Clare Bryden
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Clare Bryden
@clarebryden.bsky.social
340 followers 330 following 490 posts
Born at 325ppm
clarebryden.co.uk
For an intro, see the pinned post

Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?
— Mary Oliver

May you experience each day as a sacred gift woven around the heart of wonder.
— John O’Donohue
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Clare Bryden @clarebryden.bsky.social · Nov 19
By way of an intro

Interests
#ContemplativePrayer #Monasticism #Theology #Bible #Trees #Walking #Poetry #Reading #Writing #Deutsch #Cymraeg #Alto

Home
#Exeter #Devon #UK #Europe

Work
#Director #TeaLady #CodeMonkey @WebsitesAhoy

Misspent adult years
#Maths #Environment #Energy #Economics #Weather
Leat in Creason Wood, Mary Tavy, west Dartmoor. There is a dark tree trunk in woodland on the left, then a grass verge, path of small stones leading into the distance, grass bank, black surface of the leat, bank covered in ferns, more woodland above. The greens are extremely vibrant.
clarebryden.bsky.social
It's #Thursday, I think!
Public Service Announcement for anyone else who has lost track: Today is Blursday
January 1, 2026 at 10:04 AM
clarebryden.bsky.social
A firework of fragrant winter heliotrope to wish you a happy new year

#BloomScrolling #NewYear2026
Tiny clusters of white-pink flowers against a blurred background of green leaves.
December 31, 2025 at 5:52 PM
clarebryden.bsky.social
Merry Christmas!
Nadolig Llawen!
Frohe Weihnachten!

#Christmas #Angel #Chagall #Mainz
Part of a Chagall Window in St Stephen's, Mainz... mainly blue, with an angle carrying a book and hovering over a candlestick, and a man dressed in red sitting in the bottom right corner. Plus the text: Wishing you joy at Christmas, and a healthy and content 2026
December 25, 2025 at 8:59 AM
clarebryden.bsky.social
Thank you Elsewhere Journal for a nice Christmas present - four of my poems in the latest issue 😀

Us English
The Moho Discontinuity is exposed
Ars prosaica
Gaza 365

www.elsewhere-journal.com/palimpsest/2...
#Poems #Poetry #UKPoets #Place #BoatPeople #Geology #Cornwall #Oxfordshire #Dartmoor #Gaza
Four Poems — Elsewhere: A Journal of Place
By Clare Bryden Us English are a country  of boat people. 
www.elsewhere-journal.com
December 23, 2025 at 11:12 AM
clarebryden.bsky.social
Let's try that again...

Introduce yourself with 5 animals you've seen in the wild:

Beaver
Red squirrel
Red kite
White tailed eagle
Bonxie

... only one of which was local to me
julietemckenna.bsky.social Juliet E McKenna @julietemckenna.bsky.social · Nov 28
Introduce yourself with 5 animals you've seen in the wild:

Hedgehog
Roe deer
Badger
Muntjac deer
Fox

I live in the Cotswolds, okay?
theelaineg.bsky.social Ms Chatelaine @theelaineg.bsky.social · Nov 28
Introduce yourself with 5 animals you've seen in the wild:

Osprey
Eider ducks
Orca
Bald eagle
California sea lion
December 16, 2025 at 6:41 PM
clarebryden.bsky.social
Truffles made from nothing but 70% chocolate and homemade marmalade
#Yum #TinyJoys
December 16, 2025 at 1:28 PM
clarebryden.bsky.social
Mae Owen yn amau ​​ei fod yn gwybod beth fydd ei anrheg Nadolig...

Owen suspects he knows what his Christmas present will be...

#DysguCymraeg #DuoLingo #Pannas
What looks suspiciously like a parsnip, wrapped as a present, lying on a field of stars
December 14, 2025 at 3:46 PM
clarebryden.bsky.social
A friend recently started chemo, and I wrote her a poem about the foodstuffs she'll be missing. I posted it here 👇and on some forums, with her blessing. A response on Macmillan led to this (even more niche) second poem. I hope they bring a little joy.

#Cancer #Chemo #Diet
#Poem #Poetry #UKPoets
*Address to a Grapefruit* /for Sarah, Community Champion on the Macmillan Cancer Support forum/ O Grapefruit! We shall sound thy praise and celebrate with tuneful lays from breakfast time til end of days — Thou choicest fruit! — for gifting us with such a taste none dare dispute. All other fruit doth seem to fade when set against thy marmalade or halved and on a dish arrayed with grapefruit spoon to segment with serrated blade thy rosy moon. O Citrus paradisi fair! O Pamplemousse beyond compare! Thy globe doth cross the world ensnare — Annwyl Grawnffrwyth! — yet lovers need thy pips beware nor take thy pith. Fair full thy zesty sunset rind, Great Chieftain of the citrus kind! Alas! These years I am resigned — I must thee slight for in thy radiant star I find my kryptonite. © Clare Bryden With apologies to Burns and his haggis https://www.scottishpoetrylibrary.org.uk/poem/address-haggis/
December 12, 2025 at 6:42 PM
clarebryden.bsky.social
It's wonderful to be able to share this spin-off from the #LectioDivina group I started during Covid

"The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed..."
clarebryden.bsky.social Clare Bryden @clarebryden.bsky.social · 28d
"Praying the Scriptures with Carmel"

a new shared #LectioDivina group
with a #Carmelite flavour
using the day's Gospel reading
online on two Wednesday evenings a month
tailored to non-native English speakers

@thicketpriorycarmel.org @carmelitespirit.bsky.social @carmelitequotes.blog pls share
SHARED LECTIO DIVINA It is from the Gospels that I find most help in the time of prayer; from them I draw all that I need for my poor soul. I am always discovering in them new lights and hidden mysterious meanings. I know and I have experienced that "the Kingdom of God is within us". (St Therese of the Child Jesus) Praying the Scriptures with Carmel SHARED LECTIO DIVINA ON THE GOSPEL FOR THE DAY ON THE 1ST AND 4TH WEDNESDAY OF EACH MONTH 9:00PM–9:45PM ITALIAN TIME NO COST. NO SUBSCRIPTION REQUIRED For information and recurring Zoom link, please contact cogitatiosancta {at} gmail {dot} com Sessions are run from Vetralla, Italy and held by a Sister of “Monastero Monte Carmelo”
December 11, 2025 at 8:48 PM
clarebryden.bsky.social
"Praying the Scriptures with Carmel"

a new shared #LectioDivina group
with a #Carmelite flavour
using the day's Gospel reading
online on two Wednesday evenings a month
tailored to non-native English speakers

@thicketpriorycarmel.org @carmelitespirit.bsky.social @carmelitequotes.blog pls share
SHARED LECTIO DIVINA It is from the Gospels that I find most help in the time of prayer; from them I draw all that I need for my poor soul. I am always discovering in them new lights and hidden mysterious meanings. I know and I have experienced that "the Kingdom of God is within us". (St Therese of the Child Jesus) Praying the Scriptures with Carmel SHARED LECTIO DIVINA ON THE GOSPEL FOR THE DAY ON THE 1ST AND 4TH WEDNESDAY OF EACH MONTH 9:00PM–9:45PM ITALIAN TIME NO COST. NO SUBSCRIPTION REQUIRED For information and recurring Zoom link, please contact cogitatiosancta {at} gmail {dot} com Sessions are run from Vetralla, Italy and held by a Sister of “Monastero Monte Carmelo”
December 11, 2025 at 2:43 PM
clarebryden.bsky.social
A friend of mine recently started chemo. After she bemoaned the need to abstain from various foodstuffs she enjoys (especially soft cheese, but emphatically not kimchi) I wrote her this poem. She is very happy for me to post it. Words in ALT text.

#Cancer #Chemo #Diet
#Poem #Poetry #UKPoets
*You can keep the kimchi* /For Penny/ When chemo’s done, I’ll drink a sea of whole untreated milk in tea. I’ll eat a Ferris wheel of Brie, but you can keep the kimchi. I’ll feast on oysters, meat done rare, eat frites with moules marinières, break bread in molten Camembert, but you can keep the kimchi. I’ll wolf down Wiltshire ham for two, quaff casks of home-made scrumpy brew, scoff sourdough toast with Danish Blue, but you can keep the kimchi. /Bring cockles, mussels live-alive-o!/ Eggs Benedict would fill a hole or licking out the mixing bowl then gorging on a Gorgonzol- a — you can keep the kimchi. Salami, sushi, scallops, clam, smoked salmon, mayo, mousse, meringue, prosciutto, pâté, Parmesan, just kindly keep the kimchi! © Clare Bryden
December 3, 2025 at 5:40 PM
clarebryden.bsky.social
School's out, and the kids passing my house are singing the Queen of the Night's aria from the Magic Flute
I dunno... the youth of today 🙄

#TinyJoys
December 1, 2025 at 3:20 PM
clarebryden.bsky.social
Reposted as one of the very few posts that observe best practice...

Text is the #SilentSunday tag and only the #SilentSunday tag 👏
Image has alt text for screenreaders 👏

Also, it's of an owl 🦉
November 30, 2025 at 3:06 PM
clarebryden.bsky.social
A new window for the new Exeter College Law building by my amazing friend Amy Orange Juice
www.facebook.com/share/p/19yJ...
Plus one of the Testament sculptures, which used to be in #Exeter Cathedral's Chapter House, now in its new home

#FensterFreitag #WindowFriday #StainedGlass #Sculpture
Modern stained glass window, with rose Design within landscape. Sculpture of human figure in an alcove on the right.
November 28, 2025 at 7:16 PM
clarebryden.bsky.social
Happy #BuyNothingDay!!
Funding life not consumerism
November 28, 2025 at 11:46 AM
clarebryden.bsky.social
Happy National Tree Week!!
Just for you, here are some beautiful autumn beeches

#NationalTreeWeek #Exeter #UK
Alane framed by beech leaves aflame
November 24, 2025 at 8:33 PM
clarebryden.bsky.social
Maybe instead of Black Friday
#Gaza #BuyNothingDay

www.theguardian.com/global-devel...
Fundraisers warn of ‘catastrophic’ drop in donations to Gaza since ceasefire
‘The world thinks Palestinians don’t need help any more,’ aid organiser says, despite desperate need as winter nears
www.theguardian.com
November 23, 2025 at 2:15 PM
clarebryden.bsky.social
Happy World Kindness Day my lovelies

#WorldKindnessDay #WKD25
November 13, 2025 at 11:56 AM
clarebryden.bsky.social
Whoever wrote the plaque mis-spelled 'Pioneer in Computer Programming'

#ALD25 @adalovelaceday.bsky.social
ruinsofdespair.bsky.social Ruins of Despair @ruinsofdespair.bsky.social · Nov 11
The coffins of Lord Byron and his daughter, Ada Lovelace, in the tomb beneath the chancel within St Mary Magdalene Church in Hucknall, Nottinghamshire.

Video with still images:
youtu.be/oexha02WoMs...

#TombTuesday #gothic #romanticism
A photograph of two old, deteriorated coffins. A photograph of two old deteriorated coffins. A closeup of a coffin with a crown on top of it. The plaque reads: The Right Honble AUGUSTA ADA Wife of WILLIAM EARL of LOVELACE and only Daughter of GEORGE GORDON NOEL LORD BYRON Born 10th Dec’r 1815 Died 27th Nov’r 1852
November 11, 2025 at 4:11 PM
clarebryden.bsky.social
For the start of #COP30 one of my shortest poems

#Chaos #Butterfly #Tornadoes #Weather #Climate
#Poems #Poetry
Thank you to Consilience for publishing
A poem in the shape of a butterfly... "After the lecture there was time for questions" When we have killed / all the butterflies / will that be an end / to tornadoes? © Clare Bryden Published in Consilience, Issue 21: Chaos, Editor’s Pick, 23 June 2025, online.
November 10, 2025 at 4:14 PM
clarebryden.bsky.social
Not for the faint-hearted... Ottery Tar Barrels will be streamed live on iPlayer from 7-9pm this evening.

#Devon #UK
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
Ottery St Mary Tar Barrels: 'Not much can prepare you'
Up to 20,000 spectators expected to watch people carrying flaming barrels through the town.
www.bbc.co.uk
November 5, 2025 at 4:23 PM
clarebryden.bsky.social
For #TombTuesday here's the Cross Dermond Coffin Stone near Old Penallt Church, where the mourners rested to sing psalms, quench their thirst with ale and cider, and eat substantial meat pies.

#WyeValley #Wales
Dead leaves on the ground, a long coffin-shaped stone covered with moss and ivy, a fence, and a blue sign reading: "This is where the mourners halted and the coffin rested on its way to the funeral. Psalms were sung, thirst was quenched with home brewed ale and cider, and substantial meat pies eaten. Even now the hearse often pauses here on its way to the church."
November 4, 2025 at 5:43 PM
clarebryden.bsky.social
Spent a beautiful afternoon with the lovely folk of Exeter Seed Bank sorting flocks of broad beans for next season's sowing. Aiming to create a strain that can thrive in the future #climate of #Exeter 
#AdaptiveAgriculture
Smiley face made up of dried broad beans of different colours, on blue material
November 2, 2025 at 4:52 PM
clarebryden.bsky.social
Hi #FungiFriends #FungiFriday
Please could I enlist your help in confirming some fungi names.
Seek and Obsidentify are useful and I’m confident of many, just not sure of a few.
I’m sorry that photos (taken in Sep) aren’t always good and/or don’t show salient features.
Thank you
1/10
October 31, 2025 at 11:27 AM
clarebryden.bsky.social
My other favourite oak, reposted for #ThickTrunkThursday and #Oaktober
clarebryden.bsky.social Clare Bryden @clarebryden.bsky.social · Nov 28
For #ThickTrunkThursday and #NationalTreeWeek #UK, an oak in the grounds of Tymawr Convent #Wales
Oak tree with branches bare of leaves covered in snow. Set in a hedge with other trees mostly on the right. You may also be able to make out a sheep, which shows that it is a colour shot, not B&W.
October 30, 2025 at 11:18 AM