Prof Pen Holland

Peacock butterfly on a white buddleia

Tormentil flowers - four heart shaped yellow petals with orange at the centre

Cornflower in bloom - the bluest of blue

Towering sandcastle with water filled moat and waves in the background

The sandcastles were the only thing I photographed towering #ByTheSea this week, but tormentil and heather covered the Northumbrian hills, cornflowers were in bloom and the butterflies were loving the buddleia for #WildflowerHour

A page of watercolour flower panels, showing twenty stamp sized pictures of plants jn bloom over the last couple of weeks.

I finished page 11 (220 panels) in my year of flower painting - five months to go! 🌸🌼

Tansy in flower, in a cluster of yellow bobbly flowers

Purple loosestrife standing tall in front of a sunny lake

Tansy and purple loosestrife glowing in the sunshine this week #WildflowerHour

British Ecological Society Annual Meeting 2025, 15-18 December, Edinburgh. Abstract submission and early bird registration are now open.

✨New science, new ideas, new friends. 

Our much anticipated BES Annual Meeting is here!  Join ecology's global community at the BES Annual Meeting, which brings together over 1,200 ecologists from around the world.

Beautiful botanical painting by Keble Martin illustrating some members of the Deadnettle Family. Can you find a member of this lovely family for #WildflowerHour this week? If you can, share your pics this Sunday 8-9pm using the hashtag #DeadNettleFamily

The image for this week’s #wildflowerhour challenge post is one from W. Keble Martin’s classic wildflower guide, The Concise British Flora in Colour. Isn’t it a beauty? There’s some very lovely members of the Lamiaceae or #DeadNettlefamily can you find one for #wildflowerhour this Sunday 8-9pm?

The Lady Astronaut series by @maryrobinettekowal.com - just brilliant from start to finish ☄️✨

FRISBEE: Farm Rewilding Investigation into Species Biodiversity, Ecology and Environment Guest post by Prof Curtis Jarsdal, University of Borkshire

Introducing FRISBEE: the Farm Rewilding Investigation into Species Biodiversity, Ecology and Environment research project, by Prof Curtis Jarsdal, Uni of Borkshire. Curtis has written about the reason for the study and what he and his team hope to learn.
fieldworkpodcast.substack.com/p/frisbee-fa...

A new Ecological Management Plan is being developed, with the aim of delivering a nature-positive campus for all.

The @york.ac.uk campus includes parkland, grassland, meadows, lakes, ponds, wetlands, reedbeds & landscaped gardens. Tell us what you'd like to see:

york.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_...

The beautiful milky-blue, bell-shaped flowers of Campanula rotundifolia, commonly known as the Harebell or Scottish Bluebell. Can you find one in bloom for #WildflowerHour this Sunday? Share your pics 8-9pm.

Is there a wildflower more evocative of long summer days than the beautiful Harebell?! Campanula rotundifolia is of course also known as the Scottish Bluebell. The challenge this week is to see if you can find one for #Wildflowerhour! Share your pics this Sunday 8-9pm! 💙

print matters artist’s residencies — Thin Ice Press: the York Centre for Print, offering memberships, workshops, equipment hire, events & exhibition space. Thin Ice Press: the York Centre for Print welcomes applications for two artist’s residencies, to take place across five days between August and September 2025 as part of our research project: Print ...

We're advertising two artist's residencies at Thin Ice Press: the York Centre for Print. Please share!

www.thinicepress.org/research/pri...

Lots of stuff happening with the Journal of Play in Adulthood at the moment! New articles, (2!) new special issues in the pipeline, but also always open for submissions on anything to do with play and adults, and always free to read / publish in... playfullearningassoc.co.uk/journal-summ...

A page of twenty small watercolour panels, each depicting a flower that is in bloom in late June/early August.

And it’s Friday! I’ve celebrated getting to the weekend by painting my 200th tiny flower, the fuchsia that is reprehensibly but cheerfully growing out of my doorstep. The late June/early July page is so colourful and bright 🌼🥰

A soft crocheted geode made of yarn and pink beads on the inside to imitate crystals

A soft crocheted geode made of yarn and pink beads on the inside to imitate crystals. It is shown from the side to show the outside “rock”

A soft crocheted geode made of yarn and pink beads on the inside to imitate crystals. It is sitting on a marble counter

Crocheted a geode, like you do 🧶 #crochet

Some are stellate, glandular, forked, simple or branched. What are? I hear you ask! Hairs! This week’s challenge is to find a hairy plant, the hirsuter the better and examine its trichomes! Post your bristly pics using the hashtag #hairyplants for #Wildflowerhour this Sunday 8-9pm

A podcasting award from the podcast feed site Million Podcasts for Best Educational Comedy podcast

Woo-hoo another award for Pedagodzilla. Top Ten Educational Comedy podcasts - we're in at number 6 www.millionpodcasts.com/educational-...

@lizisabella.bsky.social @r3beccaf.bsky.social @mikecollins.bsky.social

Delegates at the ALDinHE conference, working together around a table in a workshop. There are coloured sticky notes & paper.

ALDinHE are looking to fund a number of small-scale research projects, which aim to help promote learning development as a scholarly activity. Apply by 18 July 2025. Applicants will be notified in October 2025 http://aldinhe.ac.uk/research/scholarship-funding #LoveLD

Hey #AcademicSky - Do you use #boardgames or #cardgames in #LTHE? Or management #training?- we want to hear all about it! I am guest editing the journal of play in adulthood with @lizcable.bsky.social - drop us a line! www.journalofplayinadulthood.org.uk/news/

YouTube video by Mr O : Reading, Playing, Singing and Silliness! Playful Learning Conference 2025 | Day 2

And if you’re wondering what happened on day 2, wonder no longer! #PlayLearn25 youtu.be/CEtIGpA9n7M

YouTube video by Mr O : Reading, Playing, Singing and Silliness! Playful Learning Conference 2025 | Day 1

I’m at #PlayLearn25 surrounded by pipe cleaners, googly eyes, games and a brilliant crowd of inclusive, joyful educators. It’s one of my top two conferences and communities in the world, and you can all get a sneak peek inside the doors thanks to Simon Overton’s amazing video: youtu.be/nbQHKLe61NQ

Pictured is a beautiful Broad-leaved Helleborine, Epipactis purpurea looking particularly stunning in deepest purple!!

Dark Red, Marsh, Dune, Green-flowered, Broad-leaved - can you find a flowering Epipactis species for #WildflowerHour this week? If you can, share your finds this Sunday 8-9pm using the hashtag #HelleborineChallenge! With special thanks to @thenewgalaxy.bsky.social for this week’s theme!

What if we measured progress not just by income or life expectancy - but by how well we live with the rest of nature?

A major new paper proposes the 'Nature Relationship Index (NRI)' - a bold rethink of development metrics.

Here’s why it matters.👇
#NatureRelationshipIndex #GlobalThreads

Print in blues and reds of a rural landscape with poppies in the foreground and fields and hedges in the background in early morning light

Annie Soudain, contemporary UK printmaker #WomensArt
#June #ReframingWomenPrintmakers

Profession Pen posing in the recording studio

Gary and Pen laughing away and definitely not demolishing the studio in the process

Prof Pen posing with the colouring book of our LongBoiology art trail project

Gary in the studio looking dignified as we are getting ready to start the recording

In this episode @garybrannan.bsky.social and @helenacoxcurator.bsky.social talk to @anaspene.bsky.social and the themes range from the interplay of art and biology to bringing creativity into every aspect of life, writing fiction and painting for pleasure- and MUCH more! 😍🦆

A mallard topped bollard.

An all time classic.
#WorldBollardAssociation

NEW EPISODE is out now of Curator and Keeper - the University of York Art Collection podcast! Tune in and join Dr. Helena Cox, Gary Brannan and special guest Prof. Pen Holland on another stimulating journey up the arts; as we discuss learning through play, Longboi, and his many adventures since.

20 per page - five along and four down. Nine pages so far! Each panel is about 3 cm square.

Badger on a skateboard: SCIENCE POWER!

Small watercolour painting of Prunella vulgaris (self heal), with three purple flowers sprouting from a reddish-green cluster at the end of the stem.

180 small watercolour panels laid out on a table, painted on nine pages in a matrix format. Flowers visible in the foreground include self heal, sunflower, cornflower, borage, knackered and various poppies.

Six months and 180 flowers in, my #WildflowerHour inspired daily watercolour habit has improved my painting and flower ID, and helped me really appreciate how regular, long-term practice develops skills that can’t be appreciated day-to-day. And it brings me great joy! Six months to go…

British Ecological Society graphic promoting BES Grants. Text on a green background reads: 'BES Grants. We invest half a million every year in projects across the world. Applications are open.' On the right, a silhouette of a field researcher stands in an open grassy landscape, holding a backpack, with a square sampling frame in view.

Are you an ecologist looking for funding for your next project? 

Round 2 of our BES Grants is now open for applications!

🧪🌍

Join the BES Board of Trustees - British Ecological Society Represent the academic community at the BES and help set the strategic course of our work. Apply by 30 June 2025.

Help set the strategic direction of the BES and join our Board of Trustees🌱

We're looking for a new Trustee to represent ecologists in academic research🧪

Just two weeks left to apply👇
www.britishecologicalsociety.org/content/join...