iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

John Berkeley Grout 🏳️‍🌈🔶 @jrberkeley.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

Just some perfectly normal English place names. Why are you looking at me like that?

A screengrab of Google Maps showing the villages of Wanborough, Wyke, Normandy, and Christmas Pie. There is also a Kyiv Honey Co. and Puttenham Golf Club shown. Google Maps claims the locale to be Normandy.

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John Berkeley Grout 🏳️‍🌈🔶 @jrberkeley.bsky.social · 23/08/2026

Name your favourite Disney princess (wrong answers only).

Jadzia Dax (Terry Farrell; Star Trek: Deep Space Nine) says "I'm going to fight you" before expertly wielding a Klingon bat'leth towards the person she's speaking to.

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John Berkeley Grout 🏳️‍🌈🔶 @jrberkeley.bsky.social · 17/08/2026

Yesterday when I checked the weather forecast, there was rain shown for every single day this week, apart from Sunday. Today, this. When the rain does come, like so much else in this country, it seems it will inevitably be overdue, overbudget, and underwhelming...

A screengrab of a weather forecast by day taken today, showing a low % chance of forecast this afternoon and in the early hours of tomorrow morning, but without a single raindrop on the main icon (cloud, cloud, little bit of sun peeking through in the evening) until Thursday.

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John Berkeley Grout 🏳️‍🌈🔶 @jrberkeley.bsky.social · 03/08/2026

Not that I'm childish, you understand, but what an eye-catching combination.

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John Berkeley Grout 🏳️‍🌈🔶 @jrberkeley.bsky.social · 23/07/2026

A few glorious days in Whitby to blow away the cobwebs. A rail ticket from the Blasted Wastes of the South would have been £226 - but to York was only £80, and the bus from York to Whitby was through stunning countryside and was the princely sum of £3. Highly recommend it.

A view of Whitby, the Abbey ruins and St Mary's Church, under a blue sky and late afternoon sun, framed by leaves, with a little sailing boat anchored on the Esk beneath the Abbey.

The grand East façade of the ruins of Whitby Abbey under a white, clouded sky. Tall grass sits to the left, with the end of a path to the right. The next headland juts out in the distance into the silvery sea. A couple of people are wandering in the distance, dwarfed by the ruins and the view.

The surviving arches of the nave of Whitby Abbey, Gothic and eroded, in alternating dark and pale browns and greys, viewed through one another so the arches compound.

A view of the sibling lighthouses of Whitby Harbour under blue, sunny sky and over blue, lapping sea, framed by rocks in shadow as people paddle in the swash. There are pebbles amd a couple of larger rocks in the foreground, the middle right-hand of which is eminently suited for sitting on amd writing.

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John Berkeley Grout 🏳️‍🌈🔶 @jrberkeley.bsky.social · 18/07/2026

I know that Christopher Nolan has made his film again, and this time it's The Odyssey (but with American accents). Whether you see the film or not, I urge you to read the book. There are some great translations, but the magical, affecting Wilson translation is by far the best. Do read it! 🛶

A picture of Emily Wilson's translation of The Odyssey, on a purple cloth. The cover features the painting of The Ladies of the Minoan Court from the Palace of Knossos, fading to white: three women with elaborate gold-beaded black hair, one looking left and two to the right, with their hands raised as if speaking or waving.

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John Berkeley Grout 🏳️‍🌈🔶 @jrberkeley.bsky.social · 04/07/2026

I remembered that not only can I make biscuits, but I can make whatever sort I want. So, I had a go at caraway-nut shortbread - they came out tasting honeyed and adult. And with that, back to writing. ...Maybe with a cup of tea and a biscuit, though.

A wire cooling rack on a metal surface in the corner of a white-tiled kitchen, with roughly shaped golden-brown biscuits cooling on it. A large Cadbury's Roses tin is in the foreground, a bunch of Lego daffodils is in the background, along with a glass bowl with some ornaments in it.

The biscuits are caraway-nut shortbread:
- Take a basic shortbread recipe of your preference.
- Swap the sugar for light muscovado sugar.
- Add half a teaspoon of ground allspice and a pinch of salt.
- Add a handful of caraway seeds and a small handful of demerara sugar.
- Add ~75g of roughly-chopped mixed nuts (unsalted and unroasted) to the mix after you've finished the rubbing-together phase but before you start combining it into dough.
- Sprinkle extra demerara on top once you've arranged them on the baking tray.
- They'll probably take a bit longer than usual to bake, due to the nuts' thickness meaning you probably have to cut them thicker than normal. My recipe was for 15-20 minutes and these were in for 23.

Enjoy.

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John Berkeley Grout 🏳️‍🌈🔶 @jrberkeley.bsky.social · 30/06/2026

EXT - The town square. The BAKER steps up and reveals his new creation. BAKER: "...And I shall call it: a Victoria sponge!" THE CROWD whispers excitedly to each other: "A punge! A punge! A victorious punge!"

A picture of a large sandwich style Victoria sponge, with cream, fresh strawberries, and strawberry jam just visible inside, and icing sugar on top. It is in the upturned lid of a large, ornate blue Cadbury's Roses tin sitting on a square of kitchen roll wil the corners sticking like wings, or a fancy collar. Said Roses tin is in the background along with a silver kettle.

Aforedescribed cake, with a slice on a black, blue and white enamelled plate and a fork with a little excess jam on it.

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John Berkeley Grout 🏳️‍🌈🔶 @jrberkeley.bsky.social · 03/06/2026

We had my aunt Wendy's memorial service today. She was brilliant. My cousins spoke wonderfully. In 1989, Victor Zorza recruited Wendy to help set up Hospice #1, the first in Russia, and teach palliative care. Now, there are over 170 there. What a legacy. community.tiffingirls.org/news/alumnae...

A picture of the cover of an order of service "In Celebration of the Life of Wendy Joy Jones OBE, 29th July 1939 - 5th May 2026"

The cover features a black and white photo of an older woman in a short sleeved shirt sitting at a large Yamaha piano keyboard in a living riom next to a bookshelf. She has shortish hair anf is wearing glasses, chunky headphones, and a twinkly "are you done yet?" expression towards the photographer.

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John Berkeley Grout 🏳️‍🌈🔶 @jrberkeley.bsky.social · 23/05/2026

Some days call for writing in the shade. Cold drink mandatory; pigeons and squirrels optional.

A picture of a battered pen resting on an open notebook. In the background is a shaded path with a little fence and a green park of sunlit grass and trees, with scattered groups of people sitting or strolling. A multistorey office blook looms over a copper beech in the middle distance.

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John Berkeley Grout 🏳️‍🌈🔶 @jrberkeley.bsky.social · 18/05/2026

Surprising nobody, it turns out I'm a progressive Liberal (in the British, not American, sense of the term). I'm often sceptical of quizzes like this, but this one seems reasonably robust... Take the quiz: quiz.jmoxley.co.uk

A screenclip of a test result, showing my result as 'Progressive Liberal' - Socially liberal and cosmopolitan, with a belief in public services and an internationalist outlook. Prioritises civil liberties and constitutional renewal.

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John Berkeley Grout 🏳️‍🌈🔶 @jrberkeley.bsky.social · 14/05/2026

Now with added alt-text, a wonderful bit of trivia.

A screenclip of a newspaper-style column, reading:
"In April 1943, MI5 was in the final stages of launching Operation Mincemeat, the bizarre deception plot to fool the Germans over the invasion of Sicily by planting false papers on a corpse. The organisers needed a pair of theatre stubs for the dead man's wallet to make the Nazis believe he had been in London on a specific day.

"They went to see the music hall comedian Sid Field performing at the Prince of Wales Theatre. The back-up act that night was a new song-and-dance comedy duo, aged 16 and 17, a pair of northern lads making their West End debut: Eric Morecambe and Ernie Wise."

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John Berkeley Grout 🏳️‍🌈🔶 @jrberkeley.bsky.social · 09/05/2026

🧵 I've had a lot of worried messages from less-political friends about Reform. They aren't infallible: I'm proud that my old delivery spatula helped keep them out of Reading. Build community. Stand in solidarity. Call them out when you can. And don't let fear stop you from acting, or creating. 1/5

A picture of an array of mostly orange Liberal Democrat leaflets featuring Councillor Meri O'Connell (Tilehurst, Reading Borough Council) and the Tilehurst water tower, on a burgundy red cloth, and with a battered wooden spatula with a faded LGBT+ Liberal Democrats rainbow sticker on it.

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John Berkeley Grout 🏳️‍🌈🔶 @jrberkeley.bsky.social · 02/05/2026

This really does look very good in person. (Glad we got to see it before it's inevitably defaced or destroyed by some moron, or removed by a humour and irony-less local council, in either case because we can't have nice things...)

A picture of the new Banksy statue on Pall Mall, showing what appears to be a cast-iron statue of a suited man holding a flag aloft, but about to stride confidently off the stone plinth wuth the flag blowing in his face. It's a sunny day with blue sky, the occasional cloud, lots of people milling around the white crowd barriers, and a hint of the inevitable scaffolding, in this case around the Athenaeum.

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John Berkeley Grout 🏳️‍🌈🔶 @jrberkeley.bsky.social · 26/04/2026

The most recent meme in your camera roll describes your current mental state. (I mean. Not wrong, but still. ...I feel called-out.)

The test card from BBC2 circa 1995 - a rectangular graphic with colored and black blocks on the outside, gretscale blocks on thr inside, and a generationally-iconic photo of a blonde girl in a red dress, with a long, high pony-tail, playing Noughts and Crosses on a blackboard with a frankly terrifying clown doll in a green shirt, in the middle.

Best viewed with a long, penetrating, completely uninterrupted and infinite BEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEP tone.

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John Berkeley Grout 🏳️‍🌈🔶 @jrberkeley.bsky.social · 23/04/2026

Nice to remember that there were people up there the other day.

An almost-half Moon in a brilliantly blue sky, above the green leaves of a hedge side-lit by golden evening sun.

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John Berkeley Grout 🏳️‍🌈🔶 @jrberkeley.bsky.social · 22/04/2026

There is something very pleasing about bluebells, and the time of year when you pass by some woods and get flashes of purple and blue between the trunks.

Some brilliantly purple English bluebells in a wood on a sunny day, with leaves shining in the sun.

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John Berkeley Grout 🏳️‍🌈🔶 @jrberkeley.bsky.social · 20/04/2026

I Kickstarted Defy the Gods ages ago - delighted it's arrived. Ancient Near East themed ttRPG with overtly queer punky themes and custom cuneiform dice. Might just make a cup of tea and dive in... #ttrpg #DefytheGods

A copy of the tabletop RPG Defy the Gods by Chrys Sellers, on maroon fabric. The book is surtitled 'Queer Sword and Sorcery' and the cover features a variety of heroes and heroines battling a vast bearded statue with its hand outstretxhed as if throwing the two clay coloured cuneiform dice sitting on top of the book.

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John Berkeley Grout 🏳️‍🌈🔶 @jrberkeley.bsky.social · 13/04/2026

Hard agree. A series that had a big impact on me as a kid was definitely a fever dream - a peak '90s Polish-Australian post-apocalyptic alternate world portal fantasy TV series called Spellbinders with a fabulous female antagonist and really interesting worldbuilding. No-one I know remembers it.

The title card of Spellbinder (1995), with the word in slightly steampunky die-cut metallic letters, on top of a roundel featuring what seems to be a snake and a sunburst.

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John Berkeley Grout 🏳️‍🌈🔶 @jrberkeley.bsky.social · 05/04/2026

If you see this, post a rabbit. (here, have two!)

A sunlit green field with tufts of grass, overlooked by looming, ivy-clad trees just coming into leaf above a ramshackle fence. In the foreground are two brown wild rabbits, one sitting and one rummaging in the grass.

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John Berkeley Grout 🏳️‍🌈🔶 @jrberkeley.bsky.social · 05/04/2026

On the highest hill for twelve miles around, through a beech wood and with the occasional ancient barrow mound around, at this time of year there are rare pasque flowers. Felt like a good morning to go and see them.

A scattering of deeply purple six-petalled flowers with golden centres, most partly open in a bell shape, bent against the heathy grass in the wind.

Another cluster of six-petalled deep purple flowers, this time mostly facing the camera.

A view of rolling countryside with heath in the foreground, woods beyond, and fields in the distance, some of which are yellow with r_peseed flowers. The sky above is deeply blue, shot with cirrus and fluffy clouds, with April showers above the horizon.

A beech wood just coming into flower, with a carpet of greenery beneath, a path leading off to the left, and the shadows all reaching towards the camera.

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John Berkeley Grout 🏳️‍🌈🔶 @jrberkeley.bsky.social · 02/04/2026

Props to the live feed author tagline people at the BBC website for this clarification. 😅 #ArtemisII

A screencap of the BBC website live update feed covering Artemis II, with an update from 17:42 highlighted, with the title "The Moon is in the Artemis crew's sights - but there's a long way to go". The author is cited as "Jenna Moon, live editor (no relation)"

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John Berkeley Grout 🏳️‍🌈🔶 @jrberkeley.bsky.social · 11/03/2026

On the train to work this morning, I couldn't help but see what the guy sitting next to me sent his mate: "I think I'm sitting next to a homosexual" 😶

A selfie of me on a train, sitting in a green-upholstered chair and wearing a black jumper with my hair down, looking a little tired/done already...

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John Berkeley Grout 🏳️‍🌈🔶 @jrberkeley.bsky.social · 06/03/2026

The Christmas cactus has unexpectedly flowered again (usually it's pretty bang-on around Christmas). So... Merry Christmas? I suppose? 🤷‍♂️ #flowersofbluesky

A photo along a windowsill of a Christmas cactus, a serially-segmented greeen plant, with large, delicately-pink flower budding and blooming. A magenta cyclamen and a fern in a pot are also visible.

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John Berkeley Grout 🏳️‍🌈🔶 @jrberkeley.bsky.social · 01/03/2026

Dydd Gŵyl Dewi Hapus to Welsh Bluekskiers everywhere. 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 I've no daffodils to hand, but the gorse near New Quay, Ceredigion was beautiful in the sun a couple of weeks ago. 💛

A crown spike of a green, thorny gorse bush, festooned with gold-yellow flowers, sidelit by late winter sun, with a bright blue sky and sea in the background.

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John Berkeley Grout 🏳️‍🌈🔶 @jrberkeley.bsky.social · 28/02/2026

Seeing posts about alt-text doing the rounds - Bluesky is actually your friend here. Tick this box and it'll remind you to do it when you post an image. And the alt-text limit is 2,000 characters, so you can go to town on it if you like, particularly if you want to relay a recipe or a statement. 😁

A screenclip of the Bluesky Accessibility settings, with the "Require alt-text before posting" box ticked.

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John Berkeley Grout 🏳️‍🌈🔶 @jrberkeley.bsky.social · 26/02/2026

To the list of things you can do to improve dull, disappointing strawberries, may I add roasting them? The flat smelt divine, and they are now sitting considering their many and manifest sins, squidged in a Victoria sponge in the fridge. Method in the alt-text. 😁 #baking

A shiny square black roasting tin containing halved strawberries that have been roasted, glistening in a thick syrup.

250g of the dullest strawberries you can possibly imagine, hulled and halved (250g is the post-hulling weight), cut side up, scattered with 25g of golden caster sugar and roasted at 150°C in a fan oven, for 30 minutes.

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John Berkeley Grout 🏳️‍🌈🔶 @jrberkeley.bsky.social · 22/02/2026

Last February, I went on a writing retreat with friends to Newport (Pembrokeshire). On a day out in Fishguard, we discovered Jemima Nicholas' gravestone - and were delighted to discover her history. This is worth a read (and Fishguard, and Newport, are lovely). 👇

A photograph of a gravestone of 'Jemima Nicholas, "the Welsh Heroine" who boldly marched to meet the French invaders who landed on our shores in February 1797' - it notes that she went on to die at the age of 82.

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John Berkeley Grout 🏳️‍🌈🔶 @jrberkeley.bsky.social · 22/02/2026

The blackthorn is in blossom at last. I'm so ready for everything to be less grey.

A trio of five-petalled white flowers with yellow stamens are on a twig with leaf buds (blackthorn/sloe). In the background are some branches, sone out of focus snowdrops, and some broad common ivy leaves.

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John Berkeley Grout 🏳️‍🌈🔶 @jrberkeley.bsky.social · 14/02/2026

Ah, yes, Pink Hallowe'en, per @nigella.bsky.social. This is your annual reminder that Saint Valentine is (also) patron saint of the plague. And bees and epilepsy. (Artwork by the talented Ludwig van Bacon, who doesn't appear to be on Bluesky)

A cartoon of a 17th Century plague doctor with the crow's beak mask, holding a pink balloon with RIP written on it. They have pink feathers in their hat and pink and grey spherical decorations in the background.

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John Berkeley Grout 🏳️‍🌈🔶 @jrberkeley.bsky.social · 06/02/2026

7 hungry writers. 4 plums that definitely weren't ripe, actually. 1 shonky holiday-let oven. Nevertheless, cake!

A picture of a large golden cake on a white, dot-patterned plate. The cake has a large dollop of violently-red stewed plums on top. The plate is on a dull red tablecloth with traditional patterns on it, and some apples and lemons are visible in the background.

The trick with making cakes in holiday lets is to remember that flour has twice the volume by weight of sugar, so if you pick a mug and use 1 of sugar and one of chunked up butter, 2 of flour should see you right. (I always use metric when baking, but needs must).

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John Berkeley Grout 🏳️‍🌈🔶 @jrberkeley.bsky.social · 04/02/2026

On a writing retreat in Wales with some writerly friends. In true fashion, my brain has turned to mush, but at least Wales is gorgeous.

A view over rolling green fields with bare trees and hedgerows beneath a vibrant blue sky with a hint of the Irish Sea in the distance. A cedar tree is in the foreground, and much of the immediate foreground is in the shadow of another tree.

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John Berkeley Grout 🏳️‍🌈🔶 @jrberkeley.bsky.social · 21/01/2026

Going on a(n informal) writing retreat soon, so delighted that these have arrived - have been looking forward to @lindzmcleod.bsky.social's 'An Honour & a Privilege' for ages. And 'Meanwhile' is hard to find these days too, but have been recommended it sooo many times, so glad to have it. #BookSky

A photo of two books side by side on a wooden table:
'Meanwhile, in Another Part of the Forest', edited by Alberto Manguel & Craig Stephenson, which has the title in gold on a dark blue/purple background above Botticelli's Venus and Mars;
and
'An Honour & a Privilege', edited by Lindz McLeod, which has a brick red cover with the title in white, with the inner spaces of the ampersand in black.

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John Berkeley Grout 🏳️‍🌈🔶 @jrberkeley.bsky.social · 30/11/2025

These pine trees define the skyline from my living room window, whether they're silhouetted against a dramatic sky or looking Japanese in mist. If we can't see them, we know the weather is awful. And today they're looking lovely in the winter sun from the path beneath.

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John Berkeley Grout 🏳️‍🌈🔶 @jrberkeley.bsky.social · 02/11/2025

I've had worse views during breakfast. Highly recommend Coffee Under Pressure in the churchyard of Reading Minster, should you wish to partake yourself (of either breakfast or the view). Not pictured: the bells.

A picture of a limestone amd flint chequerboard gothic church tower against a brilliant blue sky, with a tree scattered with golden autumn leaves in the foreground. A brightly backlit Union flag is flying atop the church tower among the finials and crenellations. The tower is of Reading Minster, St Mary's, built in 979 AD.

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