Dr Joanna Clare Dobson
@joannacdobson.bsky.social
Writer of creative nonfiction; researcher in the environmental humanities. Based in Sheffield, lover of allotments and trees. joannaclaredobson.com
https://wreckageandshimmer.substack.com/
https://wreckageandshimmer.substack.com/
The allotment is looking great this year, thanks to hours of work by @juliandobson.bsky.social. But it’s so, so thirsty. Anyone else finding their rhubarb and broad beans seem sluggish in the heat?
#allotments #growyourown
#allotments #growyourown
May 11, 2025 at 8:32 AM
The allotment is looking great this year, thanks to hours of work by @juliandobson.bsky.social. But it’s so, so thirsty. Anyone else finding their rhubarb and broad beans seem sluggish in the heat?
#allotments #growyourown
#allotments #growyourown
For Independent Bookstore Day I bought a copy of the Nature Chronicles prize anthology from the excellent Rhyme and Reason in Sheffield. So far I’ve read an absolute gem of a multilayered essay by @davidhiggins.bsky.social on minibeasts. Really looking forward to the rest.
April 26, 2025 at 5:53 PM
For Independent Bookstore Day I bought a copy of the Nature Chronicles prize anthology from the excellent Rhyme and Reason in Sheffield. So far I’ve read an absolute gem of a multilayered essay by @davidhiggins.bsky.social on minibeasts. Really looking forward to the rest.
Great start to the day planting out salad at the allotment with blackbird, chifchaff, robin and wren. Shockingly dry ground though.
April 4, 2025 at 9:53 AM
Great start to the day planting out salad at the allotment with blackbird, chifchaff, robin and wren. Shockingly dry ground though.
And here is the Saddle Oak in Savernake Forest today. Only now do I realise the tree behind it looks uncannily like a Druid priest.
March 23, 2025 at 4:46 PM
And here is the Saddle Oak in Savernake Forest today. Only now do I realise the tree behind it looks uncannily like a Druid priest.
Repost with the first album you bought with your own money.
February 23, 2025 at 4:01 PM
Repost with the first album you bought with your own money.
I really appreciated Laurence’s approach: ‘A landscape is not a “thing” but the latest episode in a long natural and human history. 3/4
January 18, 2025 at 6:22 PM
I really appreciated Laurence’s approach: ‘A landscape is not a “thing” but the latest episode in a long natural and human history. 3/4
It was a centre for deep coal mining until the late 1980s. Now marsh harriers quarter the planted reedbeds while traffic roars past on the A6195. 2/4
January 18, 2025 at 6:22 PM
It was a centre for deep coal mining until the late 1980s. Now marsh harriers quarter the planted reedbeds while traffic roars past on the A6195. 2/4
Such a thought-provoking day of nature writing with @windhovering.bsky.social at Old Moor today. This @rspbengland.bsky.social reserve in South Yorkshire lies in what was once described as ‘the most polluted valley in Europe’. 1/4
January 18, 2025 at 6:22 PM
Such a thought-provoking day of nature writing with @windhovering.bsky.social at Old Moor today. This @rspbengland.bsky.social reserve in South Yorkshire lies in what was once described as ‘the most polluted valley in Europe’. 1/4
Gathering my stuff for a day of nature writing on a bird reserve today and loving the way the thrill of ‘what will I see?’ combines with the anxious excitement of ‘what will I write?’ #naturewriting
January 18, 2025 at 8:12 AM
Gathering my stuff for a day of nature writing on a bird reserve today and loving the way the thrill of ‘what will I see?’ combines with the anxious excitement of ‘what will I write?’ #naturewriting
I’ve started a Substack called Wreckage and Shimmer. It’s going to be a series of monthly essays about holding joy and grief in tension at a time of environmental crisis.
January 17, 2025 at 6:35 PM
I’ve started a Substack called Wreckage and Shimmer. It’s going to be a series of monthly essays about holding joy and grief in tension at a time of environmental crisis.
It was too cloudy to see the wolf moon tonight but we swam in the last light from the sun and Venus was high and bright over the path on the way back.
I don’t really do new year resolutions but I am going to try and swim at every full moon in 2025. More embodied activities, less overthinking 🤞
I don’t really do new year resolutions but I am going to try and swim at every full moon in 2025. More embodied activities, less overthinking 🤞
January 14, 2025 at 9:07 PM
It was too cloudy to see the wolf moon tonight but we swam in the last light from the sun and Venus was high and bright over the path on the way back.
I don’t really do new year resolutions but I am going to try and swim at every full moon in 2025. More embodied activities, less overthinking 🤞
I don’t really do new year resolutions but I am going to try and swim at every full moon in 2025. More embodied activities, less overthinking 🤞
Christmas and New Year leave me feeling a bit like this sleepy little owl from @rspb.bsky.social. But less zen. So to preserve some energy, I’m signing off social media for a couple of weeks. Looking forward to reconnecting in this pleasant place in 2025
December 20, 2024 at 1:57 PM
Christmas and New Year leave me feeling a bit like this sleepy little owl from @rspb.bsky.social. But less zen. So to preserve some energy, I’m signing off social media for a couple of weeks. Looking forward to reconnecting in this pleasant place in 2025
Such a wonderful day writing with ex-PhD colleagues in Manchester’s John Rylands Library. The fact that such places exist, and that anyone can access them completely free of charge is a little shimmer of hope when so much is being trashed (yes, #EnvHum people, I was reading Deborah Bird Rose)
December 4, 2024 at 6:40 PM
Such a wonderful day writing with ex-PhD colleagues in Manchester’s John Rylands Library. The fact that such places exist, and that anyone can access them completely free of charge is a little shimmer of hope when so much is being trashed (yes, #EnvHum people, I was reading Deborah Bird Rose)
‘Scout taught me how to live and he taught me how to be.’
Brilliant launch last night for Paul Besley’s book The Search. Especially moving when Paul spoke of how his search dog modelled everything he needed to know when he was diagnosed with asbestosis.
#naturewriting #animalstudies
Brilliant launch last night for Paul Besley’s book The Search. Especially moving when Paul spoke of how his search dog modelled everything he needed to know when he was diagnosed with asbestosis.
#naturewriting #animalstudies
November 27, 2024 at 10:10 AM
‘Scout taught me how to live and he taught me how to be.’
Brilliant launch last night for Paul Besley’s book The Search. Especially moving when Paul spoke of how his search dog modelled everything he needed to know when he was diagnosed with asbestosis.
#naturewriting #animalstudies
Brilliant launch last night for Paul Besley’s book The Search. Especially moving when Paul spoke of how his search dog modelled everything he needed to know when he was diagnosed with asbestosis.
#naturewriting #animalstudies
👋
Hello from a very snowy Harrogate (though I’m normally in Sheffield!)
Hello from a very snowy Harrogate (though I’m normally in Sheffield!)
November 23, 2024 at 9:54 AM
👋
Hello from a very snowy Harrogate (though I’m normally in Sheffield!)
Hello from a very snowy Harrogate (though I’m normally in Sheffield!)
You can’t keep a good crop of chard down. Soldiers on cheerfully, no matter the weather. #allotment
November 20, 2024 at 2:23 PM
You can’t keep a good crop of chard down. Soldiers on cheerfully, no matter the weather. #allotment
Gorgeous walk round Wyming Brook nature reserve this morning. Even after 22 years in Sheffield I still can’t quite believe we have places like this on the doorstep.
November 17, 2024 at 4:04 PM
Gorgeous walk round Wyming Brook nature reserve this morning. Even after 22 years in Sheffield I still can’t quite believe we have places like this on the doorstep.
Hello, new followers! A little bit more about me: I write and do research on trauma and place, and the ways they thread, knot, felt, weave and tangle together. Currently querying my first memoir; writing towards my second. Can’t live without #allotments or #knitting
November 15, 2024 at 5:52 PM
Hello, new followers! A little bit more about me: I write and do research on trauma and place, and the ways they thread, knot, felt, weave and tangle together. Currently querying my first memoir; writing towards my second. Can’t live without #allotments or #knitting
So much wisdom in this latest from Oliver Burkeman. ‘Treat your to-read pile like a river not a bucket … a stream that flows past you from which you get to pick a few choice items … without feeling guilty for letting all the others float by.’ Challenging but I’m going to give it a try where I can
September 25, 2024 at 10:40 AM
So much wisdom in this latest from Oliver Burkeman. ‘Treat your to-read pile like a river not a bucket … a stream that flows past you from which you get to pick a few choice items … without feeling guilty for letting all the others float by.’ Challenging but I’m going to give it a try where I can
Bluesky now has over 10 million users, and I was #1,016,810!
September 19, 2024 at 4:07 PM
Bluesky now has over 10 million users, and I was #1,016,810!
Oh nooo I’m so sorry to hear this and SO glad you managed to wobble your way up to Derbyshire at the weekend. Please enjoy this Turkey oak from Sheffield Botanical Gardens - may its arboreal might bring you strength x
September 19, 2024 at 1:26 PM
Oh nooo I’m so sorry to hear this and SO glad you managed to wobble your way up to Derbyshire at the weekend. Please enjoy this Turkey oak from Sheffield Botanical Gardens - may its arboreal might bring you strength x
Pembrokeshire portal
September 12, 2024 at 4:55 PM
Pembrokeshire portal
Sharing a little patch of evening sun with some autumn crocuses in Sheffield Botanical Gardens. Quite a few hoverflies here with us too
September 3, 2024 at 5:06 PM
Sharing a little patch of evening sun with some autumn crocuses in Sheffield Botanical Gardens. Quite a few hoverflies here with us too
Hello new followers! I’m a researcher and writer based in Sheffield, UK. I recently completed a memoir about my brother, who died when he was seven and I was ten. The family never spoke of him. I’m endlessly curious about the connections between trauma and the way we relate to nature and place.
August 29, 2024 at 12:11 PM
Hello new followers! I’m a researcher and writer based in Sheffield, UK. I recently completed a memoir about my brother, who died when he was seven and I was ten. The family never spoke of him. I’m endlessly curious about the connections between trauma and the way we relate to nature and place.
Hobbling into 2024 with a broken leg, the result of not looking where I was going on a Christmas Day walk. Sad not to get to the plot today, but I’ve been happily planning the next growing season instead! Happy New Year to all -may your dreams take root and flourish
January 1, 2024 at 4:21 PM
Hobbling into 2024 with a broken leg, the result of not looking where I was going on a Christmas Day walk. Sad not to get to the plot today, but I’ve been happily planning the next growing season instead! Happy New Year to all -may your dreams take root and flourish