covered demo and counter-demo for @eastangliabylines.co.uk

Yes, I found myself laughing too. In my family it has echoes of a second cousin, now dead, who one teatime observed, apropos of nothing, "I could do with a yacht."

Cambridge celebrates the talent of refugee musicians Iranian refugee Rouzbeh Parsa will premiere his Kamancheh Concerto in Cambridge on 24 May, in a concert of works by refugees

For _East Anglia bylines_ I interviewed Rouzbeh Parsa, who premieres his _Kamancheh concerto_ with the Cambridge Philharmonic orchestra on 24 May. bit.ly/45bDFHW

Excellent thread on the true nature of democracy. Pls read!

@karenmca.bsky.social You might be interested in this update of something you pointed me to, nine years ago.

Following a conversation with Clare about pontiffs and bridges, I've dug out my own poem regarding the Forth Bridge, and updated the links in its blog post.

bit.ly/24fFTiy

River poems Five poems read by me to Mill Road Poets, Hot Numbers, Cambridge, 24 April 2025: Uncle Mark's typewriter Fording the Humber Clearness in England Fluid A typology of river poems Filmed by Clare Sansom, and used with permission

Five river poems of mine, read to the Mill Road Poetry Group last night in Hot Numbers bit.ly/4jsMEce

The cross we bear (one meme at a time) St George’s Day returns, bringing questions of identity, nationalism – and a very English wave of online mischief

Why settle for flag-waving when you can celebrate with memes? We’ve collected the best of today's St George’s Day memes, from cheeky jabs at nationalism to witty nods to England's patron saint. Check them out now! ⤵️

@eastangliabylines.co.uk