The Magpie at Midnight

https://magpieatmidnight.co.uk/

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Changing times mean changing priorities: We’ve no idea what’s coming…

Hi Magpies, here is a little blog post about how I'm thinking about my priorities as I approach the end of my pregnancy #writing #priorities

My son, who is only just three, got hold of my phone the other evening and took this photograph of me while I was trying to settle him for bed. I was not winning, as you can see. I’m pretty tired at the moment and not exactly light on my feet any more, but we are near the end, or the beginning, depending on which way you view it. It won’t be long now before I’m in the hospital having my twins.…

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Writing Prompts from Photography: If walls could talk

Hi Magpies! A new creative #writingprompt out today - If walls could talk

I’m getting to slow to walk about as much as I was, so my street photography opportunities are limited at the moment, but I have been finding other things to take photographs of. I’m aware I’m not posting consistently now, I’m just too tired. Hopefully I’ll get some of my creative energy back in the weeks after they arrive. We’ve recently been doing a bit of decorating in our house. I’ve hit the…

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New lessons about my Dyslexia: Neurodiversity, mental health and managing people

Hi Magpies! I have a new post out today about #dyslexia, #mentalhealth and looking after people at work

A distant diagnosis I’ve written before about having dyslexia but I don’t often write about the impact of it on me personally. I think in part this is because I was diagnosed more than twenty years ago at university, and while research and understanding have moved on since then, I’ve not been keeping up. Dyslexia is commonly understood as a learning disability that predominantly affects a…

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Writing Prompts from Street Photography: The Hideaway

Hi Magpies! Here is this weekend's new #writingprompt #blogpost - The Hideaway

I’ve had this photograph sitting on my computer for more than six months. It’s of a den my partner and I found in the woods while we were out with my son in the summer. At the time I found it enchanting, as I always do when I find these secret places that so strongly remind me of childhood.  I don’t normally like to put photos of my son out on social media, mostly because I feel he’s too young…

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Writing Prompts from Street Photography: Baby Doll

Hi Magpies! Here is todays's #writingprompt blog post with a #crimefiction falvour - Baby Doll

I frequently see lost things belonging to children when I’m out and about. It’s probably because my life mostly revolves around activities for toddlers and home working that I end up in places where lost shoes and lost toys accumulate. I always think there is something a little forlorn about a tiny lost trainer on the pavement, but at the same time I see these objects so frequently that I seldom…

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Reasons to be grateful: A suprise pregnancy

Hi Magpies! A bonus blog post on gratitude this weekend - a suprise pregnancy #gratitude #fertility #parenting

Fertility difficulties… I’ve been wanting to write, and simultaneously avoiding writing, this post for a while. I’m not quite sure where that reticence comes from, other than I normally don’t get quite this personal in print. Perhaps I don’t want to jinx it. I’ve not written about this here before, although it’s no secret to people who know me. When we were trying to get pregnant with my son we…

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Writing Prompts from Street Photography: Through the Mirror Crack'd

Hi Magpies! Here is this weeks creative prompt blog post from street photography - Through the Mirror Crack'd #writingprompts #writingcommunity

When I saw this mirror on the floor among some wet autmun leaves recently I was really drawn to it. I was on my way to work, it was raining and I was in a rush so the photograph is a little blurry, even after I’ve tried a couple of filters on it.  But I don’t think it matters. The image itself still has an attractive power for me. When I looked at it I kept thinking of the phrase ‘Through the…

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Writing Prompts from Ptreet Photography: Ribs

HI Magpies! After a break last week here is a new #writingprompt blog post based on #streetphotography - Ribs

We’ve had some really stormy rainy weather recently, and I’ve seen quite a few umbrellas lost to the elements, discarded on the street here and there. The autumn weather in the UK is always a bit unpredicatble, but it does feel like the winds are getting a little stronger, the storms a little more frequent and severe. I picked this one to take a photograph of as I was really drawn to the way…

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Writing Prompts from Street Photography: The Stack

Hi Magies! Ready for a new creative prompt this morning? Here is this week's #writingprompt from #streetphotography #creativity #writingcommunity

I saw these chairs the other morning when I was walking home from dropping my son at his preschool. It was one of those gorgeous bright but crisp autumn mornings and when I initially saw the chairs I thought they were new because of the way the light fell on them. It was only when I got up close that I noticed signs of age. The chairs are dirty, and some of them looked in need of repair. Someone…

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Writing prompts from street photography:What’s the combination?

Hi Magpies! A new creative prompt blog post out this week - What's the combination? #writingprompts #writingcommunity

I’m sorry not to have posted for a few weeks, I’ve not been well. Hopefully I’ll get back on track in the next few weeks. I saw this the other morning while I was rushing home from the local shop in the rain. Someone had left a black plastic bag of rubbish on the pavement. A fox had visited in the night searching for tasty morsals, and had torn open the bag, leaving the rubbish spread liberally…

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Can Expressive Writing Help your Physical and Mental Health?

Hi Magpies! Can expressive writing help you heal? Read my new blog post about this issue here:

When I first came across the work of James Pennebaker during my PhD studies, I was pretty inspired by it. His initial idea was that writing about personal traumas over a period of time could help people process them and begin to heal. This theory came from an observation, made by many different scholars and thinkers over time, that keeping secrets is stressful, and that humans appear to have an…

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Creative Prompt: Strange Signs in the Woods

Hi Magpies, out today a new creative prompt to get your creative ideas flowing - strange signs in the woods #writingprompts #writingcommunity

I saw this in our local nature park while walking back from the shops with my son. A few years before and oak tree had fallen across the path and for a while we had the experience of walking under an archway made of the body of the oak tree, until the parts that crossed the path were taken down by the local council. The stump here is what is left of the oak tree, but until recently I had not…

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Creative Prompt: A Missing Finger

Hi Magpies, out today a new creative prompt blog post - the missing finger. #writingprompts #writingcommunity

I saw this glove this morning on the pavement as I walked my son to the nursery. It had rained over night and most of the pavement was dark and damp.  The contrast of the bright pink against the grey concrete caught my eye and I stopped to take a photo. As I was standing there with my phone, I noticed that the glove was missing a finger, which I found intriguing.  How did the owner of the glove…

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Creative Prompts: The Moon

Hi Magpies, here is this week's creative prompt post: the Moon #writingprompts #writingcommunity

I took this photo at one of the local playgrounds that I like to take my son to. Not very far away from where these rocks are is a slide, numerous swings and other playground bits and pieces. The playground itself is located in a wildlife park, and there are lots of small trees and bushes to wander through and explore if the swings are not your thing. My little boy likes to run through them,…

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What taking 7 years to make a film taught me about creativity

Hi Magpies! a blog post today about what I learned while taking 7 years to make my film, a bad day at the office. #indiefilmmaker #documentaryfilm

Making a film on my own Earlier this year I finally pressed the ‘export’ button on a documentary film I had been making for over 7 years. I ended up working on the project on my own, in my spare time around a full time job, and later 2 house moves and a new baby. It started out as a project that I did as part of a documentary film making course, which was a six month long part time course. I…

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Creative Prompt: A Secret Note

Hi Magpies! I have a new creative prompt blog post out this week - The Secret Note #writingprompts #writingcommunity

In last week’s post I wrote about a Thank-you Note I had spotted on the floor outside of one of our local small supermarkets. This week I had to go into Central London to be in the office for my day job, and I saw this little note on the pavement. It’s folded up so I don’t know what it says (and I did not unfold it), making this note far more mysterious. It could be all sorts of things, like a…

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Creative Prompt: The Thankyou Note

HI Magpies, after a little break for illness, here is a new creative prompt: The Thankyou Note

I saw this small lump of happiness when I was darting out of one of our local shops. It was laying on the pavement just at the threshold, just a little to the left if the automatic doors and the blast of the air conditioning. As I stopped to take a photograph, the security guard wandered over to see what I was doing. I’m not sure how suspicious I looked, crouching in the doorway of the shop…

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