Ollie Douglas
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olliedouglas.bsky.social
Ollie Douglas
@olliedouglas.bsky.social
Farm boy at @themerl.bsky.social (at Uni of Reading). Looks after old rural stuff in a big shed. On committee of British Agricultural History Society. Active in AIMA, RMN, and Folklore Society. Views own. “Iconic”.
The robot vacuum cleaner decided to fashion itself some fancy dress.
November 6, 2025 at 7:41 AM
In Coimbra for #RuralHistory2025 and the place I’m staying is stuffed full of rural material culture. Seems about right. It’s a bit like having a sleepover @themerl.bsky.social, but warmer.
September 8, 2025 at 7:03 PM
We are just down valley from the edge of a massive 64,000-acre wildfire. It burned over the pass yesterday and crept into Cantabria. We think it has stopped, for now. Thankful for emergency alerts, brave first responders, and amazing neighbours.
August 18, 2025 at 2:32 PM
I’m at a village barbecue in the north of Spain. You guessed it. Absolute Unit in attendance.
August 14, 2025 at 7:31 PM
I took a slow stroll through Oxford this morning, sauntering past the English longhorns on Christ Church Meadow. Absolute Units!
August 13, 2025 at 10:28 AM
I’m on holiday in Spain but the Units abound!
August 7, 2025 at 11:21 AM
Had a quick look because I sometimes run past there and wanted to know where, exactly, it is. In the aerial shot they have what looks like a massive slip-and-slide mat on the hill.
July 25, 2025 at 7:20 PM
First ‘Absolute Units’ makes the @radiotimes.bsky.social and then it appears in the Museums Journal, where I look like a minor regional radio disc jockey circa 1983. What a flashback ride this @themerl.bsky.social podcast is taking us on!
July 7, 2025 at 8:30 PM
Just proving I’m still maintaining Gen Z terminology @themerl.bsky.social, for good or for ill.
June 30, 2025 at 10:41 AM
Decanting a gallery in a heatwave?
June 30, 2025 at 10:18 AM
Conservation scything expert Jim shares incredible insight into the history and importance of theses skills, and his colleague Guy gave me a demonstration. We need to find ways to capture and safeguard these fantastic living skills.
June 25, 2025 at 7:21 PM
Thanks to @judywebb.bsky.social for showing me the amazing work of volunteers helping with nature conservation and ecology @friendlyevalley.bsky.social. So much heritage here that echoes with @themerl.bsky.social.
June 25, 2025 at 7:21 PM
I was also very honoured (and surprised) to be given gifts. I am extremely proud of my amazing wife, Marina de Alarcón, for her part in this dialogue.

Congratulations to you and all your team, @prmlaurita.bsky.social.
June 15, 2025 at 5:36 PM
You can have the added fun of critiquing my folding and stapling skills. And feeding into object-level text for our latest display, The Long Road. 39 down and 36 to go!

[PS. If anyone at work is looking for the extra long stapler, I have liberated it for the day].
June 13, 2025 at 12:32 PM
Free tours @themerl.bsky.social, during which I surprise a guest speaker by pretending to play piano on a display case. Maybe.
June 9, 2025 at 4:12 PM
I’m struggling to find time to garden. I’m also struggling in a world defined by barriers to movement and exclusionary language about difference. Here’s a poem I wrote about this yesterday.
June 9, 2025 at 8:31 AM
Wish I’d known @prehistoricsociety.bsky.social were in Reading for #Europa2025Reading and to celebrate Martin Bell.

The Society came to @themerl.bsky.social in 1954.

Ploughs were exhibited, a tree was felled with a reconstructed axe, and quern stones were demonstrated.
June 7, 2025 at 4:23 PM
I wrote a quick poem to mark my birthday. I was clearly feeling a bit melancholy before work! Much cheerier this evening, but here you go anyway.
June 3, 2025 at 7:11 PM
On brand levels of tillage outside School of Agriculture, Policy, and Development @uniofreading.bsky.social.
June 3, 2025 at 3:56 PM
It was written for recitation more than reading, but here you go.
June 1, 2025 at 9:00 AM
Familiar-sounding discourse on automation from Tom Williams at the 1956 Power Farming Conference:

“In soil conditions one comes up against so many changing factors. … I believe the human brain in immediate control of the machine will be very hard to displace.”

This could be a 2025 opinion piece.
May 30, 2025 at 7:40 AM
@womensinstitute.bsky.social banner, out for a teaching session @themerl.bsky.social today.
May 19, 2025 at 7:03 PM
We need to protect and regenerate landscapes that retain water because it’s getting hotter and drier. Here’s a nice damp bit of bog land in in Oxford, which I took a walk in today.
May 17, 2025 at 4:05 PM
6/6 Maddie Ding and I took Deb on a small pilgrimage to the site of the World Ploughing Championships of 1956. And I then took Deb to visit @pittriversmuseum.bsky.social ,
@morethanadodo.bsky.social,and @ashmoleanmuseum.bsky.social.
May 12, 2025 at 8:17 AM
5/6 And our friend Debra Reid was across from the Henry Ford Museum in the US to talk us through site-based approaches to environment and to get us reflecting on the complexities of representing agricultural pasts in this polycrisis moment.
May 12, 2025 at 8:17 AM