Cara
@woolelephant.bsky.social
Northerner, writer, walker, witterer. Wannabe historian. Little pilgrimages and beer, a novel about the 17th C (Wren, shortlisted for the Mslexia 2023 novel prize)
Pinned
Cara
@woolelephant.bsky.social
· Jan 27
Reposted by Cara
"I DON'T NEED YOU TO FUCKING REWRITE WHAT I'VE JUST WRITTEN!"
October 28, 2025 at 10:46 AM
"I DON'T NEED YOU TO FUCKING REWRITE WHAT I'VE JUST WRITTEN!"
Kathryn Tickell and the Darkening tonight at my old workplace, with the folks. Grateful for excellent music, the brilliant small theatre scene in the north east and for being able to have this life.
October 25, 2025 at 9:59 PM
Kathryn Tickell and the Darkening tonight at my old workplace, with the folks. Grateful for excellent music, the brilliant small theatre scene in the north east and for being able to have this life.
Although I’m on the 9pm train now - which I got a *lot* when I first moved home, and it seems I’m not an evening person either.
It’s a treat to get the 6.30 train and realise just how much of a morning people I’m not.
October 24, 2025 at 9:14 PM
Although I’m on the 9pm train now - which I got a *lot* when I first moved home, and it seems I’m not an evening person either.
It’s a treat to get the 6.30 train and realise just how much of a morning people I’m not.
October 20, 2025 at 7:16 AM
It’s a treat to get the 6.30 train and realise just how much of a morning people I’m not.
Today: spend time with people I’ve known since I was six. This evening: watch strangers be strange with mutuals on here, read an article about chatfishing. Happy to have decided against trying the apps anymore, and that I’m happy with my current number of friends.
October 12, 2025 at 9:45 PM
Today: spend time with people I’ve known since I was six. This evening: watch strangers be strange with mutuals on here, read an article about chatfishing. Happy to have decided against trying the apps anymore, and that I’m happy with my current number of friends.
Reposted by Cara
When someone calls a pub an institution, there are always detractors. But we can't think of a single person who wouldn't agree that The Dog & Bell is exactly that.
Will Hawkes joins us again for an insight into Deptford's most beloved pub.
www.pelliclemag.com/home/2025/9/...
Will Hawkes joins us again for an insight into Deptford's most beloved pub.
www.pelliclemag.com/home/2025/9/...
There Is A Light That Never Goes Out — The Dog and Bell in Deptford, London — Pellicle
On a Friday night in early December, Deptford’s Dog and Bell is Christmas as imagined by a Haribo-addled toddler. A huge resin Santa, grinning merrily in his sleigh, squats in Prince Street out...
www.pelliclemag.com
October 8, 2025 at 8:04 AM
When someone calls a pub an institution, there are always detractors. But we can't think of a single person who wouldn't agree that The Dog & Bell is exactly that.
Will Hawkes joins us again for an insight into Deptford's most beloved pub.
www.pelliclemag.com/home/2025/9/...
Will Hawkes joins us again for an insight into Deptford's most beloved pub.
www.pelliclemag.com/home/2025/9/...
Normally the weekend before my birthday I go away on my own to adjust a bit. This year I’ve had the best weekend with my amazing family, and it has been just cracking. Parents, siblings, in-laws, niblings: an excellent reminder that single life never means a lonely one.
September 29, 2025 at 6:42 PM
Normally the weekend before my birthday I go away on my own to adjust a bit. This year I’ve had the best weekend with my amazing family, and it has been just cracking. Parents, siblings, in-laws, niblings: an excellent reminder that single life never means a lonely one.
Reposted by Cara
Every tech update now is like: "Great news, the word processor you've relied on for twenty years has learned to juggle! Is it good at it? No! Does it help in any way? Of course not! Has it made it insufferable to use? Oh, absolutely."
August 19, 2025 at 10:27 PM
Every tech update now is like: "Great news, the word processor you've relied on for twenty years has learned to juggle! Is it good at it? No! Does it help in any way? Of course not! Has it made it insufferable to use? Oh, absolutely."
Reposted by Cara
A thread on transcription and AI. One reason I don't use AI to transcribe (besides the fact that AI is hugely detrimental to the environment & is coming for our jobs) is that it can't tell the difference between original documents & new notes added by staff members to whom documents were sent. 🗃️ 1/?
August 18, 2025 at 1:45 AM
A thread on transcription and AI. One reason I don't use AI to transcribe (besides the fact that AI is hugely detrimental to the environment & is coming for our jobs) is that it can't tell the difference between original documents & new notes added by staff members to whom documents were sent. 🗃️ 1/?
I really enjoyed reading this.
Not least because for ages I’ve been trying to remember the name of the small department store in Darlo where I used to spend my Christmas money. Dressers - the memories came flooding back.
Not least because for ages I’ve been trying to remember the name of the small department store in Darlo where I used to spend my Christmas money. Dressers - the memories came flooding back.
“Well it never ceases to amaze me that these things are still somehow regarded as ‘cult’ when they’re literally the predominant popular art form in the whole fucking world.”
thebeemagazine.com/mark-gatiss-...
thebeemagazine.com/mark-gatiss-...
Mark Gatiss, the boy that Dr Who books made
The League of Gentlemen star and creator of Bookish on his work, snobbery in the arts, and advice for working-class writers.
thebeemagazine.com
August 16, 2025 at 9:51 AM
I really enjoyed reading this.
Not least because for ages I’ve been trying to remember the name of the small department store in Darlo where I used to spend my Christmas money. Dressers - the memories came flooding back.
Not least because for ages I’ve been trying to remember the name of the small department store in Darlo where I used to spend my Christmas money. Dressers - the memories came flooding back.
Reposted by Cara
This is when the internet peaked and we never should have progressed into the current era of social media and hot takes and call outs.
August 7, 2025 at 5:10 PM
This is when the internet peaked and we never should have progressed into the current era of social media and hot takes and call outs.
Reposted by Cara
I've been researching infertility histories since 2019 - and I am very tired of seeing the same myths being used over and over to silence women. If you're able to read, or share, that would be wonderful. I really don't think I am alone in feeling like this? lucyallengoss.substack.com/p/bruising-i...
Bruising, IVF, and Being 'Over Sensitive'
One of my favourite authors, Barbara Trapido, has a wonderfully on-point description of the way women are encouraged to feel about medical appointments.
lucyallengoss.substack.com
August 7, 2025 at 2:27 PM
I've been researching infertility histories since 2019 - and I am very tired of seeing the same myths being used over and over to silence women. If you're able to read, or share, that would be wonderful. I really don't think I am alone in feeling like this? lucyallengoss.substack.com/p/bruising-i...
Another small thought as I’m trapped at home by heavier bleeding. I kind of don’t want to function at my usual level just now. I would like my words back, but I’m so much more creative. How do I manage this without pretending there’s nothing going on during such a huge and marked change in my life?
August 7, 2025 at 12:20 PM
Another small thought as I’m trapped at home by heavier bleeding. I kind of don’t want to function at my usual level just now. I would like my words back, but I’m so much more creative. How do I manage this without pretending there’s nothing going on during such a huge and marked change in my life?
Reposted by Cara
I’m just gonna say right now that when I die, if anyone uses AI to write my obituary I will fucking haunt them forever
August 3, 2025 at 6:25 PM
I’m just gonna say right now that when I die, if anyone uses AI to write my obituary I will fucking haunt them forever
Reposted by Cara
Narratives about how hard it is for teenage boys, and subsequently men, to deal with romantic rejection are so weird to read, as a woman who was also once a teenager. Until you realise that they’re entirely built on the premise that girls and women are the gatekeepers to sex and relationships.
August 2, 2025 at 8:07 PM
Narratives about how hard it is for teenage boys, and subsequently men, to deal with romantic rejection are so weird to read, as a woman who was also once a teenager. Until you realise that they’re entirely built on the premise that girls and women are the gatekeepers to sex and relationships.
Hop on Board replaced with bloody Madri in the LNER standard offer?! Sacrilege.
July 17, 2025 at 8:11 PM
Hop on Board replaced with bloody Madri in the LNER standard offer?! Sacrilege.
And the mugs that hold the right amount of coffee (in my case) some months will no longer be the mugs that hold enough in other months, but there will never be more than three in the rotation.
British household rules:
you have a cupboard with upward of thirty mugs in it, only three of those can hold exactly the right amount of tea. When those are not available you will drink from the Lesser Mugs, but it will not be as good.
you have a cupboard with upward of thirty mugs in it, only three of those can hold exactly the right amount of tea. When those are not available you will drink from the Lesser Mugs, but it will not be as good.
July 14, 2025 at 5:25 PM
And the mugs that hold the right amount of coffee (in my case) some months will no longer be the mugs that hold enough in other months, but there will never be more than three in the rotation.
I’ve been single my entire adult life but I’ve just realised how rarely I go on holiday on my own. I’m on the Kent coast having a riot. I have read two books. I’ve eaten every rock oyster I can get my hands on and swam in the sea, and now I’m having a flight of tiny beers…
July 12, 2025 at 7:30 PM
I’ve been single my entire adult life but I’ve just realised how rarely I go on holiday on my own. I’m on the Kent coast having a riot. I have read two books. I’ve eaten every rock oyster I can get my hands on and swam in the sea, and now I’m having a flight of tiny beers…
Reposted by Cara
Our anthology call-out for writers in the North of England is open. We're delighted to have received a few submissions already!
There's plenty of time to submit until the deadline at the end of September, so get scribbling - we'd love to read your words.
There's plenty of time to submit until the deadline at the end of September, so get scribbling - we'd love to read your words.
July 11, 2025 at 7:43 AM
Our anthology call-out for writers in the North of England is open. We're delighted to have received a few submissions already!
There's plenty of time to submit until the deadline at the end of September, so get scribbling - we'd love to read your words.
There's plenty of time to submit until the deadline at the end of September, so get scribbling - we'd love to read your words.
Reposted by Cara
Find myself thinking of Molesworth a lot these days, but especially this one.
July 4, 2025 at 2:02 PM
Find myself thinking of Molesworth a lot these days, but especially this one.
What do I love most about Bluesky? The little bits of Molesworth that appear in my feed unprompted.
July 4, 2025 at 2:06 PM
What do I love most about Bluesky? The little bits of Molesworth that appear in my feed unprompted.
Reposted by Cara
Reservoir Dogs was 1992, not 1994. Pulp Fiction was 2 years later, not 11 years later. Jesus Christ, @theguardian.com, whatever wretched AI rubbish you’re using in place of proper journalists, it ain’t working. Switch it off.
July 3, 2025 at 6:51 PM
Reservoir Dogs was 1992, not 1994. Pulp Fiction was 2 years later, not 11 years later. Jesus Christ, @theguardian.com, whatever wretched AI rubbish you’re using in place of proper journalists, it ain’t working. Switch it off.
Nearly got myself into a fight with an admitted arsehole on the tube tonight with my tired rage. No control of it, because it comes with exhaustion in my bones so putting it aside as a symptom rather than a real thing feels impossible. Another 10 years of this.
July 3, 2025 at 6:21 PM
Nearly got myself into a fight with an admitted arsehole on the tube tonight with my tired rage. No control of it, because it comes with exhaustion in my bones so putting it aside as a symptom rather than a real thing feels impossible. Another 10 years of this.
Great advice.
Gran once gave us (in 1993) a lobster dated 1981 she’d found in the freezer. We decided not to risk it.
Gran once gave us (in 1993) a lobster dated 1981 she’d found in the freezer. We decided not to risk it.
At the back of your kitchen cupboard is something pickled or preserved in a jar that you were given for Christmas several years ago that you’ve never quite felt like eating.
Throw it out now.
Throw it out now.
July 3, 2025 at 12:37 PM
Great advice.
Gran once gave us (in 1993) a lobster dated 1981 she’d found in the freezer. We decided not to risk it.
Gran once gave us (in 1993) a lobster dated 1981 she’d found in the freezer. We decided not to risk it.
Perimenopause and trying to maintain a career: delightful. The tutting when you forget things. The near constant hot flushes. The sense of frustration and rage. Flooding. Trying to find a balance and failing at the moment.
June 27, 2025 at 11:37 PM
Perimenopause and trying to maintain a career: delightful. The tutting when you forget things. The near constant hot flushes. The sense of frustration and rage. Flooding. Trying to find a balance and failing at the moment.