Tomorrow evening it’ll be my annual duty to vaguely shepherd the activity on the #duvetknowitschristmas hashtag and urge people to give small sums to charity. 7.30pm? Something like that?

Some absolutely top notch orange cattery here

Nearly all panettone you can buy in the UK, however, is awful stuff. Also, I was reminded at the weekend that babka beats all the other sweet bread stroke cake type things hands down.

"Nice tree, pal, be a shame if it fell over"

First Christmas with the kitten and... #caturday

Delilah thinking she’s hiding 🐈‍⬛ 🎄

Born on this day in 1629, in Rotterdam, Dutch genre painter Pieter de Hooch. Here, it's morning. A woman is bringing a pitcher of water and a towel to a man. Whose clothing is on the table? Intriguing.

I heard there was a secret meat With paprika, and spicy heat But you don't really care for sausage Nduja ...sorry, I can delete this. I've just seen a few posts in this format and I wanted in.

Job for George! Looking on the bright side, as long as he's kept busy he's less likely to try going back into politics.

"No less an authority than the United Kingdom’s former Prime Minister, Liz Truss" is one for the ages. 🥗

Not only have I used an encyclopedia, I've made special trips to the town library in order to use their really big encyclopedia, so tbh I think I should get bonus points for that.

For @sharonhoward.bsky.social --and everyone I present: Phoenix in our tree

If you read one U.S. president's remembrance of Rob Reiner today...

2/2 Pig, piglets, peasant. Plus shoe. By David Teniers, whose day is today.

It's now 15 December and there are nowhere near enough cats in Xmas trees in my timeline. You're really letting the side down here, people.

Very rarely does a post warrant all caps, but: SEARCHABLE INTERIM MANUSCRIPTS CATALOGUE. At long last! searcharchives.bl.uk

one for early modernists (my usual side-glance to @sharonhoward.bsky.social) ... if a London churchwarden writes that someone was 'buried out of the street' or 'buried out of the field' (as opposed to 'out of the house of') does that imply they were sleeping rough (or maybe shanty-ish, if field)?

Great headline

Child in a Landscape, c. 1660-87, by #GesinaTerBorch (Dutch, 1633-1690), who was baptized #otd, Dec 13. Held by @rijksmuseum.bsky.social, id.rijksmuseum.nl/200513454 #womenartists #artherstory

Christmas at our house all going to plan. Her plan.

Sitting quietly in the corner engrossed in your book while the world bustles around you? Relatable.

I’ve posted this before but the light was perfect today- a little Victorian cat paw in a brick at the front of the old Norfolk & Norwich Hospital. As this is on the front-facing corner of the main gates, the bricklayer quite clearly put it there on purpose, at a height where children would spot it.

I think I'd have to go with NZ Davis, Fiction in the Archives.

I argue there is no evidence that this tree was ever in a vertical position, m'lud.

The first rule of Daily Mail headlines is that you need to read the fucking article before you get outraged at the headline.

As per my last email

Vestie E. Davis, Cat with Fish, 1964, Oil on canvas board, 16 in × 12 in ((American Folk Art Museum)

🍆

Palaeontologists: "bah! Yesterday's headlines. Fish and chip wrappings."

Two extraordinary films; if you want to find out for yourself, the article is trailing a double screening and Q&A with Brownlow tomorrow evening (in London).

2/2 Dignified dromedary, painted in the 1570s by Maerten de Vos of Antwerp. Today is his day.

For fucks sake

Do early medieval historians look at stories about the late 15th century and go "pfft that's practically contemporary history". (I mean it pretty much is.)

Time to change the pinned pic. I 😍 this painting.

this looks really interesting!

demonic brood if you ask me

Why spend your morning getting anything productive done when you too could be going through the Official Ofcom Guide to Bad Words? (Warning, of course, for bad language.) @stronglang.bsky.social www.ofcom.org.uk/siteassets/r...

Do you have days when you decided like yesterday what you're having for dinner today, but your brain refuses to process this info and keeps asking what we're having for dinner?

"The new “mansion tax”... is estimated to affect around 165,000 property owners, and on current trends the British media is forecast to have interviewed every single one of them by the end of the year."

#AshmoleanAdvent Day 2: A Bronze Stag 🦌 This Roman bronze brooch in the shape of a stag would have been used to fasten a shawl or cloak. This brooch was once decorated with bright multi-coloured enamel which was very popular in Britain and France during the Roman period. 🦌 AN1927.418

Phew.

If you're going to sleep soon, or if you just wish you were, have this lovely napping cat drawn by Jan Miel. Today was his day.

The Maritime Britain project has recently teamed up with the Lloyd's Register Foundation to map its first Register Book and make it searchable. You can find the site here maritimebritain.org/english_merc...

New article from Ellen Paterson on how petitioners 'evoked and confronted the parliamentary past' in their economic disputes is the tumultuous years preceding the outbreak of civil war.🗃️ #OpenAccess #PowerOfPetitioning Read it here: www.cambridge.org/core/journal...

Gonna be a lot of these. Think of all the sob stories you read about poor parents having to take their kids out of private school because of VAT, but much more. [How many senior Guardian editors and columnists live in Richmond, and how many of the interviewees just happen to be their neighbours?]

Portrait of Doge Leonardo Loredan in 1505, subtly assuring you that he is stern & distant, yet fair & maybe has sense of humor. True masterpiece of renaissance portraiture by Giovanni Bellini, whose day is today.