Michelle Bailat-Jones
LightNews LightNews
banner
mbailatj.bsky.social
Michelle Bailat-Jones
@mbailatj.bsky.social
940 followers 570 following 700 posts
novelist/translator/reader, here for the sharpened pencils, books & writing talk, for all things language and foliage, for all the shiny things & shadows. (Eng, Fr, 日本語, Ital) Rep'd by Simon Trewin.
www.michellebailatjones.com
Posts Replies Media Videos
mbailatj.bsky.social
Quite/quiet wintery ce matin
Black and white photo of a tree and building in a snowy village
November 21, 2025 at 9:57 AM
mbailatj.bsky.social
More texture....
new entry for the catalogue of tiny pleasing things
Close up of sage leaves with frost beads melting in the morning sun
November 16, 2025 at 9:17 AM
mbailatj.bsky.social
Bookish goodness on my walk to a bakery yesterday
Book exchange box in metal with the word "book" in many different languages on the side.
November 16, 2025 at 9:05 AM
mbailatj.bsky.social
Wisteria, coffee cup, silence, book
A window looking onto a Wisteria vine
November 15, 2025 at 9:49 AM
mbailatj.bsky.social
The autumn Friday morning quiets are about to start, Orangina is practicing
Corner of a book room with cat on a chaise longue in front of red bookshelves and a book-covered armchair
August 29, 2025 at 5:41 AM
mbailatj.bsky.social
Today was 2200 meters high, included marmots and a very bright blue lake.
Photo of an alpine lake and the hillsides around it under a cloudy sky. In the distance is a small glacier visible at the top of a mountain.
August 10, 2025 at 7:27 PM
mbailatj.bsky.social
Not only is Hilton Al's personal history "The Story Part" beautiful and thoughtful and moving, it is a perfect illustration of why we should never ever give creative writing to a statistical-word-order-machine. Language is our tool for explaining thought and wonder; we should fight to keep it ours.
Excerpt reads: I do remember how taken I was by his mind, which didn't so much impose order on things as see order that was already there. Raised in Connecticut in a Catholic household, he had faith-and perhaps that faith would extend to me beyond this moment of possibility? Let me tell you more about this moment, and moments that preceded it, because they all live together: First, you are standing by yourself in the world, and it's fine. Then you blink and find yourself sitting in the palm of someone's hand. That person peers down at you with the look of a connoisseur gazing at a curiosity, until suddenly a shy surprise fills you both and alters the world as you know it. This might be too much to put on one meeting, but it's all true.
July 29, 2025 at 7:04 AM
mbailatj.bsky.social
Went to a small Dorothea Lange exhibit tonight; nothing felt historical, but instead felt now and always.
1939 photo by Dorothea Lange of a man (unemployed lumber man) and woman (his wife) in Oregon, working as migrant bean pickers. The man has his social security number tattooed on his arm. Photo by Dorothea Lange of a gas station, a sign reads, "This is your country, don't let the big men take it away from you."
July 28, 2025 at 7:19 PM
mbailatj.bsky.social
Folded and busy for today's entry for the catalogue of wingtips
Photo of a young seagull on the edge of the water, buildings in the background across the water
July 21, 2025 at 9:02 AM
mbailatj.bsky.social
Bisous, with basil and petunias
A building with a grafitti word "bisous" and a window ledge with basil and pink petunias.
July 20, 2025 at 11:32 AM
mbailatj.bsky.social
En plein vitesse
Photo prise d'une voiture de train, vue sur un lac et les montagnes, la photo est un peu floue / Photo of a lake and mountains, taken through the window of a train carriage
July 18, 2025 at 12:21 PM
mbailatj.bsky.social
délicate, for the catalogue of small brights
Close up photo of leaves and pea plant tendrils, wrapped around twine
July 4, 2025 at 4:20 AM
mbailatj.bsky.social
Sous l'ombre, la petite terrasse au coin du jardin
Photo: Les petits pavés d'une terrasse et la queue d'un chat. Small stones of a garden terrace, the tip of a cat's tail.
July 2, 2025 at 6:42 PM
mbailatj.bsky.social
Texxxxxxturrrrre...
entries from the catalogue of shadows, catalogue of tiny pleasing things
Two square black and white photos on a piece of vieille rose textured fabric. Left photo shows a staircase inside a courtyard (traboule, Lyon), right photo shows the top of an escalator and the station clock with birds in Zurich HB.
July 2, 2025 at 6:15 AM
mbailatj.bsky.social
Sheltering from today's heat on a wall. Carries clouds in its wings. Today's entry for the #catalogueofwingtips
A cream-colored moth on a white wall. The month's wings have brown, lace-like patterns.
June 28, 2025 at 7:36 AM
mbailatj.bsky.social
The first dahlia of the year is perfect #smallbrights
Photo of a peach-colored dahlia
June 27, 2025 at 5:35 AM
mbailatj.bsky.social
Mood
Close up photo of a nigella damascena bloom, quite spiky
June 3, 2025 at 5:29 PM
mbailatj.bsky.social
As happens more often these days, one day it is suddenly summer
Photo of a lake, flowers at the near edge, a sailboat on the water, mountains in the distance.
May 18, 2025 at 5:14 PM
mbailatj.bsky.social
This morning's small brights from the rainy garden

@botanical.bsky.social
Four close-up photos. Top L: baby grasshopper on a leaf; Top R: water droplet caught on a clover; Bottom L: strawberry blossoms; bottom R: baby snails on a tulip
May 8, 2025 at 4:50 AM
mbailatj.bsky.social
Happy Independent Bookstore day to my favorite favorite local bookshop BooksBooksBooks, that happened to open its new beautiful place in Lausanne today ❤️
Bookshelves galore Double floors of a bookshop Double floors of a bookshop, bookstairs
April 26, 2025 at 3:33 PM
mbailatj.bsky.social
Ocean-pretending from the train
A window in an empty train carriage, with a view on a body of water, a boat and mountains in the distance
April 26, 2025 at 1:00 PM
mbailatj.bsky.social
Could not calm my mind enough this afternoon for desk/book/words type work so I ran instead. Empty village roads, serious brights under a grim sky, quiet grazers.
A cloudy gray sky over a field of yellow colza flowers. A meadow of high grass, trees in the background and four cows grazing.
April 24, 2025 at 4:04 PM
mbailatj.bsky.social
Helped pack boxes last night for my favorite local bookstore moving to grander digs this Week, I packed the poetry section and these four did not make it into boxes but came home with me
Four books, from top left: Jane Hirshfield's Ledger; Emily Berry's Unexhausted Time; Kathleen Jamie's Cairn; Omar El Akkad's One day everyone will have always been against this
April 24, 2025 at 11:17 AM
mbailatj.bsky.social
Yesterday's entry for the catalogue of wingtips - evil swan and fiery tulips
#catalogueofwingtips
Photo of Lake Geneva, looking toward the Rhône valley; a cloudy sky and in the foreground are purple and red flowers, a white dot on the lake is a swan
April 14, 2025 at 7:22 AM
mbailatj.bsky.social
Today's entry for the catalogue of fragile things
Angry alt text: Photo of hyacinth bloom on a blurred finger (blurred on purpose to thwart the AI scraping bastards because my fingerprint was perfectly readable and this gave me pause) ; a baby snail is awake and eating in the center of the flower, it is one of the first of this year's garden snails because it has been far too dry, too warm, and though AI is not wholly responsible, it certainly won't fix the problem, will definitely make it worse, plus I'm tired of it's ultra-unhelpful versions being forced into every single technology (making me complicit by default) instead of the selected areas where it might actually do great things, and it's exhausting and crazy making to watch the billionaires ruin the world for normal people. Non-angry alt text: actually, there is none.
April 13, 2025 at 10:54 AM