Nicola Chester

Two really important, fascinating books to add to the slimmest of cannons, of rural, working class women. @abrackenbury.bsky.social’s Village is a glorious compendium!

Episode 22: Nicola Chester In this episode of Golden Grenades nature writer Nicola Chester discusses her work and recently published memoir, On Gallows Down. Why do people keep giving her dead things in a Bag For Life?

And everyone should be sure to check out too … goldengrenades.com/podcast/epis...

Ah you are lovely, thank you!

Country diary: Once a plain old field, now a thriving forest garden | Anita Roy Wellington, Somerset: The five years we’ve spent transforming this patch has been recognised with an RHS award. We’re proud, but we’re not done yet

Hope & action, right here, with joy (& the ever joyful @anitaroy1000.bsky.social) “we are part of a grassroots movement – ordinary people like us across the country, working together to care for the land & each other.”

This’ll be a treat with @yolobirder.bsky.social! Always an excellent & entertaining listen, & #TheCuckoosLea is wonderful!

Oh! How brilliant! Looking forward to listening Michael!

Absolutely! X

Very excited to hear news of a new book, #SaidtheDead from Doireann Ni Ghriofa @faberbooks.bsky.social Her book, A Ghost in the Throat was influential in a breakthrough in writing mine … I loved it. www.faber.co.uk/journal/fabe...

Oh Shelly, thank you!

Ooh I hope so!

Oh indeed …(do still send details if you’d like a copy of book, won’t you.)

Thank you! Can’t wait! A round-up on Radio 4? Farming women (& cowgirls) really having a moment - waving frantically for my ghosts to be heard & be a part of it & that it lasts! x

Thank you Alison! I’ve been living with your wonderful villagers - they certainly have my ear - more very soon! x

‘It fully changed my life!’ How young rewilders transformed a farm – and began a movement At Maple Farm, nature is returning in droves: nightingales, grass snakes, slowworms, bats and insects. All due to the vision of a group determined to accelerate its recovery

Beautiful piece about a group of young people who ignored the cynics, critics and gatekeepers and just cracked on restoring nature, bringing as many people as they could along for the ride.

"Action, access and agency".

You want a rural revival? This is it.

www.theguardian.com/environment/...

Perhaps a Christmas book? The best nature writing & storytelling I’ve done so far: a haunting of barn owls, how we lost the birds & why we didn’t have to, proper winters & astonishing encounters (historical, modern, aural) with the northern lights. #GhostsoftheFarm Available for articles! #booksky

Wow!

Congratulations all!

Much of the new farm machinery, that took the place of, or worked alongside the horses, had names. Racing Lizzie worked beside ‘Alice Charming’ the Allis Chalmer crawler tractor, ‘Nightingale’ the steam engine & simply, ‘the sheen’ of the threshing machine, which Bert was Captain of & groom #Booksky

Daughters of Britain Land Girl (reenactment group) driving a vintage yellow tractor past Highclere Castle.

Land girls reenactment with ‘Gut’ the tractor.

Lady Carnarvon with me on the famous Downtown Abbey red sofa in the Castle Library. And yes, it has secret doors and compartments & ladders …

Wonderful to return to #Highclere Castle (we used to work & live on the estate) & be a guest on Lady Carnarvon’s Book Club with #GhostsoftheFarm. I met #DaughtersofBritain earlier who had the same sunflower yellow Fordson tractor as Doris & Julia’s Racing Lizzie! @chelseagreenbooks.bsky.social 1/2

Ooh, I love that idea!

Really looking forward to @orfc.bsky.social! So many exciting talks, panels & people in such a gorgeous place. Very excited to say I’ll be chatting #GhostsoftheFarm with @benraskin.bsky.social! And later, all things #WildService …

Ha, thank you!

Oh I love how it does that! Seems to be everywhere, in profusion!

Thank you! Definitely hobbling better now!

She is! Always coming up with ideas!

Fantastic!

Little black collie x dog peering round a door, questioning, puzzling things out

Same dog has placed her bottom inside a walking frame (which, huzzah, I no longer have to use) and has delivered a ball on the chair beside me

Dear young & lively, keen-to-do-stuff doggo, I am sorry I am currently rubbish.

[Love how she keeps bringing me suggestions on stuff we can still do together.]

The bedwine - betwine, betwined, between - coming into its smoky, wreathing, tiny gas lamp light, right now ..

Oooh, it’s really coming into its own now, isn’t it!

Love them!