This photo was taken in 1911 using glass plate technology by Herbert Ponting who was part of Scott's Antarctic expedition, The composition and detail are exquisite with the band of white snow/ice creating a perfect frame around the two people and the ship in the distance Iconic imo

How your email finds me

Camberwell, South London, 18th January 2026. #SilentSunday

12 years ago, I met Mary L. Tabor online and we bonded over Elena Ferrante's Neapolitan novels and E.M. Forster's 'Only connect.' Last month, she wrote to share the good news of a book deal she secured after serialising her novel Who by Fire on #Substack. open.substack.com/pub/picosgem...

As a committed Jenny Uglow fan after having read, and loved, her biography of William Hogarth, I'm excited for "A Year with Gilbert White". As each chapter is dedicated to a month, starting in January, that's the pace I'll keep with the book as the year unfolds. #SlowLivingVibes

Okay, I will preface this with the GIGANTIC disclaimer that I promise I know how this looks, and I *swear* this is not personally motivated: If you have an old #LiveJournal account, and it has things you still care about in it, download it or import it to Dreamwidth SOON. Details:

HAPPY NEW YEAR! Authors and poets, submissions for our second themed issue are OPEN 🎉🎉🎉 Details here: fiyahlitmag.com/submissions/

We're open for fiction submissions! We publish unsettling bad time stories that straddle the horror, fantasy, and science fiction spectrum. But genre is made up so if you have a dark weird horrible story that could be a fit, send it in and let us worry about it. No closing date, open indefinitely.

Submissions are open now for our final issue! The theme for this issue is 'endings' inner-worlds.ghost.io/submission-g...

Wanna see real-life miracles? Fund scientific research. A team of US scientists just cured Alzheimer’s in mice — and there is now hope that the disease can be reversed in humans. futurism.com/health-medic...

More. Gay hockey. Now.

Coffee pause in Covent Garden to write a letter to one of my “Between the Pines” pen pals. #LetterWriting

I'm kinda tempted??

Found at the London Review of Books bookshop what I was looking for (the latest Paris Review) and what I didn't know I was looking for (Ursula K. le Guin’s “Book of Cats”.)

Thanks Tom for recommending this unique documentary - a mixture of "cute" & "trainwreck". Think Netflix's "Fyre Festival" meets teen cosplayers. I'm left wondering what would have happened if Livejournal users had decided to run a convention back in its heyday! (Maybe Whitby fulfilled that role?!)

I've spotted these around Camberwell, South London. I actually did try to WhatsApp them last night but the number is not listed. (Intentionally difficult to reach?) Today, I'm pondering if I should send them a text or even call... #artproject?

Thanks for sharing Tom, this is exactly the kind of content I want to watch on this holiday break!

2025 was the year I turned 50, became a nomadic petsitter, paid off debt, reconnected with old crushes, fell in love with "Just Kids," and spent Christmas alone with a cat named after a Roman empress. "Magnanimity" was my Word of the Year… what was yours? picosgemeos.substack.com/p/the-fifty-...

Boxing Day @ Mona's Cafe, Camberwell. Cappuccino-fueled letters for pen pals. #letterwriting

2026 New Year resolution: to always have three books on the go. A work of fiction, a work of non-fiction, and a poetry collection.

"A translator, then, isn’t just a lexical go-between, interpreting one word at a time. A translator, rather, is a reader who re-creates their own path through the textual world of a book." A really good read in the New Yorker about translation - and currently free to access.

I'm not one for End of the Year Lists... except for @rachelondon.bsky.social's Best of Music! I always discover new bands, and love how she sneaks in a couple of Eurovision tracks. Delighted to see Coach Party back in the charts as well as Suede. millionreasons.livejournal.com/674939.html

Is there a better feeling than post arriving in the mail?! Not when it's a beautiful Christmas card from one of your pen pals. 🤩 (My own are also out there, on their way to homes across the planet.) #PenPals

I've been running for nearly two years now a series of 100-words-only flash fiction and memoir on #Substack. No. 71 has just arrived: open.substack.com/pub/picosgem...

Iced Mocha Coffee with pashmak, plus Christmas cards and journal @ Persepolis in Peckham, South London. And they are playing the Human League! 👌🏼💫

This is the only End of Year Music List that counts.

i think if you have a juicy enough tale therapists should give you the session for free because let's be real they love that shit and ought to be paying you for the experience

Ham & cheese croissant (I should really go back to being a vegetarian), cappuccino, Foray journal and Muji 0.38 pen @ Mona’s Cafe, Camberwell, South London. #BlueskyWriters

Watched this gorgeous #film last night on MUBI, “Winter in Sokcho”. Three words to describe it: Franco-Korean, Melancholic and Wintry. Highly recommended for its Korean dishes, cinematography and sensitive character portrayals. #cinema

Bedroom. #InsomniaWednesday

"Between the Pines" - my new epistolary series - has just launched. First exchange is with Stefan, where we write about London cafes, gay life, cats, and books. Excited to see where this goes... More correspondents to follow. 📬🌲 open.substack.com/pub/picosgem... #epistolary #letterwriting #substack

Messalina. #Caturday

Number 70 in my series of 100-word-long pieces for Substack. Originally published 10 years ago, when I lived in a tower block by Victoria Park. I adapted it to my current nomadic life and temporary stay in Shoreditch. #Memoir open.substack.com/pub/picosgem...

Current read: a compelling, page-turning horror about lesbian cannibals in Cumbria. What else do you need to know?! #TheLamb

At Curious Yellow Kafe, Hoxton, sipping on a hot chocolate and writing to one of my penpals. 😉 #SilentSunday

Get to know your mutuals! List 10 random things you enjoy. Pixel art point-and-click computer games Cats Californian goths Hand-written letters Journaling Raspberry cake with polenta and condensed milk Spanakopita Floating in the sea Literary translation Mindful walks

One hundred years of cat love. #Caturday

Happy birthday to the lovely Sarah Jackson, whose collection of ghost stories, The Haunted Tea Set & Other Stories, is my Must Read this Xmas season. Wishing you all the best.

I’m looking for penpals. 🤓 #LetterWriting

Threads is the new Twitter, Bluesky is the new Livejournal and Mastodon is the new Dreamwidth. #socialmedia

To make art is to be human

Red walls in a Brazilian guesthouse. Red light in a Shoreditch loft. Red EXIT signs in dark stairwells. Notes from 14 months of borrowed rooms and temporary homes. #PicosGemeos #Substack open.substack.com/pub/picosgem...

Louie's bedroom. #SilentSunday

Been feeling tongue-tied, written-word-blocked. I still journal, just don't feel like sharing anything online. This is a new halfway attempt. "Blank", No.69 in my 100-word series on #Substack. open.substack.com/pub/olliered...

Will you be reading it, @rachelondon.bsky.social ? www.theguardian.com/books/2025/s...

Oh no Silent Hill F is gonna make me more autistic