Joanna Hastings

@joannahastings

Writer, editor, lover of dreams and folktales. BLM. Trans Rights. Women's Rights. Refugee Rights. Human Rights. Green Party member. We're all just walking each other home. She/her

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Joanna Hastings@joannahastings· 4d

I just read this book (late to the party, I know) and I was transfixed. It's phenomenal. If you haven't read it, get your hands on it and read. (Also it's amazingly topical in unexpected ways - self-righteous entitled white women pushing bathroom segregation, anyone?). More in alt text.

Kathryn Stockett's book "The Help" focusses on two Black maids in 1960s Mississippi, who form a friendship with a white woman that transforms all their lives. If you think that sounds too worthy, get over yourself – it's utterly gripping, a rollercoaster of love, laughter, pain, joy, malice, violence, triumph, generosity, compassion... Read it already.

Joanna Hastings@joannahastings· 18d

Two largish birds just showed up in my garden, not usual visitors. One landed right outside the window. Anyone know what it is? Juvenile jay? A quick search didn't give an immediate answer and I don't have time to go rabbit-holing. Thank you!

Large bird sitting outside window. Brown upper body, pale underside, black, blue and white flashes on wings.

Joanna Hastings@joannahastings· Jul 13

I will move this bone through worlds others refuse to see. I will shift skins, gather dark medicine. My name will be orphan as I cloak myself in new forms. – Emily C. Banting @cultauthor.bsky.social David Southwell's book is well-water for the soul. description and link in alt text. #Folklore

A photo of Hookland Fragments, Volume One by David Southwell. It's a treasure trove of musing about the nature and presence of folklore, as well as stories, characters, memories, insights and deep magic. If you're interested in folklore, the county of Hookland as revealed by David Southwell is a touchstone and an inspiration. And a call to action. Buy it. www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1068598123

Joanna Hastings@joannahastings· Jul 7

I have this book in pretty immaculate condition, complete with unused DVD. It's very good (look it up), but I don't need it anymore. Does any #educator. #teacher or #school of any kind want it? Will send anywhere in the UK, special preference given to #Sheffield. #MakingThinkingVisible #Education

A shot of the cover of Making Thinking Visible: How to Promote Engagement, Understanding, and Independence for All Learners. Authors are Ron Ritchhart, Mark Church and Karin Morrison. Foreword by David Perkins.

Joanna Hastings@joannahastings· May 25

Add in snails, leafhoppers, long-tailed tits, blue tits, etc, and it's quite the busy place. I'm so glad I didn't pull it out when it was a baby. It gives me a lot of joy. Here's a snail. The end. 5/5

A small snail on a leaf in the shade of another leaf. This heat must be hard on snails.

Joanna Hastings@joannahastings· May 25

The ladybirds also have wild sex, there's never a moment 6 or 7 madly-in-love couples aren't shagging in full view. Makes you sympathise with poor old Lear ("The wren goes to't, and the small gilded fly/Does lecher in my sight.") Wrens also enjoy these aphids, but I haven't seen them shagging. 4/5

A pair of copulating ladybirds going at it hard. Karma Sutra stuff. When did you last have sex upside down on a leaf? Where's your sense of adventure?

Joanna Hastings@joannahastings· May 25

getting excited, of course. But also every stem is thick with black aphids. Ants are farming the aphids for honeydew, which is also attracting wasps, but the ants have to contend with crowds of ladybirds, ladybird larvae and hoverfly larvae who are all marauding around eating the livestock... 3/5

An elder stem, furred with black aphids and sticky with honeydew. Two ladybirds are having breakfast on the stem, and another is on a leaf at the lefthand edge of the photo.

Joanna Hastings@joannahastings· May 25

I suspected it might know something I didn't know. I kept it, but trimmed it back each year. It now grows very thick, and obscures my view a little, but no sign of malevolent spirits, so there's that. Also this elder has turned into a city. It's just coming into flower, so pollinators are... 2/5

My ivy-covered back fence, with the elder poking up halfway along, against a blue sky. The Rivelin valley stretches out behind, just a sea of trees from this angle.

Joanna Hastings@joannahastings· May 25

3 years ago a tiny elder seedling appeared at the end of my tiny garden. I thought about pulling it up, because garden is tiny, but you know, it's traditional to have elder at the back of a house to keep malicious spirits at bay. (Rowan in front, fyi.) This elder appeared voluntarily, so... 🧵 1/5

A lush, leafy, bright green elder just coming into flower. I wish I could photograph the scent for you.

Joanna Hastings@joannahastings· May 17

Wandering around #Crookes for a while after a glass of wine with a friend, and there's this. After a hard, dark winter, May comes to #Sheffield and it's suddenly the most beautiful place in the world.

A view out over Queen Anne's Lace and trees, across a valley to the hills beyond and on into the distance where the sun is sinking behind layers of cloud, grey and turbulent agains wisping white and calm gold in the sunlight on the horizon. Clear blue in patches here and there. An absolute flaunting show-off of a sky.

Joanna Hastings@joannahastings· Apr 27

I added plants and a cat. The water is invisible but I promise the pond is full.

A tiny garden pond framed by stones with a stone Buddha and a calico cat serenely looking on. The pond has a yellow iris plant growing in it now, although not in flower yet so you can't see that it's yellow. But it will be. Also a water violet, which grows underwater and you can't see that either, but maybe next month or in June it will have flowers growing on taller stalks above the surface. You actually can't really even tell that there's water in the pond, it's too clear to see and at this angle there are no reflections, but it is actually full of water and the plants are growing in it.

Joanna Hastings@joannahastings· Apr 26

Water in my tiny pond at last, though I'm sure I'll have to take everything out and rebuild it again. A plant or two tomorrow, maybe.

A little pond made from a large black tub, now (mostly) lined, edged, and underwater-landscaped with various stones I've collected on my stone-collecting way through life. A verdigris statue of a horse prances on a flat stone at the water's edge, and a columbine pushes its leaves through a gap at one corner of the pond. The slugs have already moved in to the nooks and crannies among the edging stones. I'm hoping for frogs some day.

Joanna Hastings@joannahastings· Apr 21

I mean, maybe I'm missing something, but I don't think so? I can't make that interpretation work with this, in my head.

Tony Greenstein 15 April 2026
We are seeing the same 'antisemitism' smears in the Green Party as occured in Labour - the ONLY racism that matters is Zionism.

Joanna Hastings@joannahastings· Apr 18

Looks great. I love Helen Mort's work too. Can also recommend this @longbarrowpress.bsky.social event on the 21st, featuring (brilliant) local poets and a unique local publisher.

Flyer for 'Habitation': a collective reading on the theme of 'land, class, nature' with Angelina D’Roza, Steve Ely, Pete Green, Rob Hindle, Chris Jones, Fay Musselwhite. 7.30pm, Tuesday 21 April, The Harlequin, 108 Nursery St, Sheffield, S3 8GG. Free entry, all welcome.

Joanna Hastings@joannahastings· Apr 17

Sad orange and white cat wearing absurd cone-of-shame type sunflower-shaped ruff around her neck.

Joanna Hastings@joannahastings· Apr 15

This was the actual photo.

A leafless tree almost perfectly framing a pale yellow sun that hangs low in a cloud-blurred orange sky. The tree stands on the horizon of flat, dark land.

Joanna Hastings@joannahastings· Apr 2

A heron patrolling its domain in Sheffield's lovely Porter Brook.

Joanna Hastings@joannahastings· Mar 8

Here's another Rivelin heron!

Heron with a fish (or a frog?) in its beak, standing on a mossy boulder with white water rushing behind it.

Joanna Hastings@joannahastings· Feb 16

Here with alt text

America’s Richest People Are Not Its Most Generous
Only half of the 12 richest people in the United States are on Forbes' list of the 25 biggest givers. (It's possible that some—including Dell, Page and Huang—have given additional undisclosed sums through donor-advised funds.)
Name Net Worth Estimated Lifetime Giving
Elon Musk $780 bil $0.5 bil
Larry Page $270 bil $0.1 bil
Jeff Bezos $250 bil $4.7 bil
Sergey Brin $249 bil $5.1 bil
Larry Ellison $241 bil $1.0 bil
Mark Zuckerberg $213 bil $6.1 bil
Jensen Huang $162 bil $0.2 bil
Warren Buffett $146 bil $68.3 bil
Steve Ballmer $141 bil $6.5 bil
Michael Dell $139 bil $3.3 bil
Rob Walton & family $138 bil $0.8 bil
Jim Walton & family $136 bil $1.5 bil

Source: Forbes reporting.
Note: Data are as of January 16, 2026

Joanna Hastings@joannahastings· Feb 8

@lucympowell.bsky.social has also said if the Greens didn't run, Labour would win. It's *insane* to suggest GP voters would 'simply switch' to Labour. And her take on Muslims? 'They forgot about the massive genocide! Now I'm a star!' Really? WPGB voters will vote as they wish, like everyone else.

Lucy Powell, Labour’s deputy leader and the MP for neighbouring Manchester Central, said it was “lazy” to suggest that the pro-Palestinian Workers party vote would simply switch to the Greens.

From https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2026/feb/08/gorton-denton-byelections-battle-labour-green-reform

Anger over Gaza was “not as vociferous” against Labour as it was in 2024, she said. “I went to a mosque the other day [and] I was treated like a Hollywood star. People would have just turned to turn their backs to me two years ago,” she said.

Joanna Hastings@joannahastings· Jan 14

An aspirational wish for us all, in difficult times. May it happen for you. 💚

Sheenagh Pugh's poem, 'Sometimes'

Sometimes things don’t go, after all,
from bad to worse. Some years, muscadel
faces down frost; green thrives; the crops don’t fail.
Sometimes a man aims high, and all goes well.

A people sometimes will step back from war,
elect an honest man, decide they care
enough, that they can’t leave some stranger poor.
Some men become what they were born for.

Sometimes our best intentions do not go
amiss; sometimes we do as we meant to.
The sun will sometimes melt a field of sorrow
that seemed hard frozen; may it happen for you.

Joanna Hastings@joannahastings· Jan 10

#Sheffield! Anyone need a very big mattress? We bought one over Xmas but instead of king size, a super-king showed up. They said they'd pick it up but they didn't come. Then again. No communication. Anyone want it? Which-recommended! Free! Downside - you pick up ASAP. It's big. @helpsheffield.co.uk

Photo of a bit of grey mattress. SleepSoul label on the end.

Joanna Hastings@joannahastings· Jan 3

Couldn't help thinking that these two looked (charmingly) alike. I hope that on David Attenborough's 100th birthday (8/5 for those who celebrate), a National Holiday is announced and we all have wildlife parties and feed hedgehogs and foxes and there is much rejoicing.

David Attenborough with his tufty white hair, holding a peregrine falcon chick with tufty white fluff on its head (and body), David with an open-mouthed grin, the chick with its beak open. Adorable, both of them.

Joanna Hastings@joannahastings· Dec 31

Happy New Year, Paul.

Year’s End

By Richard Wilbur

Now winter downs the dying of the year,
And night is all a settlement of snow;
From the soft street the rooms of houses show
A gathered light, a shapen atmosphere,
Like frozen-over lakes whose ice is thin
And still allows some stirring down within.

I’ve known the wind by water banks to shake
The late leaves down, which frozen where they fell
And held in ice as dancers in a spell
Fluttered all winter long into a lake;
Graved on the dark in gestures of descent,
They seemed their own most perfect monument.

There was perfection in the death of ferns
Which laid their fragile cheeks against the stone
A million years. Great mammoths overthrown
Composedly have made their long sojourns,
Like palaces of patience, in the gray
And changeless lands of ice. And at Pompeii

The little dog lay curled and did not rise
But slept the deeper as the ashes rose
And found the people incomplete, and froze
The random hands, the loose unready eyes
Of men expecting yet another sun
To do the shapely thing they had not done.

These sudden ends of time must give us pause.
We fray into the future, rarely wrought
Save in the tapestries of afterthought.
More time, more time. Barrages of applause
Come muffled from a buried radio.
The New-year bells are wrangling with the snow.

Joanna Hastings@joannahastings· Dec 26

Hordron stone circle with family.

Moorland, and more moorland in the distance as the Edges of the Peak District fold towards the horizon. Two standing stones from a small stone circle are in the foreground, with two humans, wrapped up against the wind. Sky is streaked with clouds, blue sky showing through the gaps between them. Thin winter sunlight.

Joanna Hastings@joannahastings· Dec 25

Want some joy on Christmas Day? Watch this video. 😂🚗🚌🛻🚓🚛❄️ I don't know who made the video but I thank them!

Joanna Hastings@joannahastings· Dec 21

A drawing of a very small potato looking up off the screen winningly. The text says:

I am a tiny potato
And I believe in you.
You can do the thing.

Joanna Hastings@joannahastings· Dec 19

It arrived! @luaz.bsky.social

Joanna Hastings@joannahastings· Dec 18

Obviously I hope the number climbs, but I still enjoy the symmetry of this. I do like a pretty number. This is @greenparty.org.uk/@zackpolanski.bsky.social's #HopeIsHere fundraiser right now. Let's make it £300,000! That's even a prettier number in this context. www.crowdfunder.co.uk/p/hopeishere

A screenshot of the donation button and money for the Green Party crowdfunder. At this time, the amount donated was at £259,259. I enjoyed that number. It made me smile.

Joanna Hastings@joannahastings· Dec 12

All that is Green Party policy.