When clearing my gran’s house out (she has dementia & won’t be going home) I found an envelope in a box of keepsakes: ‘my trip to Kyiv’. She visited me in 1997. She was 66, recently widowed and had lived a modest life in mining villages. Ukraine had been independent for 6 years.

When you’re looking for pilaf rice recipes and the supermarket one calls for fresh guinea fowl stock 👇

This is the title of my next album Duolingo #DramaInTheMiniMarket

Fascinating blog. Always hated the way ‘like a fishwife’ has become such a derogatory phrase (nag, shrieking gossip, foul-mouthed etc) - these women worked hard, had to be physically tough, controlled/managed the family finances & supported each other at work #womenshistory

A small gift to the uninitiated: Listen to Radio Paradise It’s a gorgeous and eclectic radio station with minimal chat and great music, whatever your taste. A real simple pleasure.

Today’s #GoogleDoodle is a lovely surprise #AlanRickman google.com/doodles/celebr…

A cautionary tale as we enter holiday season

“For the growing good of the world is partly dependent on unhistoric acts; and that things are not so ill with you and me as they might have been is half owing to the number who lived faithfully a hidden life, and rest in unvisited tombs.” Middlemarch: George Eliot.

If you laid all the tweets about the earth being flat end to end they would go around the earth 6.4 times. #fact

Mother’s Day. To all of you that made all of them - the bright and the beautiful; the loving and the kind. Mothers that gather up and make each your own. To all of ours here and gone. For the long haul and the brief beautiful minutes. You are wonderful. These hours are yours.

If you enjoyed this thread about wildlife, please share the first post and follow me for more content: James Lucas

Thread of amazing places you (probably) didn't know existed 🧵 1. Castle of Vezio, Italy

One more call to Gloucestershire writers: join me and colleagues at the University of Gloucestershire for a FREE Creative Writing workshop on Thursday 15th August. We look forward to seeing you there for what's going to be a very creative and fun day!