Catherine Baker
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catbake.bsky.social
Catherine Baker
@catbake.bsky.social
1.1K followers 710 following 1K posts
Writer and editor in educational publishing.
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catbake.bsky.social
waking at first light
cold little reliquary
pebble leaf and bone
Someone makes little arrangements of found objects on top of a fence post on Twelveacre Farm. The photo shows how the latest one looks an hour or two after sunrise on a frosty morning. It’s a ring of little stones and fossils surrounding an animal bone and a larger rusty-red pebble resting on an oak leaf. The objects on the right-hand side of the ring are in shade and furred with frost. Those on the left are in sunlight and stand out sharp and clear.
November 26, 2025 at 10:03 PM
catbake.bsky.social
breathing out their scent
in the kitchen after dark
quinces and lemons
A bluegreen china bowl of quinces and lemons sitting on a kitchen table. The fruit are hard to tell apart because they are a very similar shade of golden yellow. Light shines on the fruit, but further off, the kitchen is in darkness.
October 30, 2025 at 9:55 PM
catbake.bsky.social
lichen on the roof
all the colours of our lives
that nobody sees
Brown tiled roofs seen from above, close together, with higgledy-piggledy chimneypots and bright orange and white lichen growing on them.
September 21, 2025 at 9:02 PM
catbake.bsky.social
late summer shadows
gather in gaps between clouds
chicory flowers
A blue chicory flower with late-summer sunlight shining through its petals. The shadows of other plants are cast across it.
August 15, 2025 at 9:50 PM
catbake.bsky.social
How to close the gate Loop the knotted rope around the fencepost, hook it on the broken arm of the latch like your dad did. When it frays, don’t replace it, retie it shorter. That’s how we prove to ourselves the gate’s not broken, each jenky generation half-fixing things our own way. Catherine Baker
July 21, 2025 at 9:36 PM
catbake.bsky.social
momentary joy
finding yourself in this world
entirely mayfly
A mayfly in its adult form, clinging to a flowering stem of grass which bends with the insect’s weight. The mayfly has a cream and brown striped body and beautiful black lace wings. The grass is a vivid springtime green.
May 17, 2025 at 8:55 PM
catbake.bsky.social
Mark, I’ve been meaning to tell you I have one of your pictures! Back in the 1980s I was assistant to Miriam Hodgson at Methuen Children’s Books, and when I left I received this lovely picture as a leaving present
Elephants are crowding round the desk of a writer, who smiles at them awkwardly. Outside the window, a happy cat falls with the rain.
March 10, 2025 at 9:36 PM
catbake.bsky.social
from the last snowdrop
every moment rainwater
dissipates to air
Close-up of a white snowdrop with green markings on its inner petals. Its stem looks slightly desiccated.
March 8, 2025 at 10:09 PM
catbake.bsky.social
speaking about spring
and still living in winter
the snowdrops’ white tongues
A clump of cold-white snowdrops bursting through warm tawny-brown beech leaves left over from last autumn.
February 1, 2025 at 9:54 PM
catbake.bsky.social
Two people walk beside the sea in the deep orange-grey light of a winter sunrise. The wet sand reflects the sky above.
January 26, 2025 at 8:58 PM
catbake.bsky.social
for grace fierce as frost
for sharp cupfuls of cold light
a prickly prayer
A dry skeleton of hogweed covered in delicate ice crystals, in front of a barbed wire fence.
January 10, 2025 at 9:40 PM
catbake.bsky.social
the year’s last sunlight
drawn away under the bridge
never meant to go
January 1, 2025 at 12:50 AM
catbake.bsky.social
don’t watch the willow
advancing across the field
one footstep a night
A willow tree leaning into a green field as if it’s about to crawl across it.
November 16, 2024 at 10:24 PM