Mair Rigby

I am to wait, though waiting so be hell

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FTWW is a tiny but mighty charity with just 4 staff. Want to stay updated on our work in women’s health across Wales?

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UK readers, if you’re planning to pre-order my new book The Queer Bookshelf about the history (and present and future) of LGBTQ+ literature, this is a pretty excellent deal. www.waterstones.com/book/the-que...

For the Sake of Strangers No matter what the grief, its weight, we are obliged to carry it. We rise and gather momentum, the dull strength that pushes us through crowds. And then the young boy gives me directions so avidly. A woman holds the glass door open, waiting patiently for my empty body to pass through. All day it continues, each kindness reaching toward another—a stranger singing to no one as I pass on the path, trees offering their blossoms, a child who lifts his almond eyes and smiles. Somehow they always find me, seem even to be waiting, determined to keep me from myself, from the thing that calls to me as it must have once called to them-this temptation to step off the edge and fall weightless, away from the world.

Dorianne Laux

I will go to the bank by the wood and become undisguised and naked,

Firecrests have a very distinctive face, a distinctive black eye stripe and white supercilium flanked above by the black border of the crown stripe. Their backs are also brighter green than Goldcrests

Firecrests have a very distinctive face, a distinctive black eye stripe and white supercilium flanked above by the black border of the crown stripe. Their backs are also brighter green than Goldcrests. The bird in this photo has its head down so the bright crown stripe is very obvious

Firecrests have a very distinctive face, a distinctive black eye stripe and white supercilium flanked above by the black border of the crown stripe. Their backs are also brighter green than Goldcrests

Goldcrest, in contrast to Firecrest, has a very plain face just having the crown stripe flanked by a black stripe. They are however, still very cute

A return to Thompson's Park, Cardiff for another go at the Firecrests - success! A couple of shots of them, they were a little distant for the high iso needed in the shaded bushes they were frequenting. Also a Goldcrest for comparison. #BirdsSeenIn2026 #BirdingWales

If you think about it, the very best books are really just extremely long spells that turn you into a different person for the rest of your life

❤️

The Best Albums of the 2010s: PJ Harvey’s ‘Let England Shake’ Considering the abundance of amazing music that emerged during the 2010s, it was a tall task indeed for the Albumism staff to whittle down our top album picks to these special selections.

PJ Harvey released her Mercury Prize-winning eighth studio album 'Let England Shake' 15 years ago on February 14, 2011

album.ink/PJHarveyLES11

Painting in an ornate gold frame featuring the upper half of a white woman in a low cut gold dress and dark hair tied up

Mary Beale (née Cradock) (1633‍–‍1699) was an English painter who specialised in portrait painting. She was part of a small band of female professional artists working in London #Womensart

We can move beyond the capitalist model and save the climate – here are the first three steps | Jason Hickel and Yanis Varoufakis Capitalism cares about our species’ prospects as much as a wolf cares about a lamb’s. But democratise our economy and a better world is within our grasp, say Jason Hickel and Yanis Varoufakis

“Our existing economic system, capitalism, is incapable of addressing the social and ecological crises we face in the 21st century.”
www.theguardian.com/environment/...

Our new Queer and Trans Histories series creates a home for cutting‑edge work on past and present LGBTQ+ lives.

We’re looking for proposals grounded in rich empirical work and innovative approaches to intimacy, emotion, silence, and subjectivity.

manchesteruniversitypress.co.uk/series/queer...

Jobs at the Woodland Trust The UK's largest woodland conservation charity. We want to see a UK rich in native woods and trees. For people. For wildlife. We can't achieve our vision without you.

Coed Cadw/ Woodland Trust is looking for a Policy and Advocacy Manager for Wales jobs.woodlandtrust.org.uk/vacancies/va...

Some good things from this week:
- Meal out at a Greek restaurant and ate a huge veggie moussaka
- Had a nice visit with family
- Mum's eye is healing well after her cataract surgery
- Saw the Gwen John exhibition, which is superb.

Tomorrow, today, presently

Print featuring the silhouette of a bare hedgerow under a purple sky filled with birds flying in group formation

'Storm light' by UK contemporary printmaker Mikki Bowers #WomensArt

Happy discount chocolate day to all who celebrate 🎉.

May you be blessed with bargains and that weirdly specific chocolate that only you seem to like.

Publishing in March! 🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️

'A queer scrapbook' vividly illustrates the diversity of LGBTIQ+ lives across Britain and Ireland since the Second World War. 📖

Pre-order before the 28th Feb to get 30% OFF, just enter code LGBT30 at checkout on our website.
@lgbthm.bsky.social #booksky

Treated myself to a bunch of Sci fi books on Kobo because having a constant supply of science fiction is essential to my wellbeing.

painting of a glaring black cat being dragged by a child dressed in white

mood

They say it gets easier but like…noooo

I hope this email finds you on the couch with the necessary amount of blankets, snacks, and pets

Tonight's cooking soundtrack is 'Jukebox' by Cat Power.

Proportion of non-pensioner below-middle income families in different tenure types: GB/UK

We’ve seen a *massive* swing away from homeownership into expensive private renting.

Mortgaged families dropped from 30% to 17% of Unsung Britain, while private renters nearly doubled. Almost as many people live with parents (15%) as own with a mortgage (17%).

bad news: everything

good news: sunshine outside 😍😍😍

Post a tree you photographed

International Research Culture Conference 2026 (IRCC26) - call for abstracts and proposals now open (deadline 17 April) warwick.ac.uk/research/ncr...

The Hidden Harm of the Diagnosis of personality disorder report - Platfform For over 35 years, across our projects and services, we have listened to people’s experiences of the mental health system. Time and time again, we’ve heard experiences where the mental health system c...

"This report shines a necessary light on the diagnosis of ‘personality disorder’. As the findings make starkly clear, this label often serves not as a gateway to support, but as a barrier to compassion." — Alexis Quinn Survivor, psychotherapist, author and manager of the Restraint Reduction Network.

Future Leaders Fellowships Future Leaders Fellowships (FLF) support talented people in universities, businesses, and other research and innovation environments. They also allow universities, research institutes, independent…

Future Leaders Fellowships 🫡

The aim of the scheme is to develop the next wave of world-class research and innovation leaders in academia and business.

www.ukri.org/what-we-do/d...

ECR Colloquium 2026 - The Learned Society of Wales ECR Colloquium 2026 Days Key Information Call for Proposals (OPEN) Contact Early-Career Researchers’ Colloquium 2026 Aberystwyth University | 29 and 30 June Join the Learned Society of Wales’ Early Ca...

Early-Career Researchers’ Colloquium 2026 -Aberystwyth University | 29 and 30 June: Open for proposals
www.learnedsociety.wales/ecr-home/ecr...