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Cat Frampton

@catframpton.bsky.social
1.1K followers 363 following 689 posts

Dartmoor based artist and Farmer who believes land layering is possible - She/her - Team waxcap/dung beetle/nature - it’s always more complicated than that!

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Cat Frampton @catframpton.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
@britishmyology.bsky.social considering it’s spreading but also probably still pretty unusual should we report Favolaschia Claudopus / Orange Porecap if found? And if so how and where? Devon, East Dartmoor.
Tiny orange fungiSmall orange fungi Small orange fungi
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Cat Frampton @catframpton.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
The farming minister visited on Monday, I swore on social media on Tuesday, was interviewed by farming today on Wednesday and was therefore on the radio on Thursday…. what a week of ‘telling folk my opinions’ I am having huh? www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/...
The farming minister and me… and some scones we gave him as ‘car snacks’ for his journey home.
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Cat Frampton @catframpton.bsky.social · 06/09/2026
“in a world where ‘nature recovery’ has big financial teeth, the story that is told about land matters” What are the stories you are being told? Who’s telling them? And why?
A black and white photo of a bleak bit of Dartmoor Same place but colour photo. Blue sky, less bleak!
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Reposted by Cat Frampton
Cat Frampton @catframpton.bsky.social · 03/09/2026
I wrote a piece about pictures, land use and lies (or half truths) And the power a photo has in our ‘scroll on past’ social media world. sidecountry.co.uk/is-a-picture...
sidecountry.co.uk
Is a picture worth a thousand words? - SideCountry
I paused briefly on my way off the hill the other day and took a quick photo. It’s not my best work, I may be an artist but photos really aren’t my medium,
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Cat Frampton @catframpton.bsky.social · 03/09/2026
I wrote a piece about pictures, land use and lies (or half truths) And the power a photo has in our ‘scroll on past’ social media world. sidecountry.co.uk/is-a-picture...
sidecountry.co.uk
Is a picture worth a thousand words? - SideCountry
I paused briefly on my way off the hill the other day and took a quick photo. It’s not my best work, I may be an artist but photos really aren’t my medium,
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Cat Frampton @catframpton.bsky.social · 01/09/2026
Exhibit a - why it’s vital we keep livestock out on Dartmoor* in number all year. It’s not all about the plants you know… (If you are into counting striae on dung beetles you’ll know it’s an extra special beetle…) (*and farmland)
A shinny dung beetle. 9 stripes on its wing case means it’s a mutator dung beetles which is a bit rare A shinny dung beetle. Lying in its back and showing off its green metallic looking legs A shinny dung beetle. 9 stripes on its wing case means it’s a mutator dung beetles which is a bit rare
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Cat Frampton @catframpton.bsky.social · 31/08/2026
Just a quick announcement… I’ve moved most of my writing to SideCountry. It’s free to read, they are not asking for your info to access stuff and while it may not be to everyone’s taste it’s now home for my rants about land, ecology, farming and the moors sidecountry.co.uk/people/cat-f...
sidecountry.co.uk
Cat Frampton - SideCountry
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Cat Frampton @catframpton.bsky.social · 13/08/2026
Obligatory colander eclipse photo
Shadows of grasses and a colander cast over paper. The holes in the colander show the partial eclipse of the sun.
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Cat Frampton @catframpton.bsky.social · 08/08/2026
I have a question If anyone can help please do! What happens with ‘sloped’ (rather than bog) peatland restoration when it’s as dry as it has been this year? Can the peat still form? And will the inevitable downpour to follow damage or restore?
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Cat Frampton @catframpton.bsky.social · 06/08/2026
Can it rain please? Waiting - oil/mixed media 30cmx21cm For sale (when it’s dried)
A oil painting of a crow on a post in a hot dry field under a hot dry sky. Very yellow, very dark shadows. A oil painting of a crow on a post in a hot dry field under a hot dry sky. Very yellow, very dark shadows. Close up of the birds head.
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Cat Frampton @catframpton.bsky.social · 11/07/2026
Blocking upland meadow land drains is a win win tbh. Yes it’s wet as hell in winter But the livestock don’t come in here in winter and it’s just wonderful in the hot dry we’ve been having. Raises the water table for the rest of the field too! This one was blocked by roots a few years back.
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Cat Frampton @catframpton.bsky.social · 29/06/2026
A recent commission. Now all framed up and handed over. Egrets, Kildonan dun, Kintyre. To celebrate a special place and time. The shimmer in the gold ink is wonderful in real life, just catches the light as you move past the painting. The birds are (as ever) tiny.
A ink painting of the sea, some rocky foreshore and some distant punk hills. Two sketched birds fly across the sea.
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Cat Frampton @catframpton.bsky.social · 29/06/2026
Words/phrases that aren’t in the uk labour governments new ‘Farming Roadmap’ Hunger Food poverty Healthy food Society Community Words that do Private investment -mentioned on 9 pages Private finance -also on 9 pages This makes me a bit twitchy tbh assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/6a354f...
assets.publishing.service.gov.uk
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Reposted by Cat Frampton
Dr Adrian Colston @dartmoorac.bsky.social · 19/06/2026
theconversation.com/claims-of-da...
theconversation.com
Claims of Dartmoor pony cull reignite row over how to save Britain’s moorlands
Semi-wild ponies are valuable for habitat restoration, yet policy changes may threaten their survival.
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Cat Frampton @catframpton.bsky.social · 16/06/2026
Hi guys A butterfly question. Is this a small heath? It was small. It had an orange upper wing that was very tricky to see as it rested with wings firmly closed. Dartmoor. Devon. On knapweed. Near ‘everything’ inc trees, bracken, species rich pasture et al! Thanks!
A small grey and orange butterfly A small grey and orange butterfly
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Cat Frampton @catframpton.bsky.social · 14/06/2026
Just a friendly reminder that if, on a warm June day, your pastures don’t sound like a swarm of bees is happening close by, because so many insects are happily living and feeding there, you’re missing out! That ‘bee loud glade’ of myth and poetry can be an actual thing.
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Cat Frampton @catframpton.bsky.social · 10/06/2026
Wow!!! This has been coming a long time, two of my tb positive cows from 5(?) years ago headed to the trial for the new test, so they have been working on this for years and years. When this happens it’ll be a wonderful thing! The weight that will be lifted from the whole industry will be massive!
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Cat Frampton @catframpton.bsky.social · 06/06/2026
In the rain the swallows fly at knee height catching the insects that are sticking low to the ground for shelter. Small drawing with watercolour Swallow - rain, skimming for food 10cm x 7cm Unframed Up on my website for sale in a bit!
A drawing of a swallow flying low over grasses in the rain A drawing of a swallow flying low over grasses in the rain A drawing of a swallow flying low over grasses in the rain
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Cat Frampton @catframpton.bsky.social · 02/06/2026
Tiny busy wren Watercolour and pencil Will be for sale on my website later.
A tiny drawing of wren with a green yellow background. A tiny drawing of wren with a green yellow background. Pencil in the picture to show how small the drawing is A tiny drawing of wren with a green yellow background.
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Cat Frampton @catframpton.bsky.social · 31/05/2026
@johnwalterswildife.bsky.social @dartmoorac.bsky.social Steps apart from each other. Pretty pleased to find these guys on the farm!
A orange and black butterfly on a purple flower. It’s a pearl bordered fritillary A very similar orange and black butterfly on sorrel
It’s a small pearl boarded fritillary
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Cat Frampton @catframpton.bsky.social · 30/05/2026
Wednesday night A (sweaty) sound filled sauna for a thousand souls… Saw We lost the sea in Bristol Was very warm… And very good!!
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Cat Frampton @catframpton.bsky.social · 25/05/2026
Pasture, Dartmoor, grazed on a move often on rotation* (Not a hay field) Wildlife and food production in the same place at the same time. Work in progress, but we are getting there. (* as everything is a abbreviation now calling it MOoR grazing! )
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Reposted by Cat Frampton
Cat Frampton @catframpton.bsky.social · 21/05/2026
Wrote about being tidy, and farming, and nature. www.scribehound.com/countryside/...
scribehound.com
Scribehound
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Cat Frampton @catframpton.bsky.social · 21/05/2026
Wrote about being tidy, and farming, and nature. www.scribehound.com/countryside/...
scribehound.com
Scribehound
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Cat Frampton @catframpton.bsky.social · 18/05/2026
Morning Here, a field that has been grazed twice already this year, in late March and late April. The cows will get another quick pass over it in about 12 days. Year on year its wildflowers have been increasing since we started the ‘keep them moving’ grazing regime.
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Cat Frampton @catframpton.bsky.social · 17/05/2026
My non academic brain just short circuited Why bother to cite a source if you haven’t read (and understood) it? Surely that’s the point of citing a source? Like isn’t it’s the whole point?! adding proof/weight to your ideas rather than just making shit up? Mind blown by ‘brain rot LLMs’ again!
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Cat Frampton @catframpton.bsky.social · 16/05/2026
Nightjar!!! Finally! I have a ink painting for sale if you want an absolute puzzle of a picture in which you know there are two birds but you can’t see them unless you really really know where to look!!
A ink painting of cool evening light and moorland. Two tiny nightjars lurk in the picture The flying nightjar, about a cm longThe sitting nightjar, tiny and very hidden in the vegetation The flying bird almost impossible to see against the shimmer of the metallic ink of the sky.
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Cat Frampton @catframpton.bsky.social · 12/05/2026
What are the odds that someone in a very safe seat is going to suddenly have some sort of ‘illness’ or ‘family crisis’ or other plausible excuse to step down, forcing a by election and ‘bish bash bosh Burnham’ happens? I’d think pretty high myself, but what do I know?!
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Cat Frampton @catframpton.bsky.social · 12/05/2026
Been trying to get my head around oil paints They are hard, using them almost makes my hands ache because I’m so used to pencil and needle as my main mediums It’s frustrating and that is made worse by knowing full well that it’s a practice game and a learnable skill! Still, I like this raven.
A painting of a very dark raven against a vividly blue sky. A painting of a very dark raven against a vividly blue sky.A painting of a very dark raven against a vividly blue sky.
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Reposted by Cat Frampton
Lev Parikian @levparikian.bsky.social · 09/05/2026
HELLO sorry didn’t mean to shout Anyway, this coming Thursday I’m having a chat with Melissa Harrison about her ridiculously good new book, The Given World. It’s at @booksellercrow.bsky.social in Crystal Palace and you also get a drink. Do come, and do tell people. www.outsavvy.com/event/34573/...
A poster for said event with a photo of Melissa and the cover of her book. Text: Author Event
Bookseller Crow
Thurs 14th May, 7.30
The Given World
Melissa Harrison in conversation with Lev Parikian
Tickets on sale now via outsavvy or in store
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Cat Frampton @catframpton.bsky.social · 03/05/2026
Today I did another bird walk around the farm, I saw, or heard: Cuckoo Magpie Jackdaw Crow Raven Buzzard Jay Blackbird Songthrush Mistlethrush House sparrow Robin Dunnock Wren Goldcrest Goldfinch Greenfinch Chaffinch Siskin Reed bunting Yellowhammer Skylark Meadow pipit And…⬇️
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Cat Frampton @catframpton.bsky.social · 30/04/2026
😬 Well I wasn’t expecting ‘right wing territorial pissing, but with fire’ as an online culture wars insult today… yet here we are! Just to be clear, I have used fire as a land management tool and I did not do it as some sort of mad bid to stick it to the ‘anorak wearers’ and show them what’s what!🤦‍♀️
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Cat Frampton @catframpton.bsky.social · 27/04/2026
Wrote about my sheep… Pulling apart some of the arguments about sheep on the uplands from my personal point of view. Enjoy. (Don’t go thinking I’m talking for a whole industry here, even if some of the points do range further afield than my place) www.scribehound.com/countryside/...
scribehound.com
Scribehound
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Cat Frampton @catframpton.bsky.social · 26/04/2026
Cows in the wet woods for a day or two, then moved to a different pasture. This is not rewilding or conservation grazing, its livestock farming on rough land. It’s about working with the land and its natural stocking capacity and growing food for us. It works and it’s full of birds, bats and bugs
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Cat Frampton @catframpton.bsky.social · 10/04/2026
@smashfizzle.bsky.social Important message: First lambs today. That is all. Stay posted for more news as we get it (them!)
Two black lambs in a barn.A lamb. And a ewe look g straight at the camera Two black lambs and a black Hebridean ewe in a barnA small black lamb giving me the side eye!
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Cat Frampton @catframpton.bsky.social · 06/04/2026
My neighbours The ones selling extra special carbon credits, that are worth so much more because (and I quote their ceo) “wealthy private and institutional investors would pay much higher prices to store carbon in new woodlands or peatland if they included high environmental and social benefit”
A screenshot from a guardian article about oxygen conservation.
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Reposted by Cat Frampton
Alex Morss 🦇🏴‍☠️♾️ @alexmorss.bsky.social · 01/04/2026
Israel has just passed a racist law introducing the death penalty to Palestinians. Demand the British government takes action & call for sanctions. It only takes 2 minutes to message your MP & Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper. Here’s a template: palestinecampaign.eaction.org.uk/opposedeathp...
palestinecampaign.eaction.org.uk
Write to the Foreign Secretary: Oppose Israel's new death penalty law
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Reposted by Cat Frampton
Palestine News @palestinenews.smitsky.nl · 31/03/2026
EU expresses deep concern over Israeli approval of death penalty bill #palestine #pnn
english.pnn.ps
EU expresses deep concern over Israeli approval of death penalty bill
Brussels /PNN / The European Union has expressed strong concern following the approval of a death penalty bill by t
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Cat Frampton @catframpton.bsky.social · 30/03/2026
A short and faintly farcical story about how bad data gets embedded into systems… First you make a map The map is not accurate (you didn’t test it properly) but because you have spent time and money on it you launch it saying it is fine… It’s so wrong that three days later you add a disclaimer…⬇️
The original media from the peat maps launch The original media from the peat maps launch The original media from the peat maps launch The original media from the peat maps launch
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Cat Frampton @catframpton.bsky.social · 28/03/2026
Ffs The forestry commission map has the peat map of doom embedded in it, with no disclaimer saying ‘map is rubbish’ And this is how bad data becomes normalised The hours that will be wasted as people have to find out what’s actually peat and what’s not… Ta @naturalengland.bsky.social great job…🤦‍♀️
A screenshot of the forestry commission map with the peat map layer shown as purple.
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Cat Frampton @catframpton.bsky.social · 24/03/2026
The blackthorn is out. I love the stuff, even if I am wary of it!
Blackthorn blossom, white and frothy with small green flower buds as well as open blooms. A poem saying:

Blackthorn winter
The blackthorns frost the warm spring air
You think they lie, no cold is coming now
Not as the insects rise and celandines open to the clear blue sky

The white drifts like smoke along the hedge, telling it's cold old stories That myth of past times cannot be for this changed world,
There is a daisy.

Tomorrow you will know the blackthorns truth
The cold still comes with soft white flowers
As winter gives its dying kick.

C Frampton 23/3/26
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Cat Frampton @catframpton.bsky.social · 15/03/2026
Mother’s Day. Bitter sweet. Not a mother, motherless, yet still pretty ok tbh. Just a layer of sad under it all that’s worth acknowledging.
A poem written by me
About my dead mother 

Grave goods
Around her neck a silver lion.
A gold ring on her hand
Into the pockets of her bright red Guernsey cardigan go
A penknife freshly sharpened
With oil on its hinge
A full box of matches for the bonfire or the swale
A neatly tied up piece of baler twine.
Shocking pink against the crimson.
The other pocket holds
A graphite pencil, sketchbook and travel watercolour tin.
Sweets to share with dad.My mum with her enormous rambling rose in her garden in the summer.
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Cat Frampton @catframpton.bsky.social · 14/03/2026
The more I think about this the angrier I get. I hadn’t fully thought about the ‘needs an adviser so it must go’ bit… the simplification of every bloody thing, the walking away from the complicated. Surely the more something needs an adviser to make it work the more it needs to be paid for? Ffs
A screenshot from the government blog post on the changes in the SFI options saying 

Reason for removing: GRH6 had moderate uptake. It was the only endorsed action in the SFI24 offer. It's being removed as part of the simplification of SFI26 as it required bespoke Natural England adviser endorsement. An equivalent of GRH6 is in the CS Higher Tier offer.A complicated bit of land that could maybe use some advice on management… looking down at an early spring pasture full of seedling plants.
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Cat Frampton @catframpton.bsky.social · 12/03/2026
I’ve picked apart the mess of subsidies for species rich grasslands in England… It’s not a feel good story… In fact it’s a betrayal of careful old fashioned farming and biodiversity by the uk government. Makes me very sad tbh. www.scribehound.com/countryside/...
scribehound.com
Scribehound
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Cat Frampton @catframpton.bsky.social · 28/02/2026
Birds seen or heard on my Dartmoor livestock farm today (NB: I went looking) House sparrows Chaffinch Wren Blackbird Robin Dunnock Siskin Greenfinch Yellowhammer Blue tit Great tit Coal tit Marsh tit Long tailed tit Redpoll Wood pigeon Stock dove Redwing Mistle thrush Song thrush Starling TBC…⬇️
A drawing of a wren
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Cat Frampton @catframpton.bsky.social · 28/02/2026
Two small watercolours One with just 2 colours on a smooth karst stone paper One with 5 colours on nice watercolour paper. Both about the shape of oystercatchers. Which do you like best?
A minimalist watercolour of birds on coastal rocks. A minimalist watercolour of birds on coastal rocks.
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Cat Frampton @catframpton.bsky.social · 27/02/2026
Tiny sketches. Working on the shape of oystercatchers in watercolour.
A black blob with a beak 

Looks kinda like a oystercatcher bird. A few black blobs with beaks

Looks kinda like a oystercatcher birdsA few black blobs with beaks on a small sketchbook page.

They look kinda like a oystercatcher birds
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Cat Frampton @catframpton.bsky.social · 25/02/2026
Good lord this is damaging. I’m not talking about farming, I’m talking about nature. This is insane stuff. defrafarming.blog.gov.uk/2026/02/24/s...
defrafarming.blog.gov.uk
SFI26: details, definitions and what to expect
In this post, we explain what to expect from the Sustainable Farming Incentive offer in 2026. We also share the list of the 71 actions available in the new offer, with payment rates.
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Cat Frampton @catframpton.bsky.social · 21/02/2026
Went to Scotland Played with some oils Now need to spend some money on materials and learn the skill… because (unfortunately😑) it is a skill!!!
A oil painting sketch in a gold frame of the green sea and brown hills. There is a breaking wave and grey sky.
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