Helen J

“We'd rather spend our time creating a space for people to come together than looking at funding applications.”

Our report uncovers the barriers preventing community centres from reaching their full potential – and how to overcome them.

buff.ly/zRjuAJX

🎵 that's a moray 🎶

I made a linocut zine/minicomic! About morays!

(Now to assemble the remaining 97 copies...)

The objects arrayed against a white background.

The West Coast Cumbria Hoard was discovered by detectorists Justin Bell and Daniel Boakes on farmland at Beckermet #OTD in 2014. It comprises 20 silver Viking objects dating from 850-950. 📸Portable Antiquities Scheme #medievalsky

In the Maryport area of Cumbria tomorrow? Sun 3rd August, get yourself to Senhouse Museum, I'll be there 11am to 4pm, talking about and demonstrating the making of Roman Pottery, with lots of pots you can handle, including some original sherds. Senhouse Roman Museum share.google/4dmpCDuAVSWt...

Yorkshire moors, 1968-70, painting by Sheila Fell (1931-79). #WomensArt #NorthernArt

If you're in the UK and want decent, free basic training in safeguarding then:

1) register an FA account
2) do all their online free courses for coaches/volunteers/committee members.

Hell, last time i checked the full Welfare Officer course was only 20 quid.

All certainlu better than nothing.

Everyone who gets over 20k followers or subscribers on ANY social media platform should have to do a compulsory e-learning safeguarding and parasociality course. I'm not even joking.

🖤

It's the @vaginamuseum.bsky.social! They were set up in response to the penis museum.

‘Long-lived and lucky’ ship wrecked off Orkney was at siege of Quebec, experts find Archaeologists and volunteers identify Sanday timbers as from 18th-century Royal Navy frigate turned whaler

A lovely bit of work between Sanday volunteers, Coastal and Marine Wessex, and Historic Scotland to identify and trace the many lives of the Sanday wreck. I love that people had pieces of the ship built into their homes - becoming part of the treeless island landscape share.google/zaBSyyTSeuBH...

A hand embroidered male blackbird head to mid chest on an autumnal floral and vine patterned fabric background. Set in a white mount and black frame, seen on a light grey wall

A hand embroidered male blackbird head to mid chest on an autumnal floral and vine patterned fabric background

This Blackbird artwork was rejected from an open call yesterday, so good news is today it is available to buy from my website; www.emilytull.co.uk/store/p213/b...

#birds #HandEmbroidery #WildlifeArt #ContemporaryArt

Depends if you're coming from the A46.

Also I really like reminding Warwick University that it's actually in Cov 😉 (now there's a rebrand I would get behind....)

Earlsdon I assume...

Looking through razorwire into a haulage yard. On a low loader lorry, decorated in the green red and gold of Lawson's Haulage livery, there is a small, narrow guage steam engine and coal tender. The engine and tender are painted burgundy, and have the initials R & ER painted on them for Ravenglass and Eskdale Railway.

Also, spotted the La'al Ratty settling in for the night at Lawson's yard...

A stile next to a field gate at the end of a wooded lane. The narrow stile is made from red sandstone block steps, with a small red metal gate at the top, with a spring closure

A narrow stepover stile on a wooden fence, with a flap for dogs cut out alongside. The flap is made from timber offcuts with three rusty gate hinges bent around the fence timber.

A couple of nice stiles on the edge of Cockermouth for @lakesstiles.bsky.social from our guided walk yesterday. I particularly like the triple hinged dog flap.

Yes, it is obvious these cats were born outside in Cumbria. Thank you for asking.

A wet puddle on a stone flag floor, in the shape of a cat, with clear marks for the head and paws, and fur shaped splashes

Wet cat splat on the kitchen floor after Sunday's storm.

What I Build Will Outlast Every Man Who Ever Wanted Me. On choosing permanence over performance.

My book is out in two weeks. This is the essay I’ve waited longest to share.

It’s about body, desire, shame, strength and what happens when you stop letting the world shape you, and start shaping the world instead.

kristiedegaris.substack.com/p/what-i-bui...

#Scotland #Writing #Books #Essay

A square footstool in the process of being upholstered , with five coil springs tied to the wooded frame with strong cord

A large amount of coil stuffing fixed to a foot stool.

A foot stool with linen scrim covering the stuffing. The scrim has been stitched in the corners at the legs to give them a sharp edge. The top of the stool has been marked with blue pins to guide the stitching

The first stuffing of an upholstered foot stool, with rows of stitching around the edges to hold the stuffing in place and create the structure and shape

I had a wonderful time last week, with Armand Verdier on his Tabouret Carré course. Met a lovely group of people and learnt a lot!

White neon sign saying "Quiet" among purple undergrowth

'Quiet' by contemporary South Korean artist Jung Lee #womensart

A close up of the pavement in a gloomy underpass, focused on the name Johnston carved into the stone slabs.

It's me!

Two eel ships on the Thames, between Paulus Warfe and Qeen Hythe, from Hollar's 1647 "Long View of London." You know they're the eel ships because they're labeled "the Eel Ships." This is a rather long thread, and so the alt-text will be greatly diminished today. It takes a while to write narrative alt-text, and I don't have it in me to do a 14-post thread. I'd have to plan ahead for that, and I certainly am not that guy.

It's Tuesday. You're dragging yourself through the world, one cup of coffee at a time. Can nothing liven up this day?

How 'bout a thread of eel ships on maps? These maps are what got me into eels in the first place!

"Cool!" you say. "But wait...what's an eel ship?"

Well...
1/14

Could I have got a free ticket? Yes. Did I go? No. Did my driving instructor make me learn clutch control in the queue on the Warwick Road? Yes.

One of my biggest regrets....

Bill Bryson was standing in the way of the bin taking abou toast, and I needed to throwaway my teabag so I asked him if I could get past.

Trig Lane Stairs and Thames Foreshore Erosion explored at alondoninheritance.com/the-thames/t...

Two black cats in a door way, looking out with their eyes wide and expressions of shock and awe.

two black cats sitting in slightly overgrown grass

Two black cats meeting on a lawn, giving each other a nose kiss.

*Breaking News* the kittens have experienced the outside. And wow, it is a lot.

An old oak tree by the riverside. It has a thick trunk with two large burls / burrs just below the start of the large branches which become more twisted and gnarled higher up. There are some smaller burrs higher up in the tree. Burrs / burls develop as a result of rapid and uncontrolled growth, and results from stressors such as physical damage, infections, environmental factors. The River Derwent is in the background to the right. The distinctive pagoda of Jennings Brewery is in the distance on the left.

#ThickTrunkTuesday
Cockermouth, Cumbria (03/06/2025).
Oak tree with some large burls / burrs
#cumbria #nature #trees #photography #eastcoastkin

Digital reconstruction of a Roman fort looking rather grey and moody, with boats on lake shore to left

Reconstruction of the lakeside Roman fort of Galava near modern-day Ambleside in the Lakes. #RomanFortThursday

Lake Windermere must have provided a wealth of fish 🐟 & wildfowl for the soldiers stationed here

📷 Artist unknown: reproduced on the @nattrustarch.bsky.social interpretation panel

CRB checks... (lasted 10 years, DBS checks have been around since 2012)

Little Kingdoms Before England, Wales, and Scotland were created, before Alfred the Great and the Great Viking Army, before even a raid on Lindisfarne, the kingdoms that…

www.pen-and-sword.co.uk/Little-Kingd...

LITTLE KINGDOMS: AN A-Z OF EARLY MEDIEVAL BRITAIN, my next book, releases on the 30th of November 2025

As of today it is now available for preorder, at a discounted early price of £20 (RRP £25)

Why should you pick up this book...? 🧵