ClareStevens @silverlawn.bsky.social · 26/06/2026I've known about the Sacconis' residency in Folkestone ever since it started, but have never made it to any of their events, though I've heard them elsewhere. An ambition for next year perhaps! 010
ClareStevens @silverlawn.bsky.social · 26/06/2026Do you know about this event, Lucy? Might be up your street (literally and metaphorically!) www.soundsfolkestone.co.uk/events/treel... I am already committed to a choral festival in Brecon that weekend, otherwise I would have tried to get to it.soundsfolkestone.co.ukTREELINE (UK Premiere): Graham Fitkin (composer) & Sacconi Quartet | Sounds FolkestoneGraham Fitkin Sacconi Quartet 200
ClareStevens @silverlawn.bsky.social · 15/06/2026I definitely did! 18,000 of them on the Tuesday and 13,500 on the Wednesday. 010
ClareStevens @silverlawn.bsky.social · 15/06/2026Thank you so much for this first-hand account of some of the 'protests', Sam. I was in Belfast for the Book Festival, and it was very, very weird having to walk out from town to my accommodation in Finaghy when the buses and trains stopped, just as I used to do in the mid 70s. 120
ClareStevens @silverlawn.bsky.social · 15/06/2026I did wonder when you said at the book festival that you never watch TV if you'd given up Casualty! Glad to know your bio is still accurate. 000
ClareStevens @silverlawn.bsky.social · 15/06/2026Also really sorry that the closure of the Crescent on my last evening meant I couldn't say goodbye to people. I was gutted to miss being in the same room with Martin, though his online conversation with Jan was great, and of course the important thing was the everyone was safe. 110
ClareStevens @silverlawn.bsky.social · 15/06/2026Sorry I am late responding to this - took the Bluesky app off my phone. I loved meeting you too and was really sorry that the talks I'd booked so long ago weren't the ones you were introducing. The festival was fab apart from clashes! 010
ClareStevens @silverlawn.bsky.social · 29/05/2026I've just photographed my journal entry and maybe I'll be able to show them to you at the Belfast Book Festival - basically it starts with a shorter version of your description and then wanders off into reminiscences of my own visits to Newgrange since childhood, and quotations about the place. 210
ClareStevens @silverlawn.bsky.social · 20/05/2026Facebook, Substack, LinkedIn, WhatsApp. I haven't closed my unnamable account because I do occasionally need to see what other people are posting, though I haven't checked it for so long that I'm currently locked out! 000
ClareStevens @silverlawn.bsky.social · 14/05/2026Oh, hurray! It's such a fabulous house, full of treasures and in such a beautiful location. Does this work mean visitors might be allowed to linger a little longer in the rooms? I visited in 2022 and felt the tour was a bit quick. 000
ClareStevens @silverlawn.bsky.social · 14/05/2026I keep forgetting about Bluesky! Just too many platforms to keep track of, and I've been reading an awful lot of actual books, tryig not to spend my entire time on screens. 110
ClareStevens @silverlawn.bsky.social · 13/05/2026@lucycaldwell.bsky.social I read All Grown Up this morning and I cannot begin to express how much I loved it and how many resonances it has for me. Although you are so much younger than me, you represent my experience of a Northern Irish identity / heritage better than anyone of my own generation. 100
Reposted by ClareStevensLucy Caldwell @lucycaldwell.bsky.social · 09/05/2026In today's Irish Times, an essay I wrote about the winter solstice at Newgrange, the importance of our sacred sites, about surrender, and about finding light in the darkness ✨ 1122
ClareStevens @silverlawn.bsky.social · 13/05/2026I'm reading Devotions at the moment – I really loved this story, because I watched the Solstice at Newgrange the very same day that you did, and wrote a journal entry about it. Felt surreal to relive the experience in your book. 110
ClareStevens @silverlawn.bsky.social · 13/05/2026Sorry I forgot to take the time to check back on Bluesky to see if there were any responses to my post! So many platforms ... Anyway, it was a real pleasure. Feeling I want to do the same with Lucy Caldwell's Devotions now but I have several loomingdeadlines for completely different articles. 010
ClareStevens @silverlawn.bsky.social · 13/04/2026Wrote about my responses to Jan Carson's @jancarsonwrites.bsky.social new novel Few and Far Between and its resonances for me on Substack - my posts are a bit random so there's no paywall, just keep clicking until you can read it: open.substack.com/pub/clareste...open.substack.comOn Reading Few and Far Between by Jan CarsonPub: Doubleday h/b 9 April 2026 131
ClareStevens @silverlawn.bsky.social · 08/04/2026Arrived this morning in Presteigne, Wales ... the new novel by one of my favourite authors, @jancarsonwrites.bsky.social It's set around Lough Neagh in Northern Ireland and it begins with a map, always a delight (cf Malcolm Saville's Lone Pine books and John Rowe Townsend's novels for teenagers). 131
Reposted by ClareStevensRoyal Philharmonic Society @royalphilsoc.bsky.social · 05/03/2026We're excited to be at @southbankcentre.bsky.social's Queen Elizabeth Hall next week for the #RPSAwards! On Thurs 12 March we'll celebrate musicians and achievements in classical music nationwide. Tickets from £10 (plus venue fees) available here: royalphilharmonicsociety.org.uk/awards/rps_m... 022
Reposted by ClareStevensRoyal Philharmonic Society @royalphilsoc.bsky.social · 02/03/2026Applications for Sound and Music's 'In the Making' development programme – for young music and sound creators in the UK aged 14-18 – are open until Monday 20 April 2026. Discover more at: soundandmusic.org/programmes/i...soundandmusic.orgIn the Making - Sound and MusicIn the Making is the UK's only year-long artist development programme for young music creators aged 14–18. Each year, 50 young creators with a passion for music come together from all over the UK for ... 022
ClareStevens @silverlawn.bsky.social · 16/02/2026Absolutely wonderful books – I think I had about half of them. My favourites were Stone Age Man in Britain and Marco Polo, goodness knows why. 000
Reposted by ClareStevenswomensartbluesky.bsky.social @womensartbluesky.bsky.social · 15/02/2026'Storm light' by UK contemporary printmaker Mikki Bowers #WomensArt 5943169
Reposted by ClareStevenschurchtimes.bsky.social @churchtimes.bsky.social · 16/02/2026A £400,000 grant to increase children’s participation in church choirs was announced by the Strategic Mission and Ministry Investment Board (#SMMIB) on Sunday 🎶 #churchtimes #churchnews #musicchurchtimes.co.ukSMMIB grant awarded to get more children singing in church choirsA £400,000 grant to increase children’s participation in church choirs was announced by the Strategic Mission and Ministry Investment Board (SMMIB) on Sunday. The “Choir Project” — a partnership with the Royal School of Church Music (RSCM) — aims ... 031
Reposted by ClareStevensLarry the Cat @number10cat.bsky.social · 15/02/202615 years ago today I arrived on Downing Street in a cage. I've seen off Cameron, May, Johnson, Truss and Sunak and I'm still going strong. Only two Prime Ministers have ever done longer stints here: William Pitt the Younger and Sir Robert Walpole. Bill and Bob - I'm coming for you... (Photos AP) 19386151318
Reposted by ClareStevensRoyal Philharmonic Society @royalphilsoc.bsky.social · 16/02/2026Our friends and RPS Advance Corporate Members Swaledale Festival invite you to join them for a fortnight of music, arts and walking across North Yorkshire, with public booking open today! You can find out more and book via our website: royalphilharmonicsociety.org.uk/whats_on/swa...royalphilharmonicsociety.org.ukSwaledale Festival 2026 022
Reposted by ClareStevensAndy Marshall @fotofacade.bsky.social · 16/02/2026🚐 ⛰️ 🌊 📸 🏛️ ❄️ 🌼 More info here: www.digest.andymarsh... 03610
ClareStevens @silverlawn.bsky.social · 29/01/2026… they will know of actual choral arrangements. Majella and Andrew findable by googling their choirs, or let me know if you need email addresses for them or Richard. 000
ClareStevens @silverlawn.bsky.social · 29/01/2026Seriously Jan, talk to Andrew Nunn who conducts the National Youth Choir of Northern Ireland, Richard Yarr at the BBC in Belfast who has adjudicated many School Choir of the Year competitions and Majella Hollywood who is chief executive of Chamber Choir Ireland in Dublin to get suggestions … 220
ClareStevens @silverlawn.bsky.social · 29/01/2026That’s more the sort of thing Jan’s after! There are some very good arrangements. 110
Reposted by ClareStevensThe Gesualdo Six @thegesualdosix.bsky.social · 29/01/2026Ticking off another English cathedral! Last week we gave our first concert in the magnificent Lichfield Cathedral. Over recent years we've built a strong relationship with the cathedral, which hosted the first of our Choral Singing Days initiatives with The G6 Charity. 061
Reposted by ClareStevensAndy Marshall @fotofacade.bsky.social · 29/01/2026📝 Field Notes from my Camper-van-camino: 📸 My services for free at Broadwell in Oxfordshire. www.digest.andymarsh... 0273
ClareStevens @silverlawn.bsky.social · 29/01/2026@jancarsonwrites.bsky.social Most of my acquaintances won’t understand how completely bonkers it feels for me as a Presbyterian from Finaghy to have an article published in The Tablet about a pipe organ in a convent in London, but I know you will! www.thetablet.co.uk/arts/all-sto...thetablet.co.ukWhat is a rare French organ doing in the chapel of a London Catholic school? - The TabletBentley’s chapel, meanwhile, is due to have its ineffectual mixture of fluorescent strips and theatre spotlights replaced by elegant pendant lights, similar 010
ClareStevens @silverlawn.bsky.social · 10/11/2025What a brilliant photo. Such clarity! And it really speaks to me, an ex-Londoner. 100
Reposted by ClareStevensEd Davey @eddavey.libdems.org.uk · 10/11/2025Trump wants to destroy the BBC and take our money. And Nigel Farage is egging him on. All true patriots should tell them both: hands off our BBC. 44934213
Reposted by ClareStevensIrish Literary Times @irishlittimes.bsky.social · 10/11/2025"We had never read anything quite like it," said Roddy Doyle www.npr.org/2025/11/10/n...npr.org'Flesh' wins 2025 Booker Prize: 'We had never read anything quite like it'David Szalay uses spare and sparse language to follow one Hungarian-British man from his teen years through middle age. The prestigious prize honors the best English-language novels published in the U... 1183
Reposted by ClareStevensMichael Hogan @michaelhogan100.bsky.social · 07/11/2025Gillian Anderson at her most heartbreaking! Blue Lights faces among cast! But Lola Petticrew steals the show! Here's my review of new drama #Trespasses, which airs from Sunday to Wednesday on Channel 4 www.standard.co.uk/culture/tvfi...standard.co.ukTrespasses on Channel 4 review: Gillian Anderson at her most heartbreakingThis story of forbidden love in Troubles-era Belfast is raw, warm and ultimately uplifting 073
ClareStevens @silverlawn.bsky.social · 10/11/2025But the Ulster Museum is brilliant - fantastic history and natural history galleries, and a wonderful art collection. 020
ClareStevens @silverlawn.bsky.social · 10/11/2025The highlights of the Botanic Gardens are the tropical ravine and the palm house, which don’t depend on summer weather - there are bright formal flower beds in summer and some roses, but it’s not like the botanic gardens in Oxford or Edinburgh - I haven’t been to Glasnevin. 010
ClareStevens @silverlawn.bsky.social · 28/10/2025Yes indeed. I washed my hands near or next to her in the Ladies’ loos at the RAH more than once, or passed the two of them in the corridor. Fantastic actors and genuine music lovers. How their family will miss them both. 110
ClareStevens @silverlawn.bsky.social · 29/09/2025Funny you should mention the lack of birds at Edinburgh Waverley just now, apart from that lone Wren … I did think when I saw you working out of that tiny cupboard and on the platforms without a blade of grass in sight that the urban setting was a quite a long way from your outdoor happy places! 000
ClareStevens @silverlawn.bsky.social · 26/09/2025Is this allowed or is it too much a normal signpost for #fingerpostfriday? On the Isle of Bute. 191
Reposted by ClareStevensrichard mortimer @richardmortimer.bsky.social · 26/09/2025The Joy of Cambridge: Egyptian-style Art Deco Cinema that the owners want to demolish to maximise profits. Maximising profits is what has killed the earth and its cultures. 914022
Reposted by ClareStevensJan Carson @jancarsonwrites.bsky.social · 26/09/2025A quick reminder that this wee gem goes out this afternoon at 3:45pm. If you miss it you can catch up later on BBC Sounds. 1133
Reposted by ClareStevensShantha Mohan, Ph.D., DTM @shlead.bsky.social · 26/09/2025“If you have a garden and a library, you have everything you need.” ― Cicero Wishing you a relaxing evening and a fabulous Friday with this reddish pink dahlia delight from Gamble Garden! #dailyflowers 🌱 #flowerreport #bloomscrolling 543247
ClareStevens @silverlawn.bsky.social · 26/09/2025See you at Waverley, all being well! In the meantime, hope @petroc.bsky.social is waking up in Inverness to skies as beautiful as this on Bute this morning. 020
Reposted by ClareStevenschurchtimes.bsky.social @churchtimes.bsky.social · 23/09/2025Rosie Dawson reviews two programmes about #Wales, #art, and love offered some welcome respite in a week otherwise dominated by noisy discussion about speech and its consequences #Radio #Reviews 📻🎨churchtimes.co.ukRadio review: Artwork: Love’s Moment: R. S. Thomas and Mildred Eldridge and In the Studio: Jon Foreman: Art that goes out with the tideTwo programmes about Wales, art, and love offer Rosie Dawson some welcome respite 021
ClareStevens @silverlawn.bsky.social · 23/09/2025Breathtaking colours on the Isle of Arran today. 061