Rob Galpin

Meadow brown butterfly on greater knapweed flower

The mini meadow outside the #allotment is stunning this year. Absolutely alive with the constant movement of pollinators of every kind.
#WildlifeGarden #Wildflowers #Butterfly #knapweed

A Stylish Collection of 3 and 4 Bedroom Homes The walls being out of true, the mirrored wardrobes reflect out of true and the gazers appear smaller than they are

https://writeas.app/robgalpin/a-stylish-collection-of-3-and-4-bedroom-homes

A Stylish Collection of 3 and 4 Bedroom Homes

Short #poem #poetry #PoetryWriting #PoetryCommunity #WritersOfMastodon

Essex A girl, tortured and whipped and finally shipped to the black bottom of the world. The cargo that still could move, crawled. It is not recorded whether she crawled, or was carried out of the hold. But she lived. The Gunpowder Park an hour out from dawn. Dry notes of black pepper - Yarrow and saxifrage, Wild carrot and teasel. Muted essence of Nobel. A blinding light in the dank and dawn-whited willow carr.

https://write.as/robgalpin/essex
A #poem about #Essex (content warning: historical torture and ill treatment of "criminals")
#poetry #writingcommunity #poetrycommunity #Lavenham

A large sunflower in an open field, with a sultry sunset in the background

Sunset in Finchingfield, Essex last night
#Essex #sunflower #SunFlowers #Finchingfield #Sunset

Brown, grassy vegetation at the edge of a field in early morning sun

Bright early morning sun partly illuminating a dark wet woodland

Bright early morning sun partly illuminating a dark wet woodland. The ground is grassy and glossy green, the trees are thin, dark and straggly

Early morning walk in Gunpowder Park, Waltham Abbey. Lovely bit of wet #birch #woodland which looked totally magical in morning sun

Many maroon-coloured, large Hollyhock flowers in an allotment garden

Close up of a bumblebee feeding in a large maroon-coloured Hollyhock flower. The bee is covered in pollen.

Hollyhock exuberance / dusty gorging bumble
#hollyhocks #allotments #bumblebees

Trying out blogging on write.freely /write.as, I guess mainly for poetry - to be found here: @robgalpin@write.as

#Poetry #Poem #AmWriting #Blog #Blogging #WriteFreely #WritersOfMastodon

Several apples on a tree, looking rosy and almost ripe

Apples ripening ludicrously early - this is in north-east England!
#Allotments #AllotmentGardening #OrganicGardening #Apples

Close up of the flower head of a water figwort plant. The clusters of unopened flower buds are light green, the opened flowers are small and crimson

Water figwort (Scrophularia auriculata) growing by our allotment. There was one small plant a few years ago - I let it seed around a bit and now it's developed into a beautiful large colony lining a ditch. Really underrated wild flower, loved by bees

Close-up of yellow rattle plant in flower, surrounded by grass, on a sunny day

Yellow rattle flowering in my mini-meadow! It's taken three years to really establish. I wonder if the drought has helped it a bit as the grass is considerably weakened this year. #allotment #allotmentGarden #meadow #minimeadow #yellowrattle #wildflower

I've wracked my brains & can only come up with one explanation that makes sense for the Labour direction.

They think their only hope is that it comes to an election & we see that it is them or Reform. And that for all our big talk about hating them, we'll still vote for them to keep out Reform.

A bumblebee feeding at a purple bugle flower spike

Close up of (pink) red campion flowers

Close up of small white sweet woodruff flower heads

A few May wildflower garden shots. Bugle, red campion and sweet woodruff. The bugle is alive with insects from dawn to dusk, even in the shade. The woodruff has spread from a small patch in the garden to filling virtually every available space. Very recommended […]

[Original post on ecoevo.social]

A black-and-white photo of an Oblique Strategy card. The card reads: 'Do nothing for as long as possible'.

Do nothing for as long as possible

#ObliqueStrategies

(Thread) On Sunday I spent the afternoon with the Natural History Society of Northumbria practicing on-field insect and plant identification in Jesmond Dene (Newcastle upon Tyne).

As I argue here, it's time to seriously consider where Starmer's Labour actually, really stands rather than naively assume it's an alternative to Reform and wider far right politics

reacpol.net/starmer-far-...

Country diary: A thriving new orchard in an unlikely place | Jennifer Jones Knowsley, Merseyside: The Meadow Park community orchard started with just five trees, now there are 200 species of cherry, plum, apple, pear, quince and spindle

Often the places I visit to write my Guardian Country Diary pieces impact on me, but none more so than this urban orchard. There was a special spirit to the place & I cannot find the words to convey that fully. www.theguardian.com/environment/...

#Poem about a man half remembered
#poetry

Cyclists who kill pedestrians could be jailed for life under new law in England and Wales Reckless cycling is currently prosecuted under legislation from the 1860s, with a maximum two-year jail sentence

With this in the news today www.theguardian.com/news/2025/ap...

Turns out burying your bokashi is no deterrent to rats whatsoever. What I certainly didn't expect was the daily attention of a pair of dunnocks pecking away at the rats' leavings

Cover of the album "Aphrilis" by Lau Nau. The art is a pencil drawing of a woman licking a spray of pine (or larch?) needles, which appears to be flowering.

Finally picked up this wonderful 2023 album, a couple of springs late but just in time for the end of April
#launau #aphrilis

This is so cool:

Looking for great #nature #writing? Moving Mountains: Writing Nature Through Illness and Disability is a fab book - review here ciadish.wordpress.com/2024/08/25/m... #Disability #DisabilitySky #CripLit #CripCoop #NatureWriting

For no good reason except that another tax year has gone by and I'm still here, doing this, I thought I'd post some of the stuff I did in 2024-25. Some of it was pretty good, you know.

Yellow-flowered Strawberry (Potentilla indica) - an interesting one from today's walk in Jesmond. Known in the wild since 1879, though only for a few years in Newcastle... #urbanflora

Close up shot of white pear blossom

Pear blossom as beautiful and foul-smelling as ever, in the #allotment
#AllotmentGarden #Organic #OrganicGarden #PearBlossom #Orchard #Garden #UrbanGarden #GardensOfPixelfed

CANCER SCREENING!!!
I was offered bowel cancer screening. Surprised to be I called for further tests. 11 polyps removed, 1 cancerous. An anxious year ahead, with regular tests, hoping there's no recurrence
Without the screening - the cancer would have spread!
DO CANCER SCREENING!!

The side of a polytunnel in a garden. Rocks and logs have been placed along the edge to create flower beds

First day of week off, the sun's still shining, and I'm up and out already, building these new beds for wildflowers along the edge of the polytunnel
#allotment #allotmentgardening