S. K. Riley
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skriley.bsky.social
S. K. Riley
@skriley.bsky.social
4.5K followers 6.3K following 390 posts
Writer, PhD, gardener, educator, tree planter, and so forth.
www.skriley-author.com
Lover of Australian wildlife, re-wilding, mythology, music, cinema and democracy. 🇦🇺
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skriley.bsky.social
Emu Travelling Dreaming, 1972

TIM LEURA TJAPALTJARRI
powder pigment on composition board
30 x 50 cm

#Art #Australian #AboriginalArt #EmuDreaming #NaturalPigments #Painting
TIM LEURA TJAPALTJARRI Emu Travelling Dreaming, 1972 powder pigment on composition board 30 x 50 cm SOLD at Auction 2025: AUD $55,000
November 14, 2025 at 6:58 AM
skriley.bsky.social
Hitchcock enjoying the snow with his grandchildren, 1962.

#AlfredHitchcock #WinterScene
A winter scene. Alfred Hitchcock, surrounded by his young grandchildren in a sleigh. In a state of joy, they try to catch falling snowflakes with their open mouths.
November 13, 2025 at 5:26 AM
skriley.bsky.social
OK so this is a point and shoot, aim south at the sky and hope for the best 'aurora shot'. Might be puffy clouds and large-canopied trees. No idea how the red boomerang got in there though. #Australis
November 12, 2025 at 11:20 AM
skriley.bsky.social
“Joyce Carol Oates recently fired her full-power death ray at aspiring trillionaire Elon Musk…

Only a #novelist could be this brutal.

[JCO gets] at the heart of Elon’s broken humanity, itemizing with a surgeon’s precision that which he has so clearly lost & will likely never regain.”
#Writers #Art
Screenshot of JCO’s tweet, discussed by Jonny Diamond in LitHub article: ‘Elon Musk gets roasted on his own platform by Joyce Carol Oates’( Nov 10, 2025). https://lithub.com/elon-musk-gets-roasted-on-his-own-platform-by-joyce-carol-oates/ “Like an ancient cyborg culling through the ruins of a post-apocalyptic planet (twitter, derogatory), Joyce Carol Oates recently fired her full-power death ray at aspiring trillionaire Elon Musk, whose childish attempts to justify his riches prompted this [tweet] from JCO.”
November 11, 2025 at 12:47 PM
skriley.bsky.social
We’re sorting out a bit of early gift shopping
by supporting small independent book shops.

#Books #ShopLocal #Giftgiving #Holidays #Reading #BookSky
A hand holding a book with a red cover, titled: 'The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy' by Douglas Adams. Surrounded by stacks of other books is the blue cover of a book, titled: ‘You Are Here’ by David Nicholls.
November 6, 2025 at 6:21 AM
skriley.bsky.social
"Writing is really a way of thinking — not just feeling but thinking about things that are disparate, unresolved, mysterious, problematic or just sweet."

~ Toni Morisson

#Writing #ToniMorisson #Authors #Thinking #Feeling #Writers #BookSky
Low angled photo of Toni Morisson (February 18, 1931 – August 5, 2019). The author appears against a dark backdrop with soft warm lighting behind her. She wears red toned African clothing as she gazes downward at the person holding the camera. Image Source: 'vagabondageautourdesoi'
November 6, 2025 at 12:27 AM
skriley.bsky.social
Springtime in Sydney

The beautiful purple-blossomed jacaranda tree was introduced to Australia from Brazil in the 19th century. They’ve since flourished in Sydney’s tropical climate & sunny weather, and in various other locations, notably Grafton.

#Jacaranda #Spring #Sydney #Purple #Bloomscrolling
The soft pink and mauve tones of dawn light on Sydney Harbour at Circular Quay. On the left is the Harbour Bridge, to the right are the pale sails of the Sydney Opera House. In the foreground, the spectacular purple blooms of a large jacaranda tree nestle amidst palm trees below the Museum of Contemporary Art. Image Credit: Destination NSW
November 3, 2025 at 8:48 PM
skriley.bsky.social
Some good folks I know, down in Miami, packing relief supplies for the people of Jamaica and Haiti. 🌴

[Video source is from Insta. Sorry]

www.instagram.com/reel/DQerGuL...
Music: One Love, by Bob Marley and the Wailers

#HurricaneRelief #CommunityCare #OneLove #Miami #Jamaica #Haiti
‘Some good folks I know, down in Miami, packing relief supplies for the people of Jamaica and Haiti. [Video source is from Insta. Sorry]’ Music: One Love, by Bob Marley and The Wailers
November 2, 2025 at 3:33 AM
skriley.bsky.social
In #Spring, Australia’s #nonvenomous blue-tongue #lizard emerges from hibernation. They’re intelligent, friendly & beneficial to the garden. One now suns itself in our cat’s favourite spot, to warm up its cold-blooded body. She likes to leap over it, for fun. But the #BlueTongueLizard simply abides.
Eastern Blue-tongue (Tiliqua scincoides) New research shows that eastern blue-tongue lizards are born with adult-like learning ability. Photo: Associate Professor Martin Whiting, Macquarie University. The Eastern Blue-tongue is silvery-grey with broad dark brown or blackish bands across the back and tail. Individuals on the coast usually have a black stripe between the eye and the ear which may extend along the side of the neck. The Blotched Blue-tongue is dark chocolate brown to black with large pink, cream or yellow blotches on the back, and a tail banded in the same colours. They can grow to almost 600 mm in total length, of which about 360 mm is head and body. Early in the morning blue-tongues emerge to bask in sunny areas before foraging for food during the warmer parts of the day. During cold weather they remain inactive, buried deep in their shelter sites, but on sunny days they may emerge to bask. They shelter at night among leaf litter or under large objects on the ground such as rocks and logs. They are found throughout much of New South Wales, west to Cobar. In the Sydney region, the Eastern Blue-tongue occurs on the coastal plain and in the lower Blue Mountains.
October 31, 2025 at 11:32 PM
skriley.bsky.social
High Spring (Australia)
Sap rising, Spring blossoming
May the fires of renewal burn brightly in your heart

#HighSpring #SouthernHemisphere #Beltane #BrightFire #Fertility #Renewal
A small camp fire contained by rocks. Always pick a safe place before starting a fire, never when the winds are high. Remember to fully extinguish all flames and embers before retiring.
October 30, 2025 at 10:16 PM
skriley.bsky.social
Percival Everett

Author of the Pulitzer Prize-winning ‘James’, Percival Everett joins us for an engrossing conversation about the power of parody & satire to puncture holes in our ideas about race & identity.

1 March 2026
Sydney Opera House

#PercivalEverett #Sydney #BookSky
tinyurl.com/4zu5m8xb
The white sails of Sydney Opera House overlook a pink Sydney Harbour sunset as an iconic green and yellow Sydney Ferry pulls into historic Circular Quay. A portrait of author Percival Everett beside his book ‘James’, courtesy of the Booker Prize.
October 29, 2025 at 11:31 PM
skriley.bsky.social
Grateful

#Uluru #MilkyWay #Australia
Uluṟu sleeps under the bright stars of the Milky Way. Image Credit: ABC Open contributor-Kartikeya1986
October 28, 2025 at 11:34 PM
skriley.bsky.social
The news from Christmas Island, an #Australian external territory in the Indian Ocean.

Red crabs begin their annual migration:
“Carry rakes, work from home.” 🦀

#RedCrabs #AnnualMigration #ChristmasIsland
www.abc.net.au/news/2025-10...
A road surrounded by thick green tropical vegetation is covered with thousands of red crabs. Their annual migration to breed inland on Christmas Island has caused the road to be blocked. A red sign with white lettering reads: Road Closed. Red Crab Migration. No entry by vehicles beyond this point. (Imaged supplied to ABC by Will Parker/ WeXploreTravel)
October 22, 2025 at 11:16 PM
skriley.bsky.social
‘Ficus Maris’

by Ulan Murray & Rachel Burns
(a lapsed biologist & an abstract painter)

SCULPTURE BY THE SEA 2025
Showcasing 100 works by global artists in Australia's largest free outdoor sculpture exhibition

Sydney's Bondi to Tamarama coastal walk
17 OCT –3 NOV

#SculptureByTheSea #Sydney #Ficus
A ficus tree, also known as the Moreton Bay fig tree, seen here as a sculpture with backlighting to highlight its extensive system of roots. Photographed in muted twilight at Tamarama Beach just after sunset on the Pacific Ocean shoreline of Sydney’s eastern beaches. The largest Moreton Bay fig tree in Australia is likely a tree located west of Bellingen, NSW, standing at around 50 meters tall with a 48-meter crown and an 18-meter circumference. While other large specimens exist, such as those in Centennial Parklands, Sydney, and the tree in Beatson Park, Wollongong, the Bellingen tree is often cited as the largest. Photograph: Dean Lewins/AAP
October 17, 2025 at 8:53 PM
skriley.bsky.social
The Rhythm is the Key

Riflebird’s Courtship Dance ♥️

Riflebird (Ptiloris victoriae) a Bird-of-paradise from the Wet Tropics rainforest, Australia

#Riflebird #BirdDance #Australia #AusBirds #Birds #Birdlife #WildOz
October 13, 2025 at 9:02 PM
skriley.bsky.social
Pink Mulla Mulla

(Ptilotus exaltatus), extremely drought tolerant, is widespread from the south-west & north-west coast of Australia, through the Northern Territory, New South Wales, Queensland & South Australia. Also known as Pussytails or Platinum Wallaby.
#Bloomscrolling #MullaMulla #AusNatives
Pink Mulla Mulla: The flower spike has a pink to purplish head that extends above the foliage, which lengthens from a conical into a more cylindrical shape. Extremely drought tolerant, they grow on rocky slopes, gravelly, clay or stony plains and sand dunes. Ptilotus Exaltatus ‘Platinum Wallaby’ or the Pink Mulla Mulla a sun loving compact Australian perennial plant. Ptilotus mulla mulla has a rosette-like silver-gray foliage and produces an interesting, eye-catching feathery small silver and purple conical flowers.
October 2, 2025 at 7:31 AM
skriley.bsky.social
ORWELL: 2 + 2 = 5

PALACE - BYRON BAY
Thursday 23 October 7pm

www.bbff.com.au/orwell-2-plu...
#ByronBayFilmFestival #BBFF2025 #Documentary #Film #Australia
Movie Poster for ‘ORWELL: 2 + 2 = 5’ About the documentary: Interweaving archive footage of previous adaptations of 1984 with a tapestry of resonant images from the 21st century, Oscar-nominated BAFTA-winning director Raoul Peck (I Am Not Your Negro, Ernest Cole: Lost and Found) masterfully dissects the Orwell’s prescient vision and its vital lessons for our times and the future of our society. 1949. George Orwell finishes what will be his last but most famous novel, 1984. This powerful and provocative documentary delves deep into Orwell’s final months and visionary works to explore the roots of the vital and troubling concepts he revealed to the world in his dystopian masterpiece… Doublethink, Thoughtcrime, Newspeak, the omnipresent spectre of Big Brother… disturbing truths which resonate ever-more powerfully today.
September 27, 2025 at 11:32 PM
skriley.bsky.social
Tropfest

The world’s largest short film festival returns to Sydney after 6 years.

22 FEB, 2026
Centennial Park

The Tropfest 2026 TSI is “Hourglass” - a symbol of time, creativity, and the magic that can happen in just a few minutes.

#Film #Tropfest #ShortFilm #Sydney #Australia
www.tropfest.com
‘Bigger, Bolder, Better than ever!’ This is the text below an image of a audience seated in front of a large outdoor cinema screen, as twilight settles on a public park, nestled amongst mature trees.
September 25, 2025 at 1:17 AM
skriley.bsky.social
Bread of Angels, the most intimate of Smith's memoirs. Arthur Rimbaud & Bob Dylan emerge as creative heroes & role models as Patti writes poetry and lyrics, merging both into iconic songs & recordings: Horses & Easter, Dancing Barefoot & Because the Night.

#Poetry #Lyrics #PattiSmith #Memoir #Music
“Robert Mapplethorpe took this photograph at a deeply transitional moment. It was between the end of my public life as a performer and the beginning of my time in Detroit with my one true love, Fred ‘Sonic’ Smith. Robert had taken an image with doves for the cover of the album Wave. Afterwards, I asked him to take another that would reflect the sentiment of the song ‘Dancing Barefoot,’ a love song for Fred and a farewell to the people. This is the photograph he took.”—Vanity Fair
September 24, 2025 at 10:31 PM
skriley.bsky.social
These definitely give off an Antifa vibe.
Maybe all flowers are like that.
#Bloomscrolling #SpringBlooms
Stocks ‘Mammoth Excelsior’ (Matthiola incana) In bright sunshine, tall (60-90cm) non-branching columns of brilliant floral colour stand in shades of white, soft pink, lilac, pale apricot and biscuit. These single and semi-double highly fragrant blooms are seen growing in a mulched garden bed, set against blue skies and puffy white clouds above distant trees. [Image: Eden Seeds]
September 23, 2025 at 9:28 AM
skriley.bsky.social
Happy #Spring #Equinox! 🇦🇺

Feel Me now as Mother of Fire.
I am Spring’s warmth.
My light brings forth abundant growth.
I hold time in balance.
when night & day are equal.

Pause a moment
Then step with me into
The light of My golden rays.
Feel My presence.
I am passion
and strength.

- Wendy Andrew
As spring arrives in Australia, Eaglestone Rock provides the perfect backdrop to floral pink carpets of everlasting daisies. Image Credit: Charlotte & James Maddock, Western Australia.
September 22, 2025 at 7:49 AM
skriley.bsky.social
Happy Solar Eclipse! 🌔

Big Eclipses 2026-2029:

There will be one big solar eclipse a year for the next three years, culminating with a total lunar eclipse that will take us into 2029.
#Eclipse
Image shows 4 big upcoming eclipses: August 12, 2026 – Total Solar Eclipse: Iceland and Spain August 2, 2027 – Total Solar Eclipse: Spain and Egypt July 22, 2028 – Total Solar Eclipse: Australia and New Zealand Dec 31 to Jan 1, 2028/29 – Total Lunar Eclipse: Europe, Asia, Australia, Africa, & northwestern parts of North America. Image Credit: TimeandDate.com
September 21, 2025 at 10:24 PM
skriley.bsky.social
This is what ANTIFA looks like:

‘Australia was among the first nations to declare war on Nazi Germany and between 1939 & 1945 nearly one million Australian men & women served in what was going to be the Second World War.’

~ Veterans Affairs #Australia

#FreedomOfExpression #WomenAtWar #Democracy
A black and white photo of a large group of Australian Women who gave their service to the cause during WWII. They are dressed in Australian army uniform, standing in a bushy setting, smiling as they look up at the camera. Image Credit: AWM London.
September 19, 2025 at 12:51 AM
skriley.bsky.social
The moon shines bright. In such a night as this. When the sweet wind did gently kiss the trees and they did make no noise, in such a night.

~ William Shakespeare, 'The Merchant of Venice' (1596-8) act 5, sc. 1, l. 1

#LunarEclipse #Shakespeare #Sydney
A red full moon, also known as a blood moon, is seen over Sydney during the lunar eclipse early on Monday morning. Image: Saeed Khan
September 7, 2025 at 10:34 PM
skriley.bsky.social
#AmReading #AntonChekhov #ShortStories #TheBlackMonk
Book Cover for ‘Five Great Short Stories’ by Anton Chekhov (Dover 1990). Included are "The Black Monk" (1894), "The House with the Mezzanine" (1896), "The Peasants" (1897), "Gooseberries" (1898), and "The Lady with the Toy Dog" (1899). In these incisive tales, readers will discover a master of character, nuance, and setting developing the basic themes of his oeuvre: the sociological and psychological obstacles in the way of human affection and satisfactory development of the personality. Anton Pavlovich Chekhov (1860–1904), a Russian physician, short-story writer, and playwright, wrote hundreds of stories that delved beneath the surface of Russian society, exposing the hidden motives of his characters and the ways in which prevailing social forces influenced their lives. This collection contains five of his most highly regarded stories, all from his maturity, and set in a variety of Tsarist Russian milieux.
September 6, 2025 at 3:56 AM