Jay Hulme

Three stunning and shaming paragraphs, by Rachel Wolf of Public First, in @theobserveruk.bsky.social

A tall crumbling cliff with plants hanging over the top

I just... Love a rock.

Hey Madeline

3 Aug 25 - New study shows vast "over-representation of trans boys" turns out to be vast _under-representation_ of trans girls bec. they: a) come out ~10 years later; b) start puberty later; & c) delay transitioning longer because of deep social animus towards AMAB femininity.
tinyurl.com/yrwvmxws

It feels like we should be making a bigger deal of “we actually did in fact find a cure for AIDS”

Every. Single. Time.

"Community" this, "volunteering" that, sometimes you just need a little "going to a church where you have no responsibilities and nobody knows your name"

Jay squats in a small rock niche, he's smiling at the camera and looks relaxed

Jay squats in a small rock niche, he's mid-speech, his face kind of urgent and his hands gesturing

What I wanted the photo of me in the tiny cave to look like (cool and happy) vs what I got (feral and deranged).

The Polari Prize putting John Boyne on their longlist at the expense of better and non-TERFy writers is...a choice.

Durham Cathedral looming under a grey sky.

It’s compulsory to take a photo of Durham Cathedral when you pass it on the train.

(Suppressing my shot of York Minster, because it was awful, but some may be gratified to know they were flying the flag for Yorkshire Day)

Yesyesyesyesyesyes

I'm only a little guy (and wouldn't dare try to actually sit on the shelf itself)

They are very secured to the floor. Except one. Which I pointedly avoid.

"Ask Jay, he's the warden."
*goblin skittering sounds*

That's the one, yep.

Is it comfortable? No.
Do I constantly feel like I'm about to fall off? Yes.
Will I keep sitting like this? Absolutely.

Normal people come in and ask stuff and get told "oh, you'll have to ask Jay, he's the warden" and then get pointed to this weird little gremlin figure who is apparently responsible for this 1100 year old building and everything within it and honestly? I understand the double take.

A photo of the pews at St nicks with a green stickman drawn perched on the edge of the pew.

I am absolutely incapable of sitting normally and so the ways I lounge on the pews at St Nicks are getting progressively unhinged. Found myself sitting on the back of a pew, facing backwards, perched with my feet on the little shelf like... Gimme a sec, lemme draw it... Like this... Recently.

Mother Shipton's cave IS in Knaresborough, it's just not this cave.

There's a lot of weird caves in Knaresborough. I love it very much.

A Saint looks up from his prayers to discover he’s been dead for some time For St Robert of Knaresborough By Jay Hulme - from 'The Vanishing Song' After he retired to the cave prayer grew in him like a forest, sowed its seeds inside his psyche, rewilded his heart. He didn’t see that centuries had passed without him. One day he looked up, hearing requests for intercession, and the woods were older than expected, the riverbanks shifted by the years — and as he knelt before the altar in his hermit's church, his knees disappeared below the edges of his emptied grave.

"After he retired to the cave
prayer grew in him like a forest,
sowed its seeds inside his psyche,
rewilded his heart. [...]"

Beach bodies are OUT. Bog bodies are IN. We just wanna rot.

Gotta get to the good bit! I hear Jesus comes BACK???!!!?

Was just collecting the escaping bones from the graveyard when he turned up like "can I take your photo?" And I closed my hands around the shards to hide them like "sure, let's go inside"

My face somehow manages to be bad in all the pictures he took, but I'll live.

Just.

Jay is standing in a black cassock flicking through a prayer book

Jay in black work trousers and a green and black plaid top stands near the front at St Nicks.

Some guy from the local independent paper came and papped me in Churchwarden Mode a while back and the pictures but it really do show the duality of the role. Fancy cassock for leading Evening Prayer... scruffy shirt for cleaning the graveyard just peeking out from the sleeves.

The end result of this is that a bunch of cis women athletes are going to find out they're intersex.

Oh very much yes!

I'm glad you're enjoying it!

A church wall with a large stone reading: notice This church is open for divine service on Sundays at 11.30 and half past 6 o clock and for churching and baptisms at 4 o clock. The sacrament of the lord's supper is administered on the first Sunday of each month. Divine service on Wednesday evenings at 7 o clock Lewen tugwell, ma, rector

The absolute deranged CONFIDENCE a church has to have to engrave the service times in literal stone.

Love the corrections.

New archbishop just dropped in Wales. In England... Well we finally know who'll be choosing the next Archbishop of Canterbury... So I guess that's a win.