Rob Read
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robkread.bsky.social
Rob Read
@robkread.bsky.social
450 followers 640 following 280 posts
Gardener and beekeeper at Flourish Walled Garden, St Catherine’s, Balby. RHS Level 3 qualified (Askham Bryan in 2023-24)
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robkread.bsky.social
Rob Read @robkread.bsky.social · Jul 13
Just spotted Raynor Winn in the centre court crowd there, preparing for her next book on how she and Moth won the mixed doubles #wimbledon
Reposted by Rob Read
gardenersworldmag.bsky.social
Show us your autumn leaves! 🍁 Show us the trees and other plants with resplendent foliage that you've seen by adding a photo below, and we'll share some of our favourites.
November 9, 2025 at 6:00 PM
robkread.bsky.social
Tree of the day #flourish
November 5, 2025 at 7:55 AM
Reposted by Rob Read
helenbarrett.bsky.social
Mamdani's speech is SO GOOD: respectful, generous, sparkling.
For as long as we can remember, the working people of New York have been told by the wealthy and the well-connected that power does not belong in their hands. Fingers bruised from lifting boxes on the warehouse floor, palms calloused from delivery bike handlebars, knuckles scarred with kitchen burns: These are not hands that have been allowed to hold power. And yet, over the last 12 months, you have dared to reach for something greater. Now, I know that many have heard our message only through the prism of misinformation. Tens of millions of dollars have been spent to redefine reality and to convince our neighbors that this new age is something that should frighten them. As has so often occurred, the billionaire class has sought to convince those making $30 an hour that their enemies are those earning $20 an hour.
November 5, 2025 at 6:32 AM
Reposted by Rob Read
artinsociety.bsky.social
Raoul Dufy displays his characteristic lively and colourful touch in this travel poster for Normandy, commissioned by the French Railways (c 1952)
bucolic green scene with table and chairs in foreground, cow in field, red and blue hotel on edge of road, and steamships sailing on the of water in background
October 27, 2025 at 7:03 AM
Reposted by Rob Read
liamthorp.bsky.social
The legend that is the Japanese Ambassador to the UK enjoying a bowl of Scouse in Liverpool
October 25, 2025 at 9:55 AM
Reposted by Rob Read
flygirlnhm.bsky.social
I HATE IT

A pointless but utterly destructive decoration. Why do our human festivities have to result in fatalities in other biota?

#hallowean
October 23, 2025 at 4:40 PM
Reposted by Rob Read
humanistsociety.bsky.social
Sunday thought for the day:

You don’t need the threat of eternal punishment to be good. True morality comes from empathy, reason, and doing right even when no one’s watching.

However you choose to spend your Sunday, we hope you have a wonderful time 💗
October 19, 2025 at 6:30 AM
Reposted by Rob Read
andrewbeasleyfootball.com
- The total delay for taking free-kicks in Newcastle 2-3 Liverpool was 27 minutes and seven seconds.
- Arsenal have used up 40 minutes and six seconds taking corners in their seven games this season.

Some remarkable stats in this @optaanalyst.optajoe.com article theanalyst.com/articles/pre...
Ball in Play: Are We Seeing Less Football in the Premier League This Season? | Opta Analyst
Are we seeing less of the ball in play in the Premier League this season? We look at all the Opta data to find out.
theanalyst.com
October 11, 2025 at 4:51 PM
Reposted by Rob Read
paulsingh.bsky.social
Maybe the unions will finally realise that it’s better to have a Labour government then a Conservative / Reform government?

leftfootforward.org/2025/10/tuc-...
TUC warns Tory plan to leave the ECHR is an attack on workers’ rights
The TUC has warned that the Tory plan to withdraw from the (ECHR) ‘isn’t about migration, it’s about dismantling the legal protections that ordinary people rely on every day’.
leftfootforward.org
October 8, 2025 at 6:20 PM
robkread.bsky.social
Ah, so I see what Jenrick means about wanting to live in a properly integrated society
October 8, 2025 at 6:51 AM
robkread.bsky.social
Well done Google AI … “there’s no new Slow Horses tonight because it’s released on a Wednesday and today is Wednesday”
October 1, 2025 at 5:41 PM
Reposted by Rob Read
coolbikeart1.bsky.social
Maria and her gang of renegade children show us what cycling paradise looks like in The Sound of Music (1965)

Happy #BicycleBirthday, Julie Andrews!
Born October 1, 1935
October 1, 2025 at 4:01 AM
Reposted by Rob Read
pickardje.bsky.social
hardly anyone will watch Starmer's appearance at Labour conference today but it was probably the best speech he's ever given

he clearly signposted what he stands for - a diverse, tolerant, decent Britain - and how be believes progressives are in an existential fight with the populist right
September 30, 2025 at 2:09 PM
Reposted by Rob Read
ahistoryinart.bsky.social
William Rothenstein painted 'The Gardener,' during the 1930s while living in the village of Far Oakridge, in the English Cotswolds. In his memoirs, he wrote about his admiration for local craftspeople and the enduring rural traditions he discovered in Gloucestershire.
September 24, 2025 at 7:37 PM
Reposted by Rob Read
t0nyyates.bsky.social
I read David Reich's book on ancient human history a while back but I'm sure it's already out of date now. news.harvard.edu/gazette/stor...
Pure bloodlines? Ancestral homelands? DNA science says no. — Harvard Gazette
Geneticist explains recent analyses made possible by tech advances show human history to be one of mixing, movement, displacement.
news.harvard.edu
September 20, 2025 at 8:23 AM
Reposted by Rob Read
stalwartplants.bsky.social
One of my favourites, Lychnis coronaria (Silene coronaia). Looks wonderful here against the yellow froth of Alchemilla mollis flowers.

#silene #silenecoronaria #lychnis #lychniscoronaria #rosecampion #stalwartplants
August 30, 2025 at 9:00 PM
robkread.bsky.social
William Carlos Williams’ first draft
tonyjw.bsky.social 🌱 Tony's Allotment Tales 🌱🏴 Israel doesn't do ceasefires @tonyjw.bsky.social · Aug 13
I just can't help myself, I've been eating way too many of these plums, I can't make my mind whether they taste better warm straight off the tree or cold out of the fridge.
Part of a "Victoria" plum tree, heavily laden with ripe fruit, branches are weighed down and fruit almost touches the ground.
August 13, 2025 at 5:06 PM
Reposted by Rob Read
lrb.co.uk
‘For Ian Penman, Satie is more than a joker. He is the supreme practitioner of a species of art forever undervalued by solemn-minded dullards, and which is anything but trivial.’

@jonathancoe.bsky.social on Erik Satie:

www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
Jonathan Coe · Don’t we all want to be happy? Satie against Solemnity
Erik Satie is the progenitor of torch songs and lounge music, systems music and minimalism, even (with his later...
www.lrb.co.uk
August 10, 2025 at 7:08 PM
Reposted by Rob Read
13sarahmurphy.bsky.social
Just the supposed ‘paper of record’ bemoaning the fact that asylum seekers have *human* rights and may be able to enforce them. Accompanied - ultra cynically - by a photo of Human Rights lawyer, Amal Clooney, at a glamorous fundraiser. What a sly and deeply unpleasant rag The Times now is.
Headline and first 2 paragraphs Migrants can use rights laws to evade deportation Loopholes could undermine treaty with France Matt Dathan Home Affairs Editor Small boat migrants will be able to frustrate attempts to deport them to France under Sir Keir Starmer's returns deal by exploiting human rights laws, according to the treaty's terms. Under the terms of the agreement with France, migrants will be ineligible for deportation if they have outstanding human rights claims or other legal challenges or claim they are under 18. These are among potential loopholes that threaten to undermine Labour's attempt to end Channel crossings. The treaty also gives France and other European Union member states an effective veto over which individuals are returned.
August 6, 2025 at 7:34 AM
Reposted by Rob Read
bbka.org.uk
This year has seen high number of social wasps. This puts pressures from robbing to stress on colonies.
Narrowing entrances, care when opening hives and feeding. Check colonies are bee tight. Watch for weak colonies and nucs. Narrow entrances, corridors or moving are options.
August 3, 2025 at 8:10 AM
robkread.bsky.social
Prompted by an ad for a tacky clock in the Metro, TIL that ‘In Flanders Fields’ is a pro-war poem (in the voice of dead soldiers it urges living soldiers to keep fighting) written in early years of WWI. Never realised
July 29, 2025 at 6:53 AM
Reposted by Rob Read
naturelark.bsky.social
Water Mint, Mentha aquatica, in a drainage ditch on the golf course on Mitcham Common. I love the smell of a big patch of Water Mint. #WildflowerHour #DeadnettleFamily #DitchLife
July 27, 2025 at 7:26 PM
robkread.bsky.social
@garybainbridge.bsky.social and she is called …
lickedspoon.bsky.social Debora Robertson @lickedspoon.bsky.social · Jul 27
On German TV, they said she was called Greta? Not sure how or why she was there, but she looked very excited and sweet.
July 27, 2025 at 7:37 PM
Reposted by Rob Read
silencedrowns.com
Tom Lehrer made all of his music 100% public domain so if seeing people sad about his death makes you want to check them out… it’s free. he wanted you to share them.

tomlehrersongs.com
July 27, 2025 at 5:37 PM
robkread.bsky.social
England need to send on that one who comes on and scores equalisers. But do it in this half
July 27, 2025 at 4:27 PM