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Rowan Bell @rowanpoetry.bsky.social · 2h

Autumn leaves of Carya ovata in Kew Gardens

Tall tree with yellow brown autumn leaves some of which have fallen on to the green grass below. The background is blue sky and the morning sunshine is lighting up the leaves. Carya ovata is known as the shagbark hickory. The name hickory comes from the Algonquian word pawcohiccora which is the food and drink that was formerly obtained from the nutritious nuts of the tree.

Rowan Bell @rowanpoetry.bsky.social · 3h

Shadow of Richmond Lock on the River Thames

Grey river in the sunshine with an arched shadow of a bridge. Central in the arch is the shadow of the warning lights that hang down from the bridge. In the distance is a group of houseboats by a forested island. The river banks are lined with trees, still green but just starting to turn to autumn colours of yellow and orange.

Rowan Bell @rowanpoetry.bsky.social · 21h

Visiting Kew Gardens I came across a headless man in a black cloak riding a black charger. He rode off across Kew Green and I lost sight of him.

Man in a black cloak on a black horse on a grey road with a green lawn and hedge behind.

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Rowan Bell @rowanpoetry.bsky.social · 2d

Seems similar to the 17th century Dissenting Academies that paved the way to a revolution in scientific knowledge

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Rowan Bell @rowanpoetry.bsky.social · 8d

Hannah Arendt called this type of behaviour 'fungus': "It can overgrow and lay waste the whole world precisely because it spreads like a fungus on the surface. It is “thought-defying,”"

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Rowan Bell @rowanpoetry.bsky.social · 8d

Isn't this exactly the sort of situation that AI was invented for?

Rowan Bell @rowanpoetry.bsky.social · 9d

Presumably that will include a massive tax on companies such as Amazon Prime for e.g. Lord of the Rings (New Zealand); Game of Thrones (Ireland); Star Wars (Tunisia); and a Few Dollars More (Italy).

Rowan Bell @rowanpoetry.bsky.social · 9d

I have just listened to this 'In Our Time' about Hannah Arendt. The bit about fungus caught my attention. "It can overgrow and lay waste the whole world precisely because it spreads like a fungus on the surface. It is “thought-defying,”"

www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p...

BBC Radio 4 - In Our Time, Hannah Arendt (Archive Episode)

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the ideas and life of Hannah Arendt, political philosopher

www.bbc.co.uk

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Rowan Bell @rowanpoetry.bsky.social · 13d

An important message for all those who call themselves Christians and also for those who label people Christians in media reports. If people calling themselves Christians don't follow the Gospel of Christ, then don't call them Christians. Describe them accurately for what they actually are and do.

Quakers in Britain @quaker.org.uk · 13d

“The Gospel of Christ must never be co-opted to support the messages that breed hostility towards others. Its message never legitimises rejection, hatred or superiority towards people of other cultures.”

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Rowan Bell @rowanpoetry.bsky.social · 13d

Fascinating review of performance poetry for the Forward Prize that includes British Sign Language performed poetry by Zoë McWhinney, a BSL and Visual Vernacular poet based in South East London @wishbonewords.bsky.social

The Friday Poem @thefridaypoem.bsky.social · 13d

Bruno Cooke looks at the Forward Prize for Best Poem - Performed 2025
open.substack.com/pub/thefrida...

Bruno Cooke looks at the Forward Prize for Best Poem - Performed 2025

The Friday Poem on 26th September 2025

open.substack.com

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Rowan Bell @rowanpoetry.bsky.social · 15d

Edward Joseph Lowe. Also author of "A Treatise on Atmospheric Phenomena" "Prognostications of the weather or signs of atmospheric changes." "a paper on 278 thunderstorms" & the Conchology of Nottingham, & various Papers on zodiacal light, meteors, 'Solar spots, Lana & Freshwater shells etc

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Rowan Bell @rowanpoetry.bsky.social · 19d

Great news! Let's see some clear blue water in policy so that the Lib Dems can pull ahead
www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

Labour rules against dozens of motions about Palestine being debated at party conference

Calls for sanctions on Israel and ban on trade that aids international law violations among snubbed motions

www.theguardian.com

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Rowan Bell @rowanpoetry.bsky.social · 19d

Orwell, Homage to Catalonia: ‘You mustn't go into Spain looking like that. Take off that collar and tie. They'll tear them off you in Barcelona.’

Rowan Bell @rowanpoetry.bsky.social · 22d

A poem from the amazing @wishbonewords.bsky.social Issue 15 that is about #gardening, #prosac and #mentalhealth with a reference to #Niwaki secateurs 😀

Gardener’s World Prozac

Deft expert pecks remove faded heads
past their best, we watch and listen
to Monty Don tell us how the
Mexican Sunflowers will bloom again.
Soothing tones, we are in his spell.

For your birthday I buy a gift
of Japanese secateurs, the ones with
red and yellow handles that fit
snugly into your small hands
so that you can garden deftly too.

Your quick and efficient snips
will make our garden glow
and when we walk along the paths
light is reflected the way we want:
Tithonia orange, all season long.

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Rowan Bell @rowanpoetry.bsky.social · 22d

"He told me that when he was a lad his mother entered a Swiss Roll in the show, and it didn’t win a prize because she was told that she hadn’t cut the ends of the roll off. He said that his mother never forgot the humiliation and would mention it every time she baked."
moodscope.com/blog/village...

Village Shows | Moodscope

Rowan, a Moodscope member says that chatting to the local people in her village lifts her spirits.

moodscope.com

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Rowan Bell @rowanpoetry.bsky.social · 23d

As in... "Dubai resident Isabel Oakeshott has once again decided to complain about the state of the UK, despite the fact she doesn't live here." "Sick of Labour's private school tax raid, Isabel Oakeshott decided to swap the rolling hills of the Cotswolds for the desert of the UAE."

Rowan Bell @rowanpoetry.bsky.social · 23d

Yellow squares within each other going from paler to darker from the outside inwards.
KV-RW, 1967;
screenprint in colours on Mohalk superfine Bristol wove,
signed, dated, titled and numbered 106/200 in pencil,
published by Ives-Sillman, Inc., New Haven, USA for the Kunstverein Rhineland-Westphalia, Düsseldorf, Germany,
sheet: 43 x 43 cm,

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Rowan Bell @rowanpoetry.bsky.social · 23d

Books from an independent book seller arriving, complete with orange tissue wrapping and a hand written note.

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Rowan Bell @rowanpoetry.bsky.social · 24d

Cutting globally coordinated work on antimicrobial resistance is dystopian insanity! 😳

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Rowan Bell @rowanpoetry.bsky.social · 25d

Ferns on a beech tree bole on a lane side bank in the woods above the River Otter