Joanna Hastings
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joannahastings.bsky.social
Joanna Hastings
@joannahastings.bsky.social
740 followers 510 following 1.7K posts
Writer, editor, lover of dreams and folktales. BLM. Trans Rights. Women's Rights. Refugee Rights. Human Rights. Green Party member. We're all just walking each other home.
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joannahastings.bsky.social
May you find yourself, one day, staggering half-drowned from the surf, Shabana Mahmood, and may a stranger reach out a hand to help. May love break you open.

Extract from September 1, 1939, by W.H. Auden.
Extract from September 1 1939, by W.H. Auden. All I have is a voice To undo the folded lie, The romantic lie in the brain Of the sensual man-in-the-street And the lie of Authority Whose buildings grope the sky: There is no such thing as the State And no one exists alone; Hunger allows no choice To the citizen or the police; We must love one another or die.
November 17, 2025 at 10:15 PM
joannahastings.bsky.social
If you see this, post your bird art 🐦

#birds

Mine is a poem, not an image. I'd forgotten all about it - wrote it as part of a 'celestial creatures' collection for children. But it is birds!
The first half of a poem by me, entitled 'Solar System Birds.' The second half is in the other attached photo. Solar System Birds Mercury flashes by, Hummingbird at the honeyed Feeder of the sun. Venus calls, cooing, White dove fluffing soft feathers In the early dawn. Blue-green Earth, serene Wood duck; moon flutters round it, A white butterfly. Mars, red cardinal, Shouting in the cedar tree, More noise than action. Asteroids, wild black Swarm of bees, humming angry From their disturbed nest. Jupiter rising, Sandhill Crane flaps higher, Proud of its red spot. Saturn holds its breath – Poised in double rainbow arc – Golden Eagle hunts. Uranus, ghostly, Great Grey Owl in twilight fog, Drifting, blurring, gone. Neptune, reflected Blue heron, blue heron, one Foot in the water. What are you, Pluto? So small. A hummingbird moth, A bird wannabe. —Joanna Hastings
November 10, 2025 at 4:29 PM
joannahastings.bsky.social
Mdina, Malta's silent city, where the shadows are ghost realms, dispassionate and huge. #WeekSforShadows
A narrow medieval alley between high walls at night, a single street lamp barely piercing the shadow.
November 9, 2025 at 11:09 AM
joannahastings.bsky.social
When I dismiss the donation pop-up, it leaves me with this:
Clearsky home page with a 'find account' field, a donate button and no other options.
November 3, 2025 at 11:57 PM
joannahastings.bsky.social
Yes. It gives me this:
Screen shot of Clearsky saying: If you've found Clearsky helpful, please consider supporting us. Your contribution helps keep Clearsky running and allows us to make improvements for the community. There are two buttons, one for ko-fi, one for open collective, and a DISMISS button.
November 3, 2025 at 11:55 PM
joannahastings.bsky.social
Walking a dog.
Watching the sea.
Writing.
Petting cats.
Watching the sea.
Writing.
Wandering through the steep cobbled streets of a town that clings, white jasmine, to a hilltop. Sitting by a fountain. Watching - from a distance - the sea.
Writing.
A just-risen sun dazzling off the wet sand of a beach, a dim blue sea not yet woken by daylight, waves breaking under the brightening sky.
October 27, 2025 at 1:36 PM
joannahastings.bsky.social
Watch the waves come in. Watch them go out. 💙
Early morning sun just above the horizon, sending a white-gold path across sliding shallow ripples on a wide sand beach. Low breakers, pale-shell sea, sky yellowing to blue.
October 26, 2025 at 2:09 PM
joannahastings.bsky.social
Except it's not free, is it, @nytimes.com?
A screenshot of the Wordle page, blocked by a pop-up box saying: 'Wordle is even better with a free New York Times account. You can save your stats whenever you play and you'll never lose a streak again. Log in or create an account.' Click through and you get a registration screen saying: Discover other games and more, with a subscription to our bundle All Access Everything The Times offers. All in one subscription. £0.50/week Billed as £2 every 4 weeks for the first 6 months What's included News Games...'
October 20, 2025 at 7:42 AM
joannahastings.bsky.social
Two small, perfect pieces of #Shetland arrived in #Sheffield today. Jewels of the sea. So beautiful. Thank you, @catherinemmunro.bsky.social.
A small, vivid blue piece of sea glass and a large green one, both made into pendants with lovely swirling silver settings.
October 18, 2025 at 4:33 PM
joannahastings.bsky.social
So sorry to hear this. Take care of yourself and feel better. And phone your doctor?
Your tabby with the white paws looks like a clone of mine.
Tabby cat asleep on a fluffy dressing gown. She has white paws and her little toe beans are on display. The tiny white stripe over her nose makes her exponentially sweeter than any other cat on the planet (except for yours, of course).
October 17, 2025 at 10:55 AM
joannahastings.bsky.social
Renaissance Chloë? I have this in my garden. Very fragrant. (Not my photo as I have none in bloom right now. Lifted this one from the Garden Rose Company. thegardenrosecompany.co.uk/product-cate...)
Pink-hearted rose, fading to almost white in the outer petals, against a background of green rose leaves.
October 13, 2025 at 7:58 PM
joannahastings.bsky.social
Post you from a different era.

( Me as 'The Postmistress' from my little stories-for-children-by-post business. That was a fun time. More in alt text.)
Me dressed in silly Edwardian style clothes with a pith helmet and string of pearls, at a storytelling event. My job, as far as the children were concerned, was to manage postal deliveries for a whole range of magical creatures who were eager to tell stories of their adventures to penpal friends. It was a crazy few years, but I'm so very glad I did it.
October 13, 2025 at 2:14 PM
joannahastings.bsky.social
Such an important article from Carole Cadwalladr for The Nerve. Read it. Why has Labour ignored this?
Extract from Carole Cadwalladr's article: I can’t overstate the urgency of the moment we are in. And the existential risk of not acting now. A fortnight ago, the former head of MI5 said that Britain may already be at war with Russia. Eliza Manningham-Buller, as sober and establishment a figure as you could ask for, describes it as “a different type of war” but a war nonetheless. “The hostility, the cyber-attacks, the physical attacks, the intelligence work is extensive.” Nathan Gill isn’t some postscript to a minor episode of recent British history. He’s a key to understanding the scale and sophistication of the threat against us, a network of pro-Russian actors that stretches not only across the Atlantic but Europe too. A network against which the UK government and intelligence services have wilfully turned a blind eye. That's what MPs from parliament's Intelligence and Security Committee said when they published the long-delayed 2020 Russia Report. The government had "actively avoided looking for evidence", committee member Stewart Hosie said.
October 12, 2025 at 11:55 AM
joannahastings.bsky.social
I also am appeased by chocolate raisins and I'm extremely fond of gnarly oaks. Not sure what this says about me but I don't think it can be good.
Twisty, ivy-covered oak tree
October 10, 2025 at 2:42 PM
joannahastings.bsky.social
The Welsh flag is wonderful. I'm also very fond of Bhutan and Papua New Guinea. Sadly the bigots vomiting the English flag everywhere aren't concerned about aesthetics, they just want to bully people, and you don't need to be beautiful to do that.
The Bhutan flag is a gorgeous white oriental dragon against a joyful two-colour background divided on the diagonal: a yellow upper triangle and an orange lower triangle. Papua New Guinea flag also has a two colour background divided on the diagonal, this time red and black. On the red triangle (top right) a yellow bird of paradise flies. On the lower left black triangle, the constellation of the Southern Cross is shown in white stars. Stunning.
September 4, 2025 at 2:57 PM
joannahastings.bsky.social
Woods, hills, rivers... Can't go anywhere without gorgeous vistas opening up in front of you. It takes my breath away every day. Love Sheffield.
Looking from a road over a wooded valley with a blue sky marbled with sunlit clouds. A public footpath sign points down into the valley. Peak Sheffield. You can't see that there are houses behind you, but across the valley on the hillside and hilltop you can just make out the houses of Walkley and Crookes.
August 6, 2025 at 7:59 PM
joannahastings.bsky.social
A little doodle of a sonnet by Joanna Hastings Sometimes you sit with pen in hand, to rhyme A verse. Sonnets are good, ballads are fun, Any poetic form is more than none, Even a villanelle can pass the time. It’s not as though you haven’t got a theme To probe, anxieties to test, a heart That bears interrogation for your art, And yet, you can’t get started on your scheme. You play sudoku, Wordle, check your phone, Make tea, feed fish, pet cat, plait hair, collapse. Sneer at yourself for baiting your own traps And jailing yourself in your own comfort zone. Outside the window, trees in a brief squall shake. Come out, they say. Rattle yourself awake.
July 26, 2025 at 3:09 PM
joannahastings.bsky.social
Forge Dam is a great walk. I'm lucky enough to live overlooking the Rivelin Valley. If you haven't tried that walk yet, I recommend it.
A heron standing on a mossy stony, a fish in its beak, river rapids roaring behind it.
June 25, 2025 at 11:29 AM
joannahastings.bsky.social
Happy Solstice, all you lovely people.
June 21, 2025 at 8:31 PM
joannahastings.bsky.social
We're down! Now just a quick walk along the road to the cottage. Mostly flat, I promise. And we'll say goodbye here, I won't bore you with a road walk. Thanks for coming along!
Grey tarmac road stretching in the sun with the hillside rising to the right, hedges and small houses to the left, and more hills in the distance.
May 21, 2025 at 5:01 PM
joannahastings.bsky.social
The last stretch down. This path is not flat.
Very steep brackeny, rocky slope heading down to a small road with grey cottages and a green field beyond.
May 21, 2025 at 5:01 PM
joannahastings.bsky.social
A portrait of my backpack. It has my laptop in it, because of writing. It's been getting heavier by the minute. If anyone wants to take a turn carrying it, that would be fine with me.
Blue backpack lying in green bracken.
May 21, 2025 at 5:01 PM
joannahastings.bsky.social
Here's the mandatory selfie proving I am here.
Me, messy blonde hair tied back, black t-shirt, glasses, trying to smile naturally but, you know, selfies are tough. Bracken, stones, sky behind.
May 21, 2025 at 5:01 PM
joannahastings.bsky.social
Getting close now. I'm annoyed by these photos because this path is STEEP. But it doesn't look that steep. You can see buildings down in the valley. That's where the pub is. The cottage is tucked in to the side of the hill, out of sight.
Big lump of rock to the left, with a dusty, stoney path heading down through bracken to a grove of trees. Past the trees you can see down into the valley. The pub is a tiny block of white among tiny trees. Another ridge of hills rises beyond.
May 21, 2025 at 5:01 PM
joannahastings.bsky.social
We've just come down here. Okay, it wasn't that steep. But it certainly wasn't flat. Are you still overheating? I know I am. Still a way to go.
Steepish path heading up through bright green bracken towards high hills. A dark crag looming over to the right. Blue sky! Brilliant sunshine!
May 21, 2025 at 5:01 PM