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Jane Powers

@powersflowers.bsky.social

3.5K followers 1K following 460 posts

Nature writer; award-winning garden writer; book author; evening knitter and crocheter; tomato 🍅 fancier; grudging patron of feral pigeons. Living in Ireland 🇮🇪 https://linktr.ee/janepowers

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Jane Powers @powersflowers.bsky.social · 3d

Catherine Connolly will be elected as Ireland’s next president. The second news item at present is the vast number of spoiled votes.

My thoughts on spoiled votes in the ALT TEXT OF THE PHOTO

#aras25 #aras2025 #spoiledvotes #spoiltvotes #speirgorm #Spéirghorm

Over the last week, social media posts have quoted a letter to the Irish Times that says a spoiled vote counts as nothing, that certain groups have fought hard for the right to vote and that, ergo, a spoiled vote is the equivalence of silence.

I feel this is a simplistic way of looking at it. In Ireland, all votes are counted. Spoiled votes are counted, along with votes for legitimate candidates. In the final tally, all votes — including spoiled votes — are reported.

Those who spoil their votes are sending a message that some aspect of the election is unsatisfactory. In this election, for example, one of the three candidates on the ballot withdrew weeks ago. It is ridiculous to some voters that his name is still on the paper. Also, some felt that the two remaining candidates offered such a poor choice that it galled them to vote for either. Some wrote in their own choice, even though it voided the ballot’s legitimacy.

It takes an effort to spoil your vote. You have to go to the polling station (instead of staying home and griping) and you have to perform an action that goes against the human tendency to take sides and to be part of a recognised cohort. It is not mindless vandalism.

Some argue that it is troublemakers, jokers and begrudgers who spoil votes. Sure, a certain number of those who spoil their votes are doing it for badness. But, some of those are people who never set foot in a polling booth before. It’s possible that they quite liked making their marks, whatever they were, on a ballot paper. It’s possible that we now have some new voters for the next election. Good! Democracy happens in odd ways.

A spoiled vote is a sure way for dissatisfied voters to make their voices heard. It is an important and visible indicator of public opinion. This election has a comparatively large percentage of spoiled votes. Political parties and media are paying a lot of attention to this fact. In summary: **Yesterday’s spoiled votes convey anything but silence**

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Jane Powers @powersflowers.bsky.social · 3d

They were too busy to go to the polling station. As you can see. We had to leave them behind.
#DogsForCatherine

Two dogs crowded together on a cushion on a leather sofa. The white terrier is partially sitting on the grey, spotty lurcher. There's actually loads of room, but the smaller one just likes to perch on the larger one.

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Jane Powers @powersflowers.bsky.social · 27d

Production designers: “But we used chronologically correct references!”

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Jane Powers @powersflowers.bsky.social · 27d

I lasted ten minutes. The green Fenians milling around as if they were Punch caricatures did it for me.

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Jane Powers @powersflowers.bsky.social · Sep 25

A superb nature book by Chloe Dalton. The writing is so simple and *restrained*, leaving space for the reader’s own feelings and imagination. You become as intimate as any human can with the curious workings of a hare’s fragile but joyous life.

How anyone can support hare-coursing beats me.

Book cover: Raising Hare by Chloe Dalton. Sunday Times bestseller. Winner Wainwright prize 2025.

Jane Powers @powersflowers.bsky.social · Sep 23

You’d better tell us…

Jane Powers @powersflowers.bsky.social · Sep 22

🫣

Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · Sep 22

Trump: "Asceda -- well, let's see how we say that. Ascenem -- enophin. Acetaminophen. Is that okay?"

Jane Powers @powersflowers.bsky.social · Sep 22

Quite a gorgeous day for the autumn equinox in #Dunlaoghaire Harbour.

Beautiful day’s sea and sky. Sea is blue-green and lightly rippled, sky is clear except for a series of benign puffy clouds above the horizon. Two arms of the harbour can be seen in the distance, with lighthouses on each side.

Jane Powers @powersflowers.bsky.social · Sep 22

ViTamiN B cuRes iT. BiGLy 🤭

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Jane Powers @powersflowers.bsky.social · Sep 21

Yes! Essential equipment now. You can’t duplicate that rice texture and flavour with simple pots and pans.

Jane Powers @powersflowers.bsky.social · Sep 20

Oh, the kernels are very pretty! It’s good we had a warm summer — so the Mexican corn felt at home.

Jane Powers @powersflowers.bsky.social · Sep 20

Ok! This is all good info.

We have yoghurt and berries at the ready.

Jane Powers @powersflowers.bsky.social · Sep 20

Nooooo. I have nightmares about carob being used as chocolate substitute when I was living in Minnesota as a wannabe hippie teenager.

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Jane Powers @powersflowers.bsky.social · Sep 20

Do you know what variety the sweetcorn is? It looks delicious. There’s nothing to compare with it!

Jane Powers @powersflowers.bsky.social · Sep 20

Thank you! I’ve made them already — recipe looked similar to yours, but smaller quantities in case we hate them 😆

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Jane Powers @powersflowers.bsky.social · Sep 20

Oh lord! Yes. That sounds familiar. Probably had them with carob milk 😕

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Jane Powers @powersflowers.bsky.social · Sep 20

Oh wow! That sounds amazing. Thank you.

Jane Powers @powersflowers.bsky.social · Sep 20

Thank you, Mr Sock! I think of you often when we use rice cooker I got on your recommendation 😊

Actually, we fried original one recently. We changed hob from gas to induction and forgot that rice cooker was also induction. Oops. Magnets not happy. Bought a new one immediately. Expensive mistake.

Jane Powers @powersflowers.bsky.social · Sep 20

Thank you! Well explained.

Jane Powers @powersflowers.bsky.social · Sep 20

Overnight oats! I’m bombarded by ads for them on social media. Now I’m going to have to try them. What’s the best recipe?

Jane Powers @powersflowers.bsky.social · Sep 12

Excellent skies up there today and that's only right, seeing as it is #cloudappreciationday #lookup

Rows of Victorian chimneys march underneath a busy sky with lots of different kinds of clouds.

Jane Powers @powersflowers.bsky.social · Aug 24

Oh wow! I didn’t know you were working there. Are the Annesleys still there in the smaller house?

Jane Powers @powersflowers.bsky.social · Aug 24

My brain is tuned mostly to nature writing these days, but I still love writing garden visits (especially when the gardener is mad for nature). Here's my latest effort in Country Life www.countrylife.co.uk/gardens/coun...

Ballynure House: The magical estate that transformed its bramble-covered historic garden into a pollinator paradise

Where brambles once engulfed the historic gardens at Ballynure House in Co Wicklow, Ireland — home of Clare Reid Scott — colourful flower borders now hum with pollinators. Photographs by Jonathan Hess...

www.countrylife.co.uk

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Jane Powers @powersflowers.bsky.social · Jul 25

Flower crab spider (Misumena vatia) tucking into a hoverfly for dinner. Isn't she just gorgeous? 😍

#urbannature
#irishnature #speirgorm #spéirgorm

Bright yellow spider sitting in centre of purple hardy geranium flower, with small hoverfly in its jaws.

Jane Powers @powersflowers.bsky.social · Jul 21

Saw you on the news too!! You don’t look a bit like your profile pic.