Vivienne Tuffnell

I'm existing right now, hanging on with my finger tips. I can get through the day, just, and get done much of what needs doing. Not all. I seldom manage to finish tasks like hoovering. One room, I'm fine. The whole of upstairs or downstairs, nope.
There's no energy for creativity or life.

Current mood.
I was lying down and this odd feeling, as if I were balancing on a cable, hundreds and hundreds of feet above the ground, and no idea how I got there or how I'd get down, came over me.
Existential vertigo, I suppose.

A poem from WW! war poet Wilfred Owen 1893 –1918. Bent double, like old beggars under sacks, Knock-kneed, coughing like hags, we cursed through sludge, Till on the haunting flares we turned our backs And towards our distant rest began to trudge. Men marched asleep. Many had lost their boots But limped on, blood-shod. All went lame; all blind; Drunk with fatigue; deaf even to the hoots Of tired, outstripped Five-Nines that dropped behind. Gas! Gas! Quick, boys!—An ecstasy of fumbling, Fitting the clumsy helmets just in time; But someone still was yelling out and stumbling And flound'ring like a man in fire or lime... Dim, through the misty panes and thick green light, As under a green sea, I saw him drowning. In all my dreams, before my helpless sight, He plunges at me, guttering, choking, drowning. If in some smothering dreams you too could pace Behind the wagon that we flung him in, And watch the white eyes writhing in his face, His hanging face, like a devil's sick of sin; If you could hear, at every jolt, the blood Come gargling from the froth-corrupted lungs, Obscene as cancer, bitter as the cud Of vile, incurable sores on innocent tongues,— My friend, you would not tell with such high zest To children ardent for some desperate glory, The old Lie: Dulce et decorum est Pro patria mori.

My own grandad talked about his time in North Africa and Italy in WW2, not with pride but with humility.
None of these people glorified combat. That's what we need to remember.

Today's near disaster involved the negative effects of tidying. I was trying to stow a basket of spare computer peripherals in the top shelf of a wardrobe when the lot cascaded right back down at me and hit me in the face.
I have a wound across the philtrum. It'll bruise too, but no damage to teeth.

gosh what a very interesting thing. Now there's plenty of my memories my mother believed I'd dreamed or made up; I'm convinced they're real. And there's things my daughter remembers that I don't. Possibly because they're hers, not mine, I think.

The persistence of memory critical thinking blog skeptic analytics skepticism science rational education alternative medicine conspiracy theories debunk misinformation skepto

Researchers find a way to trigger the release of childhood memories -- but are those memories real? www.skeptophilia.com/2025/11/the-...

thank you. That is very kind.

unlike the early days of Twitter (I'll stop dead naming it when Mr Musk stops dead naming his kid) where it was like the Wild West, Blue Sky seems a lot more sane.

the other issue is that these accounts are spoofing email addresses of genuine, actual, real authors, some quite famous, and fooling wannabe authors that well-known figures want to connect and help them. I've had half a dozen purporting to be from real and famous writers.

well, since I am not writing at present (or possibly ever again) it'll have to just sit there.

well, those of us without a publisher don't have that as a buffer.
And a lot of ordinary people now often feel they have to use AI to write a simple email and letter. So looking at tone is not as simple a test.

I am certain 98% of them are AI. I've marked them as spam and that seems to help.
What does bother me is the possibility of genuine attempts at contact being thwarted.
Not to mention the fact that other less savvy authors get scammed.

Train hero who saved passengers during attack named The rail worker credited with saving multiple lives is named as Samir Zitouni.

What an absolute hero Samir Zitouni is - doubtless he saved lives that day

www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

YouTube video by LBC LBC caller describes her husband’s ‘grin’ after train stabbing

One of those calls you don’t forget in a hurry…
www.youtube.com/watch?v=P9Kz...

might sound awful but I am glad that you, as a BIG author, are getting these dreadful things, just as I, as a SMALL (only in terms of fame rather than of the space I take up) author.
They're driving me barmy.

A slide from my presentations that I often use, showing dozens of faces and reading "To care about climate change you don't have to be a certain type of person, you just have to be human."

If we don’t fix the climate, pollution, and nature crises, we can’t fix anything. They are already actively amplifying poverty, hunger, and division. They are what stand between all of us, regardless of geography or ideology, and the better future we all seek. That's why I'm convinced that ...

Bill Gates defends contentious climate shift "I'm glad people are listening," he said, before adding that it was hard to convey "nuanced positions nowadays."

As I am one of the climate scientists he is referring to here - and I am a scientist who decided to dedicate her life to working on climate precisely because of how unjustly it disproportionately impacts the poor and vulnerable - let me clarify my rationale and thoughts below. 🧵

A large, round chrysanthemum plant with vivid red flowers, in a ribbed grey pot on green grass dotted with brown fall leaves.

Bright magenta-pink flower of the Bloody Cranesbill (Geranium sanguineum) with five unnotched petals and dark venation, growing amidst green grasses. The plant displays its characteristic hairy stems and deeply lobed, dark green foliage.

#FlowersOnSunday
Happy Sunday everyone!

Today we have terrible weather 🌧️ – but on yesterday’s walk I found some small pink wildflowers and a beautiful red chrysanthemum in a garden. 🩷♥️

Close-up of a woven basket filled with pink, purple, and white flower petals, lined with a white napkin featuring a green floral design. A light pink ribbon is tied to the basket handle. Another basket and a wooden surface are visible in the background.

Happy 𝔽𝕝𝕠𝕨𝕖𝕣𝕤 𝕠𝕟 𝕊𝕦𝕟𝕕𝕒𝕪 ☀️ Here is an impression from the archive: rose petals from a wedding we attended a few weeks ago 🥰

What were your best captures for #FlowersOnSunday from last week?

Enjoy this beautiful day and let small moments bring big joy! ❤️‍🔥

🫂 #MentalHealthMatters
🙌 #niceToRemember

I just saw Trump described as "Combover Caligula", and it's made my day!🤣🤣🤣

-which is amazing. The previous summer we got 150% from two hives. Having moved house, we lost one colony, so I did wonder what we'd get. There's probably around a kilo of beeswax (still got to process that), which gets used for balms and also to make candles.
Then we shopped.

-residue of honey on the outside of the jars is washed away and the honey is warmed and will settle properly. Once that's done, I wash up the tub and spoons, wipe down, and when the jars are dry, they get moved to a box for storage. I think this year's harvest from one hive is about 100lbs.

-then stack them on baking trays in the oven to completely dry (and to some extent sterilise but as honey is sterile anyway, it's not crucial; in the summer months the jars dry better). Then I spoon the now setting honey into warmed jars, put the lids on, put into hot water to ensure the-

Today I have jarred up around 25lbs of honey from this year's harvest. Lots more to go.
The process is slow for someone with chronic health issues. I have to go to the garage, rummage to find the jars and lids, bring them in, wash all in hot soapy water, rinse in hot water, allow to drain and dry-

you should see my garden, lots of golden leaves and fallen ones.

i have posted before that i think you are an artist before you ever make a painting or song or book. i understand it is a unique perspective and that is okay, but i am thinking on it again after seeing post from buckaroo @scalzi.com specifically how it relates to my perspective on grief and death

when i answer 'what makes you a creator?' with 'you are a creator before you ever start' it makes some folks upset or make fun of chuck. that is okay it is a big philosophical swing, but i think best way to explain would be to actually look at TIME ITSELF. specifically question: what is the present?

YouTube video by ddg1234 The West Wing - CJ's Chk Chk Boom

Today on #TheWestWing, it's 2001 and the team are rejoicing because one of President Bartlett's opponents, on being asked why he wants to be President, started babbling like a toddler.

Try to imagine a world in which this man would not immediately be voted President.

Twice.

youtu.be/qVRSBAShXcM

Brits on TikTok using AI summaries to argue that voting for Farage & his proposed abortion laws won’t affect the treatment of miscarriages, like pregnant ppl aren’t dying of sepsis in the US

Either I need to get off that app, or I’m going to start educating ppl by forcibly ramming books into skulls

White House begins demolishing East Wing facade to build Trump’s ballroom The president had claimed construction of the $250 million ballroom wouldn’t ‘interfere’ with the existing White House structure.

I'm old enough to remember when David Broder said of Bill Clinton, "He came in here and he trashed the place, and it's not his place." Every day, in ways both literal and figurative, we now can see what trashing the place truly means. wapo.st/4hqBNiU