Jen Ratcliffe
@jenratcliffe.bsky.social
✏️Writer, birder, boater, poet 🌱 #DailyNature 🌊Water Book Club 🚢 Mess In A Boat Substack 🚂#TravelWriter 🛶#UKCanals 🏆 In The Dark LL 25 WC NatureWriting SL 24 Porthleven SL 23 📰 IntrepidTimes, WaterwaysWorld Telegraph #NatureWriting #NaturePoetry
Bare feet on wet concrete, I tiptoe in and out of space - let rain meet me in embrace, stand under hooded pillars - seek the sky for a birthing point What does breaking rain look like? Freeing itself from its chrysalise cloud... Verbless percussion damp toes Wonderful secrets #DailyNature
Like everywhere, At the moment, The talk all along The canal is the rain. The eager chatter of drips. Gentle whispering Sighs among alder. Reed and iris' High-pitched plinks, The oaks deep exhale. The slow celebration Of slug and snail. #DailyNature #ukcanals #naturepoetry
Well, I’ve now become that person who takes photos of moths in public toilets! Is this normal?? Today’s public convenience finds included (I think) Small China-mark, Dark-bordered Pearl and Common Wave. I was @nationaltrust.org.uk’s The Vyne in Hampshire. #DailyNature #TeamMoth
Calm willow, threading her gold. She shimmers like reeds washed up the river, an old soul. Anxiety bubbles, your braids flicker in return, slow me, plait my heart into comforts Thank you to everyone who came along to today's Nature Writing Workshop online & helped inspired today's #DailyNature post
Congratulations to editor Kerri Andrews & other contributors of Women, Walking, published by Batsford on Thursday. A rich collection of diverse essays exploring who, where, why & how we walk. I particularly enjoyed the final two essays by @helenmort.bsky.social & @katedavispoet.bsky.social.
Has anyone else spotted Otters on the canals? Colour me green!
Naturally Narrow@naturallynarrow.bsky.social · 2d agoWe have otters here, Tim has seen one when he took the dog out late at night. They leave fish bones and crayfish shells about the place. I am sad not to have seen one.
Despite the drought there are lots of wildflowers around #BignorHill particularly hemp agrimony and marjoram and many beautiful butterflies, including Common Blues, Brown Argus, Clouded Yellows. #wildflowers #bigbutterflycount
lonely is the sky and my summer heart now the swifts are gone
I introduced my in-laws to the wonderful world of moth trapping in their garden. They were surprisingly understanding when I filled their fridge with moths! Photos show a Jersey Tiger Moth admiring its picture in a book and a fridge crammed full of moths (and chocolate!) 😀 #DailyNature #TeamMoth
Small reminder my free/ pay what you can nature writing workshop is tomorrow at 6pm We'll be doing a 3 step, 10 minute exercise that will hopefully help you find creativity in nature everyday. Weird, wild and wonderful all welcome www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/how-to-fin... #NatureWriting #NaturePoetry
How To Find Creativity In Everyday Nature
Looking to connect to nature, creativity, community? Join us for this taster writing workshop session hosted by Jen Ratcliffe
eventbrite.co.uk
Pearl glass framed by black-veined embroidery: petals of ants, draped like stiffly ironed capes make it awkward for delicate limbs to crawl the wall. Why you aren't flying? Is it over? Some ants amongst them are so tiny like dust, others are commanding, capable, robust. #DailyNature #NatureWriting
Do the scary thing A lovely welcoming and community atmosphere at the New Mersey Poets Blast in the Park this Saturday. I only managed one of my poems, I have a nervous physical reaction to public presentations 😅, but look here - one whole poem unscathed, next time it will be two 💚💪 #NaturePoetry
Day 2 of August’s #DailyNature comes from 2am! I was out checking the moth trap when I spotted two hedgehogs. 🦔 This wonderful thing was as snoozy as I was! 😴 What an amazing experience!
One pale peppermint, husked and dry. Curved and grooved like the back of a terrapin: a strange flag, that says 'this was once lush'. Bullets of tadpole shaped seeds lay charcoaled against a porridge bleached grass. The hair of dormant, dying gods, matted and crisp. 2 #DailyNature #NatureWriting
I don’t see many Small Tortoiseshells, so it was brilliant to meet this one to celebrate day 1 of August’s #DailyNature! (It was a bonus that it sat still for a photo!) #butterfly #BigButterflyCount @savebutterflies.bsky.social
Beautiful, I love these baubles of summer looking like teasing snowballs
Nighttime on Still Waters@noswpod.bsky.social · 4d agoCanal-side plants Angelica (Wild) The thrum and beat Of cyclists and joggers. Airliners razor between clouds. But the canal Sleeps easy and content. In its reflection, I can read Its dreams. And there Is Angelica by the wall. #DailyNature #ukcanals #plants #bloomscrolling #naturepoetry
Lammas Evensong Brisk, excited chitter of a pair of Blue Tits investigating the Lilac bush beside the window, Rapid ticking of a Robin atop the garden's back fence, The repeated teck-teck call of a Blackcap perching on the neighbour's shed roof, [1/2]
I had the pleasure of writing a guest post for Notes from Nature blog this week. Inspired by my recent Book Club Guest @amandatuke.bsky.social I walked from the outer Cheshire countryside towards the old Roman city walls in search for urban plants open.substack.com/pub/melissal... #NatureWriting
A Nature Walk in July - with Jenni Ratcliffe
A guest post
open.substack.com
On first looks at red kites ❤️ #DailyNature #NatureWriting
Persiflage@persiflage.bsky.social · 5d agoI saw my first one while walking along a road on a dazzling cold day. A shadow passed over me, then along the road, so I looked up and there it was. I had never seen one in the feathers before, but I recognised it instantly 40 years after seeing one in my RSPB Handbook as a bird obsessed kid!
Beautiful sights of nature with still a little lustful green here from Martin 💚 'Crows gathering beyond the cross, Chattering life in the Ash' #NatureWriting #Birdsky #Trees
Martin Brown@martinbr.bsky.social · 5d agoMorning. From this place wet with rain, Crows gathering beyond the cross, Chattering life high in the Ash, Rowan Birch Beech sensing autumn, Waiting, apples & pears in orchard 31/7 #DailyNature #NatureWriting
Happy Lammas! Fancy noticing nature this month with a like-minded community? Join the #DailyNature challenge: 1. Moment in Nature 2. Shared once a day - include the hashtag so others can see. Here is a blog post with more information: open.substack.com/pub/jenratcl... #NatureWriting #Lammas
Join Our August Challenge: Reconnect with Nature
Celebrate Lammas with a free writing workshop, daily journal prompts, and community sharing to ground your month.
open.substack.com
#DailyNature #Lammas 1. Undulating rolls of carbon doused wool, feather, split and dry on the tail end of a blue sky. Their canals of air looking like archipelagos of the sky - whisps like the masts rocks of heaven, the jaws of space entry. I smile at their familiar faces - clouds, we missed you.
Thanks to everyone who came along to this evening's Water Book Club, it was really lovely to see such a turn out... Only one funny moment where I was distracted by the fuel boat float by, right in the middle, and I realised I'd missed my chance to get a new gas bottle 😅 #naturewriting #UKCanals
Water Book Club is Live tonight 7.30pm Katie Carr on her new memoir Thundery At Times Finishing her late brother's challenge to complete all 32 areas of The Shipping Forecast, never before kayaker Katie takes to the ocean on an adventure of her own open.substack.com/live-stream/... #lifewriting
LIVE SOON: Water Book Club Live w/ Katie Carr & Jen Ratcliffe
Starting Jul 30 at 2:30 PM EDT
open.substack.com
Made up to be included in this roundup of #waterways themed podcasts in this month's Waterways World 💚 In such good company too ( @noswpod.bsky.social 👀💙 ) with a few more I definitely need to have a listen of🔊 PS. Our next live episode is tomorrow evening! #UKCanals #Narrowboat #Books #nature
