Sarah O

Day 10 of the #HooklandChristmasTree decoration sees us taking the ornament representing Dedwick's four sunken churches from its box. We can't resist shaking it to hear its tiny bells ring. For a moment we think we also hear waves, the tidal teeth of the King-Under-the-Sea.

So so happy to see this, really amazing news

Such an extraordinary ordinary moment...humans just being human, we can do it. This needs sharing far and wide again.

YouTube video by JayJay Media Christmas 1914 by Mike Harding

www.youtube.com/watch?v=HqaC...

Actually made me laugh...puts me in mind of 'Look out for the axe Eugene'....peaceful slumbers Hookland.

Goodnight from Ken MacLeod, yet again cursing the person who thought it would be a good idea to convert an abattoir into a recording studio. Goodnight from Tessa Luker, consulting the geomantic charts in Mundle’s Book of Witnesses hoping for investment advice. Goodnight from Hookland.

On a snowy winters night, Matilda, in long white robes, looks back over the frozen River Thames towards the fire burning on the opposite bank

He’s not the best-known Ladybird artist, but I do love Roger Hall’s depiction of Matilda escaping the siege of Oxford through the snow

A bright yellow and blue sign announcing Whitby Seafoods Scampi. Seafood and eat it. A white gull with speech bubble asking 'Feeling peckish?'

#LentoAdvent Annual trip to sunny Whitby.

Day 8 of the #HooklandChristmasTree decoration and the glass Ghost Bear finds a place. A semi-opaque spectre, he reflects silver tinsel, white fairy lights while haunting the branches. All the other ornaments seem to keep a respectful distance away, almost as if they can hear his roar for revenge.

Neighbours.. good ones.

Day 7 of the #HooklandChristmasTree. We hang the water folk St. Nicholas toy. Not the plump red-coated icon of most, but a ragged bishop fishing for Stay Belows with a ham dangling from his crosier. Yesterday was his feast and a little too much apple brandy was drunk on the canal.

Congrats,
@ronanmurphymusic.com,
@lozzakidwriting.bsky.social and
@belrimmer.bsky.social !

#AdventAngels By #DouglasStrachan, in Bothwell Parish Church. #StainedGlassSunday

The third recording in my #AdventPoem series is my #poem Come, first published by the brilliant @zoomburst.substack.com as part of his Sixty Odd Poets initiative (text in the thread below👇).
#poetrycommunity #poetsonbluesky #christmas #advent

Jeez. That 'endless minute of the kettle thundering the hollow cupboard below' is astonishing Paul. Wonderful poem. As ever, great reading too.

Day 6 of the #HooklandChristmasTree decoration and the Clapperclaw is taken from tin. No-one knows how the crow-headed figure came to be part of the dressing, but everyone is too afraid to suggest throwing it out. We give it a high branch for it talons to grip, let its glass eyes seek out new prey.

Haunted House painting, a woman in a black cloak and hat looks back as she walks a lane to a ramshackle haunted house behind her. The windows are boarded, the door is hanging open, something shines in a window, dark silhouette of a tree behind the house, a stone wall at her side.

‘You can have a silence full of words. A lute retains, in its bowl, the notes it has played. The viol, in its strings, holds a concord. A shriveled petal can hold its scent, a prayer can rattle with curses; an empty house…can still be loud with ghosts.’ ~ Mantel #BookWormSat
🖼️ Howard Pyle, c.1904.

The next #thearchers storyline is begging to be written

today's theme is fungi

Happy 6th December. Todays' #LentoAdvent theme is

🍄 fungi 🍄

We love walking slow and spotting fungi of all shapes and sizes. What did you find this year? Big ones, tiny ones, colourful ones, unusual ones? We'd love to see.

Please add alt text to your photos.

Creamy white oyster mushrooms on a dark granite surface.

Home grown oysters.. #LentoAdvent

Where did you get this? We had a Skosh lunch a couple of weeks ago 🤌...but other than Tantrum any #Glasgow reccs gratefully received.

When rain is predicted for several days in Leeds they issue us with these so people can look at us and think "Well it's raining but I'm still not a damn poet, so there's that!"

We have a batman signal in our Christmas tree arsenal, made with fimo by a child friend over 25 years ago, it is a talisman and I am wishing I had brought it north of the border.

Day five of the #HooklandChristmasTree decoration and the Star Wraith haunts a branch. The hooded figurine, face and body made from constellations of enamelled stars, seems to float more than dangle. Oddly, the stars seem to have shifted position each time you look closely at it.

Day 4 of the #HooklandChristmasTree. We drape the Bell Hill Worm, remember legends of dragon-carved paths. The stuffed felt snake is an old friend. Its silver stitches glitter, its scales bounce faery light colours. When we turn away, it seems to slither to a different branch.

It is.

A high ceilinged room. A kitchen table with fruit, a glass water jug, piano. Open french windows onto a verdant space beyond. Galloway House Estate.

The fabulous Galloway House Estate for a writing retreat run by Marjorie Lotfi with John Glenday. Absolute heaven for a week.

It was South America that irritated me, sort of drifted off, but you're right, no replacement would have sufficed. #TheArchers

“He wouldn’t be the first radio ham in Hookland to become convinced creatures are living in the cold static between stations.”
“The first to try and blow up a BBC transmitter though.”
“Not even the first to do that. The path between static beasts and bombs is well trod.”
- #DICallaghan & #DSNokes

🤔