Ysella
@ysella.bsky.social
Based near Exeter, Devon in the UK. Writer, mostly about connection, to each other and the natural world, and always on the lookout for reasons for optimism amongst *all this*
Join me at https://ysella.substack.com/
Join me at https://ysella.substack.com/
🧵 1/Listening to writers @sophiepavs.bsky.social, Poppy Okotcha + climate activist and creative educator @emmadesaram.bsky.social at Bookbag Exeter's latest Writing Nature event it was easy to feel that we still have hope.
May 22, 2025 at 12:43 PM
🧵 1/Listening to writers @sophiepavs.bsky.social, Poppy Okotcha + climate activist and creative educator @emmadesaram.bsky.social at Bookbag Exeter's latest Writing Nature event it was easy to feel that we still have hope.
Pleasing lines on my #dailywalk in mid Devon this morning.
May 5, 2025 at 5:49 PM
Pleasing lines on my #dailywalk in mid Devon this morning.
The cow parsley is in full froth and looks so beautiful with the afternoon sun filtering through it. The blackbird song is joyful too. 🐦⬛ 🎶
#gardening #wildgarden #nature
#gardening #wildgarden #nature
April 30, 2025 at 6:02 PM
The cow parsley is in full froth and looks so beautiful with the afternoon sun filtering through it. The blackbird song is joyful too. 🐦⬛ 🎶
#gardening #wildgarden #nature
#gardening #wildgarden #nature
3./ And so it felt fitting to bring my writing, about home, belonging and identity, back there. In recent weeks I've been immersed in a world of research and interviews, old letters and photos from another continent, trying to unpick the threads to make a story.
April 17, 2025 at 9:55 AM
3./ And so it felt fitting to bring my writing, about home, belonging and identity, back there. In recent weeks I've been immersed in a world of research and interviews, old letters and photos from another continent, trying to unpick the threads to make a story.
2./ I haven't been back to Plymouth for a while but I soon remembered, as I drove through its familiar Friday night streets, that it had been a home of sorts, the place I went to pick up my writing journey as a mature student at Plymouth Uni.
April 17, 2025 at 9:55 AM
2./ I haven't been back to Plymouth for a while but I soon remembered, as I drove through its familiar Friday night streets, that it had been a home of sorts, the place I went to pick up my writing journey as a mature student at Plymouth Uni.
🧵 1./ I've started exploring my Indian heritage and was excited but nervous to share what I've begun to discover at a live performance event, KARST x SOAK, featuring Bharatanatyam dance, historic sound archives, spoken word and music at KARST gallery in Plymouth.
April 17, 2025 at 9:55 AM
🧵 1./ I've started exploring my Indian heritage and was excited but nervous to share what I've begun to discover at a live performance event, KARST x SOAK, featuring Bharatanatyam dance, historic sound archives, spoken word and music at KARST gallery in Plymouth.
It’s cold here this morning in mid Devon - yesterday there was ice on the hen’s water - but these forget me nots are bringing spring to the fringes of my veg plot. They’ve nested amongst velvety stachys, aquilegia, muscari and foxgloves. Sound up for the birdsong - such clarity.
#gardening #nature
#gardening #nature
April 10, 2025 at 9:12 AM
It’s cold here this morning in mid Devon - yesterday there was ice on the hen’s water - but these forget me nots are bringing spring to the fringes of my veg plot. They’ve nested amongst velvety stachys, aquilegia, muscari and foxgloves. Sound up for the birdsong - such clarity.
#gardening #nature
#gardening #nature
April 6, 2025 at 2:38 PM
Magnolias looking resplendent in the spring light at our little local arboretum yesterday.
#nature #gardening
#nature #gardening
April 6, 2025 at 2:38 PM
Magnolias looking resplendent in the spring light at our little local arboretum yesterday.
#nature #gardening
#nature #gardening
We’ve made it! I’m celebrating the #springequinox by putting my hands in the dirt and planting some seeds - cosmos and beans - and thinking of the days to come, moments of watching, growing and delighting 🌱
#gardening
#gardening
March 20, 2025 at 10:16 AM
We’ve made it! I’m celebrating the #springequinox by putting my hands in the dirt and planting some seeds - cosmos and beans - and thinking of the days to come, moments of watching, growing and delighting 🌱
#gardening
#gardening
🇮🇳🪷 These images are of my relatives from Tamilnadu in the early 1900s & I’d like to understand what the way they are dressed can tell me about them and their lives. Can anybody help or point me towards a resource that might be able to? Thanks!
#India #tamilnadu #ancestry #HeritageAndProgress
#India #tamilnadu #ancestry #HeritageAndProgress
March 18, 2025 at 10:10 AM
🇮🇳🪷 These images are of my relatives from Tamilnadu in the early 1900s & I’d like to understand what the way they are dressed can tell me about them and their lives. Can anybody help or point me towards a resource that might be able to? Thanks!
#India #tamilnadu #ancestry #HeritageAndProgress
#India #tamilnadu #ancestry #HeritageAndProgress
Loved Astronomer Royal for Scotland Prof Catherine Heymans’ poetic explanation of this morning’s blood moon as a ‘reflection of light from all the sunrises and sunsets around the entire globe.’ How beautiful is that? 🌏
#weareallconnected #lunareclipse #bloodmoon
Photo credit Luke Pinker
#weareallconnected #lunareclipse #bloodmoon
Photo credit Luke Pinker
March 14, 2025 at 12:08 PM
Loved Astronomer Royal for Scotland Prof Catherine Heymans’ poetic explanation of this morning’s blood moon as a ‘reflection of light from all the sunrises and sunsets around the entire globe.’ How beautiful is that? 🌏
#weareallconnected #lunareclipse #bloodmoon
Photo credit Luke Pinker
#weareallconnected #lunareclipse #bloodmoon
Photo credit Luke Pinker
1./ Late Light, a short 🧵
I recently heard Michael Malay talk about Late Light, his 2024 @wainwrightprize.bsky.social winning book at @thebookery.bsky.social - a memoir laced with natural history, a rich exploration of belonging, migration + extinction.
#naturewriting #booksky
I recently heard Michael Malay talk about Late Light, his 2024 @wainwrightprize.bsky.social winning book at @thebookery.bsky.social - a memoir laced with natural history, a rich exploration of belonging, migration + extinction.
#naturewriting #booksky
March 11, 2025 at 12:34 PM
1./ Late Light, a short 🧵
I recently heard Michael Malay talk about Late Light, his 2024 @wainwrightprize.bsky.social winning book at @thebookery.bsky.social - a memoir laced with natural history, a rich exploration of belonging, migration + extinction.
#naturewriting #booksky
I recently heard Michael Malay talk about Late Light, his 2024 @wainwrightprize.bsky.social winning book at @thebookery.bsky.social - a memoir laced with natural history, a rich exploration of belonging, migration + extinction.
#naturewriting #booksky
And now, following in the snowdrops’ wake come the wild daffodils. These are daintier and paler than the garden varieties and are very happy in this scrap of woodland carpeted with periwinkle next to the river Creedy in Devon.
#nature #naturewriting #gardening
#nature #naturewriting #gardening
March 7, 2025 at 4:38 PM
And now, following in the snowdrops’ wake come the wild daffodils. These are daintier and paler than the garden varieties and are very happy in this scrap of woodland carpeted with periwinkle next to the river Creedy in Devon.
#nature #naturewriting #gardening
#nature #naturewriting #gardening
What’s helping to keep you on track while the world feels like a bin fire? I’ve written about the simple things (planet-spotting, sun-worshipping, mowing) that are helping me at: ysella.substack.com/p/reasons-to...
Tell me what's helping you?
#naturewriting #gardening #reasonstobecheerful
Tell me what's helping you?
#naturewriting #gardening #reasonstobecheerful
March 5, 2025 at 11:53 AM
What’s helping to keep you on track while the world feels like a bin fire? I’ve written about the simple things (planet-spotting, sun-worshipping, mowing) that are helping me at: ysella.substack.com/p/reasons-to...
Tell me what's helping you?
#naturewriting #gardening #reasonstobecheerful
Tell me what's helping you?
#naturewriting #gardening #reasonstobecheerful
These are the little moments. The sun has come out, bringing the speedwell singing, along with the wren and the chaffinch, into the light. Coming from over the road, where men have been working in the sullen grey on a building site all winter, this morning, laughter.
#naturewriting #spring
#naturewriting #spring
February 28, 2025 at 1:33 PM
These are the little moments. The sun has come out, bringing the speedwell singing, along with the wren and the chaffinch, into the light. Coming from over the road, where men have been working in the sullen grey on a building site all winter, this morning, laughter.
#naturewriting #spring
#naturewriting #spring
The sun is shining and so is our chinese witch hazel. There’s a buzz of insects around it, as relieved for the blue skies and scent as we are 🐝🌱 #gardening
February 22, 2025 at 11:53 AM
The sun is shining and so is our chinese witch hazel. There’s a buzz of insects around it, as relieved for the blue skies and scent as we are 🐝🌱 #gardening
A Romany name for February is ‘bita kaulo munthos’ - little black month & in ‘February’ Margaret Atwood calls it, ‘month of despair, with a skewered heart in the centre’. This year, for all the obvious reasons, it’s feeling a bit darker, so I’ve written about it - tell me your reasons for hope? 🧡
February 19, 2025 at 7:35 AM
A Romany name for February is ‘bita kaulo munthos’ - little black month & in ‘February’ Margaret Atwood calls it, ‘month of despair, with a skewered heart in the centre’. This year, for all the obvious reasons, it’s feeling a bit darker, so I’ve written about it - tell me your reasons for hope? 🧡
I’m having a jangly, grief-filled day, but here amongst the peace of the snowdrops and the softly churning river it’s all starting to feel a bit better. #gardening #naturewriting
February 15, 2025 at 2:22 PM
I’m having a jangly, grief-filled day, but here amongst the peace of the snowdrops and the softly churning river it’s all starting to feel a bit better. #gardening #naturewriting
Small signs of hope amongst the existential angst and general February grim on my Devon #morningwalk. Snowdrops, catkins and pussy willow are doing their thing, there’s the first shoots of cuckoo pint and dog’s mercury in the undergrowth and the blue green of daffodils shooting under the trees 🌱
February 11, 2025 at 12:44 PM
Small signs of hope amongst the existential angst and general February grim on my Devon #morningwalk. Snowdrops, catkins and pussy willow are doing their thing, there’s the first shoots of cuckoo pint and dog’s mercury in the undergrowth and the blue green of daffodils shooting under the trees 🌱
A frosty morning in mid Devon, the sheep resting in their crunchy field, nestling against each other, heads lowered as the sun climbs into the pink streaked sky. And after my walk a moment to look at the sparkle up close, the shadows on the grass, the silver shimmer on the succulents.
#naturewriting
#naturewriting
February 6, 2025 at 9:29 AM
A frosty morning in mid Devon, the sheep resting in their crunchy field, nestling against each other, heads lowered as the sun climbs into the pink streaked sky. And after my walk a moment to look at the sparkle up close, the shadows on the grass, the silver shimmer on the succulents.
#naturewriting
#naturewriting
Some epic bumperstickering around Bristol today. A nice egg, now there’s the thing 🐓
February 2, 2025 at 7:26 PM
Some epic bumperstickering around Bristol today. A nice egg, now there’s the thing 🐓
‘… the oaks, once part of ancient hedgerows — wavy lines of hawthorn, oak and dog rose — have been set adrift again, floating islands on a furrowed sea.’
So happy ‘Even the Trees are Lonely’ is up on @caughtbytheriver.bsky.social today amidst all the glorious #naturewriting
🔗 tinyurl.com/22pddyb8
January 25, 2025 at 2:27 PM
‘… the oaks, once part of ancient hedgerows — wavy lines of hawthorn, oak and dog rose — have been set adrift again, floating islands on a furrowed sea.’
So happy ‘Even the Trees are Lonely’ is up on @caughtbytheriver.bsky.social today amidst all the glorious #naturewriting
🔗 tinyurl.com/22pddyb8
Shaking off the week by putting my face into the pale winter sun tramping the mud of Mid Devon. I found snowdrops on the banks of the river Creedy, viburnum and ivy flowering in the flailed hedgerows, pennyworts in the lichened wall and silver lichen in the blackthorn.
#naturewriting #winter
#naturewriting #winter
January 24, 2025 at 3:14 PM
Shaking off the week by putting my face into the pale winter sun tramping the mud of Mid Devon. I found snowdrops on the banks of the river Creedy, viburnum and ivy flowering in the flailed hedgerows, pennyworts in the lichened wall and silver lichen in the blackthorn.
#naturewriting #winter
#naturewriting #winter
They’re lovely girls - I love a cou cou maran. Here’s our little flock. Just out of shot is a blue maran - she’s bonkers but beautiful 🐓
January 16, 2025 at 7:16 PM
They’re lovely girls - I love a cou cou maran. Here’s our little flock. Just out of shot is a blue maran - she’s bonkers but beautiful 🐓