Hazel Robertson

Ex downtrodden Bookseller, now glorious domestic goddess, full time Mum and loving it. Can be bribed with gin.........
[email protected]

[Helen Day @LBFlyawayhome]

The parenting skills of Rapunzel’s witch may have been suspect, but she was an ace gardener
Artist: Eric Winter

[Gianl1974 @Gianl1974]

*BRITISH WRITER PENS THE BEST DESCRIPTION OF TRUMP*
Someone asked "Why do some British people not like Donald Trump?" Nate White, an articulate and witty writer from England wrote the following response:

A few things spring to mind. Trump lacks certain qualities which the British traditionally esteem. For instance, he has no class, no charm, no coolness, no credibility, no compassion, no wit, no warmth, no wisdom, no subtlety, no sensitivity, no self-awareness, no humility, no honour and no grace – all qualities, funnily enough, with which his predecessor Mr. Obama was generously blessed.
So for us, the stark contrast does rather throw Trump's limitations into embarrassingly sharp relief.
Plus, we like a laugh. And while Trump may be laughable, he has never once said anything wry, witty or even faintly amusing – not once, ever.
I don't say that rhetorically, I mean it quite literally: not once, not ever. And that fact is particularly disturbing to the British sensibility – for us, to lack humour is almost inhuman.
But with Trump, it's a fact. He doesn't even seem to understand what a joke is – his idea of a joke is a crass comment, an illiterate insult, a casual act of cruelty. Trump is a troll. And like all trolls, he is never funny and he never laughs; he only crows or jeers.
And scarily, he doesn't just talk in crude, witless insults – he actually thinks in them. His mind is a simple bot-like algorithm of petty prejudices and knee-jerk nastiness. There is never any under-layer of irony, complexity, nuance or depth. It's all surface.
Some Americans might see this as refreshingly upfront. Well, we don't. We see it as having no inner world, no soul. And in Britain we traditionally side with David, not Goliath. All our heroes are plucky underdogs: Robin Hood, Dick Whittington, Oliver Twist. Trump is neither plucky, nor an underdog. He is the exact opposite of that. He's not even a spoiled rich-boy, or a greedy fat-cat. He's more a fat white slug. A Jabba the Hutt of privilege.
And worse, he is that most unforgivable of all things to the British: a bully. That is, except when he is among bullies; then he suddenly transforms into a snivelling sidekick instead.
There are unspoken rules to this stuff – the Queensberry rules of basic decency – and he breaks them all. He punches downwards – which a gentleman should, would, could never do – and every blow he aims is below the belt. He particularly likes to kick the vulnerable or voiceless or female – and he kicks them when they are down. So the fact that a significant minority – perhaps a third – of Americans look at what he does, listen to what he says, and then think 'Yeah, he seems like my kind of guy' is a matter of some confusion and no little distress to British people, given that:
• Americans are supposed to be nicer than us, and most are.
• You don't need a particularly keen eye for detail to spot a few flaws in the man.
This last point is what especially confuses and dismays British people, and many other people too; his faults seem pretty bloody hard to miss.
After all, it's impossible to read a single tweet, or hear him speak a sentence or two, without staring deep into the abyss. He turns being artless into an art form; he is a Picasso of pettiness; a Shakespeare of shit. His faults are fractal: even his flaws have flaws, and so on ad infinitum. God knows there have always been stupid people in the world, and plenty of nasty people too. But rarely has stupidity been so nasty, or nastiness so stupid. He makes Nixon look trustworthy and George W look smart. In fact, if Frankenstein decided to make a monster assembled entirely from human flaws – he would make a Trump.

[Muse @xmuse_]

Art Deco on rails ❤️

Duchess of Hamilton, the crimson queen of the Coronation Class.

1930s British brilliance.

[Historic Vids @historyinmemes]

This is the person who invented the plug that goes into the wall and secures the screw. His name is Artur Fischer, from Germany. The plug was invented in 1958. He also invented the flash that synchronizes the capture of the image. He has 1,100 patents, more than Thomas Edison's with 7. He died in 2016.

[The potting shed @GardenerFliss]

Who doesn’t adore a Bumblebee. Keep a look out for these furry pals. Grow plants that they love, create habitats that feel like home and they will reward you with their beautiful array of stripe jumpers. 💚

[alex peysakhovich @alex_peys]

got a framed copy to hang by the ai team

[VixenInTheCity @NikitaCatSpeaks]

💙

[Governor's Office - St Helena, Ascension & Tristan @GO_ASHT]

Dear David Attenborough,

Congratulations on reaching your 100th lap around the sun, young man!

Thank you for sharing the wonders of our world with such care and curiosity.

Here’s to many more years, slow and steady wins the race!

With admiration,
Jonathan the Tortoise

[Mark Wright @markeology]

My daughter Annika is proudly autistic and 12 years old.

She drew this butterfly from a photo she took herself — every vein, every scale, rendered by hand on a tablet.

She signs everything she makes. Dates it. Like she already knows it matters.

She's turning 13 tomorrow. Please share this for her birthday. Let's make her day.

[DaVinci @BiancoDavinci]

Sea urchins are known to pick up shells with their tube feet and wear it to avoid light. An aquarist created 3D-printed tiny hats for them, and surprisingly, the sea urchins wear these miniature hats.

[Sama Hoole @SamaHoole]

Doris is a four-year-old Texel ewe on a fell in the Lake District.

Doris is, according to several recent opinion pieces, destroying the planet.

Let's check in on Doris.

6:30am - Doris began grazing. The fell she is grazing is semi-natural upland grassland. It has existed in this condition for approximately eight hundred years because sheep have been grazing it continuously for approximately eight hundred years. Without Doris, the coarse grasses outcompete the finer ones. The wildflowers disappear. The skylarks that nest at ground level lose the open sward they need and abandon the site. Doris does not know what a skylark is. She has found some good grass near the wall and that is the full extent of her agenda.

7:45am - Doris walked into the bog. This was not the plan. There was no plan. Doris extracted herself, turned around, and regarded the bog with the expression of an animal that has decided the bog started it.

9:00am - Doris found a gap in the wall and went through it. She was now in Brian's field. Brian's field is, by any measurable standard, identical to Doris's field. Doris is aware of this and does not consider it relevant.

10:30am - Doris was returned to her field. The farmer repaired the gap. Doris watched the repair with the focused attention of an animal taking measurements.

11:15am - Doris rolled into a dip in the fell and got cast. This means she ended up on her back and could not right herself because the weight of her fleece shifted her centre of gravity past the point of recovery. She lay there in the dip looking at the sky with the composure of an animal that has decided the sky is quite interesting actually.

11:40am - The farmer found her, righted her. Doris walked away at speed. No acknowledgement. Complete dignity. As though the last twenty-five minutes had happened to a different sheep.

1:00pm - Doris grazed the area around the base of the dry-stone wall. The grazing keeps the vegetation short enough that the wall's base stays dry and frost doesn't work into the joints and expand. The wall is two hundred and sixty years old. It will outlast everything currently being written about livestock farming if the vegetation around it is managed. It is being managed by Doris eating grass. Doris does not know she is doing conservation work. Doris has found something particularly good near the fourth stone from the bottom.

3:00pm - Doris produced manure. The manure will feed the soil microbiome. The soil microbiome will grow the grass. The grass will grow back where Doris has grazed it. The grazed areas will remain open enough for the tormentil and harebells to survive. The tormentil and harebells are why people drive three hours from Manchester to walk on this fell.

This system has no external inputs. It has been running since Texel sheep were brought to these fells from the Netherlands in 1970 and discovered the gaps in the walls shortly afterward.

5:00pm - Doris lay down. The fell was quiet. The skylarks were still up. The wildflowers were still in the turf.

5:47pm - Doris found a new gap. She was in Brian's field again.

Brian has started keeping a log.

[Helen Day @LBFlyawayhome]

‘Forsythia, Chionadoxa, Hellebore, Crocus’
(Garden Flowers, 1960)
Artist: John Leigh-Pemberton

[Hazel Robertson @HazelRobertson]

https://t.co/qhdjrw5Bqs

[Alastair Hilton @London_W4]

Have a guess why these oak beams in the ceiling of this London pub I’m in right now, are black and burnt? Yes, that’s right: they were burnt in The Great Fire of London in 1666. How incredible is that? Blows my mind.

[Make Britain Great Again @UK_Needs_Reform]

🦆 Pothole update: now officially a wildlife reserve. 🦆

Well, things have escalated…

Our now famous pothole puddle has officially welcomed its first residents, and Stubbington Duck Pond is open for business, complete with eight fine feathered (rubber) locals enjoying the water - thank you to Duck Keeper Jan for the wildlife.

We’ll keep you posted on further developments… 🦆

[Richard North @ollieparrot]

I worked with Farage from 1999-2003 when he was first elected as an MEP, sharing an office with him in Strasbourg. I stayed at his home, travelled with him, dined and entertained when we were in Europe, and worked with him in the UK.

Outwardly charming, he is in fact a vindictive, aggressive bully, with a huge chip on his shoulder. He is intolerant of criticism, has no loyalty to anyone, and will shaft anyone who disagrees with him, gets in his way or poses a threat (usually by underhand means, via third parties).

I am not surprised, therefore, that you have come to your view. Most people who have been close to Farage feel the same way and would not trust him in the slightest. Many more will come to the same conclusion, and eventually the Farage bubble will burst. I hope it does so before he does even more damage.

[MarshFamilySongs @MarshSongs]

We hope the good people of #SanFrancisco will forgive us for adapting a song about their city in 1967 to address the shocking and tragic events in #Minnesota in recent weeks. This is dedicated to Renée Good and Alex Pretti, and in solidarity. Our version is called "Minnesota" ❤️

[Stephanie "LB" 🟧 @LincolnsBible]

posted on substack by a person named Teri Leigh

I’m writing this from Minnesota.

These are just a few things that may not be making the national or international news.

a beloved local donut shop Glam Doll Donuts across the street from where Alex Pretti died turned into a warming house and medic center for protestors building and maintaining the memorial site.

a 70yo independent bookstore owner DreamHaven Books down the street expressed his pain on camera, walked through a tear gas cloud, and his website crashed less than 24 hours later from too much business and donations.

the day after tear gas bombs destroyed a N-Mpls neighborhood sending a 6mo old baby to the hospital, at daybreak, a small church community cleaned up the mess of pepper balls, tear gas containers and trash so the neighbors didn’t have to wake up to the memories.

a local independent journalist Mercado Media pounding the streets everyday reporting things from the ground had a testicle removed and showed up two days later to walk with 75,000+ community members to walk the streets in -20 degree weather.

a local sex-positive adult-store The Smitten Kitten has completely transformed into a donation and distribution center.

a local pizza place Wrecktangle Pizza raised over $83K in less than a few days to support families that are sheltering in place.

tow-truck companies are donating their services to clean up the accidents and abandoned vehicles left by ICE and the city is waiving impound fees.

local multi-faith spiritual leaders are spearheading sit-ins at corporate headquarters such as Target and USBank to have deeper conversations with CEOs and boards of directors about community relief.

social workers are taking in children who came home from school with both their parents “disappeared.”

animal shelters and pet-fostering agencies are rescuing pets left alone for days or weeks after their humans were detained.

every restaurant, church, karate dojo, dance studio, school, barber shop, and other small business has created their own underground grassroots supportive network to protect their neighbors, get people to and from work, and raise funds to pay everyday bills.

women who are moms and work full-time jobs are donning reflective vests in shifts to stand watch at bus stops, city parks, and grocery store parking lots ini sub-zero temps to bear witness before going home to tuck their babies in at night.

the MN National Guard offered donuts, coffee, and hot cocoa to peaceful protesters the day after Alex Pretti died, reminding community that we are all in this together and they are here to keep the peace.

These are just a few examples. Stories like this are happening in the hundreds here, every single day!

Community is EVERYTHING!

This Substack community and the MN-Strong resistance has saved my mental health these last weeks.

Thank you for reading.

Thank you for giving a shit.

I love you.

[Mary Aspinall-Miles @MAMBarLife]

A letter from today’s ⁦@thetimes⁩ with some fine courtroom humour…

[Callum Robinson @CallumGRobinson]

Something wonderful swimming out of the elm.
My father's first otter carving of the new year, smiling on a Saturday!

David Robinson, Scottish Elm, 2026

#handmade #otterman #woodcarving #otters