Kim Tillyer - witchmountain
@witchmountain.bsky.social
Artist, illustrator and part time bookseller at Sam Read Bookseller, Grasmere. Author of Beginner's Guide to #Cyanotype - Search Press 2024
witchmountain.co.uk
witchmountain.co.uk
Pinned
Hello! It takes a lot of energy to build a new network after so long in "the other place", I'm wary of more precious time lost online but I'm here for art, nature, books & hopefully real community & kindness. Hoping for a few visitors to witchmountain.co.uk too, to keep the wolf from the door.
I made a booklist on @bookshop-org-uk.bsky.social about some lovely people I've met (many through my job at @samreadbookseller.bsky.social ) and their beautiful books.
Name Dropping - books by people I've met.
I've met so many lovely writers and artists through working at Sam Read's Bookseller in Grasmere, it's a real highlight of the job.
uk.bookshop.org
December 5, 2025 at 11:33 AM
I made a booklist on @bookshop-org-uk.bsky.social about some lovely people I've met (many through my job at @samreadbookseller.bsky.social ) and their beautiful books.
Reposted by Kim Tillyer - witchmountain
I'm not going back to Substack. I will continue to post my newsletters from Ghost. But I did have to get back in there, just to post this and let people who thought I'd vanished know about this utter nightmare: substack.com/home/post/p-...
An Explanation (Which I Would Be Very Grateful If You Took The Time To Read)
What follows is a minor modern horror story.
substack.com
November 22, 2025 at 9:21 PM
I'm not going back to Substack. I will continue to post my newsletters from Ghost. But I did have to get back in there, just to post this and let people who thought I'd vanished know about this utter nightmare: substack.com/home/post/p-...
Reposted by Kim Tillyer - witchmountain
Popping back for something important…
This is for those of you who knew & loved that golden human, Jamie Normington @movingslowly.bsky.social – and those who never met him but were amused, enlightened, touched by his gift for communication and compassion here and on Twitter.
This is for those of you who knew & loved that golden human, Jamie Normington @movingslowly.bsky.social – and those who never met him but were amused, enlightened, touched by his gift for communication and compassion here and on Twitter.
November 18, 2025 at 8:15 PM
Popping back for something important…
This is for those of you who knew & loved that golden human, Jamie Normington @movingslowly.bsky.social – and those who never met him but were amused, enlightened, touched by his gift for communication and compassion here and on Twitter.
This is for those of you who knew & loved that golden human, Jamie Normington @movingslowly.bsky.social – and those who never met him but were amused, enlightened, touched by his gift for communication and compassion here and on Twitter.
Reposted by Kim Tillyer - witchmountain
Like a living anecdote from #Middleland about Cumbrian small business we've been extra busy spinning many plates, so it's taken us longer than planned, but the captioned video of our fantastic event with @rory-stewart.bsky.social and @herdyshepherd.bsky.social is now here to watch.
Rory Stewart in conversation with James Rebanks, discussing Rory's new book Middleland
YouTube video by Sam Read Bookseller
youtu.be
November 18, 2025 at 10:28 PM
Like a living anecdote from #Middleland about Cumbrian small business we've been extra busy spinning many plates, so it's taken us longer than planned, but the captioned video of our fantastic event with @rory-stewart.bsky.social and @herdyshepherd.bsky.social is now here to watch.
Reposted by Kim Tillyer - witchmountain
Squirrel with acorns in the porch at St Kentigern’s Church, Crosthwaite near Keswick in Cumbria.
#Woodensday
#Woodensday
November 12, 2025 at 7:02 PM
Squirrel with acorns in the porch at St Kentigern’s Church, Crosthwaite near Keswick in Cumbria.
#Woodensday
#Woodensday
Reposted by Kim Tillyer - witchmountain
READ the REVIEWS!! 👇
#BestSeller 📚 #Mostgifted 🎁
The new Womensart book
'Reframing Women Printmakers'
also support this account & the promotion of women artists
- so thank you! xx 💕
At a bookshop of your choice....
#BestSeller 📚 #Mostgifted 🎁
The new Womensart book
'Reframing Women Printmakers'
also support this account & the promotion of women artists
- so thank you! xx 💕
At a bookshop of your choice....
October 19, 2025 at 10:18 AM
READ the REVIEWS!! 👇
#BestSeller 📚 #Mostgifted 🎁
The new Womensart book
'Reframing Women Printmakers'
also support this account & the promotion of women artists
- so thank you! xx 💕
At a bookshop of your choice....
#BestSeller 📚 #Mostgifted 🎁
The new Womensart book
'Reframing Women Printmakers'
also support this account & the promotion of women artists
- so thank you! xx 💕
At a bookshop of your choice....
Reposted by Kim Tillyer - witchmountain
Today marks 2 years since @likewinterblue.bsky.social and @pollyrowena.bsky.social took the helm of the shop. What a busy 2 years it's been! We're celebrating with our biggest event by a very long way next week, only possible because of our brilliant bookselling team and so much community support.
October 23, 2025 at 5:36 PM
Today marks 2 years since @likewinterblue.bsky.social and @pollyrowena.bsky.social took the helm of the shop. What a busy 2 years it's been! We're celebrating with our biggest event by a very long way next week, only possible because of our brilliant bookselling team and so much community support.
Reposted by Kim Tillyer - witchmountain
To celebrate the rerelease of my short story collection Help The Witch via @swiftpress.bsky.social I’m giving away TWO signed copies each with a beautiful original linoprints by my mum, from the book (now v rare & worth £40).
To enter you just need to repost this and pop a reply below.
To enter you just need to repost this and pop a reply below.
October 20, 2025 at 4:41 PM
To celebrate the rerelease of my short story collection Help The Witch via @swiftpress.bsky.social I’m giving away TWO signed copies each with a beautiful original linoprints by my mum, from the book (now v rare & worth £40).
To enter you just need to repost this and pop a reply below.
To enter you just need to repost this and pop a reply below.
My most popular recent Instagram post is this flaming marshmallow on a stick, not the art I spent hours making 😏... still, when seen together like this they do have matching eerie and Autumnal colour schemes.
October 20, 2025 at 7:30 AM
My most popular recent Instagram post is this flaming marshmallow on a stick, not the art I spent hours making 😏... still, when seen together like this they do have matching eerie and Autumnal colour schemes.
Reposted by Kim Tillyer - witchmountain
#NationalDayOnWriting
in Cumbrian dialects, 'hullet' is owl. A bird of magic and wisdom; a symbol of the divine feminine; of the moon; and light in the darkess of night
from: "Folklore of the Lake District"
bardofcumberland.com/folklore/
#folklore #lakedistrict #booksky
📷 unknown
in Cumbrian dialects, 'hullet' is owl. A bird of magic and wisdom; a symbol of the divine feminine; of the moon; and light in the darkess of night
from: "Folklore of the Lake District"
bardofcumberland.com/folklore/
#folklore #lakedistrict #booksky
📷 unknown
October 20, 2025 at 7:09 AM
#NationalDayOnWriting
in Cumbrian dialects, 'hullet' is owl. A bird of magic and wisdom; a symbol of the divine feminine; of the moon; and light in the darkess of night
from: "Folklore of the Lake District"
bardofcumberland.com/folklore/
#folklore #lakedistrict #booksky
📷 unknown
in Cumbrian dialects, 'hullet' is owl. A bird of magic and wisdom; a symbol of the divine feminine; of the moon; and light in the darkess of night
from: "Folklore of the Lake District"
bardofcumberland.com/folklore/
#folklore #lakedistrict #booksky
📷 unknown
I mean, Peintmaking has to be worth checking out doesn't it 🙄😂
#Cumbria Printmakers Out of Ink exhibition opens at the Kirkgate Centre, Cockermouth tomorrow with an evening PV.
#handmadeprints #peintmaking #LakeDistrict (and Uffington 😏!)
#handmadeprints #peintmaking #LakeDistrict (and Uffington 😏!)
October 15, 2025 at 10:14 PM
I mean, Peintmaking has to be worth checking out doesn't it 🙄😂
#Cumbria Printmakers Out of Ink exhibition opens at the Kirkgate Centre, Cockermouth tomorrow with an evening PV.
#handmadeprints #peintmaking #LakeDistrict (and Uffington 😏!)
#handmadeprints #peintmaking #LakeDistrict (and Uffington 😏!)
October 15, 2025 at 10:10 PM
#Cumbria Printmakers Out of Ink exhibition opens at the Kirkgate Centre, Cockermouth tomorrow with an evening PV.
#handmadeprints #peintmaking #LakeDistrict (and Uffington 😏!)
#handmadeprints #peintmaking #LakeDistrict (and Uffington 😏!)
Reposted by Kim Tillyer - witchmountain
Spotlight on #TheCompanyOfOwls paperback - officially out tomorrow - though if you know anything about these tawnies, you'll know they do what they want when they want to do it, so no surprise some of them have branched early. Let me know if you spot one roosting near you! #BookSky #NatureWriting
October 15, 2025 at 9:28 PM
Spotlight on #TheCompanyOfOwls paperback - officially out tomorrow - though if you know anything about these tawnies, you'll know they do what they want when they want to do it, so no surprise some of them have branched early. Let me know if you spot one roosting near you! #BookSky #NatureWriting
The one exhibition you
need to see if you're in London this month 💗 www.jacobsongallery.com/exhibitions/... #WilliamTillyer #painting
need to see if you're in London this month 💗 www.jacobsongallery.com/exhibitions/... #WilliamTillyer #painting
William Tillyer: The Watering Place | 9 October 2025
Browse Bernard Jacobson Gallery's exhibitions.
www.jacobsongallery.com
October 10, 2025 at 7:41 AM
The one exhibition you
need to see if you're in London this month 💗 www.jacobsongallery.com/exhibitions/... #WilliamTillyer #painting
need to see if you're in London this month 💗 www.jacobsongallery.com/exhibitions/... #WilliamTillyer #painting
Reposted by Kim Tillyer - witchmountain
ㅤ
Some days seem to fit together like a stained glass window. A hundred little pieces of different color and mood that, when combined, create a complete picture.
— Maggie Stiefvater, Shiver
img: Light: Gunnerton, Northumberland: William Tillyer — David Williams, photograph
ㅤ
Some days seem to fit together like a stained glass window. A hundred little pieces of different color and mood that, when combined, create a complete picture.
— Maggie Stiefvater, Shiver
img: Light: Gunnerton, Northumberland: William Tillyer — David Williams, photograph
ㅤ
March 24, 2025 at 8:26 AM
ㅤ
Some days seem to fit together like a stained glass window. A hundred little pieces of different color and mood that, when combined, create a complete picture.
— Maggie Stiefvater, Shiver
img: Light: Gunnerton, Northumberland: William Tillyer — David Williams, photograph
ㅤ
Some days seem to fit together like a stained glass window. A hundred little pieces of different color and mood that, when combined, create a complete picture.
— Maggie Stiefvater, Shiver
img: Light: Gunnerton, Northumberland: William Tillyer — David Williams, photograph
ㅤ
Drift
Summer drifting away into Autumn again; there's always the initial feeling of sadness, wanting to cling on to something ephemeral, until the joys of the new season are remembered. The plunge into Autumn seems even more sudden this year as we have been away a bit and returned to hedgerows…
Summer drifting away into Autumn again; there's always the initial feeling of sadness, wanting to cling on to something ephemeral, until the joys of the new season are remembered. The plunge into Autumn seems even more sudden this year as we have been away a bit and returned to hedgerows…
Drift
Summer drifting away into Autumn again; there's always the initial feeling of sadness, wanting to cling on to something ephemeral, until the joys of the new season are remembered. The plunge into Autumn seems even more sudden this year as we have been away a bit and returned to hedgerows full of hawthorn berries, wind, rain and hail-swept garden and the realisation that my attempt to grow outdoor tomatoes in Cumbria was probably over optimistic despite the various heatwaves.
witchmountain.wordpress.com
September 12, 2025 at 1:01 PM
Drift
Summer drifting away into Autumn again; there's always the initial feeling of sadness, wanting to cling on to something ephemeral, until the joys of the new season are remembered. The plunge into Autumn seems even more sudden this year as we have been away a bit and returned to hedgerows…
Summer drifting away into Autumn again; there's always the initial feeling of sadness, wanting to cling on to something ephemeral, until the joys of the new season are remembered. The plunge into Autumn seems even more sudden this year as we have been away a bit and returned to hedgerows…
Reposted by Kim Tillyer - witchmountain
Also: writers SHOULD be paid for their work. Substack encourage writers to charge high rates then take 10% of that. I decided to fuck that system off. You can read over 100,000 words of my writing for £10 a year. If you want to pay more, great. If you don't, also great. Thanks for the support.
I deleted my Substack: a decision which might well fuck up my financial security/book sales/various other things but I've decided it's the right decision & I'm sticking with it. My newsletter now goes out via Ghost & you can subscribe to it for as little as as £10 a year: the-villager.ghost.io
September 10, 2025 at 6:25 PM
Also: writers SHOULD be paid for their work. Substack encourage writers to charge high rates then take 10% of that. I decided to fuck that system off. You can read over 100,000 words of my writing for £10 a year. If you want to pay more, great. If you don't, also great. Thanks for the support.
Reposted by Kim Tillyer - witchmountain
Well "Hello August" . Photograph taken from Glastonbury Tor at sunrise. The wheel continues to turn. Happy Lammas/Lughnasadh where we celebrate the beginning of the harvest season.
August 1, 2025 at 8:02 AM
Well "Hello August" . Photograph taken from Glastonbury Tor at sunrise. The wheel continues to turn. Happy Lammas/Lughnasadh where we celebrate the beginning of the harvest season.
Grow- Make – Do
I sat in the garden the other day taking stock: it had turned into a clashing riot of scarlet and orange Crocosmia (a sinister combination to me as the wasps seem to love hiding in them), sweet purple Buddleja (dancing with butterflies this year thank goodness) and Yellow…
I sat in the garden the other day taking stock: it had turned into a clashing riot of scarlet and orange Crocosmia (a sinister combination to me as the wasps seem to love hiding in them), sweet purple Buddleja (dancing with butterflies this year thank goodness) and Yellow…
Grow- Make – Do
I sat in the garden the other day taking stock: it had turned into a clashing riot of scarlet and orange Crocosmia (a sinister combination to me as the wasps seem to love hiding in them), sweet purple Buddleja (dancing with butterflies this year thank goodness) and Yellow Loosestrife running wild, set against the dark green yew and rhododendron foliage. I would never have chosen these alarming colours and yearn for more restful blues and subtle shades, but as a it's a rented garden created by someone who clearly loved their plants I can't really complain.
witchmountain.wordpress.com
July 31, 2025 at 7:19 PM
Grow- Make – Do
I sat in the garden the other day taking stock: it had turned into a clashing riot of scarlet and orange Crocosmia (a sinister combination to me as the wasps seem to love hiding in them), sweet purple Buddleja (dancing with butterflies this year thank goodness) and Yellow…
I sat in the garden the other day taking stock: it had turned into a clashing riot of scarlet and orange Crocosmia (a sinister combination to me as the wasps seem to love hiding in them), sweet purple Buddleja (dancing with butterflies this year thank goodness) and Yellow…
Reposted by Kim Tillyer - witchmountain
If you find a grounded swift, it needs expert & urgent help. Please contact me so I can link to rehabber. These birds can’t easily take off from the ground & in hot weather, chicks who 👀 like this aren’t quite able to fly & often are pushed or jump out of their nests.
July 11, 2025 at 11:55 AM
If you find a grounded swift, it needs expert & urgent help. Please contact me so I can link to rehabber. These birds can’t easily take off from the ground & in hot weather, chicks who 👀 like this aren’t quite able to fly & often are pushed or jump out of their nests.
Real witchmountain.wordpress.com/2025/07/03/r...
A blog post about getting wet, listening to birds and getting cross about AI
A blog post about getting wet, listening to birds and getting cross about AI
Real
Perhaps in the winter my urge to draw and make will return? Right now the garden is claiming all of my often scattered attention; nothing else can compete with the ever changing picture, the perfec…
witchmountain.wordpress.com
July 3, 2025 at 2:50 PM
Real witchmountain.wordpress.com/2025/07/03/r...
A blog post about getting wet, listening to birds and getting cross about AI
A blog post about getting wet, listening to birds and getting cross about AI
Real
Perhaps in the winter my urge to draw and make will return? Right now the garden is claiming all of my often scattered attention; nothing else can compete with the ever changing picture, the perfect imperfection of Mother Nature's glorious canvas right out side the door. I'm spending far more…
Perhaps in the winter my urge to draw and make will return? Right now the garden is claiming all of my often scattered attention; nothing else can compete with the ever changing picture, the perfect imperfection of Mother Nature's glorious canvas right out side the door. I'm spending far more…
Real
Perhaps in the winter my urge to draw and make will return? Right now the garden is claiming all of my often scattered attention; nothing else can compete with the ever changing picture, the perfect imperfection of Mother Nature's glorious canvas right out side the door. I'm spending far more time contemplating the squeak of a hazed and puckered Cavolo Nero leaf or the soft flumph of a toad hopping over my bare foot, than I am the pile of scraps on my desk or the idea of making new work.
witchmountain.wordpress.com
July 3, 2025 at 2:48 PM
Real
Perhaps in the winter my urge to draw and make will return? Right now the garden is claiming all of my often scattered attention; nothing else can compete with the ever changing picture, the perfect imperfection of Mother Nature's glorious canvas right out side the door. I'm spending far more…
Perhaps in the winter my urge to draw and make will return? Right now the garden is claiming all of my often scattered attention; nothing else can compete with the ever changing picture, the perfect imperfection of Mother Nature's glorious canvas right out side the door. I'm spending far more…
Please share:
Do you hate AI?
Are you an editor, proofreader, designer, illustrator, typesetter, marketer, book blogger, audio narrator, reviewer, ARC/beta reader?
WoodPig Press is creating a pool of freelancers for future paid work.
woodpigpress.com/call-for-pub...
#booksky #books #publishing
Do you hate AI?
Are you an editor, proofreader, designer, illustrator, typesetter, marketer, book blogger, audio narrator, reviewer, ARC/beta reader?
WoodPig Press is creating a pool of freelancers for future paid work.
woodpigpress.com/call-for-pub...
#booksky #books #publishing
July 2, 2025 at 10:48 AM
Reposted by Kim Tillyer - witchmountain
Actors Paul and Mark McGann with us at Rydal Mount. They've joined our campaign to save the house for the public. You can help too. Just add your name here saverydalmount.org.uk, and share this as widely as possible. Thank you!
June 23, 2025 at 8:24 AM
Actors Paul and Mark McGann with us at Rydal Mount. They've joined our campaign to save the house for the public. You can help too. Just add your name here saverydalmount.org.uk, and share this as widely as possible. Thank you!
Feeling the heat. witchmountain.wordpress.com/2025/06/21/f...
Feeling the heat.
It’s a small solstice heatwave here in Cumbria, 10 degrees cooler than London but still, sultry. I’ve been sitting outside wearing a big, ugly-but-comfortable, floaty dress from the cha…
witchmountain.wordpress.com
June 22, 2025 at 7:56 PM
Feeling the heat. witchmountain.wordpress.com/2025/06/21/f...