Alex D
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alexdwrites.bsky.social
Alex D
@alexdwrites.bsky.social
420 followers 530 following 690 posts
Writer of fantasy, environmentalist, maker of jam and wine. Aways looking for the next rabbit hole to jump down. East Anglia, UK.
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alexdwrites.bsky.social
This is the Cocking Column - at Cocking, a village on the South Downs

upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/co...
It's a big metal column with a ball on top. On a white plinth in a green field.
June 5, 2025 at 7:15 PM
alexdwrites.bsky.social
Did this wall create the idea of Scotland and England? Or was that already there? Or did it come later?

Is it a brutal imposition on the landscape? An adornment to the crags of the Whin Sill?

I let all that swim in and out of focus while I admired its survival and how damn steep it is.
A landscape view - Hadrian's Wall winds its way into this distance over moorclad hills and crags under a clouded sky
June 2, 2025 at 8:20 PM
alexdwrites.bsky.social
Happy #Pride Month, everyone
A moor at high elevation. Coarse grass and low cloud, and a long view of further hills. A rainbow arches across the left of the picture, touching the ground in front of the further hills - it looks as if it would be easy to judge where to dig for the pot of gold.
June 1, 2025 at 12:36 PM
alexdwrites.bsky.social
Honesty in flower among the weeds.

Not topical. Not topical at all.
A stem covered in brilliant pinky-purple four petalled flowers. In the background of the photograph, bramble and nettle leaves can be seen.
May 8, 2025 at 7:56 PM
alexdwrites.bsky.social
History rhymes again! The wren was featured on the British farthing between 1937 and 1961
Close up of a bronze coloured coin with a milled edge featuring a wren facing to the left and bearing the legend 1951 Farthing
April 30, 2025 at 4:24 PM
alexdwrites.bsky.social
Hmm, never done this before. Here's something for #PoemsAbout #WolvesAtTheDoor @brokenspinearts.bsky.social @alanparry83.bsky.social
The wolves at the door Whined through the letterbox I tried not to listen, but when they spoke Of the moon over mountains I opened it a crack On the chain They cried what I didn't want to remember Snowfall on rock spires, green hanging valleys Heights, water plunging in clear falls Shadows rose in my hallway Everything new looked tacky I lined up all the things I can't allow And marched them out like toy soldiers Rifles sloped But my willpower Wouldn't keep them upright Oh, wolves, don't make me run out in the street So everyone sees me barefoot Crying for my oldest mother Don't rip out my heart and bury it In her cold earth
April 25, 2025 at 7:06 PM
alexdwrites.bsky.social
A dandelion with bluebells against green grass
April 24, 2025 at 4:08 PM
alexdwrites.bsky.social
There will be pears
A huge old pear tree covered with white blossom
April 20, 2025 at 8:05 PM
alexdwrites.bsky.social
I wish he had known that for the 50th Anniversary edition, the dragon and sun were in red as he originally intended.

Even if they did put an annoying red banner bottom right, saying 50th Anniversary. And a horrid ISBN barcode on the back.
50th Anniversary cover of the Hobbit, with Tolkien's original artwork rather messed about as discussed in the post
April 7, 2025 at 8:51 AM
alexdwrites.bsky.social
Right. It's jam night. Had these damsons in the freezer for a few months now and they need using.
A pan filled with pinky red stewed fruit, with a wooden spoon in it
March 6, 2025 at 8:12 PM
alexdwrites.bsky.social
Ursula Le Guin just moved me to tears again. Here's how:
The oldest argument against SF is both the shallowest and the profoundest: the assertion that SF, like all fantasy, is escapist. .... If it’s worth answering, the best answer is given by Tolkien, author, critic, and scholar. Yes, he said, fantasy is escapist, and that is its glory. If a soldier is imprisoned by the enemy, don’t we consider it his duty to escape? The moneylenders, the knownothings, the authoritarians have us all in prison; if we value the freedom of the mind and soul, if we’re partisans of liberty, then it’s our plain duty to escape, and to take as many people with us as we can.
February 21, 2025 at 7:57 PM
alexdwrites.bsky.social
Our local one is Venta Icenorum. The whole walled portion of the site is sheepwalk, and parts of the walls are pretty impressive upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/co...
Substantial sections of Roman flint and rubble wall rear up from the bank of grass and nettles created by their slow collapse. On the left, a mature oak tree is growing on the grass grown wall.
January 28, 2025 at 1:34 PM
alexdwrites.bsky.social
So, I just found all the manual focus settings on my mobiles camera.
Feeling silly, but very pleased.
Have some spindle berries
#nature
Bright pink spindle berries against a leafy background on a sunny day.
November 29, 2024 at 2:12 PM
alexdwrites.bsky.social
Picked this pristine hardback up for a quid today. Greatly looking forward to it.
November 23, 2024 at 8:30 PM
alexdwrites.bsky.social
The ice here has thawed and refrozen into strange swirling lines that, as ever, start to look like faces to a willing human mind
Strange swirls and lines appear in the surface of a frozen puddle. A few orange leaves lie scattered across it.
November 22, 2024 at 11:41 AM
alexdwrites.bsky.social
This beauty won't be around much longer. The frost hasn't lifted all day here. #fungifriends
A large, pale, flat topped, lightly frilled fungus in short grass. Both the grass and the fungus are speckled with white frost
November 21, 2024 at 4:07 PM
alexdwrites.bsky.social
Skyvers is great. So is my mug
A black mug with cyan text "I'm WRITING"
November 20, 2024 at 7:42 PM
alexdwrites.bsky.social
'What good would the moon be to men? Even of their own planet what have they made but a battle-ground and theatre of infinite folly?'

H.G.Wells The First Men in the Moon #moon #scifi
The moon shines in a circle of radiance over the silhouette of a house
November 20, 2024 at 5:30 PM
alexdwrites.bsky.social
Well, this is a little beaut. No idea what the id might be. Growing in an alkaline meadow, UK. #fungi
An orange yellow flat topped fungus in short grass
November 19, 2024 at 4:10 PM
alexdwrites.bsky.social
Front cover of JRR Tolkien's The Hobbit, with his own illustration of receding forests and mountains in green, blue, black, and white. A red sun is central in the sky, and three eagles are flying from right to left. Bands of runic script at top and bottom.
November 18, 2024 at 7:29 PM