Andrew Spacey

Meditative clod staring stones into submission as rain pelts.
Sluggish guru of inertia a heavy never taught life's light plop.
Deep inside belly fire embers light amber eyes.
Unheard echo adult bufo clamber away into gruesome moulds.
Fragile toes. Thin lips slimed. Gentleman gut humming my song.

Balkan bounty: the little-known corner of Greece now ripe for walkers and nature tourism Mountains, butterflies, bears and pelicans are among the natural wonders in the stunning Prespa lakes region, which straddles three countries

I wrote about the Prespa lakes region in northern Greece for @theguardian.com today. At the crossroads of three countries and my home for the past quarter of a century, it's a place that continues to surprise me with its wild beauty and rich human cultures.
www.theguardian.com/travel/2025/...

Really enjoyed this, thank you Julian. Nicely woven together.

🛑 Stop grouse shooting

📣 Join our walk to protest against this cruel and environmentally destructive practice.

🗓 10.30am on Sunday 10th August

📍Redmires Reservoir Car Park

🥾 Hike ~3km easygoing trail to a meeting point where we will gather for speeches and music

So lovely to finally be joining Bluesky with the happy news that my debut poetry collection Nettles is out now! 🌿

To celebrate its launch, signed copies are available here nazaretranea.com/item/nettles/

New research from Pesticide Action Network reveals the extent of pesticide use by UK councils. These are poisons being sprayed in your street, your local park. Pls share.

For links to the full report & to find out what you can do, follow the link below
www.pan-uk.org/pesticide-fr...

From Sheffield rail station take Supertram to Malin Bridge, about 10-15 minutes? Once there you can walk along the Rivelin Valley a beautiful 3 mile path, taking in the old mills and a bit of nature. Combine the two for a great day out.

The rough track towards Loch Morar and Oban bothy from Glenpean.

The low road to Glenpean bothy from Loch Morar.

What a pleasure to reread Rimbaud, whose poems are an electrifying symphony of hatred. Such astonishing precocity, as if an aged & worldly misanthrope were given the massive energies of adolescence & the compendious vocab of a lexicographer then vomited forth the most colourful cataracts of loathing

I've been watching this Liberace video for ages - when does he stop fiddling and squirming around on his seat and actually start playing?

And Descartes was performing his own anatomical investigations, on animals mostly, in Amsterdam on and off around the same time. He believed that the seat of the soul might be the pineal gland....lots of bloody goings on...

This image - I wonder do you know the location and year? Could be any one of a thousand similar tree blessed dale with rising fields topped by farm and stone barn scenes across Yorkshire or further afield?

Say, sing hello to the Alpujarras. Love that area south of Granada especially Lanjaron.

Butterfly wing markings are a cause for sublime celebration. I am in awe of their nuanced abstracts, from the vivid passionate reds and purples to the mildly veined whites, some dipped in orange. Symmetry unmatched? Love them all with their daft flights, scatty meanderings and fragile landings.

The Madrid Review

Writers & readers! Our main submissions are Poems to Palestine but you can submit poems & fiction via our Creative Writing Group. Just subscribe to The Madrid Review (it’s free!) and send your work!
#WritingCommunity #creativewriting
#wip #wips #submissions
themadridreview.com/creative-wri...

A thoughtful beautifully inspiring thing to do, in such landscape too.

Subs open July 1st-13th: 1 poem per poet - Poems for Palestine The Madrid Review invites poets from around the world to submit one poem only, in Word format, as an email attachment between July 1 and July 13, 2025, for Issue 5 of the magazine which goes to print ...

Time to do it. Issue coedited by 22yr old Gaza poet Haia Mohammed - who had no food OR water today. She wants to read you. #GazaGenocide
“Poetry is an act of peace.” - Neruda
“Poets are the unacknowledged legislators…” - Shelley
#Poetry #Peace #Palestine
themadridreview.com/f/subs-open-...

Thrilled by this fabulous review of LIFELINES in the TLS and to be sharing a page with the brilliant @wildtwin.bsky.social!

www.the-tls.com/world/travel...

A recent Oxfam purchase - Sans Gnossie NnES. But Such a mix from Erik.

Thrilled to have my story published in @theforge.bsky.social on the longlist amongst so many writers I admire 🥰Congratulations to all on the LL and the Top 50! #flash #flashfiction #flashlit #litmag #shortstory #writing

A large arachnid that looks like a brown lobster with a thin tail. It is standing on my hand with buildings and a mountain ridge in the background.

Invertebrates are awesome!

This friend is a Vinegaroon. She is an arachnid and uses the first pair of legs like antennae to sense her environment and large, heavy claws (pedipalps) to snare prey. They can spray a vinegar smelling chemical to deter predators.

(Uropygi: Thelyphonida)
Portal, AZ

Ecky thump, that's a corker! Do they share your house space or are they strictly forbidden?

oh yes let them grow let them be let them bring their wild designs...
Bent, fescue, cocksfoot, meadow grasses on and on.

Lovely surprise surprise - just thinking - if this poem had been accepted all those years ago by a lower quality publication say, you wouldn't be celebrating this recent 'higher quality' success? But this is the thing with poetry - some poems just don't leave the larval stage. Some fly.

“True artists don't create for approval.” Picasso, Paris 1907. Born in Málaga in 1881, Pablo Picasso demonstrated prodigious talent from an early age under the tutelage of his father, José Ruiz Blasco, a drawing teacher and academic painter. After formative years...

True artists don't create for approval.” - Picasso, Paris 1907.
At 26, he was reinventing art and writing haunting letters to his muse. Read the full story - and his 1907 letter to Fernande Olivier - on the blog.
#picasso #paris #cubism #letters #arthistory #art
themadridreview.com/f/%E2%80%9Ct...

The Turin Horse - I've seen it 2 times. I need another year or so before I can watch it again! Powerful yes, intense too, bleak and challenging. But there's something to love about it...

Best summer books of 2025: Food, Drink and Travel Harriet Fitch Little and Tom Robbins select their best mid-year reads

Absolutely delighted to see that The Financial Times has chosen LIFELINES as one of their best summer reads!
www.ft.com/content/c1d5...

Great news, thumbs up, nice one.

Petrichoral frolicking is allowed, in wellies, or as part of a Morris dancer troupe sans sticks and bells.