Tanya Shadrick
@tanyashadrick.bsky.social
Author The Cure for Sleep (W&N, 2022) a Waterstones & Evening Standard book of the year | Creator Wild Patience mile of writing, #BirdsOfFirle & #ConcentratesOfPlace | Founder Selkie Press | Fellow Royal Society of Arts
Pinned
Tanya Shadrick
@tanyashadrick.bsky.social
· Nov 13
‘I once had a winter that was wordless’
In 2020 @littletollerbooks.bsky.social published my #BirdsOfFirle: origin story of a decade-long collective project on hope & grief as the things with feathers. I used Twitter to reach people; hope to relaunch here soon
www.littletoller.co.uk/the-clearing...
In 2020 @littletollerbooks.bsky.social published my #BirdsOfFirle: origin story of a decade-long collective project on hope & grief as the things with feathers. I used Twitter to reach people; hope to relaunch here soon
www.littletoller.co.uk/the-clearing...
I called out from the East Sussex library system store their copy of Aristotle’s The Nichomachean Ethics. Had tears come when I opened it and found its first readers took it out during the Second World War, when this area was often bombed. And yet people went out to get this text on how to live…
October 24, 2025 at 3:29 PM
I called out from the East Sussex library system store their copy of Aristotle’s The Nichomachean Ethics. Had tears come when I opened it and found its first readers took it out during the Second World War, when this area was often bombed. And yet people went out to get this text on how to live…
Reposted by Tanya Shadrick
‘Understand how much time it takes for a work, or a path, or a life to take shape’
A sculptor’s advice for art & life:
David Nash is perhaps best known for his living art piece the Ash Dome - planted in the 70s for the next millennium. He has literally grown a meaningful life. Here is his advice
A sculptor’s advice for art & life:
David Nash is perhaps best known for his living art piece the Ash Dome - planted in the 70s for the next millennium. He has literally grown a meaningful life. Here is his advice
November 14, 2024 at 8:29 AM
‘Understand how much time it takes for a work, or a path, or a life to take shape’
A sculptor’s advice for art & life:
David Nash is perhaps best known for his living art piece the Ash Dome - planted in the 70s for the next millennium. He has literally grown a meaningful life. Here is his advice
A sculptor’s advice for art & life:
David Nash is perhaps best known for his living art piece the Ash Dome - planted in the 70s for the next millennium. He has literally grown a meaningful life. Here is his advice
Reposted by Tanya Shadrick
Well-worn: Husband & Wife
Was going about my quiet day alone at home, thirty years married, when the sight of our clothes without us had me stop and fill with feeling. Always-there but never-noticed: his habitual outfit, mine, hanging together on the basement door.
Was going about my quiet day alone at home, thirty years married, when the sight of our clothes without us had me stop and fill with feeling. Always-there but never-noticed: his habitual outfit, mine, hanging together on the basement door.
August 6, 2025 at 10:18 AM
Well-worn: Husband & Wife
Was going about my quiet day alone at home, thirty years married, when the sight of our clothes without us had me stop and fill with feeling. Always-there but never-noticed: his habitual outfit, mine, hanging together on the basement door.
Was going about my quiet day alone at home, thirty years married, when the sight of our clothes without us had me stop and fill with feeling. Always-there but never-noticed: his habitual outfit, mine, hanging together on the basement door.
Well-worn: Husband & Wife
Was going about my quiet day alone at home, thirty years married, when the sight of our clothes without us had me stop and fill with feeling. Always-there but never-noticed: his habitual outfit, mine, hanging together on the basement door.
Was going about my quiet day alone at home, thirty years married, when the sight of our clothes without us had me stop and fill with feeling. Always-there but never-noticed: his habitual outfit, mine, hanging together on the basement door.
August 6, 2025 at 10:18 AM
Well-worn: Husband & Wife
Was going about my quiet day alone at home, thirty years married, when the sight of our clothes without us had me stop and fill with feeling. Always-there but never-noticed: his habitual outfit, mine, hanging together on the basement door.
Was going about my quiet day alone at home, thirty years married, when the sight of our clothes without us had me stop and fill with feeling. Always-there but never-noticed: his habitual outfit, mine, hanging together on the basement door.
Reposted by Tanya Shadrick
“Against you I will fling myself, unvanquished and unyielding, O Death!”
In memoriam
#VirginiaWoolf #DOTD
28 March 1941
📷 Starlings over the River Ouse at Southease, near Woolf’s last home - Monks House, Rodmell, Sussex
In memoriam
#VirginiaWoolf #DOTD
28 March 1941
📷 Starlings over the River Ouse at Southease, near Woolf’s last home - Monks House, Rodmell, Sussex
March 28, 2025 at 7:50 AM
“Against you I will fling myself, unvanquished and unyielding, O Death!”
In memoriam
#VirginiaWoolf #DOTD
28 March 1941
📷 Starlings over the River Ouse at Southease, near Woolf’s last home - Monks House, Rodmell, Sussex
In memoriam
#VirginiaWoolf #DOTD
28 March 1941
📷 Starlings over the River Ouse at Southease, near Woolf’s last home - Monks House, Rodmell, Sussex
“Against you I will fling myself, unvanquished and unyielding, O Death!”
In memoriam
#VirginiaWoolf #DOTD
28 March 1941
📷 Starlings over the River Ouse at Southease, near Woolf’s last home - Monks House, Rodmell, Sussex
In memoriam
#VirginiaWoolf #DOTD
28 March 1941
📷 Starlings over the River Ouse at Southease, near Woolf’s last home - Monks House, Rodmell, Sussex
March 28, 2025 at 7:50 AM
“Against you I will fling myself, unvanquished and unyielding, O Death!”
In memoriam
#VirginiaWoolf #DOTD
28 March 1941
📷 Starlings over the River Ouse at Southease, near Woolf’s last home - Monks House, Rodmell, Sussex
In memoriam
#VirginiaWoolf #DOTD
28 March 1941
📷 Starlings over the River Ouse at Southease, near Woolf’s last home - Monks House, Rodmell, Sussex
Reposted by Tanya Shadrick
‘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...
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
March 19, 2025 at 2:28 PM
‘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...
Stunning piece by @npitchford.bsky.social for the decade-long collective #BirdsOfFirle project…
selkiepress.com/2025/03/18/b...
Reposted by Tanya Shadrick
‘I once had a winter that was wordless’
In 2020 @littletollerbooks.bsky.social published my #BirdsOfFirle: origin story of a decade-long collective project on hope & grief as the things with feathers. I used Twitter to reach people; hope to relaunch here soon
www.littletoller.co.uk/the-clearing...
In 2020 @littletollerbooks.bsky.social published my #BirdsOfFirle: origin story of a decade-long collective project on hope & grief as the things with feathers. I used Twitter to reach people; hope to relaunch here soon
www.littletoller.co.uk/the-clearing...
November 13, 2024 at 11:22 PM
‘I once had a winter that was wordless’
In 2020 @littletollerbooks.bsky.social published my #BirdsOfFirle: origin story of a decade-long collective project on hope & grief as the things with feathers. I used Twitter to reach people; hope to relaunch here soon
www.littletoller.co.uk/the-clearing...
In 2020 @littletollerbooks.bsky.social published my #BirdsOfFirle: origin story of a decade-long collective project on hope & grief as the things with feathers. I used Twitter to reach people; hope to relaunch here soon
www.littletoller.co.uk/the-clearing...
Reposted by Tanya Shadrick
Deeply moving, beautifully drifting writing from @npitchford.bsky.social for the wonderful, occasional body of threaded stories that is @tanyashadrick.bsky.social’s #BirdsofFirle .. “as if belonging could be as multiple in its objects as love is.”
‘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...
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
March 20, 2025 at 9:06 AM
Deeply moving, beautifully drifting writing from @npitchford.bsky.social for the wonderful, occasional body of threaded stories that is @tanyashadrick.bsky.social’s #BirdsofFirle .. “as if belonging could be as multiple in its objects as love is.”
Reposted by Tanya Shadrick
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...
‘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...
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
March 19, 2025 at 2:57 PM
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...
‘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...
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
March 19, 2025 at 2:28 PM
‘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...
Stunning piece by @npitchford.bsky.social for the decade-long collective #BirdsOfFirle project…
selkiepress.com/2025/03/18/b...
Reposted by Tanya Shadrick
This silver birch tree is in my back garden & is probably 50+ years old. I aimed to capture it with the remaining few golden leaves clinging on last autumn.
Neighbours have always wanted it cut down, but I turn a deaf ear.
‘Heartwood’
Monotype and Drawing
23x29cm
Neighbours have always wanted it cut down, but I turn a deaf ear.
‘Heartwood’
Monotype and Drawing
23x29cm
January 11, 2025 at 3:11 PM
This silver birch tree is in my back garden & is probably 50+ years old. I aimed to capture it with the remaining few golden leaves clinging on last autumn.
Neighbours have always wanted it cut down, but I turn a deaf ear.
‘Heartwood’
Monotype and Drawing
23x29cm
Neighbours have always wanted it cut down, but I turn a deaf ear.
‘Heartwood’
Monotype and Drawing
23x29cm
Reposted by Tanya Shadrick
Multiple oaks perhaps from a long-forgotten jay’s cache.
November 29, 2024 at 7:15 AM
Multiple oaks perhaps from a long-forgotten jay’s cache.
Reposted by Tanya Shadrick
Looking Eastwards is my ongoing artwork where I document the view down the lane from my house.
#LandscapePhotograhy
www.dirtmeetsthewater.co.uk/looking-east...
#LandscapePhotograhy
www.dirtmeetsthewater.co.uk/looking-east...
November 13, 2024 at 6:49 PM
Looking Eastwards is my ongoing artwork where I document the view down the lane from my house.
#LandscapePhotograhy
www.dirtmeetsthewater.co.uk/looking-east...
#LandscapePhotograhy
www.dirtmeetsthewater.co.uk/looking-east...
Reposted by Tanya Shadrick
“The first bird surprised me… Engraved in memory: black leather legs, rictal bristles on the beak, an aluminium eye, and every wing-feather filigreed by white light so I could feel the hooks and barbules holding each one together, a chain mail”
#NatureWriting
www.littletoller.co.uk/the-clearing...
#NatureWriting
www.littletoller.co.uk/the-clearing...
November 15, 2024 at 10:11 AM
“The first bird surprised me… Engraved in memory: black leather legs, rictal bristles on the beak, an aluminium eye, and every wing-feather filigreed by white light so I could feel the hooks and barbules holding each one together, a chain mail”
#NatureWriting
www.littletoller.co.uk/the-clearing...
#NatureWriting
www.littletoller.co.uk/the-clearing...
Reposted by Tanya Shadrick
I’ve just created a Slow Art starter pack. Alongside that, sharing this link to a @bbcsounds.bsky.social show I took part in alongside my mentor #DavidNash. Also includes work of sculptor #JamesTurrell & musician #JemFiner…
www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/...
www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/...
November 29, 2024 at 10:57 AM
I’ve just created a Slow Art starter pack. Alongside that, sharing this link to a @bbcsounds.bsky.social show I took part in alongside my mentor #DavidNash. Also includes work of sculptor #JamesTurrell & musician #JemFiner…
www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/...
www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/...
Reposted by Tanya Shadrick
December 1, 2024 at 11:10 AM
A #SlowArt starter pack…
go.bsky.app/V6j8hdS
A meeting place for all interested in artists of any discipline - photography, fine art, sound, writing, illustration, more - who make work with a long-running, repetitive, ongoing, cumulative or time-defined nature.
Glad of shares & suggestions
go.bsky.app/V6j8hdS
A meeting place for all interested in artists of any discipline - photography, fine art, sound, writing, illustration, more - who make work with a long-running, repetitive, ongoing, cumulative or time-defined nature.
Glad of shares & suggestions
December 1, 2024 at 8:57 AM
A #SlowArt starter pack…
go.bsky.app/V6j8hdS
A meeting place for all interested in artists of any discipline - photography, fine art, sound, writing, illustration, more - who make work with a long-running, repetitive, ongoing, cumulative or time-defined nature.
Glad of shares & suggestions
go.bsky.app/V6j8hdS
A meeting place for all interested in artists of any discipline - photography, fine art, sound, writing, illustration, more - who make work with a long-running, repetitive, ongoing, cumulative or time-defined nature.
Glad of shares & suggestions
Reposted by Tanya Shadrick
"The days are getting shorter and colder, but I ask you to remember: even as the Winter comes in, there is Hope and there is Light."
~ Seamus Heaney
Towards Another Summer.
~ Seamus Heaney
Towards Another Summer.
November 29, 2024 at 4:51 PM
"The days are getting shorter and colder, but I ask you to remember: even as the Winter comes in, there is Hope and there is Light."
~ Seamus Heaney
Towards Another Summer.
~ Seamus Heaney
Towards Another Summer.
I’ve just created a Slow Art starter pack. Alongside that, sharing this link to a @bbcsounds.bsky.social show I took part in alongside my mentor #DavidNash. Also includes work of sculptor #JamesTurrell & musician #JemFiner…
www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/...
www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/...
November 29, 2024 at 10:57 AM
I’ve just created a Slow Art starter pack. Alongside that, sharing this link to a @bbcsounds.bsky.social show I took part in alongside my mentor #DavidNash. Also includes work of sculptor #JamesTurrell & musician #JemFiner…
www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/...
www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/...
Like my mentor #DavidNash, I make work with long timespans: It’s also the art I’m most drawn to…
If that speaks to you too, here’s a starter pack of others engaged in serious noticing - through repetition, return, time series & other forms of slow art…
go.bsky.app/V6j8hdS
If that speaks to you too, here’s a starter pack of others engaged in serious noticing - through repetition, return, time series & other forms of slow art…
go.bsky.app/V6j8hdS
November 29, 2024 at 10:36 AM
Like my mentor #DavidNash, I make work with long timespans: It’s also the art I’m most drawn to…
If that speaks to you too, here’s a starter pack of others engaged in serious noticing - through repetition, return, time series & other forms of slow art…
go.bsky.app/V6j8hdS
If that speaks to you too, here’s a starter pack of others engaged in serious noticing - through repetition, return, time series & other forms of slow art…
go.bsky.app/V6j8hdS
Reposted by Tanya Shadrick
“The ability to start out upon your own impulse is fundamental to the gift of keeping going upon your own terms. . . . Getting started, keeping going, getting started
again in art and in life, it seems to me this is the essential rhythm."
- Seamus Heaney
again in art and in life, it seems to me this is the essential rhythm."
- Seamus Heaney
November 26, 2024 at 6:15 AM
“The ability to start out upon your own impulse is fundamental to the gift of keeping going upon your own terms. . . . Getting started, keeping going, getting started
again in art and in life, it seems to me this is the essential rhythm."
- Seamus Heaney
again in art and in life, it seems to me this is the essential rhythm."
- Seamus Heaney
Reposted by Tanya Shadrick
This Rook reminded me of the Mountain Gorilla that David Attenborough famously encountered in Rwanda.
They both share the same intelligence in the eye.
@tanyashadrick.bsky.social
#ukbirding
They both share the same intelligence in the eye.
@tanyashadrick.bsky.social
#ukbirding
November 28, 2024 at 11:33 AM
This Rook reminded me of the Mountain Gorilla that David Attenborough famously encountered in Rwanda.
They both share the same intelligence in the eye.
@tanyashadrick.bsky.social
#ukbirding
They both share the same intelligence in the eye.
@tanyashadrick.bsky.social
#ukbirding
Reposted by Tanya Shadrick
The Corvid flypast at the cottage just now, on their way to the roost in the nearby copse.
This contingent was pretty much pure Jackdaw - the Rooks had sorted themselves out separately, choosing not to have a 'joint enterprise' display.
#ukbirding
#wildlife
#naturalhistory
This contingent was pretty much pure Jackdaw - the Rooks had sorted themselves out separately, choosing not to have a 'joint enterprise' display.
#ukbirding
#wildlife
#naturalhistory
November 27, 2024 at 5:06 PM
The Corvid flypast at the cottage just now, on their way to the roost in the nearby copse.
This contingent was pretty much pure Jackdaw - the Rooks had sorted themselves out separately, choosing not to have a 'joint enterprise' display.
#ukbirding
#wildlife
#naturalhistory
This contingent was pretty much pure Jackdaw - the Rooks had sorted themselves out separately, choosing not to have a 'joint enterprise' display.
#ukbirding
#wildlife
#naturalhistory