iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

I was entering into the spirit of the thread, rather than reiterating talking points.

I recall Ed Milliband's plan for armed fortifications along Hadrian's Wall.

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JA the novelist died in- between writing sessions ever professional the passages following death were as fully functional as those before

I am one of many who adore Scottish independence as a means to renegotiate a very close relationship with England. Awash with paradox.

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my time with elephants then I saw their wrinkled bums rush into a circle of trust 6.X.26

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We're a 'mongrel' nation and better off for it. Thanks George.

Luke Roberts, the best writer on poetics in the UK just now.

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golden plover at Coire na Feadaige (NO 112 776), by Alec Finlay and Chris Watson

Recording the golden plover at Coire na Feadaige, with Chris Watson, for fauna jukebox, commissioned by Hauser & Wirthf or the Fife Arms. An LP will be released later this year by Art into Life, in Japan. Photo by Mhairi Law, 2017. gathering.bandcamp.com/track/golden...

gathering.bandcamp.com

from the album Cairngorms Fauna Jukebox

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Association for Scottish Literature @asls.org.uk · 04/10/2026

the turning of the leaves is a calling to catalogue the spice shelf on Sunday mornings flinging these and sifting those into new jars 5.X.26

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Reposted by Alec Finlay

A nighean a dhìreas an staidhre le do sheanmhair, a dàrna làmh na do làimh-sa, a bata san tèile, saoilidh tu gu bheil i cho sean ris a’ cheò… —Meg Bateman, “Nighean is Seanmhair aig a’ Ghailearaidh Nàiseanta” from TRANSPARIENCIES (Polygon, 2013) Today, 4 October, is #GrandparentsDay #poem #poetry

Meg Bateman
Nighean is Seanmhair aig a’ Ghailearaidh Nàiseanta

A nighean a dhìreas an staidhre le do sheanmhair,
a dàrna làmh na do làimh-sa, a bata san tèile,
saoilidh tu gu bheil i cho sean ris a’ cheò,
gun smuain air do làmh fhèin a’ fàs preasach
no do dhruim crotach . . .
ach tha sibh nur co-aoisich
’s sibh a’ siubhal an t-saoghail seo còmhla.

Treòraichidh i gu dealbh thall san oisean thu,
“Fèin-dhealbh a’ pheantair aig fichead bliadhna ’s a trì”
le Dàibhidh Màrtainn (Albannach, ochdamh linn deug),
seallaidh i dhut tuar nam ban-sìth na ghruaidh,
na sgàilean na shùilean, a ruisg fhada bhàna,
is cha dad nas treasa do chòir-sa seach a còir-se
air a bheul cumadail glacte fo gach lì.

Meg Bateman
Girl and Grandmother at the National Gallery

Girl helping your grandmother up the gallery steps
with her stick in one hand and her arm in yours,
to you she seems as old as the hills,
you little imagine your own hand wrinkled
or your back bent,
but you are contemporaries –
you walk this earth together.

She leads you to a painting over in the corner,
“Self-portrait of the Artist at Twenty-Three”
by David Martin (eighteenth century, Scottish),
shows you the trace of foxglove in his cheek,
the shadowy eyes and long fair lashes,
and no better claim have you than she
on the chiselled lips caught between glazes.

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Alec Finlay @alecfinlay.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

word-mntn (Bla-bheinn, Blue Fell)

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Reposted by Alec Finlay

Peter Geoghegan @petergeoghegan.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

One aspect of Manchester City story massively underplayed is that England now has an independent football regulator Premier League lobbied against it - even hired Peter Mandelson's lobbying firm Global Counsel Tufton Street think tanks lobbied against it But now the regulator exists - and can act

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Alec Finlay @alecfinlay.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

some cones (I) Putting the l back in PIDDlINGTON (II) no pie ever cooked itself no industry ever regulated itself (III) “I have feelings about the law too, but the law won”, by Ed Sheeran (IV) first law of copyright you cannot add a princess to my orchard without my permission 3.X.26

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Alec Finlay @alecfinlay.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

(I) those people we enslaved should be more grateful that we eventually freed them (II) as the climate worsens less people want solutions (III) Nepo Cabbage

Alec Finlay @alecfinlay.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

watershed walks, Mar Lodge, with Gill Russell.

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Alec Finlay @alecfinlay.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

pobble (I) the river treats its pebbles differently to the sea (II) the pebbles are sorted twice daily by the tide 1.X.26

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I write about this in my essay on healing the landscape, which includes memories of seeing The Cone Gatherers performed at Tramway in 1991, a seminal moment in the culture of Scottish ecopoetics. You can read more here.

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This would be followed with a cult venison feast. It was these Gaelic traditions that the Victorians aped. The venison cult is partly responsible for the treeless and denuded landscapes we see today.

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An eilrig, or deer trap, at Invercauld. A tainchell would drive deer, wolves, and boar into this confined spaces, where, in the days before guns, young clansmen would do battle with them in a ritual combat. bellacaledonia.org.uk/2026/09/29/b...

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Alec Finlay @alecfinlay.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

kirke what else to top the kirke but black the deep dark of charred pine root 30.IX.26

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I can announce today that, comrades, we will expand democracy in this great country of ours, and comrades we will deny a referendum in that country of yours.