Jen Mac
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jen-m-a-c.bsky.social
Jen Mac
@jen-m-a-c.bsky.social
120 followers 340 following 37 posts
Gardens, pond life, pub quiz and blog stuff, in Frome, Somerset, UK. Working on websites since 1999. Garden blog: doingtheplan.com Forest films: woodforthetrees.uk Nuturing love of nature: SharedEarthLearning.org
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jen-m-a-c.bsky.social
Legendary giants Gog and Magog are apocalyptic figures in the Bible, representing doom. But in British folklore they're jolly giants guarding the City of London.

They're also tiny wooden carvings that guard our tool shed and greenhouse.

doingtheplan.com/2025/11/02/a...

#Gardenblog #History #Myth
We bought a couple of wooden carvings at Wells market a few years ago. We named them Gog and Magog after the legendary giants who have appeared at the London Lord Mayor’s show since the time of Henry VIII. In our garden, they guard the greenhouse and the tool shed. 🙂 The carved wooden faces are weathered and wizardy looking, with long beards, bushy eyebrows, and furrowed brows. Two pictures of wooden carved faces on a small greenhouse and garden shed, in an English garden in autumn. Gog and Magog are legendary figures that appear in different traditions as either one giant or a pair of giants. In the Bible and Quran, Gog and Magog are associated with a final, apocalyptic conflict. In British folklore, they are giant guardians of the City of London. In our garden, Magog looks after the lawnmower and garden tools and Gog protects the plants in the greenhouse. The Lord Mayor's show, with two giant wicker figures called Gog and Magog. The show has taken place for centuries, as part of a ceremonial to assert the powers and privileges of the City of London. According to folklore, the giants Gog and Magog guard the city.
November 21, 2025 at 7:42 AM
jen-m-a-c.bsky.social
This week’s selection for #SixonSaturday is all autumnal.

Rishi Sumac is about to shed his last leaf. The pansies are tougher than they look.

The garden is dying back, but there are still some burst of brightness and very optimistic looking seedlings
#GardenBlog

doingtheplan.com/2025/11/08/s...
Collage of autumnal garden photos, with a purple and lilac pansy, a calendula flower, sage plants, autumn leaves, and white 'starburst' like flowers of fatsia japonica
November 8, 2025 at 10:14 AM
jen-m-a-c.bsky.social
#SixonSaturday #AutumnLeaves #Dahlia #GardenBlog
Featuring Phill Oakey, the oak tree named after the ‘Don’t You Want Me’ singer and synth superstar, the red leaves of Rishi Sumac, and ongoing rambles round the greenhouse
doingtheplan.com/2025/10/11/g...
Gog, Oakey, dahlia, sweetpea, anemone and autumn – Six on Sat, 11 Oct 25
Rambling round the garden, with a selection of autumn flowers and some surprisingly fast sweet pea seedings.
doingtheplan.com
October 11, 2025 at 1:37 PM
jen-m-a-c.bsky.social
In this week’s six on sat - the dahlias are as smashing as the genial host of a light entertainment darts show, the chlorophyll fades to carotenoid as the leaves go orange, and the hot lips are in full bloom.

#SixonSaturday #BloomScrolling #Flowers #Garden #Blog #dahlia #smashing
wp.me/p7ZPGx-3H3
A bunch of garden flowers, with a big frilly pink and white dahlia, deep purple cosmos flowers, and pale purple daisies. The flowers are in a brown clay pot, on a dark wooden table. Collage of garden flowers - with a closeup of the pink umbelliferous heads of sedum flowers, daisies with yellow centres and lilac petals, a rich purple clematis with three big, slightly wet flowers, a close up of hotlip salvia flowers, that resemble ladies dancing in red and white skirts, the autumn colours of the leaves of a sumac tree and a bunch of garden flowers with a big pink and white dahlia
October 4, 2025 at 9:33 AM
jen-m-a-c.bsky.social
#SixonSaturday #GardenBlog

This week's highlights include bellflower, pirouette rose, spring bulbs, a tidyish greenhouse, a ladybird and magic conkers. Plus the old roman road under Frome Town centre.

doingtheplan.com/2025/09/27/m...
Garden montage with purple bellflower, a pink rose, a wooden chair in a small greenhouse, planting spring bulbs, a ladybird and some acorns and conkers. A blurry image from the Frome Tunnels tunnel of the old Roman road underneath the town centre.
September 27, 2025 at 11:01 AM
jen-m-a-c.bsky.social
More reasons that Artificial Intelligence sucks sprang to mind after an unsuccessful chat with a particularly chirpy and idiotic bot and ongoing news.

Reasons AI sucks. Stealing words, knowing nothing, discourages thinking, boils oceans, infests discourse, capitalist extraction.

wp.me/p7ZPGx-3Fu
A notepad and pencil, handwritten note: Reasons AI sucks. Stealing words, knowing nothing, discourages thinking, boils oceans, infests discourse, capitalist extraction. Full text on blog. Reasons AI can fuck off 1. Stealing all the words 2. Knowing fuck all 3. Over confidence 4. Incapable of true understanding 5. Encourages lazy thinking 6. Discourages thinking 7. High social cost, low social value 8. Boils the oceans 9. Infests public discourse 10. Capitalist extraction Close up of a ladybird, red with black spots, by a pond in a garden in somerset A grey squirrel on a green lawn, in a lush garden.
September 25, 2025 at 3:30 PM
jen-m-a-c.bsky.social
Anemones and wood speckled butterfly in my #SixOnSaturday #gardenblog #August #wildlifegarden doingtheplan.com/2025/08/02/s...
Six on Saturday, Sumac, anemone, geranium, apples, pondlife, and speckled wood
There was a clump of anemones here when we arrived, and although they’re too big for the space I expect them to be there forever, and don’t mind that at all.
doingtheplan.com
August 2, 2025 at 8:02 PM
jen-m-a-c.bsky.social
Damselflies and waterlily in this weeks blog

The damselfly has a remarkably complex sex life

doingtheplan.com/2025/07/26/s...

#Gardenblog #SixonSaturday #Betterlatethannever #Damselfly #Waterlily #Wildlifepond
A close up image of a waterlily and damselflies on a pond. Two damselflies are linked in a heart shape on a lilypad. Two damselflies on a lilypad, forming a loop while they are mating. One is blue and the other is pale green. They have big black shiny eyes and delicate wings.
July 27, 2025 at 10:42 AM
jen-m-a-c.bsky.social
Hiya! Here's a peacock butterfly visiting a buddliea bush. #BloomScrolling #butterfly
A buddleia flower on a green bush in a garden, with a colourful peacock butterfly
July 11, 2025 at 6:01 AM
jen-m-a-c.bsky.social
#SixonSaturday Garden blogging fun times with bees and birds, and roses and a question about the flowering habits of yukka

doingtheplan.com/2025/06/07/s...
Six on Saturday, bees, birds, horsey, James Galway and yukka buds
A selection of garden highlights on a soggy Saturday. With bees, birds, roses, and a question about the flowering habits of yukka.
doingtheplan.com
June 7, 2025 at 5:29 PM
jen-m-a-c.bsky.social
The Frome Saxonvale town centre redevelopment will be community led. Good news for Frome and hopefully a chance to show what community led projects can achieve to revitalise town centres putting community before profit. www.theguardian.com/society/2025...
Frome residents win five-year battle for community-led housing project
Mayday Saxonvale scheme is given the go-ahead after an extraordinary meeting of Somerset council executive
www.theguardian.com
January 23, 2025 at 6:38 PM
jen-m-a-c.bsky.social
🐝 a bit of good news for bees, flowers, fruit, honey and ecosystems...
jackwallington.com Jack Wallington @jackwallington.com · Jan 23
Big news - finally Britain is doing what it says it is going to do, rather than going backward on harmful pesticides. For background info, this pesticide was recommended only for emergency use, but non-organic growers kept requesting "emergency use" every single year.
thesoilassociation.bsky.social Soil Association @thesoilassociation.bsky.social · Jan 23
BREAKING NEWS - for the first time, emergency use of Cruiser SB - which contains the bee-killing neonicotinoid thiamethoxam has NOT been approved! 🐝

#SaveTheBees
January 23, 2025 at 6:21 PM
jen-m-a-c.bsky.social
Today I learned that Cercidiphyllum japonicum is called Candyfloss tree because when the leaves turn in autumn, they smell of burnt sugar.
#thicktrunkTuesday
Thanks to @lindacdolan.bsky.social #Trees
lindacdolan.bsky.social Linda @lindacdolan.bsky.social · Dec 3
Good morning! Today I have Tour Guide training with our wonderful tree enthusiast Jonathan at #Wisley. This is one of Wisley’s Champion trees, a Cercidiphyllum japonicum or Candyfloss tree because when the leaves turn in autumn, they smell of burnt sugar. #thicktrunkTuesday. 🌱
A free trunk that has great character with a surface that looks like it has been folded and pleated.
December 3, 2024 at 8:39 AM
Reposted by Jen Mac
treeshepherd.bsky.social
good morning treepeople and happy #thicktrunktuesday
December 3, 2024 at 6:21 AM
Reposted by Jen Mac
murphypr.bsky.social
"Supernatural Oak!"

Happy #ThickTrunkTuesday :-)

#Trees
#Nature
#Woodland
December 3, 2024 at 6:11 AM
jen-m-a-c.bsky.social
For #ThickTrunkTuesday - an oak tree in the Bishops Palace Garden in Wells, England #Trees - and a film on continuous cover forestry showing at the Forestry Conference tomorrow in Westminster.
woodforthetrees.uk are films on the future for UK forests & I'm happy to have helped produce this series.
Woman in jeans and a red top stands with outstretched arms in front of a large oak tree in a beautiful garden on a sunny day. Two men stand in a forest that contains trees of varied species and ages. the forest is managed using continuous cover forestry principles.
December 3, 2024 at 6:35 AM
Reposted by Jen Mac
bigbeardybooks.bsky.social
Starter Pack for independent bookshops some of who also run lots of local events

go.bsky.app/DopYboe
December 2, 2024 at 6:56 PM
Reposted by Jen Mac
brigitstrawbridge.bsky.social
'C' is for Chough

This delightful illustration is by #Cornwall artist, Matt Johnson. Just one of the 12 birds he's chosen for his beautiful 2025 calendar, which you may like to check out, here: mattillustration.bigcartel.com/product/2025...

#AlphabetBirds #birdart #birds #art 🪶
Choughs flying, and resting on rocks above Cornish cove. Blue and mustard coloured landscape with seed heads
December 2, 2024 at 9:19 AM
jen-m-a-c.bsky.social
On #Caturday we would let the cat out of the bag, but she quite likes it there.
A pretty tortoiseshell cat sits inside a paper bag on a wooden table
November 30, 2024 at 11:39 AM
jen-m-a-c.bsky.social
This #SixOnSaturday #GardenBlog is mostly autumnal, with some out of season primroses, a willow fedge that needs some work, little pansies flowering despite the frost, a baby oak and ferns under the disco ball. doingtheplan.com/2024/11/30/s...
A collage of six images from the garden, including a border of plants with a statue of a horses head, some yellow primroses, white pansies, and a willow 'fedge' of living willlow stems woven to form a fence / hedge.
November 30, 2024 at 11:29 AM
Reposted by Jen Mac
dieworkwear.bsky.social
In honor of Jimi Hendrix, who would have turned 82 today, I wrote something for PBS about his incredible sense of style. He helped define not only the sound but also the look of a countercultural movement.

www.pbs.org/wnet/america...
November 28, 2024 at 12:09 AM
jen-m-a-c.bsky.social
#RoseWednesday #BloomScrolling #Gardening #Flowers
November 27, 2024 at 5:30 AM
jen-m-a-c.bsky.social
In #London The #V&A exhibition #FragileBeauty shows photos from the Elton John and David Furnish collection. Its a fantastic show, and
I loved seeing Miss Muppet's portrait amongst the stars where she belongs! www.vam.ac.uk/exhibitions/... @muppethistory.bsky.social
Elton John at a breakfast table with fried eggs on his glasses The star of stage screen and studio room at the exhibition Portrait of Miss Piggy on the wall between Liz Taylpr and Doris Day
November 26, 2024 at 5:37 PM
jen-m-a-c.bsky.social
#BloomScrolling
#TinyFlowerTuesday

Little pansies and daisies for the bloomscrollers.
Flowers in a garden in Somerset, UK. There are small purple and yellow pansies and little daises.
November 26, 2024 at 5:18 PM
jen-m-a-c.bsky.social
In a vase on Monday, hydrangea and pine, with a sedum stemfrom a few weeks back that is sprouting baby plants all over... #flowers #garden #InAVaseOnMonday #propagation #hydrangea #pine #sedum
A sedum stem in a flower vase. Small plantlets with tiny leaves and roots are forming along the stem Dusky pink hydrangea flowers, each flower stem is formed of dozens of little flowers Huydranga, sedum and pine stems in a red vase on a table with a colourful tablecloth and a large leaved houseplant in the background
November 25, 2024 at 7:09 PM