Emily Sturgess

@emilysturge

Oxfordian Northamptonian who can identify some species and teach a bit of Biology. Science-Faith. ME/CFS. Loves God. Talks about daft things & laughs too loudly. Starting new slow adventures.

208 Siguiendo417 Seguidores2319 Publicaciones

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Emily Sturgess@emilysturge· 26d

I'm going to be honest about something. I don't usually watch football, but I watched the last three England games. As a sport, I admit I do not find it very interesting. This evening, I've had a livestream of grizzly bears catching salmon on in the background while I read...

More than a dozen brown bears in a shallow water fall, all either waiting to catch, or eating recently caught salmon. It's a shot of my tv screen.

Emily Sturgess@emilysturge· 26d

Found it! I found a Spotify playlist I made when I was at uni of all the pieces I could remember having played as a teen, and added the OUPhil pieces to it. I'd forgotten I had this. But An American in Paris is there, it turns out, so my second-violin-part-memory wasn't betraying me this time!

Screen grab of a Spotify playlist called 'Played'. It's part way down the list - between Poulenc's Les Biches and Elgar's Pomp & Circumstance no.5 is Gershwin's An American in Paris

Emily Sturgess@emilysturge· 28d

Dear Saint Swithin, I'm not saying that I necessarily want 40 solid days and nights of rain, but my lovely brook has dried to a sludge, so if you could just give us enough to get that babbling again I'd be awfully grateful. Best wishes, kind regards, etc.

In the foreground is the red of the bridge I'm leaning over, to show where once was a brook is now a dry, sludgey bed, with overgrown nettles either side, now also creeping in where the water once was.

Emily Sturgess@emilysturge· Jul 12

Just got this Amazon push notification. The kids haven't even broken up yet, give them a chance?! Very much the 'I get up two hours before I go to bed' of advertising.

Amazon push notification: Back to school. New term must haves. Shop now. (With pictures of notepads, headphones, etc in bright colours)

Emily Sturgess@emilysturge· Jul 11

I think because it's a coil, when they take it out you spin like Gromit when Preston catches the propellers. A coil's gotta uncoil, I'm pretty sure.

Emily Sturgess@emilysturge· Jul 3

Flicking through my recipe book for some inspiration this morning, I realise my handwriting *could* do with some work in terms of non-ambiguity. Marsala or WHAT?

Close up photo of hand-written recipe instructions. In the centre it reads '...in the marsala/wine', except the lines of the W in wine are uneven, causing the word to look like 'urine'

Emily Sturgess@emilysturge· Jun 22

So. The sealing myself in begins...

A window (crucially, without curtains or blinds - we haven't finished decorating/furnishing this room) with a large piece of card wedged in to block the light. There's various bits and bobs on the windowledge.

Kitchen window, again with some cardboard (with foil on the back this time) wedged into the window behind the white roller blind. There are plants on the windowledge and dishes in the sink).

Emily Sturgess@emilysturge· Jun 21

I don't know why this message made me laugh so much. Yessir 🫡

WhatsApp message from mum: on my way. Get your veg on.

Emily Sturgess@emilysturge· Jun 20

Well, today WAS going to be laundry day, but...🤷🏻‍♀️

Emily Sturgess@emilysturge· Jun 8

I do love these bright sun, moody sky kind of summer evenings.

A photo of a tall, dead tree sticking out from lots of greenery, lit strikingly by the sun against slightly ominous clouds. It's the view out of my kitchen window.

Emily Sturgess@emilysturge· Jun 6

As I was about to head upstairs for bed, through closed doors and windows and over music playing from my phone, I heard my tawny pal🥰 usually he's off somewhere, out in the fields or down the lane. Tonight, he sounded like he was up in the tree opposite my house, keeping me company. I do like him🦉🌳💚

Screen grab from Merlin app hearing a Tawny Owl.

Emily Sturgess@emilysturge· Jun 3

The joy of being back to teaching, catching myself wandering around with random scribblings on my hands as I've tried to use them for a visual representation of something we're revising, on a video call. I've missed this.

The palm of my hand, with M written in the centre in black biro.

Emily Sturgess@emilysturge· May 31

I'm on board with the dawn chorus and all that, but it's 4am, I've woken up for the loo, and there are *ducks* quacking outside my window. IT'S 4AM! YOU ARE NOT A BLACKBIRD!

It's a female duck on the road outside the house two doors down. It's basically still dark out.

Emily Sturgess@emilysturge· May 29

@oddtypeofdragon.bsky.social Your Orielton tagged photos just came up on my FB memories! Such a fun time! (Do you remember how much cake we ate?!) 😄💚

A Facebook memories screen shot from 17 years ago. Frith has tagged me in various photos with our classmates while we were on fieldwork. We are young, dressed colourfully, and surrounded by nature.

Emily Sturgess@emilysturge· May 13

I can literally hear one right now. I think it's an omen.

Merlin screenshot listening to a tawny owl

Emily Sturgess@emilysturge· Apr 29

It's been a long while, but inspiration and brain finally did something together and I wrote a poem sort of thing. It's joyful 🥰

What are your top five favourite things?

Top five favourite what?
Things.
What, anything? In the whole world?
Anything. Of all the world, what's your favourite?

How do you pick five?
From the smell of a freshly opened packet of chocolate buttons, to getting into a perfectly warm bath.
An unforseen eruption of laughter that catches you off guard
Laying in bed listening to tawny owls calling to-wit to you
The smell of summer rain
The first glimpse of the sea on holiday
The first sip of hot tea in the morning
Halloumi
(Obviously halloumi. Of course halloumi)
Hand-written post
Waking up and realising you've got time to go back to sleep
An 'I was just thinking of you' text

The Isle of Lewis
The Isle of Harris
The middle aisle of Lidl
Ducks
Standing staring out to sea and losing all sense of time as the incoming tide starts to lap at your toes
Freshly painted nails
The gummy smile of a baby you will love forever
The first snowdrop in spring
The first hug after too long apart
The follicular phase
The shimmering strings of Holst's Planets
Dancing to Raye's songs that may contain hope in the kitchen
An unexpectedly perfect present
Unexpected hope

Of all the beautiful things in the world, how am I supposed to pick five?

It's just a game, Em. It's not that serious.

Not-that-serious games? Ok, I'll add them to the list.

Emily Sturgess@emilysturge· Apr 27

I was chatting with a friend recently about our celebrity crushes, and I admitted that while there are plenty of attractive people, I didn't have an *actual* celeb crush. Well. That's all changed. It seems I am entirely enamoured with George Fouracres. And I can pinpoint the exact moment it started:

Emily Sturgess@emilysturge· Apr 27

I said I wouldn't because this always happens, but I booked in with my mum's hairdresser last week and despite showing her a reference photo OF ME with a previous haircut that SHE DID, she still just did whatever she thought. So, now I look like a combination of Dora, Francine, and Trent Crimm.

Dora the Explorer, and her little monkey pal.

Emily Sturgess@emilysturge· Apr 25

Are you....holidaying in my garden? 😆

Merlin screenshot from 18th April shows: blue tit, house sparrow, Goldfinch, great tit, nuthatch, Dunnock, song thrush, Wren, Chiffchaff

Emily Sturgess@emilysturge· Apr 23

BATS! 🦇🤩🥹😄

Emily Sturgess@emilysturge· Apr 19

A lovely reminder today of the time John Finnemore retweeted me in the most Arthur way possible (nine years ago today)!

John Finnemore tweets: new favourite sentence from my penguin research (image unclear as you'd have to open it to read the whole text, but it includes the words 'his revenge'!)
I tweet reply: have you been sent to get a book about penguins because you were being too helpful?

Emily Sturgess@emilysturge· Apr 6

I mean, what is this?! Today is a perfectly lovely spring day. How is it going to be nine degrees warmer in two days?! How am I supposed to dress for a rogue 22°C day at the beginning of April?! Wild.

Weather app showing sunny highs of 13 today, 18 tomorrow, and 22 on Wednesday.

Emily Sturgess@emilysturge· Mar 7

Back in spring 2024, I bought a pair of plum leggings from Next, and when they arrived they were SO PERFECT I immediately ordered a spare pair for when the first pair inevitably wore out. That happened during the autumn, as I was moving house. You will be thrilled to know I FINALLY FOUND THE SPARE!😍

A folded pair of plum coloured leggings, label still attached, on my bed (a sage green floral duvet)

Emily Sturgess@emilysturge· Mar 1

So, on the same night, Harry Styles and Connor Storrie have come as the same guy but in monochrome/sepia filters, on opposite sides of the pond? Alright, cool 👍🏻

Harry Styles dancing onstage at the Brit awards. His dark hair is short and wavy. He's wearing a white shirt with an overly long grey and black tie, and high-waisted black, pinstripe trousers

Connor Storrie's promo shot, stood with hands in pockets, in front of the SNL stage. His mid-brown hair is short and wavy. He's wearing a cream shirt with brown pinstripes, a long cream tie with brown florals, and brown, high-waisted trousers

Emily Sturgess@emilysturge· Feb 24

Oh no, you guys, I've unblocked the crochet damn (I've not worked on anything since the Christmas break) and now all I want to do is crochet and it's all I can think about, and I forgot how all consuming craft projects become for me (I'm like this with everything, not just crochet, but here we are!)

A bundle of turquoise wool on a blanket on the sofa, with the beginnings of some worked crochet in that colour, and pale blue. It's only the start of the project. The printed pattern and a pair of scissors are behind.

Emily Sturgess@emilysturge· Feb 7

I was thinking the same! Legendary British knitter.

Emily Sturgess@emilysturge· Feb 1

Legit so happy that Mock the Week's back 😄

Angela Barnes, Ed Byrne and Sara Pascoe laughing.

Emily Sturgess@emilysturge· Jan 25

I apologise, I love #TheGreatPotteryThrowdown, l love animals week, I love raku week. But I'm afraid there's no such thing as a 'mother silverback gorilla'. Silverback is a description of adult males who turn silver as a sign of maturity and status, not a species of gorilla. No silver mothers!