Chris Jones

Yes, we are blessed, though I think they have left us now.

Swift Diaries The Blue Beyond

A near end of season look at the swifts we share a house with

@longbarrowpress.bsky.social @drjomaher.bsky.social @sheffswiftnetwork.bsky.social

Swift Diaries Gallery Swifts

The first August post on the swifts we share our house with
@longbarrowpress.bsky.social @drjomaher.bsky.social @sheffswiftnetwork.bsky.social

An almost pitch-dark photograph in which only the gantry of the M18, at its intersection with the Aire and Calder Navigation and the Dutch River, is visible (above the motorway, and reflected on the water).

"Constellations brightening and softening. All the distances drawing close."

A night walk on the Dutch River
longbarrowpress.substack.com/p/dutch-river

The underside of the motorway bridge over the Dutch River, looking east towards Rawcliffe.

Dutch River, Goole to Rawcliffe Bridge, 26 July 2025. 6. Underneath the M18, looking east.

This is better than anything we've seen from anywhere on the English left in years

Swift Diaries Gallery Swifts

The first August post on the swifts we share our house with
@longbarrowpress.bsky.social @drjomaher.bsky.social @sheffswiftnetwork.bsky.social

Three copies of Steve Ely's collection 'Eely' arranged against an orange background.

Visionary, urgent… truly extraordinary blendings of environmental & social history. - Mark Wormald
A spirited, astonishing, bewildering collection. - Adam Piette
One of 2024's wildest volumes of poetry. - Christian Bok

'Eely'
Steve Ely
£2 off until Sunday
longbarrowpress.com/current-publ...

​A screenshot of a map showing the route of an overnight walk from Kirk Sandall to Goole, via the River Don Navigation, the New Junction Canal, the Aire and Calder Navigation and the Dutch River.

​An overnight walk from Kirk Sandall to Goole, via the River Don Navigation, the New Junction Canal, the Aire and Calder Navigation and the Dutch River, 6.30pm Friday 25 July to 5.30am Saturday 26 July.

An improvised, illustrated thread of uncertain length, part reflection, part reconstruction. 1/

YouTube video by Wincobank Chapel Heritage Wincobank Youth Stars STARTING STOPMOTION

Well done Wincobank’s Youth Stars! 🤩 www.youtube.com/watch?v=SIHg... #stopmotion #sheffield

Lots of news about Mammoth de-extinction recently. Here’s a way of drawing the ‘presence’ of these extraordinary animals into the present, without animal welfare issues or questionable science. ‘Resurrection’ for Festival of the Mind 2024. With @toriherridge.bsky.social @sheffielduni.bsky.social

‘The Walk Will Do You Good’ sound-art installation created in collaboration with Jon Harrison - featuring in Pennine Way 60th Anniversary exhibition touring Feb - Oct 2025. #pennineway #pennine-way-at-60 #yorkshiredalesnationalpark #sound-art

An almost pitch-dark photograph in which only the gantry of the M18, at its intersection with the Aire and Calder Navigation and the Dutch River, is visible (above the motorway, and reflected on the water).

The gantry of the M18, at its intersection with the Aire and Calder Navigation and the Dutch River, East Riding of Yorkshire, 2.03am, 26 July 2025. A walk in two parts (Kirk Sandall to Goole; Goole to Thorne), via two rivers (outward: Aire and Calder Navigation; return: the Dutch River).

An image of a swift constructed with canes as the basis of a bird model

My latest post on the swifts (or perhaps just swift now) that inhabits our house

cwjoneschris.substack.com/p/swift-diar...

Event flyer for Studio 46 / Salon #2 exhibition, with the same text as the main post, some black discs, and a word cloud.

A partial view of the Salon #2 installation, with several wall- and floor-based artworks by Victoria Lucas, Rachel Smith and Emma Bolland in the foreground and background.

A partial view of the Salon #2 installation, with several wall- and floor-based artworks by Victoria Lucas, Rachel Smith and Emma Bolland in the foreground and background.

Studio 46 / Salon #2: an excellent show of new work by Victoria Lucas, @rachelartsmith.bsky.social and @emmabolland.bsky.social, at Bloc Projects Meanwhile Space (1st floor), 2-4 Matilda Street (off The Moor), Sheffield S1 4PF. Friday 25, Saturday 26, Sunday 27 July, 12 noon–4pm. All welcome, free.

Newcastle Contemporary Art,
Thursday 24th July, 6 p.m.

I'll give a talk about Turner Prize-nominated Delaine Le Bas' exhibition '+Fabricating My Own Myth– Red Threads & Silver Needles' and will read poems from Outlandish.

Pay as you feel tickets here: www.visitnca.com/events/talk-...

A Home in Space Edwin Morgan Laid-back in orbit, they found their minds. They found their minds were very clean and clear. Clear crystals in swarms outside were their fireflies and larks. Larks they were in lift-off, swallows in soaring. Soaring metal is flight and nest together. Together they must hatch. Hatches let the welders out. Out went the whitesuit riggers with frames as light as air. Air was millions under lock and key. Key-ins had computers wild on Saturday nights. Nights, days, months, years they lived in space. Space shone black in their eyes. Eyes, hands, food-tubes, screens, lenses, keys were one. One night – or day – or month – or year – they all – all gathered at the panel and agreed – agreed to cut communication with – with the earth base – and it must be said they were – were cool and clear as they dismantled the station and – and gave their capsule such power that – that they launched themselves outwards – outwards in an impeccable trajectory, that band – that band of tranquil defiers, not to plant any – any home with roots but to keep a – a voyaging generation voyaging, and as far – as far as there would ever be a home in space – space that needs time and time that needs life.

Larks they were in lift-off, swallows in soaring.
Soaring metal is flight and nest together…

—Edwin Morgan, “A Home in Space”
A #poem for astronauts, in CENTENARY SELECTED POEMS, @carcanet.bsky.social 2020

#OTD, 20 July, 1969, Neil Armstrong & Buzz Aldrin landed on the moon
#MoonLandingDay

Swift Diaries Northern Climbs

A mid-July post on the swifts we share a house with.

@drjomaher.bsky.social @longbarrowpress.bsky.social @sheffswiftnetwork.bsky.social @poet-markgoodwin.bsky.social

Chris Jones (@cwjoneschris) Swift Diaries: July 15th 2025 The swifts on Reay Street are something else. I sit and watch them in the lounge mirror as I eat breakfast while they squeeze between the gutters and worn-out sandstone ...

substack.com/@cwjoneschri...

A poem about swifts in high summer

It’s Swift Awareness Week. Here’s my flag waving in the Bluesky breeze. @sheffswiftnetwork.bsky.social @drjomaher.bsky.social @poet-markgoodwin.bsky.social @longbarrowpress.bsky.social

Chris Jones on Substack Swift Diaries: July 13th 2025 A day for a long journey with William. An early start. He says he’s seen a swift wing out from the nest - it’s 8:30am. The swifts are still busy feeding chicks. I’m com...

substack.com/@cwjoneschri...

Swift Diaries Small Details

My first July post on the swifts we share our house with

@longbarrowpress.bsky.social @sheffswiftnetwork.bsky.social @drjomaher.bsky.social

It's Friday, buy a book

.

turned dusk spills
same swift passers

now tips be

yond little closing
whole outlier’s

hemisphere

.

#Swiftawarenessweek

Yes, I had a similar experience in Rome one Easter. It’s like stepping through a looking glass. Thanks for following!

A poem about swifts in high summer

It’s Swift Awareness Week. Here’s my flag waving in the Bluesky breeze. @sheffswiftnetwork.bsky.social @drjomaher.bsky.social @poet-markgoodwin.bsky.social @longbarrowpress.bsky.social

An edge of land in Nova Scotia: broken, splintered trees in the foreground; dark earth; a distant, curving line of trees; part-blue, part-clouded skies.

"It’s as though you’re able to stand outside the present and see yourself as a kind of ghost..."

@helentookey.bsky.social and @martinheslop.bsky.social on their new text/audio collaboration 'To the End of the Land'. Full interview here:
longbarrowpress.substack.com/p/on-the-air

The pamphlet and CD editions of 'To the End of the Land' by Martin Heslop and Helen Tookey: the blue-grey coastal edge of Nova Scotia, with dilapidated wooden lobster traps in the foreground, sea and distant land beyond, and white clouds and blue sky above.

I was looking for the fault the tripping switch
the place where the signal jumped the tracks

To the End of the Land: a text & audio collaboration between Martin Heslop & Helen Tookey, grounded in the landscapes of Nova Scotia.

Order the pamphlet & CD here:
longbarrowpress.com/current-publ...

Swift Diaries Fascination

It’s Swift Awareness Week. I’ve been writing about the swifts of Crookes all this summer in these posts and diary entries. @sheffswiftnetwork.bsky.social @longbarrowpress.bsky.social @drjomaher.bsky.social