Sue Wilkinson

Call for Abstracts – Journal Of Imaginary Research Volume 11 The Journal of Imaginary Research is now accepting submissions of new short fictional pieces for our annual volume produced each November to celebrate Global Academic Writing Month. We pu…

We publish *imaginary* research abstracts!

The Journal of Imaginary Research is now accepting submissions of new short fictional pieces. Click to read:

Why Abstract fiction?
The theme
How to get started
What to submit to us
What *not* to submit

journalofimaginaryresearch.home.blog/2025/10/28/c...

Yep - weren't they just! And I couldn't believe they lasted for 4 or 5 days too ...

Good call!

Wow!

29 miles this week - and that takes me over the #nhs1000miles goal (the earliest in the year I've ever met it)! My YTD is now 1021 boots-on hiking miles.
Pics are from mid-week in Martindale with the Skiddaw U3A Roamers. The ethereal blue is Angle Tarn.
@kitzingercelia.bsky.social

No! Google tells me it's a variation of 'bumble' & that it first appeared in the 1800s, both as military slang and in nursery rhymes. The OED says it was first used as a verb in 1983

Soggy morning in Keswick, visiting the Cumbria Life Home & Gift Fair: a chance to see inside the newly-renovated Cumberland Pencil Factory (+ eat, drink, browse & shop).
Best bit: finding that the free - advertising - copies of
Cumbria Life magazine contain my article on the Grasmere Dialect Plays!

Rocks along lake shore (Derwentwater) with mountain in the distance (Blencathra)

Peaks of Skiddaw with autumn trees and blue lake (Derwentwater) in foreground

View across lake (Derwentwater) from west towards hills on east. Autumn trees and house in foreground, crags surrounding Lodore Hotel in background

View across lake (Derwentwater) to Derwent Isle and Keswick (you can see the spire of St John's church behind the island). Blencathra in the background

A quartet from a 7-mile bimble by the lake & along Catbells terrace this afternoon: very cold wind despite the sun #Derwentwater #Keswick #LakeDistrict

Thank you Penny!

The play that is helping to preserve Westmorland dialect and customs The Grasmere Dialect Plays enact scenes from everyday life, entirely in Westmorland dialect

Online (expanded) version of my Cumbria Life piece:
www.greatbritishlife.co.uk/magazines/cu...

Large stag approaching a muddy wallow

Large stag rolling in a muddy wallow

Deer-stalking in Martindale with the Roamers again today (other side of the valley from 2 weeks ago). Just as spectacular: the rut is still in full swing! Highlight was seeing this stag rolling in a wallow ... @kitzingercelia.bsky.social

In London for a celebration. The Mary Beale arboretum looked gorgeous in the rain ... @kitzingercelia.bsky.social

Added 32 more boots-on hiking miles for #nhs1000miles this week. Highlights were THOSE #LakeDistrict inversions at the beginning of the week. (They lasted into Thursday for those who got high enough to be above the gradually-rising cloud layer.) Can't resist 4 (more) pix! @kitzingercelia.bsky.social

They're definitely worth a visit! On Wordsworth - let's just say well, he varies ...

Ooh - must catch up ...!

Twisted and fractured trunk of yew tree

Coffee break under one of the Borrowdale Yews

Group of walkers admiring one of the Borrowdale Yews

Close up of trunk and branch of one of the Borrowdale Yew trees

"But worthier still of note
Are those fraternal Four of Borrowdale,
Joined in one solemn and capacious grove;
Huge trunks!—and each particular trunk a growth
Of intertwisted fibres serpentine
Up-coiling, and inveterately convolved"
[Wordsworth on the Borrowdale Yews]

Only 3 now - & they're sororal!

Aah, that's wonderful! Congratulations Penny - and a big thank you (I suspect from many cohorts of happy students & ex-students)! And I don't think many universities show appreciation for their staff like this ...

The sun was only above the inversion layer - it was pretty murky coming down through it, and below it!

Two days running!

Inversion cloud layer between Skiddaw and Blencathra - video taken from the Skiddaw summit plateau at lunchtime today #LakeDistrict @kitzingercelia.bsky.social

30 more hiking miles for #nhs1000miles this week. Today - back o'Skiddaw - was all about cloud inversions #LakeDistrict
@kitzingercelia.bsky.social

Hoping for an inversion on Skiddaw this morning - but didn't quite happen ...
@kitzingercelia.bsky.social

Green turtle bounces back from brink in conservation 'win' Once endangered due to hunting, it is making a strong recovery thanks to global conservation efforts.

Some environmental good news for once:

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

Small herd of red deer hinds on a hillside

Stag herding hinds across a hillside (red deer)

Stag and hinds on a rocky hillside (red deer)

Red deer stag 'posing' on a hillside

Out with the Roamers today, to see/hear the red deer rut in Martindale.
Thanks Lena for leading a great walk!

Get well soon Antoinette!

Penny Bradshaw introducing Polly Atkin, in front of title slide of her 'Companions of Nature' talk

Polly Atkin in front of an image of 3 owlets

Great start to the 7th series of 'Cultural Landscapes' talks tonight: @pollyrowena.bsky.social on 'Companions of Nature' - launching the paperback edition of her book, 'The Company of Owls' @drpennybradshaw.bsky.social @samreadbookseller.bsky.social

Small figure in white approaching via a pathway through jagged rock formations

View of jagged rock formations from a cave 'window'

Group of four people in a cave beneath pitted limestone rocks

Group of people in the shade beneath a limestone overhang - looking out at jagged peaks. The man in front of the group is taking a photograph of the peaks ahead

36 more boots-on hiking miles since I last posted for #nhs1000miles
Most of these were in Madagascar, with @kitzingercelia.bsky.social - including in a UNESCO World Heritage site with incredible limestone formations known as 'tsingy' (pics below).
YTD: 930 hiking miles

Congrats Mark and Dave - very well deserved indeed!

Article reads: Woman named as Archbishop of Canterbury in historic first The 63-year-old archbishop-designate is married to Eamonn Mullally, with whom she has two children. Originally from Woking in Surrey, she was the UK's chief nursing officer from 1999 to 2004.

This article manages to name her husband before it names… her.

Sadly, we cut short our Madagascar trip (on UK Foreign Office and local tour company advice). Even though Madagascar is so dependent on tourist income, it's sad to see other tour companies advising that tourism in Madagascar is unaffected - absolutely not our experience