Clare Bryden
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Clare Bryden
@clarebryden.bsky.social
340 followers 320 following 470 posts
Born at 325ppm
clarebryden.co.uk
For an intro, see the pinned post

Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?
— Mary Oliver

May you experience each day as a sacred gift woven around the heart of wonder.
— John O’Donohue
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clarebryden.bsky.social
Clare Bryden @clarebryden.bsky.social · Nov 19
By way of an intro

Interests
#ContemplativePrayer #Monasticism #Theology #Bible #Trees #Walking #Poetry #Reading #Writing #Deutsch #Cymraeg #Alto

Home
#Exeter #Devon #UK #Europe

Work
#Director #TeaLady #CodeMonkey @WebsitesAhoy

Misspent adult years
#Maths #Environment #Energy #Economics #Weather
Leat in Creason Wood, Mary Tavy, west Dartmoor. There is a dark tree trunk in woodland on the left, then a grass verge, path of small stones leading into the distance, grass bank, black surface of the leat, bank covered in ferns, more woodland above. The greens are extremely vibrant.
clarebryden.bsky.social
Reposted as one of the very few posts that observe best practice...

Text is the #SilentSunday tag and only the #SilentSunday tag 👏
Image has alt text for screenreaders 👏

Also, it's of an owl 🦉
November 30, 2025 at 3:06 PM
clarebryden.bsky.social
A new window for the new Exeter College Law building by my amazing friend Amy Orange Juice
www.facebook.com/share/p/19yJ...
Plus one of the Testament sculptures, which used to be in #Exeter Cathedral's Chapter House, now in its new home

#FensterFreitag #WindowFriday #StainedGlass #Sculpture
Modern stained glass window, with rose Design within landscape. Sculpture of human figure in an alcove on the right.
November 28, 2025 at 7:16 PM
clarebryden.bsky.social
Happy #BuyNothingDay!!
Funding life not consumerism
November 28, 2025 at 11:46 AM
clarebryden.bsky.social
Happy National Tree Week!!
Just for you, here are some beautiful autumn beeches

#NationalTreeWeek #Exeter #UK
Alane framed by beech leaves aflame
November 24, 2025 at 8:33 PM
clarebryden.bsky.social
Maybe instead of Black Friday
#Gaza #BuyNothingDay

www.theguardian.com/global-devel...
Fundraisers warn of ‘catastrophic’ drop in donations to Gaza since ceasefire
‘The world thinks Palestinians don’t need help any more,’ aid organiser says, despite desperate need as winter nears
www.theguardian.com
November 23, 2025 at 2:15 PM
clarebryden.bsky.social
Happy World Kindness Day my lovelies

#WorldKindnessDay #WKD25
November 13, 2025 at 11:56 AM
clarebryden.bsky.social
Whoever wrote the plaque mis-spelled 'Pioneer in Computer Programming'

#ALD25 @adalovelaceday.bsky.social
ruinsofdespair.bsky.social Ruins of Despair @ruinsofdespair.bsky.social · 19d
The coffins of Lord Byron and his daughter, Ada Lovelace, in the tomb beneath the chancel within St Mary Magdalene Church in Hucknall, Nottinghamshire.

Video with still images:
youtu.be/oexha02WoMs...

#TombTuesday #gothic #romanticism
A photograph of two old, deteriorated coffins. A photograph of two old deteriorated coffins. A closeup of a coffin with a crown on top of it. The plaque reads: The Right Honble AUGUSTA ADA Wife of WILLIAM EARL of LOVELACE and only Daughter of GEORGE GORDON NOEL LORD BYRON Born 10th Dec’r 1815 Died 27th Nov’r 1852
November 11, 2025 at 4:11 PM
clarebryden.bsky.social
For the start of #COP30 one of my shortest poems

#Chaos #Butterfly #Tornadoes #Weather #Climate
#Poems #Poetry
Thank you to Consilience for publishing
A poem in the shape of a butterfly... "After the lecture there was time for questions" When we have killed / all the butterflies / will that be an end / to tornadoes? © Clare Bryden Published in Consilience, Issue 21: Chaos, Editor’s Pick, 23 June 2025, online.
November 10, 2025 at 4:14 PM
clarebryden.bsky.social
Not for the faint-hearted... Ottery Tar Barrels will be streamed live on iPlayer from 7-9pm this evening.

#Devon #UK
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
Ottery St Mary Tar Barrels: 'Not much can prepare you'
Up to 20,000 spectators expected to watch people carrying flaming barrels through the town.
www.bbc.co.uk
November 5, 2025 at 4:23 PM
clarebryden.bsky.social
For #TombTuesday here's the Cross Dermond Coffin Stone near Old Penallt Church, where the mourners rested to sing psalms, quench their thirst with ale and cider, and eat substantial meat pies.

#WyeValley #Wales
Dead leaves on the ground, a long coffin-shaped stone covered with moss and ivy, a fence, and a blue sign reading: "This is where the mourners halted and the coffin rested on its way to the funeral. Psalms were sung, thirst was quenched with home brewed ale and cider, and substantial meat pies eaten. Even now the hearse often pauses here on its way to the church."
November 4, 2025 at 5:43 PM
clarebryden.bsky.social
Spent a beautiful afternoon with the lovely folk of Exeter Seed Bank sorting flocks of broad beans for next season's sowing. Aiming to create a strain that can thrive in the future #climate of #Exeter 
#AdaptiveAgriculture
Smiley face made up of dried broad beans of different colours, on blue material
November 2, 2025 at 4:52 PM
clarebryden.bsky.social
Hi #FungiFriends #FungiFriday
Please could I enlist your help in confirming some fungi names.
Seek and Obsidentify are useful and I’m confident of many, just not sure of a few.
I’m sorry that photos (taken in Sep) aren’t always good and/or don’t show salient features.
Thank you
1/10
October 31, 2025 at 11:27 AM
clarebryden.bsky.social
My other favourite oak, reposted for #ThickTrunkThursday and #Oaktober
clarebryden.bsky.social Clare Bryden @clarebryden.bsky.social · Nov 28
For #ThickTrunkThursday and #NationalTreeWeek #UK, an oak in the grounds of Tymawr Convent #Wales
Oak tree with branches bare of leaves covered in snow. Set in a hedge with other trees mostly on the right. You may also be able to make out a sheep, which shows that it is a colour shot, not B&W.
October 30, 2025 at 11:18 AM
clarebryden.bsky.social
My favourite oak through the seasons
Mucknell Abbey, a few years ago

#Oaktober #Oak #Eiche #Trees #ThickTrunkTuesday
#Worcestershire #UK
Oak tree in summer leaf Oak tree in autumn colours Oak tree covered in hoar frost
October 28, 2025 at 9:20 PM
clarebryden.bsky.social
It's not to late to join in with #Oaktober... choose a tree and start a conversation

#ThickTrunkTuesday #Trees #Oak #NoteToSelf

climatebasecamp.org/oaktober/
The Mighty Oak: A National Treasure Under Threat | Climate Basecamp
Oaks are woven into Britain’s culture and countryside. But today, this wildlife powerhouse, and the thousand's of species it supports, is under threat from climate change, pests, disease and land use ...
climatebasecamp.org
October 28, 2025 at 6:37 PM
clarebryden.bsky.social
I think it's about time I posted this

#Poems #Poetry #PoetsOfBluesky #UKPoets #Triolet
#WhiteHouse #EastWing #Ballroom #NativeLand #Climate

It draws on native-land.ca, a living map of indigenous land, knowledge and stories
*Mar-A-Lago lies* Mar-A-Lago lies on Seminole land. The White House is built on Nacotchtank bones. Because of bygone savage sleights of hand Mar-A-Lago lies on Seminole land, so claims of rich white men are built on sand and storms are rising, caring not for thrones. Mar-A-Lago lies on Seminole land and the White House is built on Nacotchtank bones. © Clare Bryden
October 26, 2025 at 8:56 PM
clarebryden.bsky.social
I made "Dress for overcast" 8 years ago, one of the many hacks of Taroko Gorge by @docmofo.bsky.social

clarebryden.co.uk/coding/mozfr...

#ALD25 #Random #Poetry #Javascript #Weather
Lines of Javascript code overlaid onto a fine blue cloudy sky
October 14, 2025 at 9:57 AM
clarebryden.bsky.social
Happy Ada Lovelace Day!!

Here's a poem illustrating how far we've come in computing and its applications since her time clarebryden.co.uk/selling-my-s...

Thanks @ampliconpress.bsky.social for publishing it in ionosphere

#ALD25 @adalovelaceday.bsky.social #STEM #Technology #IT #Poetry #UKPoets
"Selling my soul for a low GI roll" - Clare Bryden
The internet knows me better than I know myself... maybe.
clarebryden.co.uk
October 14, 2025 at 9:27 AM
clarebryden.bsky.social
Cleddon Falls not quite living up to its billing!
#WaterfallWednesday #WyeValley #Wales
Dry waterfall with tree Screenshot of website including a photo of the waterfall with a bit more water in it!
October 8, 2025 at 4:36 PM
clarebryden.bsky.social
Citizen science in #Cotehele orchard
Apple tree
October 7, 2025 at 11:54 AM
clarebryden.bsky.social
...and as the nights draw in, a different interpretation of #Play for #NationalPoetryDay2025, published in the lovely Thimble Literary Magazine

clarebryden.co.uk/uplift/
"Uplift" - Clare Bryden
Acknowledging something of the darkness at the lightest time of year might remind of the possibility of finding light at the darkest time.
clarebryden.co.uk
October 2, 2025 at 3:50 PM
clarebryden.bsky.social
Something fun for #NationalPoetryDay2025 on its theme of #Play
A poem framed by two trees and a person reading in a hammock. “Let’s do something nice today” - - for David & Sue and all the others Let’s see a Mozart opera with post-performance chat, or watch a splendid sweary film and then go home and splat. We’ll patronise that café with the GIANT fresh cream teas, visit bluebell woods in spring and hug some well-loved trees, try catharsis in a chanting crowd no matter win or lose, snuggle in a sunny nook and write some (near) haikus, swing in dappled shade and read awhile and snooze awhile and read awhile and snooze awhile— Let’s talk big ideas and books over a bodged-together brunch, or find a pub with proper beer, have fish and chips for lunch, wander off the beaten track, watch a gameshow for the craic, let’s do something nice today and cut ourselves some slack! Clare Bryden
October 2, 2025 at 3:44 PM
clarebryden.bsky.social
Man's capacity for justice makes democracy possible, but man's inclination to injustice makes democracy necessary.

- Reinhold Niebuhr, "Children of Light and Children of Darkness"

#Quote #ForTheDay #ForTheYear
September 1, 2025 at 6:15 PM
clarebryden.bsky.social
Amazing show by @kateraworth.bsky.social on Saturday evening @greenbeltfestival.bsky.social involving some incredible young people volunteering their talents, and #TeachingBrianEnoBeatboxing
August 25, 2025 at 10:38 AM
Reposted by Clare Bryden
mrjohnharvey.bsky.social
Eighty years since #VJDay, two moving ceremonies in #Exeter today… First, the minute’s silence at #ExeterCathedral Green War Memorial at midday, then the commemoration event in Northernhay Gardens this afternoon.

Your poem was brilliant @clarebryden.bsky.social.

#WeWillRememberThem #VJDay80
August 15, 2025 at 3:21 PM