Isabel Rogers
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isabelrogers.bsky.social
Isabel Rogers
@isabelrogers.bsky.social
3.2K followers 1.1K following 8.2K posts
Writer. Relatively chirpy. Stockwell Park Orchestra series, and sometimes poetry.
isabelrogers619 on instagram
https://farragobooks.com/book-series/the-stockwell-park-orchestra-series
isabelrogers.org
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isabelrogers.bsky.social
Slow cooker arrived. Washed. Tomorrow is the day of First Casserole. Reading the instructions, because I'm obedient. One question: I thought leaving it unattended was the whole point? There's covering your back legally, and there's being idiotic. Or both.
extract from a list of DO and DO NOT instructions for slow cooker. One says "DO NOT leave the appliance unattended while in use."
November 11, 2025 at 5:01 PM
isabelrogers.bsky.social
I mean ... look at them
girl on horse jumping a fence in an outdoor arena. The horse has just been clipped on his body and is therefore basically white, but now with black spots painted all over him to look like a dalmation. The rider wears black boots and jodhpurs, a white cape with black dots, red elbow-length gloves and a white/black Cruella de Vil wig stuck to the top of her riding hat. This may now be my favourite pic. She hacked to this event, and was stopped many times along the way by people wanting to take photos. Not surprised.
November 11, 2025 at 1:19 PM
isabelrogers.bsky.social
they really do have a lot of friends
November 11, 2025 at 11:28 AM
isabelrogers.bsky.social
When I don't take his polite sitting-down death stare supper hints (half an hour early and I've just about dragged him into GMT now), he walks backwards pulling silly faces wagging his tail
Zig the sog looking a complete fool with his tongue blepping out between his front teeth
November 9, 2025 at 4:28 PM
isabelrogers.bsky.social
it'll be fiiiiine shh
square gingercake looking a bit carbonised in the top. still smells nice though now I've sliced off the very top layer - not prettily or particularly well, mind. white lemon icing (laid on thick, to hide, well, everything), with 16 pieces of ginger on top in a grid so I can cut into squares when the icing has set. it's not professional. but it WILL be delicious
November 9, 2025 at 4:02 PM
isabelrogers.bsky.social
someone is pleased to be home
Zig the dog snoozing on my bad with his head on his blanket, one front leg stretched out and the others tucked away. looks intensely relaxed
November 4, 2025 at 6:06 PM
isabelrogers.bsky.social
This is how long it takes the coal tits to see me coming out with food. If there hadn't been an alarm call, I'd have had about 10 on my hand at once.
October 28, 2025 at 12:10 PM
isabelrogers.bsky.social
no idea but it is very much going on right now
screenshot of my timeline: 1 Andy McCullough "I requested the great Dieter Ruehle play Depeche Mode's 'Personal Jesus' on the organ, and he obliged. Someone must deliver us from this game, and it might as well be the songwriter Martin Gore." 2 Matt Bell "I took my bedtime edible in the 8th and it wore off in the 16th" quoting Kate Dollarhyde "the stadium stopped selling alcohol seven innings ago. everyone at this game is sober now. MB "what a fucking game" 3 Ghoulian Grave "Thank God I'm on Pacific time right now. 18 innings so far. What the fuck is this game ... The bases should be loaded. What a missed call :( ... Well, that was inevitable
October 28, 2025 at 6:59 AM
isabelrogers.bsky.social
oh ok
weather app showing I have 55-65% chance of snow tonight
October 27, 2025 at 10:05 AM
isabelrogers.bsky.social
This is what happens when you tell a snoozing dog he must go out into the rainy dark to pee before snoozing somewhere else.
Zig mid-roll on my bed, white fluffy belly exposed NO SHAME, legs in the air and his upside down head snortling into the blanket. The blanket deliberately put on top of *my* blanket because I know he soends most of the day here and there has to be some line of defence against everything smelling like a dog bed
October 26, 2025 at 9:31 PM
isabelrogers.bsky.social
Nobody is happy.
screenshot of my timeline 1) post from Phil Harrison "Nearly dark at 4.30. FFS. Still, you crack on, farmers. Enjoy yourselves." 2) post from Chris Addison "Ugh. Dark by 2. Happy now, you Hygge bastards?"
October 26, 2025 at 4:54 PM
isabelrogers.bsky.social
Want to see the exciting bit? Basically entire south wall of the extension is going to be glass. (persnicketty DIY red arrows/angles are mine because I thought their floating random 45-degrees were not ideal and it would be an expensive mistake)

good GOD this must be how Kevin McCloud feels
drawing of a gable end to be filled with glass - patio doors on lower half, and pointy bits above going up into the roof apex. You would not believe how many options there were on offer for this arrangement *lies back on fainting couch for the entitled and very lucky*
October 24, 2025 at 2:14 PM
isabelrogers.bsky.social
and so, as we enter Proper Rainy Seasonal Weather, the wisdom of sharing one-room living with a damp dog is being questioned
Zig the dog still looking Quite Wet even after a thorough towelling down when we got back. Plus he was wearing his coat so top half relatively dry. Gonna be a smelly ol' winter
October 24, 2025 at 1:51 PM
isabelrogers.bsky.social
On a scale of 'Marilyn' to 'missing field: Name1' how invisible do *you* feel today?
screenshot of an email I got after a delivery. You know the kind. Needy. Text says: "share your thoughts with us Hi [missing field: Name1], we hope you're enjoying your recent purchase and that it arrived safely at its new home."
October 23, 2025 at 11:05 AM
isabelrogers.bsky.social
I don't mean to boast, but I've done another superb wildlife photo. This will ID it as a sparrowhawk no prob
a hastily taken snap of some kind of hawk (we're going probably sparrowhawk) which had just swooped (?swup) in past the bird feeder while I was on deck washing up (which makes it sound like I'm on a ship. I am not). This is it, perching on far side of weeping willow and weeping willow fencing, which makes it tricky to, you know, actually see it. But while I was fiddling to get a better shot, it flew off. I have helpfully put a purple star round it so we can all get a better look. It didn't catch any of my friends.
October 20, 2025 at 4:42 PM
isabelrogers.bsky.social
I can tell I'm going to enjoy this. #LeonardAndHungryPaul
opening paragraph of Leonard and Hungry Paul, by Rónán Hession: Chapter 1: Leonard Leonard was raised by his mother alone with cheerfully concealed difficulty, his father having died tragically during childbirth. Though she was not by nature the soldiering type, she taught him to look at life as a daisy chain of small events, each of which could be made manageable in its own way. She was a person for whom kindness was a very ordinary thing, who believed that the only acceptable excuse for not having a bird feeder in the back garden was that you had one in the front garden.
October 20, 2025 at 3:08 PM
isabelrogers.bsky.social
I'm not kidding. What you're paying for is essentially a quiet jacket that is as waterproof as your childhood cagoule, plus a few toggles.

"Cons: hefty investment" really I hadn't noticed
screenshot of "The North Face Summit Superior Futurelight Jacket" in two shades of weird orange costing, as I mentioned, £270. They list the pros as gold-standard waterproofing, doesn't rustle on the run (they really did say that), and plenty of toggles for a secure fit. Only one con: "hefty investment". Do you know, I think I'll pass
October 19, 2025 at 3:54 PM
isabelrogers.bsky.social
ooh. OOH! forgot to report excitedly earlier that Mrs Woodpecker also visited today (get me now I can tell the difference between her and Mr W). Will we have woodpecker babies next spring?

for younger viewers: no red spot at nape of neck = female
October 17, 2025 at 4:47 PM
isabelrogers.bsky.social
I'm in. And am now sad I haven't yet read the book. *orders at once*
But that's enough grumbling for now. Leonard and Hungry Paul's heart is in the right place: the right place being "sitting on a park bench next to the Detectorists, pointing out its favourite duck". It's a series that ambles along in its sleeveless jumper, occasionally looking up at the stars, occasionally down at its slippers, quietly confident that there is nothing in the world as cheering as spending time in the company of good friends.
October 17, 2025 at 11:55 AM
isabelrogers.bsky.social
I mean, come ON
photo from Lev's bit (pic by JJ Harrison) of a black-winged stilt, whose bright pinky red legs are ridiculously long, but whose black beak is more pointy stabby rather than AS LONG AS ITS LEGS which would make the evolution of the ability to wade out deeper than its rivals rather unnecessary. I have perhaps thought too much about this a curlew at water's edge, showing its slender downward curving beak about five times as long as its head and at least rivalling the length of its legs. Much more proportional. I can understand this.
October 17, 2025 at 8:18 AM
isabelrogers.bsky.social
I think they've finished digging out the crumbly mortar and are about to repoint with lime.
end of my stone cottage in the sunshine, looking beautifully stoney. We can see where there had been another section to the building, a bit lower than current roofline. This will be my only working chimney - the stove is inside this end wall
October 16, 2025 at 4:34 PM
isabelrogers.bsky.social
Woodpecker is here multiple times a day now. Still a bit shy so this is me creeping about inside tryng to catch him. Or her. Do they look the same?? Dunno. There's always something to look up.
October 16, 2025 at 9:28 AM
isabelrogers.bsky.social
Door's open. Visiting hours, apparently.
coal tit standing on the piano at the other end of the room, staring at me wondering if I have any sunflower seeds about my person coal tit exiting right, straight back through the open door with no faffing about panicking at windows
October 15, 2025 at 3:06 PM
isabelrogers.bsky.social
counting in coal tit:

(spotted woodpecker got within 5 metres of me - should have put more peanuts on my hand. wouldn't that be a marvellous thing? or would it shove its beak straight through my hand?)
2 coal tits on my hand, one in process of taking off rather beautifully three coal tits on my hand. you can see where this is going yep. four. it's the sunflower seeds and my beguiling ways WHOA! five! there is not technically enough room for five, with the amount of scrapping they tend to do, so it's all a bit of a midair scrum. If they would line up and take one seed each nicely it would be easier. but no
October 13, 2025 at 1:09 PM
isabelrogers.bsky.social
Sunshine lifting the mist over the wash tent. Who says Mondays aren't romantic?
First glimpse of the sun over the hill and trees this morning, after thick fog. Lifting fast, with the promise of blue sky to come. My trusty wash tent stands in the garden, variously pegged down and lashed to nearby trees. Water droplets on everything.
October 13, 2025 at 9:38 AM