Ailsa Ross
@ailsaross.bsky.social
Author by a frozen lake
Hovel, a novel, out with Strange Light / Penguin Random House March 2026
Holy Fools substack
Ailsaross.com
Hovel, a novel, out with Strange Light / Penguin Random House March 2026
Holy Fools substack
Ailsaross.com
Often I am having dreams about what I would serve in my dream cafe (dark bread, almond cream apple tarts, oatcakes), but really, Patti Smith already created my dream cafe in M Train.
"No music no menus. Just silence black coffee olive oil fresh mint brown bread."
"No music no menus. Just silence black coffee olive oil fresh mint brown bread."
January 14, 2026 at 6:30 PM
Often I am having dreams about what I would serve in my dream cafe (dark bread, almond cream apple tarts, oatcakes), but really, Patti Smith already created my dream cafe in M Train.
"No music no menus. Just silence black coffee olive oil fresh mint brown bread."
"No music no menus. Just silence black coffee olive oil fresh mint brown bread."
There is a tree that ‘moves’ up to 186,540 miles a year if you count the dancing of its branches.
January 13, 2026 at 8:34 AM
There is a tree that ‘moves’ up to 186,540 miles a year if you count the dancing of its branches.
My life is making me feel itchy, like I’m wearing a woolly jumper with nothing underneath. I’ve shredded my life into small fractions of time, because I keep going on my phone.
I need to make long lines where life might stretch out – no more fracturing and frittering of the days.
I need to make long lines where life might stretch out – no more fracturing and frittering of the days.
January 12, 2026 at 4:28 PM
My life is making me feel itchy, like I’m wearing a woolly jumper with nothing underneath. I’ve shredded my life into small fractions of time, because I keep going on my phone.
I need to make long lines where life might stretch out – no more fracturing and frittering of the days.
I need to make long lines where life might stretch out – no more fracturing and frittering of the days.
All through my twenties, I purposely did not take photos and I did not learn video, because it was writing that I loved. Yet here I am, a ridiculous age, and still the need to take photos is creeping up on me, even after learning how to write.
Here is a fox I once photographed.
Here is a fox I once photographed.
January 12, 2026 at 11:30 AM
All through my twenties, I purposely did not take photos and I did not learn video, because it was writing that I loved. Yet here I am, a ridiculous age, and still the need to take photos is creeping up on me, even after learning how to write.
Here is a fox I once photographed.
Here is a fox I once photographed.
Does anyone else love the "No one sees the barn” passage in Don DeLillo’s White Noise?
January 11, 2026 at 8:34 AM
Does anyone else love the "No one sees the barn” passage in Don DeLillo’s White Noise?
I don't think for a second that if I start posting on Substack or wherever with some consistency that I will suddenly get a following and I will be able to help move the needle on my book, HOVEL.
There are so many people in the world, but I cannot reach them.
There are so many people in the world, but I cannot reach them.
January 9, 2026 at 4:31 PM
I don't think for a second that if I start posting on Substack or wherever with some consistency that I will suddenly get a following and I will be able to help move the needle on my book, HOVEL.
There are so many people in the world, but I cannot reach them.
There are so many people in the world, but I cannot reach them.
The Bear Man of Kamchatka (2006), about Charlie and Maureen Enn’s work caring for orphaned grizzly bears in Far East Russia, is a film I could not recommend more.
January 7, 2026 at 6:15 PM
The Bear Man of Kamchatka (2006), about Charlie and Maureen Enn’s work caring for orphaned grizzly bears in Far East Russia, is a film I could not recommend more.
There is a scholar’s apartment at the Icelandic Folk and Outsider Art Museum that is available to artists, researchers and other guests. It’s available year round.
January 6, 2026 at 12:01 PM
There is a scholar’s apartment at the Icelandic Folk and Outsider Art Museum that is available to artists, researchers and other guests. It’s available year round.
Sometimes it is good to remember:
"Such joy is yours o my people to sense see ear scent drink everything everything everything taratatatatata”
from The Art of Noises (1913) -- Luigi Russolo
"Such joy is yours o my people to sense see ear scent drink everything everything everything taratatatatata”
from The Art of Noises (1913) -- Luigi Russolo
January 5, 2026 at 4:30 PM
Sometimes it is good to remember:
"Such joy is yours o my people to sense see ear scent drink everything everything everything taratatatatata”
from The Art of Noises (1913) -- Luigi Russolo
"Such joy is yours o my people to sense see ear scent drink everything everything everything taratatatatata”
from The Art of Noises (1913) -- Luigi Russolo
Chilli crisp has changed my life. Now I can make a very basic egg on toast, spill some of that red oil all over it, and nod approvingly to myself while whispering the word 'posh'.
January 5, 2026 at 2:39 PM
Chilli crisp has changed my life. Now I can make a very basic egg on toast, spill some of that red oil all over it, and nod approvingly to myself while whispering the word 'posh'.
Do you have the flu? have you tried these cures?
January 5, 2026 at 2:36 PM
Do you have the flu? have you tried these cures?
I recommend making a cyanometre like the one designed by the 18th-century meteorologist Horace-Bénédict de Saussure.
January 4, 2026 at 6:45 PM
I recommend making a cyanometre like the one designed by the 18th-century meteorologist Horace-Bénédict de Saussure.
Did a Substack before I contracted flu. Now help me understand Bluesky?
January 4, 2026 at 3:15 PM
Did a Substack before I contracted flu. Now help me understand Bluesky?
The naturalist and bear whisperer Charlie Russell said of animal tracks:
“Tracks are amazing. It’s so wonderful when there’s a fresh skiff of snow and you can see tracks. They show the animal’s history, his biography, at least for a few miles..."
I’ve written about him in my latest Substack post.
“Tracks are amazing. It’s so wonderful when there’s a fresh skiff of snow and you can see tracks. They show the animal’s history, his biography, at least for a few miles..."
I’ve written about him in my latest Substack post.
January 3, 2026 at 1:30 PM
The naturalist and bear whisperer Charlie Russell said of animal tracks:
“Tracks are amazing. It’s so wonderful when there’s a fresh skiff of snow and you can see tracks. They show the animal’s history, his biography, at least for a few miles..."
I’ve written about him in my latest Substack post.
“Tracks are amazing. It’s so wonderful when there’s a fresh skiff of snow and you can see tracks. They show the animal’s history, his biography, at least for a few miles..."
I’ve written about him in my latest Substack post.
I’ve started a Substack about hermits and artists and adventurers.
It is about complex people who are sometimes railing against their loneliness, who are sometimes in love with their solitude.
It's called Holy Fools.
Maybe it could have a better name?
It is about complex people who are sometimes railing against their loneliness, who are sometimes in love with their solitude.
It's called Holy Fools.
Maybe it could have a better name?
January 3, 2026 at 10:30 AM
I’ve started a Substack about hermits and artists and adventurers.
It is about complex people who are sometimes railing against their loneliness, who are sometimes in love with their solitude.
It's called Holy Fools.
Maybe it could have a better name?
It is about complex people who are sometimes railing against their loneliness, who are sometimes in love with their solitude.
It's called Holy Fools.
Maybe it could have a better name?
Defile the plots of envy
We're not worthless worms
I love these two lines, attributed to the Cynics of ancient Greece, and to Jetsunma Tenzin Palmo – a woman who’s lived in a mountain cave for twelve years.
We're not worthless worms
I love these two lines, attributed to the Cynics of ancient Greece, and to Jetsunma Tenzin Palmo – a woman who’s lived in a mountain cave for twelve years.
January 2, 2026 at 5:45 PM
Defile the plots of envy
We're not worthless worms
I love these two lines, attributed to the Cynics of ancient Greece, and to Jetsunma Tenzin Palmo – a woman who’s lived in a mountain cave for twelve years.
We're not worthless worms
I love these two lines, attributed to the Cynics of ancient Greece, and to Jetsunma Tenzin Palmo – a woman who’s lived in a mountain cave for twelve years.
In winter I miss lettuce; in summer I miss the stars.
On balance, it is lettuce I miss more.
On balance, it is lettuce I miss more.
January 2, 2026 at 3:30 PM
In winter I miss lettuce; in summer I miss the stars.
On balance, it is lettuce I miss more.
On balance, it is lettuce I miss more.
Trying and absolutely failing to understand some of the notes my past self made to my future self in my notebook. As in: journey to a hut where the knee of a drunken Finn was awaiting one's small, warmed buttocks
May 12, 2025 at 5:43 PM
Trying and absolutely failing to understand some of the notes my past self made to my future self in my notebook. As in: journey to a hut where the knee of a drunken Finn was awaiting one's small, warmed buttocks
Pickling dandelion buds is not so easy. They want to blossom into flowers so fast.
May 6, 2025 at 9:26 PM
Pickling dandelion buds is not so easy. They want to blossom into flowers so fast.
This book is making me cook too many leeks
April 27, 2025 at 2:39 PM
This book is making me cook too many leeks
Reposted by Ailsa Ross
Would you like to follow more nature writers or read some nature writing over Easter? You'll find 209 folk to follow on the starter packs & loads of content on #naturewriting feed - just use the hashtag & your posts will be added too. Pls repost 🙏
SP1: go.bsky.app/NXoPc6D#
SP2: go.bsky.app/7opWxNV
SP1: go.bsky.app/NXoPc6D#
SP2: go.bsky.app/7opWxNV
April 19, 2025 at 4:34 PM
Would you like to follow more nature writers or read some nature writing over Easter? You'll find 209 folk to follow on the starter packs & loads of content on #naturewriting feed - just use the hashtag & your posts will be added too. Pls repost 🙏
SP1: go.bsky.app/NXoPc6D#
SP2: go.bsky.app/7opWxNV
SP1: go.bsky.app/NXoPc6D#
SP2: go.bsky.app/7opWxNV
Yesterday the lake where I live unfroze
April 25, 2025 at 4:53 PM
Yesterday the lake where I live unfroze
We are going out at dusk
February 26, 2025 at 2:25 PM
We are going out at dusk