Tilda Swindog Swift Pope, angel baby bunny rabbit light of my life, is 6 today. For the next few months we're the same age in dog years and human years, and I'm pretty excited about out life stages lining up like this.

Nature has been generous this week. Just finished eating blackberries and ice cream covered in fig leaf syrup. I also made mugwort face oil, and I'm attempting to make blackberry, linden and basil mead as well. (Fermentation scares me.)

#Weeknotes: I have a new website (finally) and I'm starting to break up with Google lapope.com/news-item/ne...

Same Penitent Magdalene, same. Meme via bizwithbecs on Instagram.

Do you have a favourite embarrassing, unflattering, or unhinged image, gif or quote from a tech overlord? Please can you share it with me? It's for A Thing. The more cringe the better.

Seeds planted: nigella, cornflower, nasturtium, calendula, chamomile, borage, California poppy, sweet peas, stocks, and scarlet runner beans (the prettiest seeds ever?)

Today I went to a workshop and learnt to make cordage from rushes and raffia today. I am obsessed. I am going to make so many friendship bracelets. Can't wait to try nettles and dandelions in the summer when the stems get long enough.

My hope for the #WinterOlympics opening ceremony was the opening scene from The Great Beauty, but on ice skates.

First violet of the year, and on imbolc too 💜

Extremely effective doomscroll prevention

I got this InMail back in October. I couldn't stop ruminating on it. It’s the perfect example of the dystopia I feel like we’ve entered this year, as AI disrupts everything around us.

So I’ve channelled all my angst (and a lot of spare time, thanks to a slow Q4) into writing a zine about this. It's called Spite House: AI, disintermediation and the end of the free web.

Here are the receipts - hard to capture because of how Gemini appears, but: 1. Original survey question 2. A table Gemini created aggregating responses including a 'More than 100,000 employees' entry which was not available in the survey 3. The table in full after inserting

Found a sweet spaniel pup today and reunited her with her people. I only thought about stealing her for half a second. This is the third lost dog I've found, and the only one wearing a collar and tag. She was back with her family in under 15 mins.

My perfect-angel-light-of-my-life-best-dog-in-the-world is 5 today.

Trying to exit my extended creative hiatus by making zines

Video description: Tilda, a scruffy black poodle eating a prawn cracker bite by bite. Volume on for the ASMR. (This is a one in a blue moon treat btw, not her daily diet.)

First wild garlic of the year. Felt properly spring-like today.

Also saw the first violets of the year when I finally cleared the mud.

Got so stuck in the mud that I was on the verge of abandoning my boots. Each step took ages because I was sinking calf deep and having to wiggle for ages to free myself and take the next step. My wellies are now full of cow-shit scented mud.

Thanks. Tilda did really well. She recognised them from a distance away but managed to stay relatively calm. The incidents with this person and their dog were one of the things that sparked Tilda's anxiety. We've had to do so much work to rebuild her confidence. She's fine now.

Found my favourite fungus - scarlet elf cup. Only ever see them in one part of the woods.

Tacked on some extra time after my meeting so I could be a tourist in Newcastle.

Imbolc tomorrow, hellebores and snowdrops are starting to appear, and - look! - by the end of Feb dawn will be starting at 5 and sunset ending at 8.

Here is said dog, treating the path like a race track.

I live for weather like this in winter. Had the best golden hour walk in the frost and dregs of the snow yesterday.

Found this yesterday. Without Googling/reverse image searching, what do you think it is? The words are 'Dewdrop' and 'Ormskirk'. (I managed to find out the answer, and would never have guessed in a million years.)

It's here! Can't wait to get stuck in to this. cc @clearwriter.bsky.social

Had the most amazing swim this morning. Can still feel the cold and the invigoration circulating round my body.