Wishing, many years later, I still had this harebell, that lavender. Here’s to 2022 and the resolve to take cuttings and save seeds. Which is to say “Keep ‘er lit”. xx

Hillsborough Gardens this morning #NI100

Such colour, for late December

A ‘former customs guard hut on the Border’? No it isn’t, however many times you print this photo and say it is. You can’t have a customs post on an actual border. There were two posts. One in each jurisdiction. No photos of Killeen or Carrickarnon?

A damp and dark morning on University Rd ⁦Seamus Heaney Centre⁩. Between the last rose of summer and the whin, a blackbird. Ah Ciaran

Can’t wait. Indebted to Lego Lost At Sea for all the virtual beachcombing, and to 📚 Peggy Hughes 👟 🌱 on whose timeline I discovered it. One for you @Backmuir ?

I’m greyer and, well… all kinds of older. But still here, unlike the tree and the shrubbery framing me in this pic. If I weren’t reading, I’d be in the audience for the other three. Conor Lecture Theatre. See you there.

"I like maps, because they lie. Because they give no access to the vicious truth." newyorker.com/magazine/2014/…

Well this was hugely enjoyable. Thanks to The John Hewitt Society LOOK NORTH - The North Belfast Festival and to Hurchin Home for the introductions.

Alfie’s Feet #ShirleyHughes 💔

Congratulations to Sheila Llewellyn, shortlisted for her marvellous Winter in Tabriz

Here is a picture, faded but happy, of a murdered man who matters. He matters to his family of course, but he should also matter to those who vote for the one mainstream party in western Europe that still believe terrorism is justified. He is Douglas Deering. 1/

Thrilled for Sheila and the utterly haunting Winter in Tabriz.

First, diseased and defoliated ash trees. Now this chestnut leaf miner. 😢

The bomb detonated at 3.10pm on 15th August 1998, in the centre of Omagh - 24 years ago. My phone went crazy and then the network jammed. We visited the scene 2 days later. To the youngsters who think it was all a big heroic fairytale, I wish you could see what I saw that week.

"That brief formal statement at 12.34pm today is a mighty blow. Intellectually we realised this day would arrive. But emotionally we are not remotely prepared for it at all. Facing into the darkest of winters, it seems deeply symbolic of a world gone awry" belfasttelegraph.co.uk/opinion/column…

Thoughts tonight with Myra Vennard (1929-2022) and those who loved her. @DonaldsonMoyra ACNI Writing @Backmuir Her deeply affecting poems still shimmering.

Jim McElroy - Irish Book Awards Great to be reminded what an absolute corker this poem is. On so many levels. irishbookawards.ie/nominee/jim-mc…

funeraltimes.com/saraheisel-ble… Our dearly-loved daughter -in-law, Sarah.