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Alys Wilfred Earl @alysdragon.bsky.social · 12h

#PoorlyDrawnOctober, Day 13: A RANDOM WIKIPEDIA PAGE! So… Natasha Stanizewski? en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Natasha...

Alys Wilfred Earl @alysdragon.bsky.social · 12/10/2026

Hello #GardensHour! Been a busy week, still setting up the #allotment - all but one raised bed now built - and on to the fun stuff of planning fruit bushes. Bit behind on my bulbs for indoors and pots, but hoping to catch up tomorrow. Anyone know anything about lingonberries?

A red and purple fuchsia and some pennies of honesty.

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Alys Wilfred Earl @alysdragon.bsky.social · 09/10/2026

#PoorlyDrawnOctober Day 9: Hands. (I wanted to do something more interesting, but ran out of time.)

A pencil sketch of a gnarled and witchy, androgynous hand.

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Alys Wilfred Earl @alysdragon.bsky.social · 08/10/2026

#PoorlyDrawnOctober Day 8: BAT!🦇 (Thanks to the Bat Conservation Trust for the reference photos.)

Pencil drawings of a common pipistrelle and a Daubenton bay (labelled) and an incomplete sketch of a long eared bat in flight.

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Alys Wilfred Earl @alysdragon.bsky.social · 07/10/2026

#PoorlyDrawnOctober Day 7: Alleyway (+ a bit drunk honestly - which is not a prompt, but just a factor)

A pencil sketch of two shadowy figures embracing in an alleyway through an arch. There is a lantern above them and a sign reading Make No Nuisance.

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Alys Wilfred Earl @alysdragon.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

#PoorlyDrawnOctober Day 6: Lantern (+bright colours - or as close as you’re getting from me.)

A black lantern with brightly coloured flames inside it.

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Alys Wilfred Earl @alysdragon.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

#PoorlyDrawnOctober Day 5: Sword (+ a tool you never/rarely use, watercolour.)

A water colour of a a hand emerging from the lake and holding Excalibur. There is a stormy sky and the Isle of Avalon is on the horizon.

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Alys Wilfred Earl @alysdragon.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

Day 2: Feet. (I hate drawing feet.)

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Alys Wilfred Earl @alysdragon.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

Working on the idea that a) I need to kill my perfectionism, and b) anything I can draw is better than AI because it isn’t Art Theft, I’m doing #PoorlyDrawnOctober.

POORLY-DRAWN OCTOBER 2026
A Monthly challenge of taking risks. and beating perfectionism!
PIck OR ROLL!

Tricks and Treats
1: Flower
2: Feet
3: Teeth
4: Rodent
5: Knife/Sword
6: Lantern/candle
7: Alleyway
8: Bat
9: Hands
10: Pumpkin
Il: Tea cup
12: Cat
Follow up...
13: A Random wikipedia page
14: Favourite Classic Painting
15: Smoke/smoking
16: Keys
17: Bones
18: Mushroom
19: Dog
20: Surprise someone with Fanart!
RIP
Tool Shed
1: No Eraser/one layer only
2: Monochrome
3: Switch hands
4: Highlighters/bright colours
5: Papercraft (or digital approx)
6: Symmetry
7: Redraw a photo
8: Baked (anything in the oven)
9: Draw over a photo
10: A tool you never/rarely use
Anatomy of your heart
1: A Childhood Favourite
2: Most often recommended (by you)
3: Series you're forever putting off
4: A surprise favourite
5: Most recent book
6: Most recent movie
7: Most recent game
8: Something you Love (to hate)
9: Current Favourite Book/Character
10: Character you've somehow never drawn.

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Alys Wilfred Earl @alysdragon.bsky.social · 09/09/2026

(The Eart example isn’t strict consensus, though I’ve seen more than one societies say it should be, the shark example is a bit looser, but always tickles me as the etymology of shark is likely “predator” and was used to describe BIG ones. Not these guys.)

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Alys Wilfred Earl @alysdragon.bsky.social · 07/09/2026

Hello #GardensHour, for me September is all about the late roses, getting the bulbs in for next spring and indoor winter displays, and balancing the needs of the garden with the new allotment! And, hopefully some raspberries…

A view over an overgrown allotment plot with three raised beds visible on the right and a pallet compost heap on the left.

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Alys Wilfred Earl @alysdragon.bsky.social · 17/08/2026

Without downloading any new pics, where are you at mentally?

A naïf carved figure of a human in a niche, much weathered.

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Alys Wilfred Earl @alysdragon.bsky.social · 13/08/2026

(Photo with rough boundary marked on it)

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Alys Wilfred Earl @alysdragon.bsky.social · 13/08/2026

Allotment progress - before and after. The raised beds were already there, just needed mulched. Mostly just hacking back the thistle and grass at this stage.

A very overgrown allotment with a wooden sided compost heap, partially over grown with bind weed, and very long grass covering the plot.

The same allotment from a slightly different angle. The bindweed has been removed from the compost heap and the weeds next to it are under a weed control sheet. Most of the long grass has been cut back and there are now two raised beds visible - one mulched with straw, the other still weedy. Three current bushes are on the right hand side, and at the far end there are two overgrown stands of raspberries.

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Alys Wilfred Earl @alysdragon.bsky.social · 11/08/2026

I’m not claiming sole responsibility, but I have been thinking The Words since yesterday morning, and this is the forecast for where I used to live. I might go so far as to say them today.

A ten day forecast. The forecast until Friday shows unbroken sunshine and temperatures up to 30 degrees. Everything from snow Saturday is cloudy, and from Sunday most days show a chance of rain. Sunday 40%, Monday 35%, Wednesday 40% and Thursday 50%.

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Alys Wilfred Earl @alysdragon.bsky.social · 10/08/2026

Also, some dwarf marigolds hitting very hard among a sea of purple lobelia and pink flowering thyme. I love how a burst of #orange just makes the other colours pop. I wish I could pretend this was intentional planting, rather than my usual haphazard approach. #GardensHour

A closely planted space with orange dwarf marigolds off centre, sour rounded by green sage and rose leaves, blue lobelia, purple/pink thyme, and blue violas.

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Alys Wilfred Earl @alysdragon.bsky.social · 10/08/2026

My ‘Heartwarming’ rose finally coming of age, in gorgeous splashes of yellow and orange which hold the very last of the evening light. #GardensHour

A tea rose with four blooms and several buds. The flowers are fairly small and simple, but are yellow streaked with peach (or peach streaked with yellow.) They glow in an almost cartoonish way.

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Alys Wilfred Earl @alysdragon.bsky.social · 06/08/2026

I’m not saying I got the charity shop find to beat all charity shop finds this arvo, but:

The complete Buffy and Angel DVD box sets. A bit battered but none the worse for it.

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Alys Wilfred Earl @alysdragon.bsky.social · 03/08/2026

Emily Gravett is brilliant - witty and anarchic, and great fun to read. Also, huge love for Jon Klassen, and Quack Quack Moo, We See You! by Mij Kelly (a terrible title, but a joy of a book.)

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Alys Wilfred Earl @alysdragon.bsky.social · 25/07/2026

These are all *fairly* recent? (Really need to paint the shed door…)

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Alys Wilfred Earl @alysdragon.bsky.social · 25/07/2026

This was it at the beginning of the month.

A green space full of established plants and flowers (buddleia, mock orange, roses, clematis etc.) A large shed has a trellis with honeysuckle and clematis climbing up it.

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Alys Wilfred Earl @alysdragon.bsky.social · 25/07/2026

Today was the day, by the way. Today was the day my garden ticked over in to being an Established Garden. Five years ago, I was four days away from moving in, and it looked like this:

A nearly paved concrete yard with a large shed.

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Alys Wilfred Earl @alysdragon.bsky.social · 25/07/2026

NOTHING, but nothing, is as Hastag Aesthetique as cut lavender tied with gardening twine.

A bundle of blue lavender, tied with dark green gardening twine, on a worn wooden table.

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Alys Wilfred Earl @alysdragon.bsky.social · 06/07/2026

Hello #GardensHour! Struggling to make plans for a July garden as June has been so wild and overblown. However, I’ve been clearing some soil so there’s space to pop seedlings in - wallflowers, stocks, and snapdragons. And here’s a sempervivum which burst in to GLORIOUS flower this week.

A green and red sempervivum in a pot with several heads of hot pink, spiky flowers.

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Alys Wilfred Earl @alysdragon.bsky.social · 01/07/2026

5am start in Edinburgh. Full day in Dundee being a responsible grownup, including the inevitable, “Fred, I’ve left my wallet on the bus!” and an entirely unrelated set of administrative phone-calls. Busy train back. Home about ten past 6, in time for Mattie to go to book group. Dead.

Fred with a blank, wear expression. They are slumped on a light blue sofa and wearing an orange plaid shirt.

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Alys Wilfred Earl @alysdragon.bsky.social · 29/06/2026

Hello #GardensHour! I think my biggest joy this June is that the clematis has finally met the rose over the archway- it’s only taken three years… That’s clematis Blue Angel, and it’s rose Lady of the Lake, with a couple of Warsaw Nike flowers tucked in the background.

An arch with light purple clematis one the left meeting pale pink roses on the right. A hot pink rose, a shed, and some houses are in the background.

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Alys Wilfred Earl @alysdragon.bsky.social · 26/06/2026

Do you know who slipped out of the house yesterday evening and refused to come in at bedtime, precipitating a lurching 3am awakening when the biggest thunderstorm I’ve seen in years suddenly arrived? Who I had to go out barefoot in my dressing gown to call in?

A black and white cat lying curled on a rumpled grey sheet.

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Alys Wilfred Earl @alysdragon.bsky.social · 23/06/2026

My GP surgery is very good and supportive and everything is fine but, in Present Circumstances, sending a trans person a letter which begins like this is… it’s not *ideal* is it?

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Alys Wilfred Earl @alysdragon.bsky.social · 20/06/2026

Pared down look for Pride this year.

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Alys Wilfred Earl @alysdragon.bsky.social · 15/06/2026

Hello #GardensHour! The roses are in, even if they are a bit windswept, so here’s my contribution to the rainbow 🌈

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Alys Wilfred Earl @alysdragon.bsky.social · 11/06/2026

Got given a penannular brooch for Christmas after having coveted one for years, and have finally had a opportunity to wear it.

An orange patterned wool shawl fastened at the shoulder by a silver coloured penannular brooch.

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Alys Wilfred Earl @alysdragon.bsky.social · 11/06/2026

Taking a break from reading something I am *not* enjoying, to reread something I love very deeply:

Ghost Story by Peter Straub. A battered black paperback with white text and a gold foil wasp on it. As well as the title and author, there is a blurb by Stephen King “… a monster seller… a tiger tank of a book…”

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Alys Wilfred Earl @alysdragon.bsky.social · 08/06/2026

Had one turn up this morning, and it was boxed like a delivery of long stemmed roses?

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Alys Wilfred Earl @alysdragon.bsky.social · 02/06/2026

Cow in an ice house Sparks an intensive eleven hour rescue attempt…

Picture of a black cow down a hole, with a spotlight from Bordertelegraph.com. Text: The cow has fallen in to a hidden Victorian underground structure. 500kg cow trapped underground in Borders icehouse sparks huge 11-hour rescue

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Alys Wilfred Earl @alysdragon.bsky.social · 25/05/2026

Hello #GardensHour - a very mixed May here, both for weather and garden activity. Lost more seedlings than any other year, which is always depressing. But today brought a little swan song for the month as the first rose of the year burst in to glorious bloom:

A simple white burnet rose being cupped in a hand.

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Alys Wilfred Earl @alysdragon.bsky.social · 25/05/2026

We have a winner! Mary Queen of Scots triumphs by virtue of simple blooms and the early morning light! Congrats to @purplequeenpub.bsky.social for calling it!

A small red rose, almost opened but still in bud.

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Alys Wilfred Earl @alysdragon.bsky.social · 24/05/2026

Ann Leckie, calling me the shit out:

I greatly fear that if I spent the next paragraphs detailing the operation of Ooioiaa's water treatment and reclamation facility (or, more accurately, facilities-there were of course three separate systems, one for each precinct), you would find it tedious. And even if you, specifically, were to say to me, "But no! I am fascinated by water treatment systems and would in fact appreciate the information," I would strongly suspect that you were something of an outlier.

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Alys Wilfred Earl @alysdragon.bsky.social · 24/05/2026

Another day of summer and we’ve got Ruby Rambler (pic 1) with a slight lead, closely followed by Mary Queen of Scots (pic 2), Lady of the Lake and the Poet’s Wife maintaining a steady distance, and a sudden spurt forward for Timeless Purple (pic 3). Tomorrow may bring our winner!

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Alys Wilfred Earl @alysdragon.bsky.social · 22/05/2026

Rose Book update - it’s looking like an increasingly close race between Ruby Rambler and Mary Queen of Scots BUT strong movement from Lady of the Lake and the Poet’s Wife not to be overlooked.

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Alys Wilfred Earl @alysdragon.bsky.social · 19/05/2026

Next, the outsiders: Timeless Purple - an intensely pink purple hybrid tea rose with massive, intricate blooms. Mary Queen of Scots (?) - a double burnet rose in white (a rose but only two.) and, barely showing bud, and on very long odds Deep Secret - a romantic red hybrid tea rose

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Alys Wilfred Earl @alysdragon.bsky.social · 19/05/2026

Part one - the favourites: From left to right then top to bottom we have: Ruby rambler - a miniature rambling rose. Lady of the Lake - a vigorous pale pink rambler. The Poet’s Wife - a gorgeous, yellow bush rose and Rhapsody in Blue - a striking, purple floribunda.

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Alys Wilfred Earl @alysdragon.bsky.social · 19/05/2026

Oh, that’s beautiful! And yes, very similar, but with clear cut there is a layer of coloured glass which is then partly cut away? Like this one:

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