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dennisonshelly.bsky.social
Shelly Dennison
@dennisonshelly.bsky.social
530 followers 980 following 780 posts
Writer & Comms Consultant.
Trustee @johnrayinitiative.bsky.social
Website: https://shellydennison.co.uk/
Substack: https://open.substack.com/pub/shellydennison
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dennisonshelly.bsky.social
Shelly Dennison @dennisonshelly.bsky.social · 2h
*Obligatory occasional self promotion post*

I've got space for new projects in 2026 so do get in touch if you're interested in working with me with either my writing or charity comms hat on.

(A thing I've learned today: all the hat emojis are very uninspiring...)

shellydennison.co.uk
Shelly Dennison
Writer & Comms Consultant
shellydennison.co.uk
dennisonshelly.bsky.social
Looking forward to seeing this the next time I'm in Lowestoft.

www.gramophone.co.uk/blogs/articl...
Britten as a Boy: Lowestoft welcomes the statue of its famous composer son
Encountering the statue in the solitude of sunset was a moving moment
www.gramophone.co.uk
November 11, 2025 at 5:44 PM
dennisonshelly.bsky.social
@nerak3l.bsky.social thanks for the repost, much appreciated.
November 11, 2025 at 4:51 PM
dennisonshelly.bsky.social
*Obligatory occasional self promotion post*

I've got space for new projects in 2026 so do get in touch if you're interested in working with me with either my writing or charity comms hat on.

(A thing I've learned today: all the hat emojis are very uninspiring...)

shellydennison.co.uk
Shelly Dennison
Writer & Comms Consultant
shellydennison.co.uk
November 11, 2025 at 4:31 PM
dennisonshelly.bsky.social
Love having to start the day by explaining the difference between comms, marketing and PR. Again.
a man is laying on a bed with his arms outstretched and says `` i have this nagging feeling this has happened before ''
Alt: a man is laying on a bed with his arms outstretched and says `` i have this nagging feeling this has happened before ''
media.tenor.com
November 11, 2025 at 10:21 AM
dennisonshelly.bsky.social
My brain seems to be working a lot better this afternoon after actually putting the heating on in the study.

I feel there's a lesson here somewhere...
a penguin is wrapped in a purple blanket and holding a cup of coffee
Alt: a penguin is wrapped in a purple blanket and holding a cup of coffee
media.tenor.com
November 10, 2025 at 1:54 PM
dennisonshelly.bsky.social
This month I’m revisiting Enid Blyton’s R mysteries.

open.substack.com/pub/shellyde...
The Rockingdown, Ring O’Bells and Rat-a-tat Mysteries
Sleuthing with Enid Blyton
open.substack.com
November 10, 2025 at 11:04 AM
dennisonshelly.bsky.social
I'm rereading Wolf Hall and I'd forgotten just how good it is.
November 7, 2025 at 2:50 PM
Reposted by Shelly Dennison
madlinsudn.bsky.social
Calling all small charities!

The Boring Fund is now open for applications.

It offers small (£200) grants to UK non-profits, charities and voluntary groups to cover boring running costs like web hosting, admin, insurance etc

Apply by 30 Nov

#Funding
Boring Fund | Christina Poulton
Applications now open! £200 grants available for small charities, CICs and voluntary groups towards some of those boring but hard-to-fund costs.
www.christinapoultoncreative.co.uk
November 7, 2025 at 11:53 AM
Reposted by Shelly Dennison
crispintru.bsky.social
See my new blog on the need for greater investment in community spaces www.linkedin.com/posts/crispi...
Where People Meet: the need for greater investment in community spaces - Rayne Foundation | Crispin Truman OBE
I've written some reflections on our experience of assessing applications to our new 'Where People Meet' fund, highlighting huge need and inspirational, superb community action across the country.
www.linkedin.com
November 6, 2025 at 5:31 PM
dennisonshelly.bsky.social
I'd forgotten just how good this essay is.
November 6, 2025 at 4:27 PM
dennisonshelly.bsky.social
New blog post looking at ways that charities and community groups can integrate local history into their communications.

I loved writing this one! Do get in touch if you have a comms project that you think might benefit.

shellydennison.co.uk/2025/11/06/d...

#freelance #charitycomms #localhistory
Deep dive: local history for non history projects
I’ve always been interested in local history, from primary school projects to my university dissertation and beyond. I’m not alone in this, family history is very popular thanks in part to shows li…
shellydennison.co.uk
November 6, 2025 at 3:13 PM
dennisonshelly.bsky.social
I knew open recruitment of trustees was low but 1 in 17 is staggeringly low.
reachvolunteering.org.uk Reach Volunteering @reachvolunteering.org.uk · 5d
❓ Charities: looking to strengthen your board ❓
Did you know: Only 1 in 17 trustees found their role through an advert?
Reach can help your charity recruit more inclusively. Find out more in our graphic and our blog: buff.ly/mx9T2R0

👉 reachvolunteering.org.uk
#TrusteesWeek #Charity #Governance
November 6, 2025 at 1:02 PM
dennisonshelly.bsky.social
My brain is not braining this afternoon.
a girl in a yellow raincoat and hat is standing in front of a green door with a brain mush cloud above her head .
Alt: a girl in a yellow raincoat and hat is standing in front of a green door with a brain mush cloud above her head .
media.tenor.com
November 5, 2025 at 2:50 PM
dennisonshelly.bsky.social
Niche, probably #CofEPeeps query

We ordered a couple of books at the weekend - 1 from @canterburypress.bsky.social and 1 from @chpublishing.bsky.social - despite being 2 imprints of Hymns A&M and running through the same invoicing system we had to order separately and pay 2 lots of P&P (1/2)
November 5, 2025 at 2:05 PM
dennisonshelly.bsky.social
The A-Z of Bedfordshire series that I've been writing for CPRE Bedfordshire reaches R this month.

It explores the Greensand Country area of Bedfordshire, looking at the geology, lives in the landscape and nature. Plus there are links to walks and places to visit.
www.cprebeds.org.uk/discover/r-i...
R is for ridge
CPRE Bedfordshire is working to enhance, promote and protect Bedfordshire's countryside. Love Bedfordshire's beautiful rural areas? Find out more and get involved.
www.cprebeds.org.uk
November 4, 2025 at 11:24 AM
Reposted by Shelly Dennison
jayhulmepoet.bsky.social
Tonight!
jayhulmepoet.bsky.social Jay Hulme @jayhulmepoet.bsky.social · 8d
Join me on BBC Radio Three at 9:45pm this Tuesday, as I take you on a journey to the cave of St Robert of Knaresborough, to explore if a place of faith such as this can ever, truly, be abandoned.

www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m...
The interior of St Roberts Cave, with rough hewn greening limestone walls and a mud floor Nobody lives here, few people visit, fewer pray, but this site is still holy. The moths clinging to the roof of the cave, don't know it's abandoned, the spiders pray their own prayers in their scuttling tongue. God cannot abandon a place, as much as we cannot abandon ourselves. What is created cannot be uncreated. What is carved from the cliff cannot be put back. This cave became a hermitage, the hermitage became a chapel, the chapel becamea shrine, the shrine became a ruin, the ruin became a crimescene, the crimescene became a tourist attraction, the tourist attraction became forgotten, and still the cave opens onto the river, the trees turn green and gold and drop their leaves, and the leaves become mud and layer onto the stone, and fill in the open grave, and carpet the cave floor, and feed the trees, that continue the cycle they began long before Robert arrived. There is something here, in this cave, that opens outwards. A span wider than the cave walls and the space between the water and the cliff. We walk here in the footsteps of the past and the future, witnessing the promise of all we could be. Medieval Theologians spoke of the possibility that it was in the nothingness that we could discover the infinite, that it was our preoccupation with all that there is, that got in the way of all we could be. Robert shed the world like a cloak, and created, in this sliver of land, something else. Every time I come I try to step closer to that something. To the truths that he found here in this fragment of space. I sit in the dark of the cave and hope that I see it, that I glimpse the wonder he saw, placed just an inch out of reach. Jay kneels before st Roberts gave, scattered around him are the low walls the the ruined chapel, and behind him the mouth of the cave opens up in the ivy-covered cliff
November 4, 2025 at 8:25 AM
dennisonshelly.bsky.social
Actually, can we change the National Anthem to this?
ruthh.bsky.social Ruth Harley @ruthh.bsky.social · 7d
Typing out liturgy for Remembrance Sunday, my fingers automatically type 'kind' instead of 'king'. Every time.

"God save the kind."
November 4, 2025 at 8:28 AM
Reposted by Shelly Dennison
findingnature.bsky.social
The Four Forces of our disconnect from nature.

Our latest research paper:
link.springer.com/article/10.1...
November 2, 2025 at 7:55 PM
dennisonshelly.bsky.social
First evening service after dark of the season followed by toasted muffins at home. #TinyJoys
Dark night sky seen through clear glass church window.
November 2, 2025 at 6:46 PM
Reposted by Shelly Dennison
gawenjenkin.bsky.social
Huntingdon - This comment from Simon Calder is worth repeating.

My thoughts with all involved
Text describing swift and professional response by train staff to bring the train to an emergency stop at Huntingdon station where armed police were waiting
November 2, 2025 at 8:56 AM
dennisonshelly.bsky.social
Today's slightly unseasonal achievement.

#TinyJoys
Brambly Hedge jigsaw with two mice preparing a picnic in a kitchen.
November 1, 2025 at 4:39 PM
dennisonshelly.bsky.social
Interesting to see the spiritual / religious elements brought out towards the end of this piece with a nice quote from @bishopnorwich.bsky.social

www.theguardian.com/environment/...
Britain one of least ‘nature-connected’ nations in world – with Nepal the most
Others languishing near bottom of 61-country study include Canada, Germany, Israel, Japan and Spain
www.theguardian.com
November 1, 2025 at 8:44 AM
Reposted by Shelly Dennison
stephencollins.bsky.social
If you're a National Trust member, it's that time of year again: Midnight tonight is the deadline. It's a shame people have to keep doing this to keep a toehold on historical truth in this country, but here we are. Voting link: www.nationaltrust.org.uk/who-we-are/a...
[Scene is the entrance cabin to a NATIONAL TRUST PROPERTY AND GARDENS] 1 NATIONAL TRUST EMPLOYEE [inside cabin]: Hello there 2 [A young family - two parents two kids - have arrived at the front desk]. DAD: Hi - do you have an activity trail, for the kids? 3 NT EMPLOYEE: Of course – you’re just in time for the Autumn Gammon Trail! 4 MUM: That sounds fun, doesn’t it kids? 5 NT EMPLOYEE [handing an activity sheet and pencils to the kids]: Every autumn, the Reform Trust gammons flock back to the National Trust for the AGM. Just follow the trail round the grounds, and see how many you can spot! 6 NT EMPLOYEE [hearing something in the gardens]: Listen - that's their call [Calls emanating from the landscape]: tut-tut woke-woke 7 NT EMPLOYEE [showing the family an apparently empty fenced enclosure with some bushes in]: They are extremely sensitive and fragile... But you can bring them out of hiding if you put a little sign down mentioning slavery. 8 KIDS [pointing]: There they are! [Some little red faced PEOPLE wearing Barbour jackets and gilets emerge cautiously from the bushes. They are creeping towards a TINY SIGN in the middle of the enclosure]. [Little people noises]: woke-woke tut-tut woke-woke 9 [Close-up of the TINY SIGN - we can read that it says]: Slavery had a bit to do with building this massive house. [Noises from the little people again as they inspect the tiny sign]: tut-tut woke-woke 10 MUM [pointing]: What's that one doing there? NT EMPLOYEE: Oh, that's so sweet… 11 [We see that one of the people is sat on a rock, with a little laptop open on a tree stump, and they are furiously typing away]. NT EMPLOYEE: I think he's writing a column for the Daily Telegraph… 12 [We see close up to the little person’s screen, it is a word document reading]: Are National Trust scones secretly WOKE? [ends]
October 31, 2025 at 9:02 AM
Reposted by Shelly Dennison
dennisonshelly.bsky.social
This month’s round-up of some of the things I’ve been writing, reading and doing includes mid-20th-century men’s fashion, armchair travel to a Norwegian island and more about my move into charity freelancing.

shellydennison.substack.com/p/october-2025
October 2025
A round-up of some of the things I’ve been writing, reading and doing this month.
shellydennison.substack.com
October 29, 2025 at 1:38 PM
dennisonshelly.bsky.social
My brain decided that 3 a.m. was a good time to think about why I haven't bought a 2026 calendar yet.... 😴

(Made even more inexplicable by the fact that I *have* already got my 2026 diary / planner)
October 30, 2025 at 12:58 PM