Mark
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markde.bsky.social
Mark
@markde.bsky.social
770 followers 99 following 4.9K posts
Keeper of keys & grounds, unpicker of knots, grower of metaphors and finder of paths.

Retired.
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markde.bsky.social
One thing that it isn’t is cold, shirt sleeves sitting outside on November 7th… Bizarre.

Right, Here to help! Squires in Braunton the other evening.
Haddock and chips with tartare sauce.
November 7, 2025 at 3:33 PM
markde.bsky.social
Short snippet of the bestest GOAT for your viewing…pleasure(?). 🌱#farmsky #goat
November 2, 2025 at 1:16 PM
markde.bsky.social
This little spider has weathered the storm under this rose bud that I was going to dead head until I found them there last weekend.. they have rebuilt a huge cobweb every day before going back to wait under the bud.
Davros the spider who is rather annoyed i've beant the rose stem to get a photo of them lurking under the rose bud that's gone over.
October 23, 2025 at 3:15 PM
markde.bsky.social
This #TravelographyTuesday (shh, we can make it a thing!) - Dolphin watching in Madeira.

#GFX100RF #photography #madeira #metaPhotography #scape #Landscape #Travel #Outdoor #TravelPhotography #OutdoorPhotography #LandscapePhotography #PhotographersOfBlueSky #wildlifephotograpy #wildlifePhotography
An annoyingly young and sprightly individual having far too much fun using a camera on the deck of a small yacht with the ocean behind and next to them along with the island of Madeira in the background. They are taking photographs of dolphins.
October 21, 2025 at 10:49 AM
markde.bsky.social
It’s time for the mugs to change isn’t it.
A Winnie the pooh mug where Christopher robin and Pooh have their woolly hats on.
October 19, 2025 at 8:26 AM
markde.bsky.social
Good morning. October 17th, 10C overcast, high of 14C. Foxglove flowering. Absolutely what I expect in mid-October in the northern hemisphere. Everything’s fine. 🌱🌍🔥
A fairly weedy foxglove flowering. With pink flowers, in october. Has it no decency?!
October 17, 2025 at 7:44 AM
markde.bsky.social
It is that time. A feel of true Autumn in the air and changing leaf colours. This means quinces from the garden, also
meaning that the house shall smell incredible for the next 48 hrs of quince cookery. Quince Jelly, quincemeat, qodka…. 🌱 with the ever helpful @nigelslater.bsky.social tender vol II
A large jam pan and a few anonymous supermarket plastic bags holding the toughest damn apples you ever tried to bite into, because they’re golden quinces. Didn’t you think the fluff was off putting before you tried to bite it? No? Well live and learn I suppose.
October 11, 2025 at 11:44 AM
markde.bsky.social
Good morning, 7th October. 12C heading to 18C. Mostly clear skies. The rains over the last few weeks have entirely saved the Dahlia display in the borders. #bloomscrolling #dahlia 🌱
Quite frankly it's difficult to describe how absolutely stunning this dahlia flower is, to do so we'll have to just ignore the two other dahlias that are both less frilly and also have pink petals that fade to yellow towards the centre of the flower, they are the back drop for the dahlia we are trying to describe so should be ignored, along with the greenery. The Dahlia we're all here for has rings of petals,which go from almost deep crimson at the base of the petal to white at the tip. If a fractal was given Dahlia form this would be it, frankly I'm not sure the garden didn't use AIslop it looks so perfect.
October 7, 2025 at 7:10 AM
markde.bsky.social
Good morning, Oct 1st. light spots of rain, 12C expecting to clear. #roseWednesday ? Ok I’m game. 🌱
A frilly yellow rose on a year old cutting, well no that’s a hand, you can’t really see the cutting There’s a theme here as this is also a frilly rose, this time in pink with out of focus additional pink roses in the background, and a lesser spotted wooden stake Third time’s the charm? A frilly orange Dame Judy nestled amongst blackberry leaves of all the things.
October 1, 2025 at 8:18 AM
markde.bsky.social
Good morning, Sept 22nd, 6C. A proper chilly morning after a stunningly clear night for looking at the stars. The Colletia Paradoxa is in flower, with a scent like the finest vanilla. 🌱
A host of small tubular white flowers adorning the razor sharp green stems of colletia paradoxa. Rumour has it the smell of vanilla is so heady and fragrant to lure unsuspecting passers by to take a sniff, whereupon they are ensnared and saved for later consumption by the jagged spiney beast.
September 22, 2025 at 6:30 AM
markde.bsky.social
Good morning, Sept 12th. 12C heading to a very reasonable 18C. Gusty winds (think it was the red beans) but mostly clear skies. When we get clouds they are big and thundery but short lived at the moment. Having had some rain over the last fortnight the Dahlia's are starting to do their thing.🌱
A deep red, somewhat blousy multi petal layered, Dahlia who I thought wasn't going to even bother showing up this year after the lack of rain. Pleased it survived! A quite simple (yet refined and elegant, we can do marketing you know) yellow Dahlia flower with a purple verbena peeking around behind it. or did the dahlia photo bomb the verbena? Great minds need to know.
September 12, 2025 at 7:41 AM
markde.bsky.social
Yes, we too have seen things darkening.
Clouds coming over and what is almost certainly is not a comedy cloud formation. Get your brain out of the gutter, honestly! Some people.
September 11, 2025 at 8:13 AM
markde.bsky.social
The continued journey with the #GFX100RF over the Summer.

#fujifilm #fuji #fujigfx #photootd #photography #photographysky #mirrorless #mediumformat
A panorama of a beach scene with multiple types of people using the coast on a day with a sea fog, it is hard to tell on the right what is sky and what is water because of the diffusion of the sun by the fog. Standing facing out to sea rather than this view can be disconcerting as it's hard to tell where the sea ends and sky begins. Other than the wet feet, they are a dead giveaway.
September 10, 2025 at 8:45 AM
markde.bsky.social
If you know me, you know why this is living here until further notice.
This doesn’t deserve alt text, a convicted felon created it.
September 8, 2025 at 8:33 PM
markde.bsky.social
The chicken we received from our farmer round the corner elicited “is that the largest chicken in the known universe?” to some laughter we were told the other bird was bigger. Farmyard reared Chicken, almost as large as the Christmas Cockerel. Absolutely magnificent. Shall be cherished accordingly.
If you were sold a small turkey, you might expect it to be a quite large bird, this however is a farmyard chicken, the smaller of a pair. It had an incredible life and will feed 6 of us with left overs I would imagine. Even if Steve turns up with tupperware.
September 7, 2025 at 11:24 AM
markde.bsky.social
Good morning, 24C, sept 7th strong gusts and sunshine. We have a Dinosaur in the oven and Bees on the Caryopteris (or as we call it, “Bee crack”. )🌱
September 7, 2025 at 10:41 AM
markde.bsky.social
Good morning, Sept 2nd, 12C. You can see your breath in the air. My (substantial) gut is Autumn is going to go hard this year. We’ll see how what comes after goes together I suppose. For now the roses are going great and a sloe crop the likes rarely seen.🌱
A petition pink rose, rosa scarborough fair. Who has flowered after the recent rains having gone dormant all summer. It’s a very pretty little rose really, glad it survived the drought. A branch of a blackthorn absolutely laden with small dark purple sloe berries. I’m going to need some extra storage for this volume of sloe gin and slodka.
September 2, 2025 at 5:48 AM
markde.bsky.social
Good morning. 14C, September 1st. How the b*ggering balls is it September? To make matters worse, condensation on the windows this morning, a lovely cooler breeze and the light is.. becoming autumnal. Time to get the spring bulb lasagnes into their pots. 🌱
A less bright than it has been orb of power glowing through a cobweb against some autumn raspberry leaves. Painfully autumnal. Whilst I love this time of year, less of a fan of what comes after.
September 1, 2025 at 7:10 AM
markde.bsky.social
It’s possible there is a weather front moving in, hard to tell. 🌱
August 30, 2025 at 1:21 PM
markde.bsky.social
We have a preference…
A box of St John rosé, well.. it is a box. With labelling… the weight of the box cannot be determined at this time.
August 24, 2025 at 7:14 PM
markde.bsky.social
It is, quite frankly,a surprisingly good year for pears here, sure there may not be bread on the shelves as there isn’t enough wheat.. but pears? We have those! 🌱
A pear tree laden, nay! Festooned! With almost fully ripe pears, actually these are how i like them, still crisp yet the juice is there. With some soft cheese..hard cheese.. no cheese, no pear but double cheese…
August 24, 2025 at 3:59 PM
markde.bsky.social
Lilium Samantha, purchased at Chelsea, potted the next day. And here we are as the grower said 17 weeks later (they said 16 weeks but i have been lazy posting about it). 🌱
A stonker of a lily, Samantha has light pink petals which are edged in white. It is possibly the most beautiful lily, it made me gasp when I was in the grand marquee. The only purchase I made this year at Chelsea, other than a pimms or four.
August 23, 2025 at 4:30 PM
markde.bsky.social
If you look closely you can almost see some squash in the pan. 2kg of it in fact. 🌱
A large, practically (and practical) antique, jam pan half full of marrow chutney ingredients, albeit using summer squash. 4 hours of work will reduce one squash from your stores and turn it into something that, in some cases, has kept for 5+ years.
August 23, 2025 at 1:15 PM
markde.bsky.social
Good morning, 17C August 21st, Thorns on Thursday presents anonymous £3 “dead” rose. 🌱
A floriferous white rose which would be truly lovely if the flowers lasted more than the duration of time it takes for the average passing of wind. As it stands if you are lucky enough you see it in that margin of time you can enjoy white petals with a yellow centre and thorns that can allegedly rip through solid steel.
August 21, 2025 at 9:12 AM
markde.bsky.social
Good morning (just).25-28C. August 11th. It is a very, very good year for sloes. Today from the wild buffet for an early lunch were a couple of wild apples, a pear and a plum. 🌱
Not to be taken too quickly. A couple of twiggy branches with green and yellowing leaves. However a mass of what in the image look almost a light blue mass of actually dark purple sloes adorning the branches. Nominative determination shows if you rush when picking, you will proffer a blood sacrifice.
August 11, 2025 at 10:32 AM