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Sarah Nicholas

@sarahnicholas.bsky.social
874 followers 359 following 3.7K posts

Mostly tediously twee nonsense. Sporadic enthusing about flamenco dancing and cycling to see Cardiff Bay's sunrises. Occasional passing references to being a weary, aging academic librarian.

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Sarah Nicholas @sarahnicholas.bsky.social · 09/10/2026
My ivy has, obviously, suffered from the lack of rain this year, but it's still looking gorgeous.
A wall of Boston ivy, starting to change into its autumn colours. Some large leaves, some smatterings of young growth.
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Sarah Nicholas @sarahnicholas.bsky.social · 04/10/2026
Cardiff's already busy and buzzy with half marathon runners, heading for the start line in the city centre. It was still peaceful at the wetlands, though.
The sun rises at Cardiff's wetlands. The St David's Hotel and Spa is on the left. On the right is a monument, but I forget what it's for.The sun rises behind the Cardiff Bay Barrage, viewed from the Cardiff wetlands. There are lots of vapour trails in the sky, reflected in the water.
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Sarah Nicholas @sarahnicholas.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
The housework avoidance is going well today. First a 'flu jab, now this.
Some basic weaving in a diamond pattern, using a variegated yarn. I put zero effort into this, because the little loom I'm using has preset heddles, which do all the work, yet I still delight in what I'm making.
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Sarah Nicholas @sarahnicholas.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
"NO, DURAN DURAN THE BAND! Special stamps! Yes, oh, I see Rio, that's the one. Special stamps, yes. Huh? A band. Yup. Album covers." Me, yelling at the young and confused bloke serving in the Post Office this morning. 😆
Four of the series of Royal Mail stamps featuring Duran Duran album covers.
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Sarah Nicholas @sarahnicholas.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
My weaving on my funny little loom is gradually becoming more uniform. It's a super relaxing thing, this weaving random bits of fabric on a funny little loom malarkey. I'm never weaving anything complicated, because then I'd stop enjoying it.
Part of a woven piece of fabric. It's black.
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Sarah Nicholas @sarahnicholas.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
Ouch.
An institutional window looking out onto trees. The outline of a large bird, most likely a seagull, is imprinted onto the glass. Its body and wings are quite clear. The poor thing flew straight into the window. It must've hurt.
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Sarah Nicholas @sarahnicholas.bsky.social · 09/09/2026
A student brought me a cinnamon swirl!
A cinnamon swirl and in a bakery bag in front of a laptop.
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Sarah Nicholas @sarahnicholas.bsky.social · 07/09/2026
How my work day started.
A dummy, dressed in a black top and pyjama bottoms. It's holding out  the inside of its elbow, ready for an injection. It looks alarmed. It's in a weird, unfinished room
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Sarah Nicholas @sarahnicholas.bsky.social · 15/08/2026
Happy Imberbus day! (imberbus.org)
An old London bus, like properly old. It's the 23A, which runs once a year from Warminster to the MoD village of Imber and beyond.I drove the bus through Imber. You can see another bus, crowds and some military buildings where people practice manoeuvres.Open top bus! All the buses are 23As.I liked this bus. The seats were quite comfy and there were two bus dogs.
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Sarah Nicholas @sarahnicholas.bsky.social · 12/08/2026
Pretty.
Mini eclipses seen on my vertical blinds at my patio doors. Filtered through my bamboo.
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Sarah Nicholas @sarahnicholas.bsky.social · 11/08/2026
Two strawberries. A study. The one on the right is shop-bought. It's exceptionally firm, very sweet and quite juicy. The one on the left is home grown. It's soft, warm and smells of the sun. It brings me joy.
Two whole strawberries.Two half-eaten strawberries.
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Sarah Nicholas @sarahnicholas.bsky.social · 10/08/2026
This small parcel sat here from 11.30am, when the delivery person took this photo, until 8.30pm, when I got home. It's like that time I left my keys in my front door for hours, or that time I left my car unlocked for days. Nothing happened. Kinda nice. (Evri though. Argh.)
A red front door. A scruffy step. A small parcel sits on the step.
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Sarah Nicholas @sarahnicholas.bsky.social · 09/08/2026
Sunrise is currently late enough to not feel obscenely early and early enough to deter most. Spot on.
Cardiff Bay Barrage control room, with the sun rising in the background. The people inside this building often save Cardiff residents from flooding, without the residents even realising.Sunrise at Cardiff Bay Barrage.A dredger in front of the rising sun.
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Sarah Nicholas @sarahnicholas.bsky.social · 08/08/2026
I've been thinking for years about having a Dame Judi haircut. It won't suit me. Still cute, though.
Dame Judi Dench. As M in a 2008 Bond film currently on ITV.
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Sarah Nicholas @sarahnicholas.bsky.social · 08/08/2026
These (the vase included) were reduced to £2.50 in Big Tescos this morning. £2.50 for a few days of joy seems quite reasonable.
A off-white textured ceramic vase containing cut flowers. There are three sunflowers, three red roses (one a bit worse for wear, but hey ho) and two, what look like, mini purple allium.
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Sarah Nicholas @sarahnicholas.bsky.social · 27/07/2026
If the crumble mixture has been compacted and is no longer capable of crumbling, surely a crumble is no longer a crumble? Please discuss.
A dessert claiming to be a crumble. I mean, the physalis is a red flag, even before you consider the non-crumbling crumble.
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Sarah Nicholas @sarahnicholas.bsky.social · 27/07/2026
I find myself in Llandovery. No, I'm not sure where I am, either. But I need a cardigan, so I'm bloody delirious right now. So far, I've seen this castle, marvelled at the most wedding dresses in a charity shop I've ever seen, and had some nice poached eggs on toast in Caffi Tudor.
Ruins of a castle on a grassy mound.
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Sarah Nicholas @sarahnicholas.bsky.social · 24/07/2026
Am I excited to cook using a big ball of garlic, rather than a couple of normal cloves costing a quarter of the price? Yes, yes I am, leave me alone, this is all I have.
A little basket of Tesco Finest one clove garlic.
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Sarah Nicholas @sarahnicholas.bsky.social · 22/07/2026
From now on, whenever I need a little boost of dopamine I'm going to watch this moment between David Millar and @nedboulting.bsky.social. It's from the superlative 'For the Love of Cycling' podcast. #TourdeFrance #TdF #TdF26
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Sarah Nicholas @sarahnicholas.bsky.social · 21/07/2026
Six hours with my nieces, who are now 11 and 13, and I'm wiped out. It was the incessant miming to annoying soundtracks and filming ourselves, which now passes for entertainment, that did me in. Here's how sad, old and, frankly, confused I look trying to mime a breaking heart on some app.
An older woman, wearing glasses vaguely contorting her hands into the shape of a heart. On the screen are various icons, instructing what to mime to some awful music.
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Sarah Nicholas @sarahnicholas.bsky.social · 20/07/2026
Me, looking out my hotel window this morning: Oh! My goodness! There's a kestrel! Me, putting on my glasses to photograph the kestrel: Bloody seagulls.
A young seagull, atop some grubby buildings, looking at me.
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Sarah Nicholas @sarahnicholas.bsky.social · 19/07/2026
Went up Beckford's Tower, in Bath, this morning. Because I've been driving past it regularly for years and thought it was about time. I couldn't see Cardiff from the top. Apparently it's often visible. But I know what it looks like already, so I wasn't bothered.
Beckford's Tower behind some trees. The sky is blue.The spiral staircase inside the tower.  I felt woozy taking this photo, so there was no way I was leaning over for a more central shot.At the top of the tower. It's cute that they leave binoculars for visitors to use.
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Sarah Nicholas @sarahnicholas.bsky.social · 18/07/2026
Lovely pootle earlier this morning near the Purton Hulks, a ships graveyard with wrecks of over 80 old boats, between the River Severn and the Gloucester and Sharpness Canal. The boats were purposely grounded to prevent riverbank erosion. Met bonus cute dog, not pictured.
A bit of old boat, seemingly on the grass. The Severn was low this morning.The wooden husk of a boat, with giant nails sticking out. It looks old. I think a sign said it was from the 1850s, but I looked at a lot of signs, so I could be wrong.Boat skeleton on grass.Tried to be arty. Failed.
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Sarah Nicholas @sarahnicholas.bsky.social · 16/07/2026
I came second in one of the #TdF daily quizzes on Kahoot. I mean, not many people have played it. And it HAS to have been easy for me to get stuff right, because I'm largely ignorant about cycling. But also, my French must still be pas mal, hein? www.letour.fr/fr/quiz-quot...
A screenshot of a Kahoot quiz leaderboard with me in second place.
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Sarah Nicholas @sarahnicholas.bsky.social · 15/07/2026
I'm watching a baking show. This is a baking show. Baking.
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Sarah Nicholas @sarahnicholas.bsky.social · 14/07/2026
Here is your certificate. Please hand it to a family member or friend for safe keeping. Now join the queue for gowns. Congratulations!
Dave's certificate.
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Sarah Nicholas @sarahnicholas.bsky.social · 05/07/2026
I've had no energy to garden this year. The front yard has, left to its own devices, produced poppies from seeds sown in years past. Lovely.
A bright red poppy. No, I don't know the variety.A dusky pink poppy. No idea about the variety.
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Sarah Nicholas @sarahnicholas.bsky.social · 04/07/2026
Dere 'mlaen! #TdF
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Sarah Nicholas @sarahnicholas.bsky.social · 01/07/2026
Feel a bit ridiculous, but there you are. Very much anticipating entering the website and everything falling over and being thwarted.
A webpage. For the British Museum. I am in a queue for tickets to the Bayeux tapestry exhibition. I am 1,215th in the queue.
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Sarah Nicholas @sarahnicholas.bsky.social · 30/06/2026
You know those navy shoulder bags (I think they are copies of Longchamp's Le Pliage tote bag, illustrated) that are everywhere? They look like something my gran would love. Why are they so popular with young women?
Longchamp's Le Pliage tote/shoulder bag.
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Sarah Nicholas @sarahnicholas.bsky.social · 29/06/2026
Royal Mail delivered this parcel, which I'd chased twice and they'd declared lost, today. The gross melted, crispy, flaking packaging aside, as a 48 hour tracked item, it was 288 hours late. (Don't worry, I've had a refund.) It's deranged, yes?
Weird crispy, flaking package with a melted address label.It's so yucky.More holes than package, it is. You can see I don't want to touch it. I was SCARED when I saw it on my mat... I thought someone had sent me something threatening.
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Sarah Nicholas @sarahnicholas.bsky.social · 27/06/2026
Today I was woken by arsehole seagull parents attacking a man walking his dog. Again. Look at these bastard things. Every year they have another baby in a stupid neighbour's chimney pot and raise it on our street. Two years ago the baby was run over and the divebombing stopped and I was not sad.
Baby seagull and one parent seagull (the other is on the building opposite, watching, guarding) on the pavement outside my house. This parent had been sitting on a wall right next to my bedroom window, doing its squawking until I flapped my arms at it.
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Sarah Nicholas @sarahnicholas.bsky.social · 25/06/2026
BUT I DON'T KNOW WHAT 107°F (42°C) FEELS LIKE, BBC!
A screenshot of the BBC weather forecast for Cardiff, Wales. This is for 4pm, when it will 'feel like' 107°F, which is 42°C.
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Sarah Nicholas @sarahnicholas.bsky.social · 24/06/2026
Wednesday 10:30. 29.5°. Like an oblivious boiling frog, I spent 2.5 hours in this space, before realising I felt rather unwell. I have now abandoned the library. If the books combust, so be it.
Thermometer. 29.5°C.
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Sarah Nicholas @sarahnicholas.bsky.social · 24/06/2026
Next Tuesday looks to be AMAZING. (21°C if you don't understand old money.)
Weather forecast for Cardiff, Wales. Tuesday 30th June is max 70°F (21°C) and rainy.
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Sarah Nicholas @sarahnicholas.bsky.social · 23/06/2026
Just me keeping track. Tuesday 11:30. 27°.
Thermometer. 27°.
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Sarah Nicholas @sarahnicholas.bsky.social · 23/06/2026
Just for my own interest. At work. Tuesday 08:30. 26°.
A thermometer. 26°.
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Sarah Nicholas @sarahnicholas.bsky.social · 19/06/2026
I'm back in the same hotel a year later and, because Travelodge let you do this now, I pre-booked a room with a good view of the traffic. I had a lovely evening.
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Sarah Nicholas @sarahnicholas.bsky.social · 17/06/2026
Eating this chocolate because the lady who just gave me my latest COVID jab told me to. It was definitely medical advice.
Aldi's own brand fancy sea salt dark chocolate.
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Sarah Nicholas @sarahnicholas.bsky.social · 16/06/2026
The Cardiff School of Art and Design final year show is on at the mo. I thought this, from @ruben.art.insta, was fab.
Um. A loo seat on a plinth. There is crocheted genitalia on the loo seat.The artist's statement in English and Welsh. It says... 

Ruben Morrison

BA (Hons) Artist Designer: Maker

I'm inspired by 'Craftivism' by using textile crafts to bring visibility to the lived realities of the Transgender community. As our rights are increasingly debated, formerly mundane gendered spaces such as public bathrooms have been transformed into hostile environments.

Through this hand-crafted bathroom set, I subvert a traditionally soft' medium to illustrate how a once-safe space can become foreboding. Each element contributes to a larger narrative of the dread experienced by Trans people in public life. This work is an expression of kinship with my community and a provocation for the uninformed spectator. By rendering these political battlegrounds in yarn, I invite the viewer to witness the weight and vulnerability of our current climate.

@ruben.art.insta
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Sarah Nicholas @sarahnicholas.bsky.social · 12/06/2026
I enjoyed the graveyard at St Clement's Church in Romney Marsh this morning. These were my favourite headstones. Derek Jarman's (of course), Grumpy's (with the 'its right you're dead' message) and Edward Mark Skilbeck's (because it seems like he lived a good life).
Derek JarmanFOND MEMORIES OF HUSBAND.. FATHER, GRANDFATHER

COLIN JAMES BRIAN SAYELL "GRUMPY"

DIED

16. 10. 2018

AGED 79

OUR HEARTS ARE SAD THAT YOU HAVE GONE BUT TOGETHER EITH PAMELA IS WHERE YOU BELONG.EDWARD MARK

SKILBECK

26th OCTOBER 1938

9th FEBRUARY 2021

A good, kind man. Widely respected and greatly loved by his family and many friends

Rest in Peace.
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Sarah Nicholas @sarahnicholas.bsky.social · 12/06/2026
After 2.5 hours of driving, in between more pootling, I've had enough for today. Definitely can't do the remaining 3.5 home. I've collapsed at a motorway services hotel. D'you know what? It's quite serviceable. This is my view. My entertainment will be in the services watching tired people argue. 😂
View from the first floor of the Ramada hotel at Cobham services on the M25. In the foreground is a children's playground with a toy train. In the middle ground is some water with waterlilies. In the background is a warehouse style building, plus a (real) railway track.
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Sarah Nicholas @sarahnicholas.bsky.social · 12/06/2026
I'm leaving this place today. When not pootling elsewhere, I've just stared out at this odd view. I've seen the fox, rabbits, brazen and noisy magpies, a flock of linnets, a few pairs of reed buntings, lots of dunnocks and a random little dog. But not a single human. It's been lovely.
View out of some French doors onto a grubby concrete patio with dubious furniture. In the middle ground is a rusted old car, now part of the landscape.
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Sarah Nicholas @sarahnicholas.bsky.social · 11/06/2026
This morning I visited the sound mirrors at Romney Marsh (meh) and St Thomas Becket Church (gorgeous, worth the effort of multiple diversions around closed unclassified roads). My favourite part was collecting this giant key to open the church from a nearby house.
My hand holding a big, old key. If you squint, you may be able to make out the church to which the key belongs in the distance.
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Sarah Nicholas @sarahnicholas.bsky.social · 10/06/2026
The fox visited again. I asked him to move away from the door, then rolled an egg out. He enjoyed his egg. He opened the shell delicately, and licked the contents. Once he'd finished, a magpie flew off with the shell. Nature, eh?
A wild fox on a concrete patio area. Very focused on eating an egg.
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Sarah Nicholas @sarahnicholas.bsky.social · 10/06/2026
My head is very quiet in this place. Possibly because of the nothingness. Or maybe the unrelenting wind has blown away all my thoughts.
Dungeness. Shingle. Some stoical plants. A few small buildings on the left. Blue sky.
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Sarah Nicholas @sarahnicholas.bsky.social · 09/06/2026
Excuse me whilst I consult my dictionary before walking on the beach. 😜
Sign in front of a beach, reading... THE STEPPED REVETMENT IN FRONT OF THIS SIGN IS EXTREMELY SLIPPERY, THERE HAVE BEEN A NUMBER OF SERIOUS INJURIES CAUSED BY THE PUBLIC SLIPPING.

IF YOU DO DECIDE TO WALK ON THE STEPPED REVETMENT PLEASE USE THE HANDRAILS PROVIDED AT ALL TIMES.
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Sarah Nicholas @sarahnicholas.bsky.social · 08/06/2026
My holiday place comes with a guard cat. It's a big one.
A wild, but seemingly friendly, fox, seen through some doors. The fox is looking into the house, likely waiting for food.
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Sarah Nicholas @sarahnicholas.bsky.social · 08/06/2026
😆 Okay, you have the glass floor in the carriage, with shingle from the beach underneath, which lights up; my favourite sign (there are lots of signs); and this random train-related thing.
This is the floor of the train carriage, looking out into the kitchen area. The floor is half glass, half railway carriage floor. It is lit from underneath. There's beach shingle and random stuff under the floor.A sign in the bedroom with bunk beds, so, you know, one for the kids! It reads "The land between this point and the mean high tide water mark is a licensed site under the Nuclear Installations Act 1965 (as amended).Some kind of railway lamp with a railway hat on top of it. It's just sitting on a shelf in the dining area.
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Sarah Nicholas @sarahnicholas.bsky.social · 08/06/2026
Staying in a bonkers holiday home for the next few nights. I'm sleeping in an old railway carriage inside a sort of hut. As you enter there's this photo of long-dead blokes in a ticket booth, with train tickets for you to take. Bonkers. I love it.
Photo of an old train carriage, located inside a hut. The paint on the carriage is green and peeling.Big old photo of a moustached train bloke. Underneath is a compartment with a roll of tickets. This is someone's house. Bonkers.
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