Shelly Dennison

Elizabeth Jane Howard - The Light Years Stephen Fry - Mythos. The Greek Myths retold.

I've been meaning to revive sharing posts about what I'm currently reading for ages so here are the two I've currently got on the go.

#AmReading #booksky

Our orchid is actually flowering! (I can take no credit for this, my husband has been the one tending it)

#TinyJoys

Five coloured pens - red, green, purple, blue and black, lying horizontally on a desk.

This afternoon's job called for multiple sheets of paper and coloured pens. Because sometimes a blank page on a laptop screen simply doesn't get the brain firing properly.

Sharing again for the weekday crowd.

We do oddly well with order from John Lewis for collection at Waitrose (no postage fee). They sell a whole heap of things like printer cartridges but may not be the cheapest.

I'm moving my A brief history of Bedfordshire in plants and animals from Substack to my own website. You can catch up with the posts so far here: shellydennison.co.uk/category/bri...

#LocalHistory #NatureWriting

There's not a straightforward one size fits all answer. We buy stuff like that direct from retailers where possible which probably doesn't solve your postage cost problem.

Something the article doesn't feel the need to dig into for some reason... 😬

Most consecutive days of rain since 1908, Reading University says The only Januarys wetter than this year's were in 1939, 1995 and 2014, meteorologists say.

I was beginning to think I was being melodramatic about the lack of sun this year but apparently not.
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Sounds excellent!

HUGE congratulations to the longlistees & the judges, who have delivered a wonderfully rich, wide-ranging & eclectic choice of books for the @climate-fiction.bsky.social. Having loved being a judge last year, it's so exciting to see this prize, readership & themes grow. Better get reading!

The second post in my ‘A brief history of Bedfordshire in plants and animals’ imagines a Mesolithic feast in Houghton Regis.

shellydennison.substack.com/p/a-prehisto...

#LocalHistory

One of our neighbours has a cat that will come in through the open dining room window if we're not careful 😬

Deep dive: sharing local stories Helping community and grassroots groups with communications.

One of the questions I sometimes get asked by prospective clients is will I work with organisations that aren't registered charities? The answer is absolutely yes!

My latest blog post explains why and how I can help.

shellydennison.co.uk/2026/02/04/d...

Niche post of the day.

I'm not saying that I'm a frustrated novelist but I do occasionally find myself getting over invested in personas I'm creating as part of comms strategy work... 😂

A selection of illustrated colour plates and colour charts from bird books of Bullfinches

My latest blog post, as Writer in Residence for the very exciting Kintbury Chase and Eco Centre, is up. Here are Bullfinches, Colour Charts, Cages & Song, the Bullfinch-breast pinking of oak cotyledons & taxonomic guides to pre-photography identification kintburyecocentre.org/webpage.php?...

That all sounds very reasonable but I think I can imagine the outrage.

Is it about ditching the use of oasis by any chance?

What’s a wetland worth? It’s a clear morning in early February, there’s a tang of cold and salt in the air. A shimmering flock of black-tailed godwits lifts off from the flooded meadows. The view from the hide is blue as …

One from the archive for World Wetlands Day.

shellydennison.co.uk/2023/09/15/w...

#NatureWriting

Go on then.

5 classes you took in university.

1. Latin Christendom
2. The Medieval English Countryside
3. History and Heritage
4. Popular Heresy in the High Middle Ages
5. Heroes

A rock concert a tattered jacket and a more sustainable to shop Credit: Spencer Davis - Unsplash It was near midnight on a Northern Line train out of Manchester Picadilly when I first dipped my toe into the world of pre-loved fashion. Manchester Arena had just ...

A rock concert, a tattered jacket and a more sustainable way to shop. Check out our latest blog from rock fan and pre-loved fashion newbie James Watterson. jri.org.uk/a-tattered-j...

The Light Years - Elizabeth Jane Howard.

Popped into town to run a couple of errands and dived into a cafe when it started to rain. A couple of minutes later we were watching hail bouncing in the road outside whilst drinking tea and eating cake. And I picked up a treat in Oxfam Books. #TinyJoys

Sadly no, but it might be time for tea and a biscuit.

1993 can't possibly be 30 years ago because that would make me... Oh. 😬

Since leaving CPRE Beds at the end of last year I've been trying to convince the Facebook algorithm that I am no longer interested in planning system posts and it's not going as well as I would like. I know I was there for nine years but even so...

Yes - Wikipedia gives Portal as her maiden name.

Exactly that.

Wikipedia confirms this to be the case but honestly who gives Portal as a middle name...

I hate writing conclusions to anything. Probably because I always feel the need to finish by saying something meaningful but it does mean I just end up staring at the screen for ages in a vaguely despairing kind of way.

We bought one of those at the weekend!