Graeme Beale
Works in @RESAS in the Scottish Government. Head of the Strategic Research Programme - Rural/Environment. Quaker. Writer of sub-par cat poems and other things.
- Apropos of what’s now going on outside the window. A #poem about sleet.
- Just saw someone walk past the house with a genuine- from the 2014 referendum campaign- Better Together umbrella. Just amazed by the longevity. I think any umbrella I’ve ever had has been lost, turned inside out or snapped in about a month at best. ☂️
- Reposted by Graeme Beale[Not loaded yet]
- Today’s commute reading. A just staggering reminder- Virginia Woolf on Jane Austen. Austen wrote when it was impossible for her asa woman to leave the house alone. I think that’s why I struggle with the romance & bustle presentation of history. I love history, but live back then? No thank you.
- UKRI quick out of the blocks on #researchfish replacement. They've put a tender out for a replacement Research Outcomes Collections System, offering up to £1.5M. www.find-tender.service.gov.uk/Notice/00654...
- Fixed something on my bike in my lunch break. Unfortunately because it’s me who fixed it rather than asking literally any other passing human to do it, I’m now not sure that I’ve fixed it right. #mechanical #anxiety
- Question emerging from a meeting this morning. Why is there no agency responsible for public body mergers? Surely we should create one.
- I see that the #researchfish closing news has now broken. From a funder perspective, we moved over to RF because it did things we needed, and because it was the industry standard - meaning other people knew how to use it etc. 🧵thoughts www.researchprofessionalnews.com/rr-news-uk-r...
- The first data from the #Scottish #Land #LiDAR Programme 2025-27 is now available on the remotesensingdata.gov.scot portal. This first data release covers 200,000 hectares of Scotland, starting in Arran and western areas. Further data releases are expected every 6 months.
- Reposted by Graeme BealeMonetisation The advert said MONETISE YOUR FOLLOWERS so he thought he would respond by painting them in the changing light, like waterlilies in a pond.
- Reposting for @imcmillan.bsky.social in case of amusement before the early walk.
- Conversation with one of the household teenagers: -Dad do you really write poems? -yes really. I just sent one to a journal. It might even get published. -oh, have you been published before? -yes. -do they pay you a lot? … (Pained pause) -No that’s not really how poetry works. Teenager shrugs
- Just finished bell hooks “the will to change” about masculinity. I’ve read lots of her poetry before but never her essays. Deep reflections on masculinity, and so many lines that have filtered out into the culture without me knowing where they come from.
- It’s #Burns Night 🏴! Enjoy your haggis (veggie or scrotal)! In case it helps, this is your permission slip to say “no thanks “to the inevitable accompanying whiskey or beer. No explanation needed. 🏴❤️🏴
- Pictures (found poetry) from the Old Kirk back room today: Do not touch the plans. We’ve only just sorted them. Do not move these chairs, the plans will fall over if you do. A Row of chairs and centuries old plans. As the only #quaker meeting in a #medieval #Kirk, we are just a bit different.
- Reposted by Graeme BealeYou Know When Something Just Clicks*
- Veg stew and dumplings. Proper winter dinner. Very pleased with how that came out.
- Tried to type in frustration today. Microsoft word wasn’t having it. Arghh.
- Early proof the Romans were into golf ⛳️? Probably one for @wmarybeard.bsky.social .
- The face when your food monkey has failed to sort out the rain. Again.
- Reposting to the daytime crowd.
- A #poem. For the doomscrollers. Put the telescope down for a moment, Galileo.
- A #poem. For the doomscrollers. Put the telescope down for a moment, Galileo.
- Started the day by falling on ice on my bike. 🚲 Ouch. 🙃Sore, but only bruises. Ironically I was on the way to my spin class. Which I go to because I think it's safer than early morning cycling in the dark and on ice. Perhaps next time I should drive there? 🤷
- Sorting through post Xmas donations at the Foodbank. One oddity- perhaps folks can explain, why is shortbread best before dates often a year or two years longer than all other biscuits? Perhaps shortbread could be the official biscuit of the moon/ Mars mission?
- It’s a porridge morning. Too chilly for anything else. Morag cat agrees/ hopes for leavings.
- I was at a civil service session on preparing for elections, because May is coming folks. Can’t believe they missed the opportunity to call it: “What to expect when you’re electing.” 🤷
- It seems like a well designed poster, but honestly I’m just not sure how many squirrels will read it and see when the meeting is. 🐿️🐿️🐿️
- Porridge for breakfast day. Definitely an area where I fail the “no true Scotsman” test by lathering on maple syrup. ✅ Not even golden syrup. ❌ Especially not just salt. 🏴
- Wrote a poem this evening and submitted it for rejection by a suitable periodical. It's not a cat poem, so low chance of acceptance. I don't know why it's the cats who get through, but there's maybe a life-lesson. Cats are liquid I suppose.
- Greetings new followers. I can promise only occasional musings, cats, Scottish policy/research, Quaker thoughts and poems. If that’s your thing hi! Today’s lucky socks are blue flamingos. Used to have a matched pink set, but the divine eater of socks took them some time ago.
- Reposted by Graeme BealeWelcome to new Bluesky users. Here’s how we do things: 1. Always observe the Hambledon Protocol 2. No flisking 3. If someone tealights you, rink them without apology 4. I don’t mind them so much, but tissue-posts are generally frowned on 5. No questions Good luck!
- This afternoon’s reading. Unfinished business, the evolution of devolution by Henry McLeish and James Mitchell. Fine enough overview. I took issue with the one graph which was still in basic excel format and doesn’t even say what it’s measuring- are we talking Acts, instruments, completed etc.
- Listening to an audiobook which is has lots of contemporary Scottish characters. Somehow the author has just got the names wrong. Just names not found here, or two generations too old. Think I might open a naming clinic for would-be authors. For just £100 I’ll tell you if your Scottish bod passes.
- Central Fife #Quaker meeting’s semi-faceless medieval monk and small monk banner. Do newcomers find it slightly unsettling? Probably. Should we change it? Probably. Will anyone want to raise this at a meeting for worship for business? Definitely not, that would mean adding an agenda item.
- Just finished A History of the World in 47 Borders by John Elledge. Really nice read, light and with a magpie eye over all sorts of issues and controversies.
- Today’s bookshop haul. Forgotten peoples of the ancient world by Philip Matyszak and the aeronaut’s windlass by Jim Butcher. Entirely whim-based purchasing.
- An elderly relative sent me a book token for Christmas. Today I’m inputting into town to go wild.* *spend a book token entirely on a whim. In an unresearched, unplanned, unrecommended manner. And then have coffee in cafe.
- Just saw an advert for Google AI which has a couple walking around museums and then getting information on the objects there. They had it playing on speakers. As a regular museum and gallery goer I can’t express how little I want fellow museum visitors to be broadcasting AI pulp in earshot.
- Reposted by Graeme Beale[Not loaded yet]
- I have a continuing campaign that someone should ask an equivalent do you live in the central belt question for Scotland. We can end the debate!!!
- I believe in Japan prefectures have their own #mascot. In #Perth and #Kinross our guy is Binguy. ❤️❤️❤️❤️🗑️
- Is there a truer love than that between an old cat and the corner of the rug next to the heater on a snow day?
- Since it’s a sleet day, you can have my sleet #poem.
- Off work sick with the lurgy the kids got over Christmas. Made it to the chemists and back and then had a nap to recover. Being ill is so tiring and boring.
