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Phil McMullen

@philmcm.bsky.social
604 followers 467 following 132 posts

Writer, editor, printer & publisher at the Ptolemaic Press (a letterpress operation) in Wiltshire. Experienced gardener, and a retiring town planner.

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Phil McMullen @philmcm.bsky.social · 09/10/2026
Most of ours up in the orchard did too, including the cider apple trees. Only exception has been the old Bramley, which has done pretty well considering.
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Phil McMullen @philmcm.bsky.social · 19/09/2026
You’ll only miss out on a postcard sized child’s jigsaw puzzle of the cover. No big deal tbf.
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Phil McMullen @philmcm.bsky.social · 19/09/2026
It’s good - definitely demo quality but the songwriting is sublime (of course!)
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Phil McMullen @philmcm.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
You’d have thought that after 14 years these Emmerdale allotmenteers would know not to dig potatoes with a spade, and not rhyme couch (grass) with couch as in sofa… #GardenersWorld
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Phil McMullen @philmcm.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
I have a feeling we’ll be seeing a lot more of her and her plot next year…
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Phil McMullen @philmcm.bsky.social · 16/08/2026
Good grief you’re right! I’d completely forgotten that.
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Phil McMullen @philmcm.bsky.social · 16/08/2026
@martycricket.bsky.social Did anyone get back to you on the subject of DJs named Casey? Casey Kaseem was the name you were thinking of earlier. I remember listening to him on my transistor radio.
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Phil McMullen @philmcm.bsky.social · 10/06/2026
Mine with British Gas have done the same, sadly
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Phil McMullen @philmcm.bsky.social · 08/06/2026
I still do this, just as my father taught me. My only variation is that I pop the three seeds in at the same time as I plant out the hardened-off beans I started in the greenhouse back in April, so it gives a bit of succession as well.
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Phil McMullen @philmcm.bsky.social · 30/05/2026
I thought that was odd, too. Mine are outside and doing well (albeit shaded from the extreme sun until yesterday)
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Phil McMullen @philmcm.bsky.social · 24/04/2026
Same here! Not worth getting into a disagreement, is it? Like they say - peas on earth, and goodwill to all men….
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Phil McMullen @philmcm.bsky.social · 01/04/2026
Very well deserved - you do a fantastic job!
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Phil McMullen @philmcm.bsky.social · 01/04/2026
Viv Richards, back when Somerset played in Bath. Happy days.
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Phil McMullen @philmcm.bsky.social · 01/04/2026
To date one of the most interesting and wide-ranging interviews we’ve published. Yr still a hero of mine, y’ know!
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Phil McMullen @philmcm.bsky.social · 31/03/2026
I used to have a poster for that very concert. Sold it to a dealer who claimed he was buying it for Brad Pitt… I believed him, too. I wouldn’t have parted with it otherwise.
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Phil McMullen @philmcm.bsky.social · 27/03/2026
I just sowed some more today oddly enough
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Phil McMullen @philmcm.bsky.social · 19/03/2026
Just found this in a drawer and installed it to claim my 100 hours free internets. Quickly realised I was seeing news about the PREVIOUS Gulf War, so I've signed up to an online betting shop and got great odds on predicting the exact day the Queen is going to die....
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Phil McMullen @philmcm.bsky.social · 14/03/2026
Any idea why Scott’s call their oats “porage” oats? I assumed it was a Scottish spelling, but this advert suggests otherwise
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Phil McMullen @philmcm.bsky.social · 13/03/2026
I'm always surprised he doesn't routinely wear gloves. Then again, I'm particularly keen on glove wearing myself now having caught a nasty dose of hepatitis a couple of years back...
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Phil McMullen @philmcm.bsky.social · 15/11/2025
That’s such a great album. I came late to it as I had his previous one back in the 70s and wasn’t especially enamoured with it. This though is on a whole other level.
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Phil McMullen @philmcm.bsky.social · 11/09/2025
I have to say, the new Opera Air browser I just download to my MacBook is an absolute game-changer. Completely different look, quick as greased lightning, and I'm LOVING the breathing exercises and mindful music / rainfall sounds they've packaged into it. Refreshing in every sense of the term!
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Phil McMullen @philmcm.bsky.social · 15/08/2025
That wasn’t a defeat, that was a spanking
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Phil McMullen @philmcm.bsky.social · 15/08/2025
I like how the LibDems have been outed as the cowboys in this whereas it was previously hidden as LibGen
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Phil McMullen @philmcm.bsky.social · 13/08/2025
And less counties too, don’t forget that…
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Phil McMullen @philmcm.bsky.social · 13/08/2025
To be honest I haven’t seen a single moment of the war in Ukraine but I still want people to know I don’t approve of it. Just because you’re only tangentially aware something exists doesn’t mean you can’t express an opinion, does it? Or is that frowned on now as well?
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Phil McMullen @philmcm.bsky.social · 11/08/2025
Maybe suggesting that Sky is the Home of Cricket and as the Hundred™ isn’t cricket, there’s none of that on Sky?
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Phil McMullen @philmcm.bsky.social · 14/05/2025
Yes, I was given an old Spear & Jackson plane. Needed a new blade, but still had plenty of life in it.
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Phil McMullen @philmcm.bsky.social · 30/04/2025
Spot on. Love love love his playing!
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Phil McMullen @philmcm.bsky.social · 30/04/2025
I don’t mind this so long as it’s a month or two after the magazine’s been published and no longer in the racks. Any extra exposure after that is credit in the bank of future interest in my work.
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Reposted by Phil McMullen
Somerset County Cricket Club @somersetccc.bsky.social · 27/03/2025
COMPETITION: We are giving away a signed copy of the new County Championship shirt in conjunction with WPA Health Insurance! 🎁 To be in with a chance simply like, repost and follow @somersetccc.bsky.social! The winner will be chosen at random next week! #WeAreSomerset
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Phil McMullen @philmcm.bsky.social · 27/03/2025
That’s not the same Meic Stephens who is also known as “the Welsh Bob Dylan” is it?
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Phil McMullen @philmcm.bsky.social · 27/03/2025
Hope it includes the insert with the explanatory sleeve notes written by the music critic that found Tom and rescued him from his self-imposed retirement after a quarter of a century…
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Phil McMullen @philmcm.bsky.social · 11/03/2025
It's been a while since we ran an interview feature in the Terrascope, but this one was just too good an opportunity to miss... Nigel Cross chats to James Roberts the genial genius behind the mighty DELTA www.terrascope.co.uk/Features/Del...
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Phil McMullen @philmcm.bsky.social · 11/03/2025
Sits back and waits for the inevitable advice from helpful Americans regarding Olympia regional airport in Washington state…
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Phil McMullen @philmcm.bsky.social · 28/02/2025
Absolutely spot on. I genuinely don’t believe the players are “arrogant” - I just think the system that underpins them is broken, or misguided at best, and any arrogance comes from the management. If the current West Indies scenario is the model they are aiming for, they’re doing very well indeed.
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Phil McMullen @philmcm.bsky.social · 28/02/2025
But only 12 sleeps for insomniacs!
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Phil McMullen @philmcm.bsky.social · 22/02/2025
Can’t you ask your MP for help? The government has full access…
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Phil McMullen @philmcm.bsky.social · 19/02/2025
Well if you did just invent it, please don’t reprint word for word interviews and features from the PT in your early issues, as the other one did!
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Phil McMullen @philmcm.bsky.social · 18/02/2025
Sad to hear (via Bill Bruford) that percussionist Jamie Muir passed away yesterday, 17th February. We featured Jamie in Ptolemaic Terrascope issue 8 back in 1991, so this seems as good a time as any to reproduce the interview here: bit.ly/4i0SkJ7
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Phil McMullen @philmcm.bsky.social · 15/02/2025
So now we need to know if it did the trick! Was Jim suitably impressed as I predicted?
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Phil McMullen @philmcm.bsky.social · 09/02/2025
Hell yes. Yes!!
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Phil McMullen @philmcm.bsky.social · 07/02/2025
What’s the mustard made from in an “all meat hot dog”?
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Phil McMullen @philmcm.bsky.social · 05/02/2025
Rainfallers Yorkshire…
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Phil McMullen @philmcm.bsky.social · 31/01/2025
That’s cool, in a way. All I ever see listed here are band and artist names that look very familiar at first glance, then you realise it’s a pun name because they’re a covers band, too unimaginative to write their own music or craft their own image
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Phil McMullen @philmcm.bsky.social · 23/01/2025
They even spelled Jeffrey’s name wrong on the cover
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Phil McMullen @philmcm.bsky.social · 16/01/2025
Estrus was a fine label. I owned numerous singles released by them.
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Phil McMullen @philmcm.bsky.social · 16/01/2025
A single LP (sides 1 & 2) with a gatefold sleeve is invariably stored on the right-hand side as you open it. The left side is usually a sealed flap. So why do new double LPs always come with sides 3 & 4 stored on the right-hand side and sides 1 & 2 relegated to the left-hand side? It's just WRONG.
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Phil McMullen @philmcm.bsky.social · 15/01/2025
Doesn’t make up for the scent of their leaves though, which is one of the few things in my garden that I truly detest
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Phil McMullen @philmcm.bsky.social · 15/01/2025
This is superb. Am so very envious of your skill and artistic flair.
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Phil McMullen @philmcm.bsky.social · 12/01/2025
Just to add, there’s actually 24 issues that you’ve missed - there’s a one-off from 2 years ago which also includes a free 7”EP featuring two of the bands featured. Was too expensive to make to be anything more than an interesting experiment in typography & paper folding though!
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