ClareStevens

Ooooh!

Good heavens that carpet is indeed WILD!

What a brilliant photo. Such clarity! And it really speaks to me, an ex-Londoner.

Trump wants to destroy the BBC and take our money. And Nigel Farage is egging him on.

All true patriots should tell them both: hands off our BBC.

'Flesh' wins 2025 Booker Prize: 'We had never read anything quite like it' David Szalay uses spare and sparse language to follow one Hungarian-British man from his teen years through middle age. The prestigious prize honors the best English-language novels published in the U...

"We had never read anything quite like it," said Roddy Doyle
www.npr.org/2025/11/10/n...

Trespasses on Channel 4 review: Gillian Anderson at her most heartbreaking This story of forbidden love in Troubles-era Belfast is raw, warm and ultimately uplifting

Gillian Anderson at her most heartbreaking! Blue Lights faces among cast! But Lola Petticrew steals the show! Here's my review of new drama #Trespasses, which airs from Sunday to Wednesday on Channel 4 www.standard.co.uk/culture/tvfi...

But the Ulster Museum is brilliant - fantastic history and natural history galleries, and a wonderful art collection.

The highlights of the Botanic Gardens are the tropical ravine and the palm house, which don’t depend on summer weather - there are bright formal flower beds in summer and some roses, but it’s not like the botanic gardens in Oxford or Edinburgh - I haven’t been to Glasnevin.

Yes indeed. I washed my hands near or next to her in the Ladies’ loos at the RAH more than once, or passed the two of them in the corridor. Fantastic actors and genuine music lovers. How their family will miss them both.

Funny you should mention the lack of birds at Edinburgh Waverley just now, apart from that lone Wren … I did think when I saw you working out of that tiny cupboard and on the platforms without a blade of grass in sight that the urban setting was a quite a long way from your outdoor happy places!

Is this allowed or is it too much a normal signpost for #fingerpostfriday? On the Isle of Bute.

The Joy of Cambridge: Egyptian-style Art Deco Cinema that the owners want to demolish to maximise profits. Maximising profits is what has killed the earth and its cultures.

A quick reminder that this wee gem goes out this afternoon at 3:45pm. If you miss it you can catch up later on BBC Sounds.

A reddish-pink Dahlia Teddy and green leaves. Camera: iPhone 15 Pro. From Gamble Garden on a visit in September 2025.

“If you have a garden and a library, you have everything you need.”
― Cicero

Wishing you a relaxing evening and a fabulous Friday with this reddish pink dahlia delight from Gamble Garden!

#dailyflowers 🌱
#flowerreport
#bloomscrolling

See you at Waverley, all being well! In the meantime, hope @petroc.bsky.social is waking up in Inverness to skies as beautiful as this on Bute this morning.

Radio review: Artwork: Love’s Moment: R. S. Thomas and Mildred Eldridge and In the Studio: Jon Foreman: Art that goes out with the tide Two programmes about Wales, art, and love offer Rosie Dawson some welcome respite

Rosie Dawson reviews two programmes about #Wales, #art, and love offered some welcome respite in a week otherwise dominated by noisy discussion about speech and its consequences

#Radio #Reviews 📻🎨

Breathtaking colours on the Isle of Arran today.

I had intended to do the IoM this year but got side-tracked to Arran and Bute. I haven’t been to the IoM since I was three and want to rekindle what are I think my earliest memories of Laxey wheel and steam trains.

After a couple of hours of torrential rain, the skies cleared slightly yesterday afternoon to create this autumnal riverscape at Ogmore, South Glamorgan.

Presteigne Festival 2025 review - new music is centre stage in the Welsh Marches If you were a devotee of Dmitri Shostakovich whose only opportunity to attend some live performances marking this year’s 50th anniversary of his death was spending the weekend of 21 - 25 August at the...

Thanks very much to @theartsdesk.bsky.social for running my review of this year's very inspiring Presteigne Festival (Disclaimer: I live in Presteigne, but I have nothing to do with running the festival, so this is genuinely impartial!) www.theartsdesk.com/classical-mu...

It's Wednesday's Breakfast on BBCRadio3. Good morning! New releases from cellist Pablo Ferrandez & Andrew Davis's final project. There's violinist Lisa Batiashvili playing Prokofiev & remembering Choo Hoey the conductor& mover-shaker who had a huge impact on music in the Far East

Oh, gorgeous! Menai Bridge on the Anglesey side is one of my favourite places – I must check this one out.

Indeed it does.

Morning Tom from Presteigne, where I’ll listen to as much of your programme as I can while preparing to welcome guests for Presteigne Festival, which starts today.

Why doesn’t the BBC blaze the glories of its orchestras year round, not just at the Proms? The orchestras and choirs of the Danish Broadcasting Corporation are at the centre of Denmark’s cultural life. As its Symphony Orchestra comes to the Proms, what the BBC can learn from its European co...

www.theguardian.com/music/2025/a...

Scaling the heights! 🏔️

We loved our stint in the mountains earlier this month. On a free morning we climbed one of the mighty mountains – a little adventure to balance the music-making! 🎶✨

Later this week we’ll be in Rouen for a performance of ‘Mirror of Time’.

Church with van at the door

Presteigne Festival brochure

Wooden porch and courtyard

Portable loos

The stage is set at St Andrew’s Church for Presteigne Festival to begin tomorrow … presteignefestival.com

Record cover. King of Kings - JS Bach Orchestral Transcriptions BBC Philharmonic, Sir Andrew Davis, Martyn Brabbins. Chandos CHAN20400. https://www.prestomusic.com/classical/products/9779886--king-of-kings-js-bach-orchestral-transcriptions

Good morning Bluesky. I'm not generally a fan of Bach transcriptions for orchestra, which to my ears make JSB sound stodgy, soggy and bloated, so I'm surprised by how much I'm enjoying this. A fine tribute to much-missed Sir Andrew Davis.
#NowListening #NewReleases2025

Loved your reaction to taking the waters! Cruel producer Barnaby 😂 That photo reminds me of attending a wonderful torchlit supper in the arcade behind you during the Mozart Festival on one of my first journalistic assignments. In November but it wasn’t cold because of the steam rising around us.

Sounds as though I had the best seat in the house in my own kitchen, where the broadcast sounded fantastic! Though I didn’t hear the beginning as I was out singing Evensong; perhaps I don’t need to worry about catching up with the first 20 minutes if there wasn’t much variety.