Penelope Friday
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penthewriter.bsky.social
Penelope Friday
@penthewriter.bsky.social
1.5K followers 1.8K following 610 posts
Novelist (Bella Books & Nine Star Press) and Regency Period writer.

This is my happy place.

Find photos of cats & Cornwall, good news, funny things, updates of writing, and always ALT TEXT! #writersky

No alt text, no follow.

http://penelopefriday.com
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penthewriter.bsky.social
What’s this? Is it @penthewriter.bsky.social a day late for #Caturday again? Perhaps that’s why Ares is looking at me so susiciously in this picture, suddenly alert as if he thinks I’m Up To Something…
#cats
#CatPhotos
#photography
Toy get cat whose front half is sitting up, alert, but his back half is still curled up in a nest of duvet and curtain. He is staring straight at the camera with suspicious green eyes.
October 27, 2025 at 6:48 PM
penthewriter.bsky.social
I wanted to make this view of #Penzance look as much like a postcard as I could. Do you think I succeeded?
#CornwallPhotos
#photography
#Cornwall
A view across Penzance, with the sea in front and behind, in the town, a church “with ears” (the four little turrets sticking up from the tower, which is a typically Cornish style, and used to be something we looked out for on journeys to Cornwall as meaning we were getting close to the destination). It is all in faded colours.
October 20, 2025 at 5:35 PM
penthewriter.bsky.social
I have been slacking on photos of #Cornwall, so have one of Drift Reservoir.
There is a lake in the middle of the picture (technically a reservoir, but lake makes it sound prettier and it is quite picturesque). On the far side are rolling fields of green grass, rimmed with hedges, in typical British tamed countryside fashion. On the near side, browning bracken grows, then stumbling yellowy grass. The sky above is a light blue/grey, reflected in the colour of the lake.
October 11, 2025 at 5:41 PM
penthewriter.bsky.social
My spouse bought me flowers the other day, just because. They make me happy.
#bloomscrolling
#FlowerSky
#FlowerPhotos
#photography
#BadPhotography
Some pinkish red carnations in a thin wide green vase. There is a silver dragon head poking out between them at the back, which is the end of an athame, as the vase is balanced on my witch cabinet. There are also a couple of bits of rose quartz in view.
September 19, 2025 at 10:40 PM
penthewriter.bsky.social
Sometimes you just need a picture of a sleeping cat to remember not everything is stressful. #CatSky #CatPhotos #cat
Brown Cat with spotty back and striped legs curled up, her nose tucked into her legs (both forelegs and back legs as they’re all tangled up together). There is a hint of tail curled round her back legs.
September 11, 2025 at 12:10 PM
penthewriter.bsky.social
I really liked this idea, and it needed a sunflower picture to go with it, so here we go.

Resist fascism and make room for joy :)
A picture of sunflowers in front of red velvet curtains (a slight gap between them) with the words “MAKE ROOM FOR JOY” written at one side.
September 7, 2025 at 5:03 PM
penthewriter.bsky.social
Sometimes it feels like everything is a little bit…upsidedown.

#CatSky
Late for #Caturday again
#CatPhotos
#cats
Picture of a Serengeti cat (small brown and spotted) curled up into a ball into such a shape that her head is upsidedown and she is looking up towards the ceiling. You can see one ear and one big green eye, her front paws under her chin, and her tail curled neatly round her bottom and back legs. She is lying in the curve of a large U shaped pillow. She is my baby and if you don’t think she’s beautiful, you’re wrong.
September 7, 2025 at 4:00 PM
penthewriter.bsky.social
For #Caturday, The occasion on which my Ares #cat met a #dog for the first and only time and, having no common sense, decided to stroll straight up to his face. (He then hissed at him & ran away, which the poor visiting dog took very well and calmly.) Dog was 4 times his size…
#CatPhotos #DogPhotos
A stripy cat is approaching from the left hand side of the picture, ears pricked forward and nose out, staring at a dog. On the right hand side, the dog lounges peacefully, looking towards the cat with his nose pointing directly at him. They are about six to eight inches apart. Between them is a turquoise cushion with the dog’s red lead lying over it. Behind is a leopard print blanket.
August 31, 2025 at 1:13 AM
penthewriter.bsky.social
Zula is my girl, and it’s been a difficult evening, watching a football match where my team has been playing disastrously. She looks about as happy with it as I was.
#cats
#CatPhotos
#CatSky
Close up of brown cat’s head, looking to the right of the picture. She looks pensive, probably thinking “does zie have to get in my face to take another picture?”
August 27, 2025 at 9:07 PM
penthewriter.bsky.social
Time for a little #Bloomscrolling. Unfortunately, my knowledge of flowers is very limited, so I’m reliant on someone else to tell me what either the yellow or pink (although it was more purple in real life) flowers are.
#FlowerSky #photos #photography #FloraSky
A cluster of yellow petaled flowers with brown centres take up the lower part of this photo, the petals all drooping away from the centre. From the left hand side, a tall plant with small clusters of pinky-purple petals rises, almost to the top of the photo. (They were more purple in real life than they seem here.) The background has a dark green bush against a stone wall, though the wall is hard to see for bush.
August 24, 2025 at 6:07 PM
penthewriter.bsky.social
It’s #caturday! And Zula wants to know what you have been doing to deserve the pleasure of her company. #CatSky #CatPhotos
Brown spotty cat is lying on her side but has her head turned to look straight into the camera. She has big green eyes, her ears are pricked up, and she looks as if she is asking, “what?”
August 23, 2025 at 12:53 PM
penthewriter.bsky.social
#Godrevy beach in #Cornwall, looking beautiful as ever. A good place for seal spotting, and there is in fact a tiny seal pup by the side of the near rockface, but he just looks like a white blob.
Taken by my son, whose camera is better than mine! But whose #photos also are. #cornwallsky #photosky
View down onto a sandy beach between two rocky cliffs. The blue sea glides gently into the shore with little ruffles of white foam. Further out in the sea are individual brown rocks sticking up, and to the top right of the photo, some rocks push out from the land, making the beach into a tiny cove.
August 20, 2025 at 4:16 PM
penthewriter.bsky.social
Zula looking cute on a Monday.
Cat lying on her side, showing her very spotty underside. Her paws are held up in a begging position, her eyes are large and green, and you can only see one of her ears. She is lying on a marbled bedsheet and there is random mess in the background.
August 18, 2025 at 7:04 PM
penthewriter.bsky.social
Whilst I’m not going to win naturalist medals for this bird photo, I’m pleased with this picture of a herring gull I took at #Porthleven the other day. (I have others where his head is fully visible, but I liked him cleaning his feathers.) #BirdSky #BirdPhotos #Cornwall #photography
Herring gull cleaning its feathers with its beak. It is standing on the edge of a pier with a ridiculously beautiful turquoise sea behind, upon which a boat can be seen to the right, and reflections of others in the water to the back of the photo.
August 10, 2025 at 10:51 AM
penthewriter.bsky.social
Poetry isn’t my strongest suit, though I’ve been published in the past. And I apologise for bringing down the tone from cheerful and/or photos with this poem.

But it’s #SevereMEDay and I’ve been ill for 32+ years, so it deserves some acknowledgement.
It was one of those nights when pain Like a rusty nutcracker held by a determined drunk woman Had me in its grasp. Pressing and pushing on differing areas With a determination far better suited and booted For a different cause. While friends, such as paracetamol and breathing techniques Pulled at her, whispering her name, trying in vain To persuade her away. Where the long hours seemed interminable, Falling into one another and back out In waves of silver agony. She loosened her grip, that drunk woman, eventually. The nutcracker still holds me; it always does. Just not so tight, right now.
August 8, 2025 at 11:36 PM
penthewriter.bsky.social
Sometimes I’m almost embarrassed to have moved to such a beautiful area. We went out (Very exciting if you’re as disabled as I am) to #Porthleven for an hour today, and it looked beautiful. #Cornwall
#PhotoSky
#HarbourPhotos
#Photography
A harbour. The sea is a ridiculously beautiful turquoisey-blue colour, with a number of small boats dotted all over its water. In the foreground is a small patch of concrete with a herring gull standing on the edge. In the background, there is a quay with people walking up and down it, a few cars, and then buildings and houses behind, building up into the hillside before it turns into an abundance of trees.
August 6, 2025 at 2:29 PM
penthewriter.bsky.social
It might not be #Caturday but it’s always a good day for pictures of cats, as I’m sure #CatSky would agree. So here are Zula (near) and Ares (back) curled up on my bed with me.

They’re not related, but they’re the most sibling cats ever, sometimes fighting and sometimes curled up together.
Two cats lying on their sides, curled in opposite directions so that their heads are together and so are their back legs, but their backs curve away from one another. The close one is light brown and spotty, though the spots aren’t very vivid; the further one is brown with darker brown stripes. They are both lying on a blue duvet and staring off into the distance; the nearer cat looks suspicious (she isn’t, it’s her default expression) and the further cat looks wistful (I don’t know how, he’s probably wondering whether it’s worth getting up to pounce on whatever has caught their attention). There’s a bookshelf in the background with books on one side and folders on the other. The folders also contain (printed copies of) books.
August 4, 2025 at 11:08 AM
penthewriter.bsky.social
My parents have just moved from the other end of the country to live close by to me. We’ve lived close to each other all of my life until I moved last December, so I’m thrilled they decided to move down this way too. (Picture from their garden)
Purple and yellow pansies, with green leaves, and some brown dead leaves underneath.
August 1, 2025 at 1:11 AM
penthewriter.bsky.social
An attempt at #Bloomscrolling with some very pretty pansies in my parents’ new garden.
Purple pansies, with a large purple and white one in the foreground of the picture. They have green leaves surrounding them (some their own, some not) and beneath that, a bed of soil and brown autumn leaves from the large trees (not in the picture) that stand over them.
July 29, 2025 at 10:40 PM
penthewriter.bsky.social
I don’t usually post videos, but if you want something very soothing to watch, try this. There’s no sound, it’s just a video of the sea doing what it does on a calm summer evening. #Penzance #Cornwall #PhotographySky
Courtesy of my son.
July 29, 2025 at 4:43 PM
penthewriter.bsky.social
An attempt at an arty picture (not *just* because it’s in monochrome!) with the image of a young man standing alone skimming stones on #Marazion beach.
#CornwallPhotos
#SkyPhotography
#Cornwall
A beach, pictured in monochrome. The sand gives way to a line of seaweed, then to pebbles, and more seaweed, in lines to some degree. The sea laps at the shore and is choppy but not particularly wavy; the place where sea and sky meet is visible just at the top of the picture (yes, I know there’s a word for that, but my brain fog steals words, and it has taken that one). On the shoreline, a young man in a jumper, cap, shorts, and trainers is skimming stones.
July 27, 2025 at 10:37 PM
penthewriter.bsky.social
For #Caturday, I thought you guys might like Zula producing the most enormous yawn! I was quite chuffed I managed to catch it on camera, but I swear the yawn is almost bigger than she is! #CatSky #CatPhotos
Small brown cat, of whom we can only see the head and the beginning of the body, facing right as we look at her, and producing the largest yawn known to cat-kind. Her eyes are closed, her teeth are fangily visible and her tongue is fascinatingly curled in a backwards S shape in her mouth. She is lying on a blue duvet with white and black dotted lines across it.
July 26, 2025 at 4:57 PM
penthewriter.bsky.social
Spouse piggy-backed me down to the sea today and I got to go swimming*! It was splendid and not nearly as cold as the Cornish sea sometimes can be, even if spouse and son thought I was silly.

*after taking codeine before we left home, and sleeping both before and after, in usual disability fashion!
Picture of St Michael’s Mount. The sky above it is greyish, while the blue-grey sea is mostly calm with just a hint of waves. The predominantly sandy beach is littered with brown seaweed, with level which are mostly pebbles too.
July 25, 2025 at 9:48 PM
penthewriter.bsky.social
And to make up for my posts dithering about emails, here’s a #photo I call, “how long does #Penzance have before its railway falls into the sea?”
#cornwall
#SkyPhotography
#SkyCornwall
Image looking across the bay from one side of Penzance to the other. At the front of the picture is a railway line, behind which is a wall a couple of feet high and then immediately the coast. Waves can be seen coming in towards the shore, though the shore itself is not visible behind the wall. On the left of the picture, the sea drifts on into the distance, not quite kissing the sky at the very edge of the photo, while in the middle on the far side of the sea are buildings, including a typically Cornish “church with ears” as we always used to call them growing up. To the right, the railway continues meandering its path and you can not quite see into the furthest corner of the cove.
July 23, 2025 at 1:33 PM
penthewriter.bsky.social
I took this #photo as a sort of ‘hit and hope’ - the sun was so bright, I couldn’t see what I was taking, but I’m pleased with the way it came out, with the opening of the harbour framing the sunlit water *and* St Michael’s Mount. #Cornwall
#skyphotography
#CornwallPhotos
#Penzance
Boats in a harbour in the left hand side of the picture. The sunlight glitters on the sea in a strip down the middle which seems to lead straight through the opening out of the harbour to St Michael’s Mount in the distance. The sky above is grey-blue and full of clouds, and some are dark-grey where most are white. Nonetheless, they are lit by sunlight and seem to shine in the sky.
July 20, 2025 at 9:05 AM