iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Mark @markde.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

Now, I am of course not suggesting there is any point of fault with @nigelslater.bsky.social Ham And butterbeans. (Kitchen diaries, vol 1, pg 321). I am also not upset that I added a bunch of oxtail. Take the Ham out when ready, leave the oxtail to cook, meld them later, 5-6 hrs. 🌱 #foodsky

How on earth do i begin? So there is a bowl, on a mahogany table. Well, it’s actually on a cork matt on a table. Inside the bowl you see sliced ham on tip of “stuff”, the stuff is butterbeans and a tomato based sauce which had a few big chunks of oxtail cooked alongside. The pink of the ham shows against the darker richer sauce.

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Mark @markde.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

3rd of October, 19C with mostly blue skies after a cloudy start. The Dahlias are still in full force, if anything they are later due to the lack of rain. 🌱

a vase on a marble countertop with a green wall behind it, the vase is decorated with LS Lowry's "Going to work" showing factory workers and factories. Inside the vase are a collection of Dahlias cut this morning, yellow pom pom types, aslightly showy offy pink and yellow petaled flower and then a frankly outrageous large headed flower which has deep pink petals which blend to white at the tips of the petal.

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Mark @markde.bsky.social · 06/09/2026

1510, 25C on the 6th of September, Buzzards and Red kites over head, on a smaller scale, The Caryopteris is absolutely alive with bees. 🌱

We call is bee crack for a reason. a close up shot of a bee coming in to land on the many small pale blue flowers of a caryopteris... they all get absolutely off their faces and I'll be having to tell them to go home before the afternoon is out.;

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Mark @markde.bsky.social · 05/09/2026

1700, 21C, a day mostly bright with scattered clouds. In somewhat concerning developments, seen whilst wandering* the fens today, a massive drop from the damson trees and not just this one. 🌱 *most certainly not scrumping, how rude.

hundreds of purple damsons festooning (yes, festooning) the floor when they should be ensconced in jars of gin or vodka. I'm not suggesting that unprecedented lack of rain and high temperatures has anything to do with the fact the hedgerows are on their last legs and desperately trying to reproduce... no.. not suggesting that. Everything is clearly fine. 🌍🔥

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Mark @markde.bsky.social · 16/08/2026

It will never cease to please me when I open a jar of home preserved, home grown, food more than a year after putting it on the shelf. Everyone is having squash soup yes? (No isn’t an option given the volumes of them I’m afraid) 🌱

2025’s Elephant garlic, courgette and green tomatoes drained from their brine in a metal sieve, before being chopped up and used as the base of today’s squash soup. (With added courgette)

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Mark @markde.bsky.social · 08/08/2026

Did I expect to see this little bundle of feathers hanging out today? I did not. Have heard a handful of breakouts from windows being left open due to the heat, this little one is likely amongst them. 🌱 #birb #birdoftheday #buddythebudgie #budgiesmuggler

Yeah, so you're not going to believe this, but it's an actual Budgie sitting on a branch. It has an adorable yellow feathered face and is perched under the tree canopy. I'm not suggesting that it's the perfect Kestrel sized snack, no, that would be terrible when it is SO CUTE.

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Mark @markde.bsky.social · 06/08/2026

To say I have not had time of late would be an understatement. However, with a meeting cancelled, I actually did something I have almost entirely not done this year, picked the camera up and went for a walk in the garden. This benefits mostly @snellis.bsky.social who gets a pretty dahlia. 🌱

The crop is deliberate Steve! a half of a dahlia flower, which has almost an orange core with multiple layers of tightly knit petals expanding out in what could possibly come second place in beauty to Rosa The Pilgrim. the blurred out background is green, this means it's foliage because the notion of green grass stopped in april.

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Mark @markde.bsky.social · 02/08/2026

August 2nd, what a few months it has been. Can't believe that it's only been a week since #RHS Sandringham which, to my surprise, uprooted Chelsea in our books. 🌱 #plantsky #fujifilm #gfx100rf

a variety of lovely people on some utterly roasted and brown grass waiting their turns to stand in front of a large RHS which is planted up with flowers, that's the thing about East Anglia people were simply kind and naturally just took turns without barging others around.

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Mark @markde.bsky.social · 20/06/2026

Saturday June 20th, 22C overcast for now after a very sticky and humid night. Whilst the Pilgrim may possibly be the perfect rose, Roald Dahl is right up there too. 🌱 🦔 #plantsky #gardensky

Roald Dahl could tell such tales, but who would believe them from a rose that is so pretty. Giant peach coloured with blousy petals. No twits here!

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Mark @markde.bsky.social · 22/05/2026

Good morning, a wild 20C at 0900, Chelsea draws to a close and the Chelsea chop nears, it has been a spectacular week in the garden. Especially if you’re a bee🐝 . 🌱#plantsky #beesky

A close up shot (ish) of a bee smushing its face, and body, into a lupin flower on a big old light pink lupin flower spike, it spent a good few minutes making aure it was entirely off its face before trying to fly away. Frankly I think we should have some laws around pollen influenced flying.

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Mark @markde.bsky.social · 17/05/2026

May 17th, 15C strong UV through the high cloud, chilli when the rain clouds pass over. A few mm of rain in the last week has triggered the roses to get going. Today for your pleasure, (DA) Kew Gardens and (DA)The Country parson. 🌱 #plantsky

A bank of green foliage with roses peeking out, bottom middle is the blousy yellow of DA The Country Parson, first bloom of the year. Then a handful top left of DA Kew Gardens, a simple flower with little of the complexity of the parson (we have all met a complex parson haven’t we!). In the back shade are the seed stalks of bluebells which really need to be sorted out, an errant foxglove is also trying to do something, what remains to be seen.

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Mark @markde.bsky.social · 16/05/2026

16th May, Chilly but risen to 14C, Baby bluetits are bouncing around and off, everything, the gentle, soul piercing, screaming of fledged starlings in the background. The roses are kicking off but the lupins.. the lupins are really back after the absolute aphid driven disaster of last year. 🌱

five lupin spikes, light peach in colour, emerge from between some rose foliage with two bright pink gladiolus behind.

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Mark @markde.bsky.social · 07/05/2026

May 7th 2026, Would you like a baby blackbird? 🌱 #plantsky #birdsky

The fluffiest of fluffies, one of our handful of fledged baby blackbirds has arrived. sitting on a knackered old wooden gate with associated bird poop stains. a mottled light brown and dark brown pattern and, if i'm honest, looking entirely adorkable. Such derps.

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Mark @markde.bsky.social · 03/05/2026

May 3rd, for me, it is one of those milestones of the garden year, one which means we are indeed heading towards the halcyon days starting with Chelsea, the day the first early rose flowers head inside to the kitchen windowsill. A reminder (and warning) of what is to come! 🌱🦔 #plantsky

Three (although one is obscured) rosa Gertrude Jekyll in a glass jar destined for the kitchen. Behind are variegated dogwood leaves, acid green with white edges, one of those plants that waits and waits and then you wake up one morning and it has skipped childhood and gone straight to teenager wanting its own car, further behind that is what has become a full bank of red campion. This year rather more pink than previous years, until the alliums and other roses kick in at any rate.

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Mark @markde.bsky.social · 02/05/2026

Good morning, I trust Beltane treated you well, May 2nd and Happy Eel day to all who celebrate. It begins! Gertrude has arrived. 🌱🦔 #plantsky

A very frilly pink rose, first out of the gate, from Gertrude Jekyll. Gertrude isn’t actually behind a gate, more over an arch. First through the arch just.. anyway, the rose is flowering and looking at the volume of buds, the whole collection is going to go bonkers in time for chelsea.

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Mark @markde.bsky.social · 19/04/2026

This is ridiculous. 🌱

An absolute army of gooseberry sawfly larva on a leaf, defoliating and decimating our bushes. Sigh, come on bluetits, get those eggs hatched.

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Mark @markde.bsky.social · 19/04/2026

Good morning, April 19th, 9C and set for sun for the day albeit chilly in the shade (dropped to 3C last night), tulips, bluebells, wild garlic and gooseberry. 🌱🦔

Some tall pinky red (not reddy pink) tulips in the foreground with green leaves and grass lining a wood chip path which was not the best decision for bare feet but absolutely was for mud reduction. Further down the path some bluebells are flowering and further down, out of shot, a wood pigeon is snoozing under a weeping mulberry, having learnt the mistakes of Norbert, the mulberry acting as camouflage netting from the sparrow hawk, peregrines and red kites, perhaps this one shall last longer than dear Norbert

The wonderful white bells of Wild garlic growing through the base of a gooseberry the leaves of which are already under attack from the blinking caterpillars. Some small drops of blue in the background of more bluebells (there are many this year). Best not to confuse any of those three, although gooseberry pesto is a thought. Hmmmm will think on that. Tasty tasty gooseberries.. oh now i’m thinking about the baby blackbirds stealing my gooseberries damn their cuteness.

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Mark @markde.bsky.social · 18/04/2026

Good morning,10C, April 18th(how?!). The quince are in full blossom, the gang of goldfinches bouncing around,the wren is yelling at me,bluetits are on the budding roses cleaning the aphids off, Mrs Blackbird has been absent for a week so babies soon, red kites calling overhead. Spring has arrived.🌱🦔

A medium sized tree (actually given quite a hard prune for shaping over winter) in full blossom, blossom very lightly tinted pink set amongst new green leaves that emerged over the last week.

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Mark @markde.bsky.social · 11/04/2026

Good morning, 10C and grey. I have however got some help dead heading the daffs🌱

A lamb in a field who has decided that is particularly likes eating gone over daffodils. This is very handy as the lamb is surrounded by blooming and gone over daffs

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Mark @markde.bsky.social · 05/04/2026

They have, appropriately for the day, risen.

The (fourth?!) batch of yorkshires sitting in their pan to be consumed no doubt as the afternoon wears on.

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Mark @markde.bsky.social · 03/04/2026

Well, it's Easter weekend which can only mean one thing: That there will be salt beef served in several forms over a couple of days... until there's roast lamb. Bagel shots tonight.

Cuts of salt beef in a pot (a different pot from the soup pot, you'll notice that this LOOKS like it's circular, however it is in fact oblong having once bounced on the floor, about an inch from a big toe of a left foot, the dent in the floor is, on reflection, probably more annoying that the broken toe would have been) along with onions, black pepper corns, bay leaves (four of them, i'm not driving) star anise (half of) and chilli flakes). It will now sit pooting away until some point this afternoon and then shall sit and cool until it is magically enjoined with bagels, sauerkraut and other things that are very good for you (mentally at least).

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Mark @markde.bsky.social · 01/04/2026

Made the mistake of a pre-done 'root vegetable tray bake' with sausages last night in an act of supreme laziness (as everything is bonkers atm), it was mostly carrots and parsnips, no-one was hugely a fan, the soup I have made with the leftovers today, with a chicken stock and cumin.. MUCH better.🌱

It's a deconstructed root vegetable tray bake in a pot. In so much as the vegetables were deconstructed with a stick blender, cumin, chicken stock and pepper. No, just the stick blender was used for the deconstruction, hard to blitz vegetables using chicken stock.. oh come on you get the idea.

It's (mostly) carrot soup in a pan.

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Mark @markde.bsky.social · 23/03/2026

Good morning! 8C heading to 14C and the damson blossom is out. 🌱

A twiggy damson that has not featured on this winter’s episodes of deer food weekly. (Albeit armoured to the hilt) light lime green leaves and gentle white blossom. Mmmmmm damsons…

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Mark @markde.bsky.social · 18/03/2026

Good morning! 7C heading to 17C, March 18th. The magnolia is out. 🌱

An open(ish) magnolia flower off white petals with pink central streaks. The only streaking allowed after the judge made themselves very clear.

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Mark @markde.bsky.social · 14/03/2026

With the cold clear sky tonight, I am fearing the same having saved this camelia last year. It had a single bloom last year. To lose it now would be very sad. 🌱

A cluster of off white camelia blooms against lively dark green waxy leaves.

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Mark @markde.bsky.social · 24/02/2026

Good morning, 10C, Feb 24th (bonkers!) and the first bloom on a Camellia. This was a total failure last year so was dug up and given a huge pot to itself, summer and autumn watering was kept well balanced during the drought and here we are! 🌱

Mostly waxy green leaves but there are tight buds.. along with the first white bloom of a Camellia

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Mark @markde.bsky.social · 22/02/2026

And making my nose run. It’s a glorious day, especially if you’re a Crocus!

Yellow crocus in pots on a table leaning into the sunshine, opening up just like our spirits of spring arriving.

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Mark @markde.bsky.social · 21/02/2026

I am intolerant of Yotam’s 75 ingredient recipes. His black pepper tofu (“plenty” page 44) is acceptable.

Tofu in black pepper and soy thanks to yotam.

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Mark @markde.bsky.social · 17/02/2026

Good morning to everyone else who’s been stood up cooking pancakes for an hour 😂🌱

It’s a light gold pancake (shhh murcans) in a pan.

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Mark @markde.bsky.social · 15/02/2026

Hmmmmmm here you go. 🌱

A trio of lillies, punky purple petals with white edges launched at RHS Chelsea 2025. They are unable to stop mid life crisesesesses

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Mark @markde.bsky.social · 14/02/2026

Well, if you want a portrait… how about one of our Jays! #birdoftheday 🌱

A eurasian jay sitting on top of a bird box attached to a wooden fence.

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Mark @markde.bsky.social · 13/02/2026

Good morning. 3C, Feb 13th. Unlucky day for a pigeon. 🌱

A Eurasian sparrow hawk with a rather blood soaked beak.

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Mark @markde.bsky.social · 09/02/2026

Good morning! 7C cloudy and my absolute favourite iris, Katharine Hodgkin has made an appearance. 🌱

A small and delicate iris, with a green stem and light blue petals that fade to yellow.

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Mark @markde.bsky.social · 22/01/2026

Good morning! 7C amid the wet and grey. The snowdrops are finally doing their thing, I just saw two eager starlings erm…. “Thinking it’s spring.” Have a lovely day, I have ox cheeks to marinade! 🌱

A fairly chunky patch of snowdrops against a wall that hasn’t yet fallen down but give it time.

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Mark @markde.bsky.social · 17/01/2026

This made me howl Mark.

The hilarity of a subscription fee being asked for to read an extortion.

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Mark @markde.bsky.social · 15/01/2026

Good morning, 7C before the additional rains arrive, whilst there are signs of life in the garden the biggest sign is the return of the rooks. There will be dozens in this tree within weeks. 🌱

Two wonderful rooms sitting watching me from the top of their annual nesting tree.

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Mark @markde.bsky.social · 27/12/2025

They were definitely on our dinner table. And who only has beef with them… what about butter and brown sugar!

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Mark @markde.bsky.social · 23/12/2025

Friends. This is your semi-annual reminder. It's OK to be prepared ahead of time, you do not have to do everything on the day and gravy and red cabbage both taste better after a day or two hanging out. Red cabbage recipe, as ever @nigelslater.bsky.social Kitchen Diaries, Vol 1, pg 385. 🌱

a curiously oblong, previously round, cast iron heavy pan containing Nigel Slater's red cabbage recipe. Actually, it contains the ingredients as putting the book in there wouldn't give the best results.

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Mark @markde.bsky.social · 21/12/2025

Fen life watching Marsh Harriers (not pictured). For a brief period the clouds broke, the mist has been very present the last few days. The Sedge in Winter is always such a wonderful thing, but then I’ve always loved Helsinki in the darkness of Winter too, I know some people find this quite bleak. 🌱

Quite a lot of sedge with mist on the skyline. The sun is shining through a break in the clouds. Some could say there’s rather a lot of brown in the sedge, but when the light hits it just right, it blazes silver.

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Mark @markde.bsky.social · 17/11/2025

Well then, there was a bit of a forest walk today. Colours absolutely bonkers. 🌱 #GFX100RF #fujifilm #fuji #fujigfx #photootd #photography #photographysky #mirrorless #mediumformat

A forest scene where many yellow spruce needles have carpeted the floor and footpath whilst some remain on the trees around, when combined with some blue sky and autumn sunlight a breathtaking yellow scene, there's also a small river running to the side of the needle covered footpath.

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Mark @markde.bsky.social · 07/11/2025

One thing that it isn’t is cold, shirt sleeves sitting outside on November 7th… Bizarre. Right, Here to help! Squires in Braunton the other evening.

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Mark @markde.bsky.social · 02/11/2025

Short snippet of the bestest GOAT for your viewing…pleasure(?). 🌱#farmsky #goat

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Mark @markde.bsky.social · 23/10/2025

This little spider has weathered the storm under this rose bud that I was going to dead head until I found them there last weekend.. they have rebuilt a huge cobweb every day before going back to wait under the bud.

Davros the spider who is rather annoyed i've beant the rose stem to get a photo of them lurking under the rose bud that's gone over.

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