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Abby Hipkin

@desirablecalamity.bsky.social

180 followers 870 following 400 posts

She/her, trainer, mum, coach, INFJ, owner of 0.01% of a Colin Dexter sculpture that doesn't exist yet. Nearly a black belt. Often found in libraries, museums, lecture theatres or churches. All views & art either my own or credited appropriately.

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Abby Hipkin @desirablecalamity.bsky.social · Nov 15

Best #testimonial I've ever received ❤️

"Sending you this because it reminded me of your #coaching style"

A meme describing the process that inexperienced practitioners go through to uncomplicate their practice.

Witches when faced with a new antagonist:

New witch: I'll do a spell to make them go away. First I need 12 candles, 3 kinds of crystals, 5 different herbs and when's the next full moon?

Intermediate witch: Eh, how's one candle and a mushroom I found in my pocket for a curse that goes 'I hate you, please die"

Experienced witch: probably faster just to tell them to fuck off

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Abby Hipkin @desirablecalamity.bsky.social · 20h

Here we go again - time to dust off the highlighters and HR textbooks...

Confirmation of my enrolment for a new career development course

Abby Hipkin @desirablecalamity.bsky.social · 1d

Exactly the same face my 13yo pulls when I tell him he can't put all his crap in my handbag, he'll just have to carry it himself...

Abby Hipkin @desirablecalamity.bsky.social · 1d

Historic England describe the lovely south transept door of St Mary's #church Kidlington as a "medieval gabled stone hood and hood mould over early C14 pointed arched chamfered doorway and ancient door" which are very big words for a wonky little porch

#AdoorableThursday

The south transept door of St Mary's church Kidlington

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Abby Hipkin @desirablecalamity.bsky.social · 2d

Going up...

Abby Hipkin @desirablecalamity.bsky.social · 3d

The gateway yews at beautiful St Mary's #church Kidlington, sheltering the burials in the older part of the churchyard between the lych* gate and the south door

#ThickTrunkTuesday

*No, autocorrect, not lychee gate. They're not a 'Thing'...

Two large (but not as large as they'll become!) Yew trees standing either side of the path

Gravestones underneath the yew trees (19th century)

St Mary's Kidlington taken from under the yews

Abby Hipkin @desirablecalamity.bsky.social · 4d

Having worked with a few construction project managers I'd guess someone (possibly several someones) dug it up, thought 'ooh that's gonna slow things down', then quickly shoved a layer of hardcore over it and decided to Make It Didn't Happen

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Abby Hipkin @desirablecalamity.bsky.social · 4d

Ouch...

A box containing an Implement that is apparently a "quik [sic] splice automatic butt splicer" (8 and 16mm)

Abby Hipkin @desirablecalamity.bsky.social · 5d

White walkers

Abby Hipkin @desirablecalamity.bsky.social · 6d

Salisbury city wall is another lovely example, full of reused stone from Old Sarum

A carved stone from Old Sarum reused in the city wall at Salisbury

Abby Hipkin @desirablecalamity.bsky.social · 6d

New favourite introduction. Also, ouch.

A very unflattering view of Dowsing in the introduction to his journal as edited by Revd C H Evelyn White

Abby Hipkin @desirablecalamity.bsky.social · 6d

My secondhand bookshop find from Friday - the journal of William 'Smasher' Dowsing, puritan iconoclast and general menace of medieval Suffolk church decoration

#BookwormSat #NonFictionSaturday #ReadingOverTheWeekend

The cover of the journal of William Dowsing, edited by Revd. C H Evelyn White (price: 4 shillings!)

A sample of the text in which Dowsing details some of the decorations he removed (or ordered to be removed) from churches and chapels in Nnedham Market, Badley, Stowmarket, and Wetherden

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Abby Hipkin @desirablecalamity.bsky.social · 6d

Something a little different for #PostboxSaturday - the wooden posting box outside St Aldates post office, #Oxford

A vintage wooden posting box still in use outside St Aldates post office in Oxford

Abby Hipkin @desirablecalamity.bsky.social · 6d

#OnThisDay in 1784, pastry chef James Sadler became the first English aeronaut, flying his hot air balloon (filled using a wood burner) roughly 6 miles from #Oxford to Woodeaton.

This plaque is on the wall of Christ Church Meadow, near the Rose Lane gate

A plaque commemorating James Sadler's first successful balloon flight in 1784 which I can't transcribe in full because I left my glasses downstairs and the dog is asleep on my lap

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Abby Hipkin @desirablecalamity.bsky.social · 7d

If it came with badges I would be approximately 100% more motivated. And you could have so much wrong/fun doing Scouts style badges for an HR Qualification

Abby Hipkin @desirablecalamity.bsky.social · 7d

Signed up for the next level of my HR qualification, as part of which they promise to teach me to prioritise and focus on what's important. So, obviously, my initial skills assessment included a question involving calculating the area of a circle...

Abby Hipkin @desirablecalamity.bsky.social · 7d

First world problems - Wordle is insisting I enter guesses with a specific letter in them, but that specific letter IS in the words I'm guessing. And I can't post a screenshot in case I commit Spoiler Crimes.

Abby Hipkin @desirablecalamity.bsky.social · 8d

I recently sat behind a couple of college students on a bus ride. One was extolling the virtues of vinyl to the other. "But it's really hard to get the proper classics on vinyl now. Like, the really old stuff. Appetite for Destruction is, like, RARE".

Don't mind me, just crumbling into dust... 💀

Abby Hipkin @desirablecalamity.bsky.social · 8d

Sent from your book-lined study?

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Abby Hipkin @desirablecalamity.bsky.social · 8d

Found in a bookshop...

A photo of a book titled 'Seven kinds of people you find in bookshops'

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Abby Hipkin @desirablecalamity.bsky.social · 8d

Oatcakes, cheese and dates. Or frittata if I've got time to cook ahead (they do freeze well in wedges)

Abby Hipkin @desirablecalamity.bsky.social · 8d

I had to look it up to see *which* grammar school had been there

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Abby Hipkin @desirablecalamity.bsky.social · 8d

The original site of Challoner's grammar school in Old Amersham, Bucks. for #AdoorableThursday

A doorway in a 17th century brick wall with an engraved stone lintel reading 'GRAMMAR SCHOOL 1624'

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Abby Hipkin @desirablecalamity.bsky.social · 9d

And up it goes!

The same balloon in flight a few minutes later

Abby Hipkin @desirablecalamity.bsky.social · 9d

"as we fly, we still may not know where we are going to. But the miracle is in the unfolding of the wings"

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Abby Hipkin @desirablecalamity.bsky.social · 9d

"The red weed grew with astonishing vigor and luxuriance. It spread with cactus-like branches at a quite incredible speed"

The Thames footpath, lined with trees, many of which are covered in Virginia creeper