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Laura Parker

@lauraparker.bsky.social

1.7K followers 350 following 440 posts

Countryside writer, sheep keeper, drystone wall lover. Features for Country Life mag on the fun and the fascinating. Lives in Cotswolds, from Scottish Borders. Late of ChipLitFest, which is now sadly an ex-LitFest.

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Laura Parker @lauraparker.bsky.social · Nov 16

Hi #naturewriting. Here's the kind of thing I write: fascinating facts and some fun along the way!
shorturl.at/EsNNJ

Dummy eyes, faking death and and the whiff of rotting flesh: The great deceptions of Nature's most cunning creatures - Country Life

A whiff of rotting flesh, the flash of a painted eye, a dead-faint to the floor: Nature is full of cunning survival tricks, says Laura Parker, as she explores the greatest mimics and frauds you'll fin...

shorturl.at

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Laura Parker @lauraparker.bsky.social · 1d

Time to get over to Bewdley and help out with hot cake/book event sales!

Jonathan Coe @jonathancoe.bsky.social · 1d

Tickets for my event at the Bewdley Festival on Saturday are selling like hot cakes.*

*(During the notorious hot cake slump of 1857.)

Bewdley Festival Ticket Booking | Bewdley Festival Ticket Booking,

events.bewdleyfestival.org.uk

Laura Parker @lauraparker.bsky.social · 2d

He likes to think so.

Laura Parker @lauraparker.bsky.social · 2d

Dawg.

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Laura Parker @lauraparker.bsky.social · 2d

Too cloudy here, but thanks for the prompt to look out: just enjoying some keweecking and toowhooping tawny owls.

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Reposted by Laura Parker

Patrick Barkham @patrickbarkham.bsky.social · 2d

Calling young people aged 14 and under! The Guardian is looking for your 250-word pieces of writing about nature and landscape for the Young Country Diary. Entry here (and published diaries will be paid): www.theguardian.com/environment/...

Nature boys and girls – here’s your chance to get published in the Guardian

Our wildlife series Young Country Diary is looking for articles written by children, about their autumn encounters with nature

www.theguardian.com

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Laura Parker @lauraparker.bsky.social · 3d

'...slathers of custard-yellow paint, white icing that casts shadows like Arctic snow: his painting is as calorific as cream, as smoothly spread as lemon curd.' @lauracummingart.bsky.social 's delicious piece will make you want to go see these cake paintings.

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Laura Parker @lauraparker.bsky.social · 3d

Rooks doing the same round here: uproarious gangs raking through the sheep field and leaving big patches of uprooted moss. Never seen it before.

Dr Ross Barnett @deepfrieddna.bsky.social · 3d

www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Inverness' bird-plucked green spaces could be due to warm year - BBC News

Birds have been noticeably digging up moss in lawns and other green spaces in parts of Inverness.

www.bbc.co.uk

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Laura Parker @lauraparker.bsky.social · 3d

A green woodpecker which, rather amazingly, seems to have taken up residence in the garden and whips around yaffling when I step out with the dog.

Laura Parker @lauraparker.bsky.social · 3d

@realfarmed.bsky.social will also make a great setting on Wednesday. Picturing you arriving on Racing Lizzie.

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Reposted by Laura Parker

Caught by the River @caughtbytheriver.bsky.social · 8d

Our friends at the brilliant @littletollerbooks.bsky.social have just launched a new crowdfunding project for 'Looking for Mr Schwitters' — an innovative and finely illustrated book about the émigré artist Kurt Schwitters’ final years in the Lake District www.caughtbytheriver.net/2025/09/look...

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Laura Parker @lauraparker.bsky.social · 5d

Beautiful poem that captures that moment so well. Was reminded of Paul Henry's Daylight Robbery (and C Day Lewis's Walking Away). Something particularly poignant about little boys leaving boyhood behind.

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Laura Parker @lauraparker.bsky.social · 7d

Would be a great project for you!

Laura Parker @lauraparker.bsky.social · 7d

Mark! Would be a big task! Would definitely like to tick off a few more. I got to the 2 at Mungrisdale and one near Tebay.

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Laura Parker @lauraparker.bsky.social · 7d

46 I think made between 1996-2001. Original plan was for 100.You can find some (fairly sparse) info online. This is the most remote.

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Laura Parker @lauraparker.bsky.social · 7d

No the sheepfolds (over 40, all over Cumbria) were deliberately left not signed, no info. Other passing walkers didn't have a clue about it.

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Laura Parker @lauraparker.bsky.social · 7d

It's where it all belongs.

Laura Parker @lauraparker.bsky.social · 7d

Why go to a cosy city gallery to see Andy Goldsworthy's work when you can hike for 1hr up a steep path to a remote spot in the Howgills? Corner Cairn Fold, with its cutaway cone, was built on the site of an old sheep washfold in the wake of the devastating 2001 foot+mouth epidemic.

A large natural stone, its shape echoed by a cone built in drystone, within a sheepfold high in the hills in Cumbria.

Amid high green hills, drystone walls built in a square shape. At one corner, a large cone also built out of drystone.

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Laura Parker @lauraparker.bsky.social · 8d

I like that! Currently gathering nr Cautley Spout. Bit of peril.

Laura Parker @lauraparker.bsky.social · 8d

Yup to a shepherd's hut.

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Laura Parker @lauraparker.bsky.social · 9d

Not at all - thanks for catching!

Laura Parker @lauraparker.bsky.social · 9d

Grr, that was an unexpected autocorrect! Thank you, I have reposted.

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Laura Parker @lauraparker.bsky.social · 10d

Herdwick sheep sure know how to pose.

Reposted by Laura Parker

RSPB @rspb.bsky.social · 12d

The tree you climbed as a child. Gone. The Swifts over your town. Gone. The air you breathe. Polluted. The river. Unsafe.

This is the reality of deregulation.

Cutting protections would mean disaster for nature & our economy.

Our CEO sets out why: rspb.org.uk/whats-happen... 👈

A small flock of Swifts sweep across a clear blue sky, their slim bodies and crescent wings cutting sharply above the roof of a house. A beloved summer sight - and one at risk of disappearing if protections for nature are lost.

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Laura Parker @lauraparker.bsky.social · 13d

Wonderful. Internet/Google shall henceforth be referred to in this household as central information exchange which you can contact for any facts.

Reposted by Laura Parker

Nic Wilson @nicwilson.bsky.social · 14d

So looking forward to chatting to fellow country diarist and author @derekniemann.bsky.social about nearby nature, local landscape & chronic illness at #Heal #Rewilding in #Somerset next Tuesday.

If you're in the #Frome area, do come along and join us! 🦫🐛🦉🦔

www.tickettailor.com/events/healr...

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