Julia Laite
@julialaite.bsky.social
Teller of small stories. Professor of history at Birkbeck. Rider of bikes, grower of vegetables, Brook custodian & friend to five ducks. Townie Cantabrigian. Eternally homesick Newfoundlander; researching the island's history & the legacies of empire.
On of the most intimidating audiences I've ever spoken to....
Seriously though, thank you to all who came to hear my talk in Labrador. Thank you for listening & for sharing your stories. This place has 0.09 people and a million stories per square kilometre.
Seriously though, thank you to all who came to hear my talk in Labrador. Thank you for listening & for sharing your stories. This place has 0.09 people and a million stories per square kilometre.
November 10, 2025 at 7:36 PM
On of the most intimidating audiences I've ever spoken to....
Seriously though, thank you to all who came to hear my talk in Labrador. Thank you for listening & for sharing your stories. This place has 0.09 people and a million stories per square kilometre.
Seriously though, thank you to all who came to hear my talk in Labrador. Thank you for listening & for sharing your stories. This place has 0.09 people and a million stories per square kilometre.
I ended my first 24 hours in Happy Valley-Goose Bay with an amazing performance from Silver Wolf Band, playing their hometown in a brilliant local arts centre. Check them out! www.silverwolfband.com
November 9, 2025 at 3:59 PM
I ended my first 24 hours in Happy Valley-Goose Bay with an amazing performance from Silver Wolf Band, playing their hometown in a brilliant local arts centre. Check them out! www.silverwolfband.com
Adventures in Nitassinan, in the flood plain of the Mishta-shipu River and in the shadow of the mountains called Akami-Uapishkᵁ. Where the sky and the land are twice the size as they are other places, where beavers and muskrat swim in icy cloud rivers & where the silence is so deep it has a sound.
November 8, 2025 at 8:47 PM
Adventures in Nitassinan, in the flood plain of the Mishta-shipu River and in the shadow of the mountains called Akami-Uapishkᵁ. Where the sky and the land are twice the size as they are other places, where beavers and muskrat swim in icy cloud rivers & where the silence is so deep it has a sound.
Up early to begin my journey to Happy Valley-Goose Bay, Labrador! I've wanted to go ever since I heard my grandpa's stories of 'going on the Labrador'. I'm going to talk about my work on the Beothuk & to think with folks there about how we re-story the troubling & fascinating history of our region.
November 7, 2025 at 7:24 AM
Up early to begin my journey to Happy Valley-Goose Bay, Labrador! I've wanted to go ever since I heard my grandpa's stories of 'going on the Labrador'. I'm going to talk about my work on the Beothuk & to think with folks there about how we re-story the troubling & fascinating history of our region.
Here's to the annual diwali-halloween-bonfire night mash-up with my friends. Here's to parkin & pumpkins & cider & samosas. Here's to light in the dark. Here's to all the blended cultures in the past and all the blended cultures yet to come
November 2, 2025 at 7:23 PM
Here's to the annual diwali-halloween-bonfire night mash-up with my friends. Here's to parkin & pumpkins & cider & samosas. Here's to light in the dark. Here's to all the blended cultures in the past and all the blended cultures yet to come
A perfect rainy autumn night to make my great-great-grandmother's gingerbread for her great-great-great grandchildren. A very old-fashioned recipe from my grandmother's head, scrawled by me.
November 1, 2025 at 7:49 PM
A perfect rainy autumn night to make my great-great-grandmother's gingerbread for her great-great-great grandchildren. A very old-fashioned recipe from my grandmother's head, scrawled by me.
Someone make me a fabric based on these nasturtium.
November 1, 2025 at 7:03 PM
Someone make me a fabric based on these nasturtium.
Happy Halloween and a blessed Samhaim to all!
October 31, 2025 at 9:58 PM
Happy Halloween and a blessed Samhaim to all!
The allotment at sunset. Not pictured: the smell of quince wafting up from my arms.
October 28, 2025 at 4:31 PM
The allotment at sunset. Not pictured: the smell of quince wafting up from my arms.
My gelder rose tree couldn't decide what autumn colour to wear so it put them all on.
October 27, 2025 at 10:42 AM
My gelder rose tree couldn't decide what autumn colour to wear so it put them all on.
I thought my shed was being broken into only to discover it was in fact Tux, my duck friend, throwing her body against my back door because I wasn't giving her lunch.
October 23, 2025 at 1:32 PM
I thought my shed was being broken into only to discover it was in fact Tux, my duck friend, throwing her body against my back door because I wasn't giving her lunch.
Dying. Someone please make this your next Only Fans project.
October 22, 2025 at 3:10 PM
Dying. Someone please make this your next Only Fans project.
It is one of my great sorrows that I am never home for the utter majesty of autumn, when the blueberry bushes turn the hills fuchsia and the maple and birch are a riot of yellow and orange and gold and red.
October 21, 2025 at 9:27 AM
It is one of my great sorrows that I am never home for the utter majesty of autumn, when the blueberry bushes turn the hills fuchsia and the maple and birch are a riot of yellow and orange and gold and red.
Giving thanks for peace and food and family and friends, in a world where so many go without. Happy Thanksgiving*, all.
*a day early
*a day early
October 11, 2025 at 3:40 PM
Giving thanks for peace and food and family and friends, in a world where so many go without. Happy Thanksgiving*, all.
*a day early
*a day early
This poem, written by Joseph Fasano (who was also born with a heart condition), has hit me directly in the heart like an arrow today, as I watch our world's mess unfold while waiting for Kid the Younger's annual cardiology check up. We cannot save each other now. We can.
October 2, 2025 at 12:31 PM
This poem, written by Joseph Fasano (who was also born with a heart condition), has hit me directly in the heart like an arrow today, as I watch our world's mess unfold while waiting for Kid the Younger's annual cardiology check up. We cannot save each other now. We can.
Apples stored and squash tucked away to cure and garlic planted. I declare autumn officially begun!
September 28, 2025 at 2:19 PM
Apples stored and squash tucked away to cure and garlic planted. I declare autumn officially begun!
Kid the Elder has just introduced me to Sparx Maths reviews. We are dying with laughter. 1.2 stars overall; hundreds of reviews. One kid even took the time to write a page-long formal letter, meticulously detailing its flaws. This is the perfect antidote to the torture of having to do Sparx Maths.
September 23, 2025 at 8:35 PM
Kid the Elder has just introduced me to Sparx Maths reviews. We are dying with laughter. 1.2 stars overall; hundreds of reviews. One kid even took the time to write a page-long formal letter, meticulously detailing its flaws. This is the perfect antidote to the torture of having to do Sparx Maths.
Happy anniversary to mine & my partner's zero carbon cider, in which we foraged 120 kilos of apples from friends' trees & from abandoned orchards, plus the press & the scradder, by bicycle. It was an immense amount of work & the cider turned out mediocre, but somehow I still want to try it again?
September 21, 2025 at 9:02 AM
Happy anniversary to mine & my partner's zero carbon cider, in which we foraged 120 kilos of apples from friends' trees & from abandoned orchards, plus the press & the scradder, by bicycle. It was an immense amount of work & the cider turned out mediocre, but somehow I still want to try it again?
My ducks access my garden through a channel of the chalk stream that wends its way from the spring head & behind the houses of my neighbourhood. It's neglected & full of litter but still manages to be beautiful & wild. I'd love to be able to paddle the route & see this place from a duck's eye view.
September 20, 2025 at 3:03 PM
My ducks access my garden through a channel of the chalk stream that wends its way from the spring head & behind the houses of my neighbourhood. It's neglected & full of litter but still manages to be beautiful & wild. I'd love to be able to paddle the route & see this place from a duck's eye view.
My duck friends, on their way from the brook to dinner in my garden.
September 16, 2025 at 4:32 PM
My duck friends, on their way from the brook to dinner in my garden.
Yesterday, when everything was scary, me & Kid the Younger looked for small moments of good. Two TFL workers shaking hands & smiling goodnight. A man at a kebab place who let us use the loo. A fellow passenger who knew a lot about trains & taught us words like pantograph.
& today, the harvest.
& today, the harvest.
September 14, 2025 at 6:08 PM
Yesterday, when everything was scary, me & Kid the Younger looked for small moments of good. Two TFL workers shaking hands & smiling goodnight. A man at a kebab place who let us use the loo. A fellow passenger who knew a lot about trains & taught us words like pantograph.
& today, the harvest.
& today, the harvest.
This is, I believe, the first official word from the Government on what happened yesterday in London. Not only inaction in the face of violence and hate, but a celebration of it. I passed through London twice yesterday with my two kids & what Labour seem to be missing is that people aren't just...
September 14, 2025 at 9:48 AM
This is, I believe, the first official word from the Government on what happened yesterday in London. Not only inaction in the face of violence and hate, but a celebration of it. I passed through London twice yesterday with my two kids & what Labour seem to be missing is that people aren't just...
Last autumn, the allotment community cleared out an overgrown area, to make a space for get-togethers. My partner & I found a wizened pear tree while clearing some overgrowth, prone almost flat in the grass. We staked it out, just in case there was hope.
Today I've discovered it laden with pears.
Today I've discovered it laden with pears.
September 9, 2025 at 4:55 PM
Last autumn, the allotment community cleared out an overgrown area, to make a space for get-togethers. My partner & I found a wizened pear tree while clearing some overgrowth, prone almost flat in the grass. We staked it out, just in case there was hope.
Today I've discovered it laden with pears.
Today I've discovered it laden with pears.
It makes me sad that all the nearby apple trees are going to see most of their fruit rot on the ground, while people buy plastic-wrapped apples from far afield. I wonder if there is an app to connect people with orphan orchards and trees...
In the meantime, 14 jars of apple pie filling canned up!
In the meantime, 14 jars of apple pie filling canned up!
September 8, 2025 at 8:29 AM
It makes me sad that all the nearby apple trees are going to see most of their fruit rot on the ground, while people buy plastic-wrapped apples from far afield. I wonder if there is an app to connect people with orphan orchards and trees...
In the meantime, 14 jars of apple pie filling canned up!
In the meantime, 14 jars of apple pie filling canned up!
Continuously mystified by how on the one hand, UK schools inherently suck because of the tyranny of the insane system of 100% terminal exams, while on the other hand, they are some of the best schools anywhere. See for instance the fact that my son's school now has five sheep.
September 5, 2025 at 6:07 PM
Continuously mystified by how on the one hand, UK schools inherently suck because of the tyranny of the insane system of 100% terminal exams, while on the other hand, they are some of the best schools anywhere. See for instance the fact that my son's school now has five sheep.