Melissa Bliss
banner
melissa-b.bsky.social
Melissa Bliss
@melissa-b.bsky.social
gardening | nature | kinship carer | radical history | research | London
This looks a fantastic tool for people involved / interested in local activism
My latest Bellingcat tool is out!

It lets you search what was said in council meetings across the UK and Ireland, and takes you directly to the right part of the video session to verify.

Check it out and let me know what you think! 👇

council-search.bellingcat.com
Bellingcat Council Meeting Transcript Search
Find verbatim quotes from council meetings in the UK and Ireland using this free open source research tool by Bellingcat.
council-search.bellingcat.com
August 29, 2025 at 11:22 AM
Reposted by Melissa Bliss
London's Alleys: Footpath to Kensington Court, W8

www.ianvisits.co.uk/articles/lon...

This side passage off busy Kensington High Street looks poshly unremarkable for the area, but played an important role in the development of electricty.
London’s Alleys: Footpath to Kensington Court, W8
This side passage off busy Kensington High Street looks poshly unremarkable for the area, but played an important role in the development of electricty.
www.ianvisits.co.uk
April 28, 2025 at 6:05 AM
Apple blossom - one of my favourite signs of spring
April 16, 2025 at 6:06 AM
Reposted by Melissa Bliss
With the successful recovery of small mammal species on Hackney Marshes predators have returned, including Kestrels, so we’ve put a kestrel box on a large standing log pile.
#renature
March 10, 2025 at 10:00 AM
Reposted by Melissa Bliss
Families: my child need a specialist provision as they struggled in mainstream resulting in parents losing employment and pupils now at home .

Gov: We need an “inclusive” agenda to get more of these children in mainstream.

Gov: schools need to fix attendance.

CAMHS : 2 years waiting period .
February 12, 2025 at 8:59 PM
Reposted by Melissa Bliss
1/2 In 1954 photo-journalist Grace Robertson accompanied a party of women from a pub in Bermondsey on a day trip to Margate. Her series of photos were published in ‘Picture Post’ under the title of ‘Mothers’ Day Off.’
February 8, 2025 at 8:20 AM
Reposted by Melissa Bliss
Fellow NSA - National Security Agency veterans. Look at what’s happened at the National Cryptologic Museum. They covered up with brown paper the photos of Women in American Cryptology. All in response to President Trump’s anti-diversity executive order.
February 2, 2025 at 4:51 AM
Reposted by Melissa Bliss
Tree limbs clad in a thick cover of epiphytic mosses and ferns cantilever out across water: the very essence of rainforest. 🌎
January 27, 2025 at 7:18 AM
Reposted by Melissa Bliss
🎶
when you go, will you send back
a lettuce from America?
🎶
January 18, 2025 at 9:16 AM
Blimey if I want to be nice to my friends I might give them a bottle of wine or a book. Not a flat in central London.

I do think MPs are very removed from the lives of ordinary people.

www.ft.com/content/88ee...
Tulip Siddiq was given London flat by developer with links to ousted Bangladeshi government
UK City minister still owns King’s Cross property she was handed in 2004
www.ft.com
January 3, 2025 at 4:02 PM
Reposted by Melissa Bliss
New year, new Thesis Whisperer post! This one is all philosophical and stuff. thesiswhisperer.com/2025/01/01/t...
The cultural underbelly
Recently I bought a new car. It’s very fast and very yellow. Here’s a picture of me and Mr ThesisWhisperer with it: I bought my first new car at 50 – a Tesla. Now, four years late…
thesiswhisperer.com
January 1, 2025 at 2:46 AM
Reposted by Melissa Bliss
This is a great piece of writing about an infuriating example of everyday sexism.
I wrote a review of A COMPLETE UNKNOWN: the brand new Bob Dylan bio pic. And I guarantee you it is totally unlike any other critique of the film that you are ever going to run in to. merrillmarkoe.substack.com/p/a-complete...
'A Complete Unknown': The Ballad of TOSHI
And INTRODUCING 'THE TOSHI AWARDS!'
merrillmarkoe.substack.com
December 31, 2024 at 8:22 AM
Reposted by Melissa Bliss
So, let's try doing #duvetknowitschristmas here this evening? People are literally Driving Home For Christmas right now, which MIGHT JUST mean that they'll be sleeping somewhere unusual. 1/
December 24, 2024 at 9:14 AM
Reposted by Melissa Bliss
Things are going from bad to verse
December 23, 2024 at 2:12 PM
Reposted by Melissa Bliss
Roland Hilder - The Weald of Kent

A regular theme for the artist throughout his life

Our woodland is in the Weald of Kent. ‘Weald’ is Old English for woodland, or Wald in Modern German

The Weald has the highest tree cover in England at 28%
December 21, 2024 at 8:54 AM
Reposted by Melissa Bliss
As a youth, Alan Garner was set the task in an English class of adding an extra character to The Canterbury Tales. He wrote about ‘The Spyve’: ‘a fag doun drooped upon his hair-edged lippe/while sold he nylons, rum (ten bob a nippe). Garner ends: ‘he flogged cars upon our pilgrimage.’
December 18, 2024 at 8:42 PM
Reposted by Melissa Bliss
Very proud of my friend Susan who has written this beautiful children’s book. She doesn’t have the marketing machine of Walliams but worth checking out if you like engaging nature writing for kids.
December 18, 2024 at 9:08 PM
Reposted by Melissa Bliss
And as the leaves disappear until spring, a view through what was a thick canopy opens up...

To reveal an ocean. 🌍
December 17, 2024 at 6:34 AM
Reposted by Melissa Bliss
My nephew is one semester away from earning his CPA degree. Last week, as he was wrapping up the semester, he submitted a paper in his technical writing class. The professor said he had run it through an "AI detector" which said there was a 90% chance that three sections of the paper were AI
December 15, 2024 at 8:55 PM
Reposted by Melissa Bliss
Those old roads, deer-carved before man walked them, are routes into England's deep stories. They take us through woods where Woodwoses hunt, Moss Maidens nest. Take us over hollow hills where old kings sleep and tunnels to St. Martin's Land may be found. These are roads into mystery. – Dr. M. Benn
December 14, 2024 at 12:00 PM
Reposted by Melissa Bliss
Dear Men,

We can’t begin to tackle the problem of declining men’s mental health until we start properly joining the dots - something that a lot of us seem unwilling or unable to do – I’m not quite sure which.

Probably a bit of both.

A Friday night thread🧵👇🏿
a man with a mustache says " i 'm a man " in front of him
ALT: a man with a mustache says " i 'm a man " in front of him
media.tenor.com
December 13, 2024 at 9:02 PM
Reposted by Melissa Bliss
I've started building an eclectic starter pack of accounts that make the internet a happy, fun, inspiring place - but I need your help!

Please reply with your favourite curated accounts - from farming to found photos, obscure etymology, music & LGBTQ history - I'm not fussy.

go.bsky.app/NkKNkeL
November 15, 2024 at 9:19 PM
Reposted by Melissa Bliss
Thames
December 13, 2024 at 8:25 AM
Reposted by Melissa Bliss
Yesterday we published an article in @natureportfolio.bsky.social's @natprot.bsky.social about the experiences of @independentsage.bsky.social communicating science; from our organisation and establishment to the learning points we took from the process.
1/4
rdcu.be/d3n6s
Independent SAGE as an example of effective public dialogue on scientific research - Nature Protocols
The members of Independent SAGE reflect on their experience in setting up, developing and running a science communication platform and service to the public during the COVID-19 pandemic
www.nature.com
December 13, 2024 at 7:44 AM