Dr Janet Gunning
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jangunning.bsky.social
Dr Janet Gunning
@jangunning.bsky.social
360 followers 890 following 81 posts
British-Kiwi. Full-time carer. Used to work with manuscripts and rare books. Learning to write fiction for children in my spare time. Love my garden. She/her.
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jangunning.bsky.social
Last roses of the summer in the garden.
🌱
Apricot pink rose, with petals beginning to unfurl, seems to glow in the gentle afternoon light. The flower is a cabbage style rose and round like a pompom.
October 9, 2025 at 7:40 PM
jangunning.bsky.social
I just asked my 21 year old for their favourite childhood comfort read and without hesitation they said Rooftoppers.
Front cover of Katherine Rundell’s novel Rooftoppers. The illustration shows the roof tops of Paris in grey against a pale yellow sky with two children leaping between the roof tops. Above them a huge flock of pigeons rises into the sky.
September 12, 2025 at 7:59 AM
jangunning.bsky.social
One of the great classics of NZ literature - and I think I’m right in saying, it remains the most translated work by any New Zealand writer.
Front cover of ‘The Whale Rider’ by Whiti Ihimaera. The illustration shows the back view of a young girl with dark hair and a pink dress standing on a lush green hill looking out over a bay. The colours are muted evening light, the sea a pale lavender, the sky a pale apricot. Filling the sky above her head is the shape of a whale formed from wispy clouds, and decorated with traditional Māori patterns.
September 6, 2025 at 1:36 PM
jangunning.bsky.social
I was feeling adventurous.

Olive oil ice cream and 80% dark chocolate sorbet.

Delicious.
Small paper cup containing very dark brown sorbet and creamy white ice cream, with a chocolate star and little spoon stuck in the top.
August 22, 2025 at 9:57 PM
jangunning.bsky.social
Glorious night out at the Proms to hear one of my most favourite pieces of music - Gorecki’s Symphony of Sorrowful Songs.
The Royal Albert Hall all lit up against a dark night sky. On the left an orchestra are arriving on stage & starting to tune their instruments. On the right a sea of people fill the Royal Albert Hall.
August 22, 2025 at 9:52 PM
jangunning.bsky.social
Local tradition says this is the font in which Edward the Confessor was baptised. Top half is medieval, bottom half much later. Now in All Saints Church, Middleton Stoney, it was brought here from the King’s Chapel Islip in the mid-nineteenth century. #medievalsky
Large stone font, with a wide carved octagonal bowl sitting on a paler stone pedestal. The carvings are worn and battered.
August 4, 2025 at 9:18 PM
jangunning.bsky.social
These lilies didn’t flower last summer so I thought we’d lost them - but they’re back with all their joyful flamboyance. 🌱
#TinyJoys
Big clumps of vibrant stargazer lilies, each flower has six dark speckled pink petals with white edges. In the background are lemon yellow snapdragons, purple thyme, and ornamental grasses.
July 28, 2025 at 1:10 PM
jangunning.bsky.social
Little orange ladybird (halyzia sedecimguttata)
on the day lilies in the garden. We are surrounded by mature sycamore trees, which apparently these chaps love, but this is first time I’ve spotted an orange ladybird in our garden.
🌱 🐞
Little orange ladybird with creamy white spots sitting on the closed green bud of a day lily. The golden yellow heads of day lily flowers in bloom can be seen in the background.
July 12, 2025 at 7:46 PM
jangunning.bsky.social
Love the way these kniphofia seem to glow in the evening light. 🌱
In the foreground the tawny orange flowers of a Red Hot Poker plant stand tall like flaming torches against a background of green leaves, and soft blue and pink flowers.
July 10, 2025 at 7:11 PM
jangunning.bsky.social
This is the most insane bookshop. A treasure hunt, with extra book-based peril. 📚
Street front of a secondhand bookshop, with books stacked solidly from the top to bottom of every window and on shelves on the street creating a wall of books. A young man with his back to the camera stands in a very narrow passageway surrounded by packed book shelves floor to ceiling, with additional waist high book-stacks on the floor that are 3 deep.
July 2, 2025 at 7:13 PM
jangunning.bsky.social
Beyoncé and Renaissance art - fabulous weekend in London.
Beyoncé, dressed all in white with feathered cowboy chaps and hat, stands alone on a star shaped stage, with giant screens behind her. Beyoncé sitting in a giant horseshoe made of neon lights, floats above the crowd, with brightly lit stage and giant screens behind her. Star shaped stage is filled with a band and dancers, all dressed in cowboy themed outfits. Beyoncé, dressed in brown leather, fills the large screens behind. Annunciation scene by Simone Martini. Two gold panels stand angled toward each other, the one on the right depicts a seated Virgin Mary in blue and red robes, the one on the left shows a kneeling angel Gabriel in golden pale pink robes.
June 16, 2025 at 11:13 AM
jangunning.bsky.social
Celebrating #MayTheFourth with the Royal Northern Sinfonia. We have an X-wing pilot on French horn, Yoda on viola, Chewbacca playing the cor anglais, and Princess Leia playing the double bass.
Glorious. 🎶⭐️⚔️
Classical musicians warming up on a concert stage, some are wearing Stars Wars costumes, including Jedi robes, an X-wing pilot jump suit, and an R2D2 mini dress. Classical musicians warming up on a stage, some are wearing Star Wars costumes, including Stormtrooper masks, a Yoda hat, Princess Leia dress, and a full Chewbacca costume.
May 4, 2025 at 7:38 PM
jangunning.bsky.social
Walking under a canopy of blossom is such a joyful experience. 🌱🌸
A woman (it’s me) in jeans and a bright pink jacket walking along a gravel path between blossom trees. Their branches reach across the path - creating canopy of white blossom so thick you can’t see the sky. Beneath the trees are grassy banks full of lemon yellow daffodils.
April 18, 2025 at 7:08 PM
jangunning.bsky.social
Our annual pilgrimage to see the blossom at Alnwick Garden. With 329 trees, it’s the largest orchard of ‘Taihaku’ trees in the world. 🌱🌸
Looking up through an orchard trees in full bloom, creating an umbrella of white blossom so dense you can’t see the sky. Growing beneath the trees are clumps of pale yellow daffodils.
April 18, 2025 at 6:51 PM
jangunning.bsky.social
Celebrating Mothering Sunday in style with my youngest. Royal Northern Sinfonia providing some movie magic.
A large cinema screen hangs from the ceiling of an auditorium, with an orchestra dressed in black sitting on the stage below. The screen shows the opening titles for Singin’ in the Rain.
March 30, 2025 at 6:04 PM
jangunning.bsky.social
Trip to London to see Much Ado About Nothing. It was loud, joyous, confetti strewn, hilarious. Loved it.
Theatre programme open to show a photo of Tom Hiddleston and Hayley Atwell. Behind the programme you can glimpse an ornate theatre balcony, bright spotlights and a glitter ball.
March 20, 2025 at 8:35 PM
jangunning.bsky.social
Fun medieval fact for today - St Valentine is the patron saint of beekeepers.
Photo of a fluffy garden bee sitting on a dark crimson pincushion flower in summer sunshine.
February 14, 2025 at 3:42 PM
jangunning.bsky.social
To join Ian’s fantastic list of books, here’s one of my personal favourites.

As the mum of a lovely non-binary young person, I just adore Scott Stuart’s delightful picture book, ‘My Shadow is Purple’.

#KidLitUK #LGBTQ
Front cover of a children’s picture book entitled ‘My Shadow is Purple’. The cover is cheerful yellow. In the centre is a drawing of a smiling young person, with short brown hair, dressed stylishly in a blue shirt, grey trousers and trainers. Behind them they are casting a shadow in a rich purple colour, which shows the outline of someone wearing a bow tie and a pretty flounced skirt.
January 23, 2025 at 11:57 AM
jangunning.bsky.social
It’s more than a week since I went to see the ‘Medieval Women’ exhibition at the British Library & I’m still thinking about it. So many extraordinary treasures.

Here’s the earliest of only 3 surviving examples of Joan of Arc’s signature on a letter dated 1429.

#MedievalSky
Framed letter written in black ink. The letter is written in the neat hand of a professional scribe, with the name ‘Jehanne’ written is slightly larger, less confident handwriting at the bottom.
January 13, 2025 at 4:33 PM
jangunning.bsky.social
I love the way frost makes the garden look like it has been dusted with icing sugar.
#TinyJoys
Photo of winter frost on two ornamental grasses, one with black leaves, the other with golden leaves. The grasses look like they have been dusted with icing sugar.
January 12, 2025 at 11:55 AM
jangunning.bsky.social
The Medieval Women exhibition at the British Library is just wonderful.

Do go if you get the chance.

#Libraries
Deep blue wall with the words ‘Medieval Women: in their own words’ in gold, next to an image from a medieval manuscript of a row of women standing holding books, and one holding a bishop’s crozier.
January 6, 2025 at 3:19 PM
jangunning.bsky.social
Golden hour by the Thames today.
The silhouette of Houses of Parliament back lit by a golden setting sun, with the sparkling water of the river Thames in the foreground.
January 3, 2025 at 6:00 PM
jangunning.bsky.social
Happy New Year.

‘Ring out, wild bells, to the wild sky,
The flying cloud, the frosty light:
The year is dying in the night;
Ring out, wild bells, and let him die…’
~ Alfred, Lord Tennyson
Bright white hellebore flowers, also known as the Christmas rose.
January 1, 2025 at 12:33 AM
jangunning.bsky.social
The delicate, bright joyfulness of Christmas roses on a grey December day.
#TinyJoys
Hellebore flowers with bright white petals and fresh green centres, sprinkled with rain drops. Bare tree trunks and some grey sky are just visible in the background.
December 23, 2024 at 4:23 PM
jangunning.bsky.social
One of the things I love most about galleries are the juxtapositions.
Manchester Art Gallery today…
Amsterdam, 1620s.
Manchester, 1920s.
Same energy.
Winter scene by Dutch artist Arent Arentsz. Oil painting showing the River IJ frozen and busy with figures across the ice. People are fishing, moving produce, skating. The sky and ice are pale grey, with the human figures picked out in strong dark colours. Manchester street scene by LS Lowry. Oil painting showing a busy street full of figures on the move, with an industrial urban skyline of brick buildings and chimneys behind. The smoky sky and surface of the street are both pale grey, with the bustling figures picked out in strong, dark colours.
December 10, 2024 at 4:41 PM