Last roses of the summer in the garden. 🌱

I was feeling adventurous. Olive oil ice cream and 80% dark chocolate sorbet. Delicious.

Glorious night out at the Proms to hear one of my most favourite pieces of music - Gorecki’s Symphony of Sorrowful Songs.

Local tradition says this is the font in which Edward the Confessor was baptised. Top half is medieval, bottom half much later. Now in All Saints Church, Middleton Stoney, it was brought here from the King’s Chapel Islip in the mid-nineteenth century. #medievalsky

These lilies didn’t flower last summer so I thought we’d lost them - but they’re back with all their joyful flamboyance. 🌱 #TinyJoys

Little orange ladybird (halyzia sedecimguttata) on the day lilies in the garden. We are surrounded by mature sycamore trees, which apparently these chaps love, but this is first time I’ve spotted an orange ladybird in our garden. 🌱 🐞

Love the way these kniphofia seem to glow in the evening light. 🌱

This is the most insane bookshop. A treasure hunt, with extra book-based peril. 📚

Beyoncé and Renaissance art - fabulous weekend in London.

When I was about 12 I met Sir Edmund Hillary. He came round to my parents house for tea one day (I have no idea why). He was such a lovely man - kind, gracious, and wise.

Celebrating #MayTheFourth with the Royal Northern Sinfonia. We have an X-wing pilot on French horn, Yoda on viola, Chewbacca playing the cor anglais, and Princess Leia playing the double bass. Glorious. 🎶⭐️⚔️

Our annual pilgrimage to see the blossom at Alnwick Garden. With 329 trees, it’s the largest orchard of ‘Taihaku’ trees in the world. 🌱🌸

Excellent thread. 💙 (Love museums on social media.)

Celebrating Mothering Sunday in style with my youngest. Royal Northern Sinfonia providing some movie magic.

Trip to London to see Much Ado About Nothing. It was loud, joyous, confetti strewn, hilarious. Loved it.

Fun medieval fact for today - St Valentine is the patron saint of beekeepers.

To join Ian’s fantastic list of books, here’s one of my personal favourites. As the mum of a lovely non-binary young person, I just adore Scott Stuart’s delightful picture book, ‘My Shadow is Purple’. #KidLitUK #LGBTQ

This thread is sheer joy - over 100 brilliant LGBTQ kids books… from picture books to young adult.

It’s more than a week since I went to see the ‘Medieval Women’ exhibition at the British Library & I’m still thinking about it. So many extraordinary treasures. Here’s the earliest of only 3 surviving examples of Joan of Arc’s signature on a letter dated 1429. #MedievalSky

I love the way frost makes the garden look like it has been dusted with icing sugar. #TinyJoys

Word of the Day is ‘uhtcearu’ [ucht-kay-aru, with the 'ch' as in the Scottish ‘loch']: Old English for ‘the sorrow before dawn', when you lie awake in the darkness and worries crowd your mind.

My favourite Welsh word is ‘cwtch’ - pronounced kutch. A cuddle or hug, but with a special quality of giving safety or comfort to someone by wrapping your arms round them. We lived in Wales when our children were young and a cwtch is an essential part Welsh parenting. 😊

The Medieval Women exhibition at the British Library is just wonderful. Do go if you get the chance. #Libraries

Golden hour by the Thames today.

Happy New Year. ‘Ring out, wild bells, to the wild sky, The flying cloud, the frosty light: The year is dying in the night; Ring out, wild bells, and let him die…’ ~ Alfred, Lord Tennyson

My favourite recording of my favourite late medieval carol. (The Wexford Carol, Irish, likely C14th or C15th). Happy Christmas everyone - hope you are able to find moments of peace or joy today. #JoinIn #TinyJoys youtu.be/yxDZjg_Igoc?...

The delicate, bright joyfulness of Christmas roses on a grey December day. #TinyJoys

One of the things I love most about galleries are the juxtapositions. Manchester Art Gallery today… Amsterdam, 1620s. Manchester, 1920s. Same energy.

Today’s bookish adventure in Manchester was a visit to The Portico Library, a little gem of a library - hidden away up a winding staircase. #Libraries #Rarebooks #Books

Lovely tour round Chetham’s Library in Manchester today. The oldest public library in continuous use in England. Highlights included a door with a medieval cat flap, chained books, and the desk where Marx & Engels spent a summer doing research. #libraries #books

Oh wow. And that golden case is fabulous. Lovely thread.

Tonight in our house it’s time for family board games and Sinterklaas feasting - pepernoten, kruidnoten, marzipan and speculaas.

The light dusting of snow this morning has set off a neighbour’s car alarm. The cat is expressing her deep disapproval of both snow & car alarms by trying to shred my arm. I’m attempting to placate her with food.

Spent part of a long drive today listening to Katherine Rundell’s thoughtful and thought-provoking essays on the power children’s literature. Well worth a listen. #KidsLitUK

Garden in the fading light. Sunset at 4pm today in Newcastle. I love, love, love living in North East England, but at this time of year I’m always strongly reminded that a childhood in the southern hemisphere did not adequately prepare me for the short dark days of winter in the north.

Kia kaha Aotearoa. ❤️🇳🇿 Love everything about this protest in NZ parliament against a bill to undermine Maori sovereignty and rights.

Feeling excited. Opera North’s Magic Flute at The Theatre Royal Newcastle.

She’s had a busy day doing not much. #Caturday

Settling in to celebrate Halloween in style - Hitchcock’s Psycho with music from a live orchestra.

Today I have been happily going down a medieval murder rabbit hole with the excellent @medimurdermaps.bsky.social interactive medieval murder maps. I mean… who doesn’t love a murder story that starts with a man carrying a bucket of eels down Cordwainerstreet?

It's UK budget day (not a medieval thing at all!) and in honour of it being the first budget delivered by a female Chancellor of the Exchequer, I'm re-posting my blog post on the medieval women who worked in the exchequer. They were Lora, Maud and Beatrice. medium.com/@elizabethcb...

If you see this, post a photo taken in the mountains. (Monte Blanc and the valley where Hannibal crossed the Alps with his elephants).

It’s late October in the north of England, and currently an improbably warm 14’C. My garden is still a riot of colour.

#ProofOfCat #Caturday

Hello Bluesky! In a previous life I spent a lot years tweeting as an ancient library… so I’ve lost the knack of being me online. But I’m going to give it a go. Here’s some gorgeous autumn colour from my garden by way of saying hello.