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Nicola Pitchford

@npitchford.bsky.social

5.4K followers 1.8K following 5.4K posts

Immigrant. Winner of the inaugural Nature Chronicles Prize (2022). She/her. In Northern California on unceded Coast Miwok land.

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Nicola Pitchford @npitchford.bsky.social · Mar 19

Honoured to be part of the beautiful, fragile collective work #BirdsOfFirle, created & curated by Tanya. An ongoing project of 100 writers responding with objects & online to a single physical manuscript, circulated by post over the course of a decade. On grief & hope as the things with feathers...

Tanya Shadrick @tanyashadrick.bsky.social · Mar 19

‘She worked on the Harrier, the Concorde. She had a love of speed and freedom. Sports cars. Like the one in which she fled. Flew. From marriage and family. From us.’

Stunning piece by @npitchford.bsky.social for the decade-long collective #BirdsOfFirle project…

selkiepress.com/2025/03/18/b...

Birds of Firle: She Was Always in Flight by Nicola Pitchford

Aerodynamics was her chosen field of engineering. She worked on the Harrier, the Concorde. She had a love of speed and freedom. Sports cars. Like the one in which eventually she fled. Flew. From ma…

selkiepress.com

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Nicola Pitchford @npitchford.bsky.social · 1h

I remember specifically wearing that skirt because she liked it.

Nicola Pitchford @npitchford.bsky.social · 1h

Thank you! I do feel as though it needs to be written around.

Nicola Pitchford @npitchford.bsky.social · 1h

Came upon a memory of me & little gran, the last time I visited her in the late ‘90s, walking along a lane at the foot of Shutlingsloe. Her ashes & those of her daughters (inc. my dear aunt, behind the camera as ever) are scattered near this spot. Much of what’s dearest to my heart in one photo.

Small, stooped lady in a raincoat and hat with Queen Elizabeth handbag seen from behind on a wintry country lane with a tall, thin woman with long red curls and a blowing skirt. Grey skies above, a rushing dark beck to one side. Green hill in background.

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Nicola Pitchford @npitchford.bsky.social · 2h

Perfect.

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Nicola Pitchford @npitchford.bsky.social · 2h

This may be the best one ever — & not only because I have deep ancestral biases toward Shutlingsloe. Is there a Stiles Cup (or Stiles Superleague) somewhere in the offing?

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Nicola Pitchford @npitchford.bsky.social · 3h

If something has to give, go for the frog wellies.

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Nicola Pitchford @npitchford.bsky.social · 3h

Outstanding name.

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Nicola Pitchford @npitchford.bsky.social · 3h

(Just here to report I’m still ticking. And a confirmed fan of questionable cheeses.)

Nicola Pitchford @npitchford.bsky.social · 3h

Have just decided I’m going to the sea today. It’s not a lovely day — showery — but I can & I’m going to.

Nicola Pitchford @npitchford.bsky.social · 3h

Bless these people. Insisting on humanity.

Nicola Pitchford @npitchford.bsky.social · 18h

Agreed. Perhaps it's partly the elaborate Victoriana that makes it feel less violent on the landscape (although dramatic) than some dams. And that particular landscape can itself match whatever drama is imposed!

Nicola Pitchford @npitchford.bsky.social · 19h

Definitely not! 😘

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Nicola Pitchford @npitchford.bsky.social · 19h

Vivid memory of a male friend (?) saying, "those trousers do quite unusual things to your arse" — which I took happily as a compliment at the time, then shortly thereafter realised was not.

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Nicola Pitchford @npitchford.bsky.social · 19h

I don't think I have a single photo from Warwick! On the one hand, profoundly glad I had a briefly misspent youth before everything was documented for posterity — on the other, would like a memory-trigger or two.

I do have a couple of pics from visiting family that winter tho.

Faded snapshot of me, smiling, in a snowy winter garden. The look: long black wool charity-shop coat, oversized sweater, black skinny trousers tucked into socks and combat boots. Short post-punk red hair and long dangly earrings.

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Nicola Pitchford @npitchford.bsky.social · 19h

Oh, I've had happy walks there too! 💛

Looking down the deep blue spillway from a crenellated dam between thickly wooded fells.

Dark, dark, choppy waters of a dam with green fells beyond and grey skies above.

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Nicola Pitchford @npitchford.bsky.social · 20h

So many family visits there over the years! 💚

Nicola Pitchford @npitchford.bsky.social · 21h

Are you telling me those don't count as vegetables?

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Nicola Pitchford @npitchford.bsky.social · 21h

Gorgeous.

Nicola Pitchford @npitchford.bsky.social · 22h

For lunch I'm having a sort of soufflé made from perilously old cheeses — cream cheese that was going to be discarded at the office & feta that had begun to develop green spots. So either I'll reflect back on a luxuriously cheesy, cheap lunch or this will be the last you'll hear from me.

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Nicola Pitchford @npitchford.bsky.social · 22h

(Just remembered a friend telling me that reading LOTR made him first recognize he was gay — bc he, like many others of various genders, had the hots for Legolas.)

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Nicola Pitchford @npitchford.bsky.social · 23h

Wouldn’t risk it. A nice hot toddy delivered instead?

Nicola Pitchford @npitchford.bsky.social · 23h

The whole city is his office. 👍🏼

Nicola Pitchford @npitchford.bsky.social · 23h

Like Stevie Nicks, but more goth. I say that as a compliment.

Nicola Pitchford @npitchford.bsky.social · 23h

Hi, Governor Newsom. This is how you do it:

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Reposted by Nicola Pitchford

matthew @pahuski.com · 1d

Happy Columbo’s Day

Screenshot from Columbo. He his talking to his dog, which is sitting is the drivers seat of a car. “Okay, I’m gonna put you in charge. You take care of the car. You’re a responsible dog. When I get back, if the car’s okay, I’ll give you another cookie.”

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