I’m going to start posting artwork by my partner, Clare. I love her work, she’s the ‘good cop’ to my ‘bad cop’, such bright and cheerful work. ‘Whitby Rooftops’ £85 plus P&P www.etsy.com/uk/listing/6...

Will no one rid us of this troublesome p̶r̶i̶e̶s̶t̶ 𝘵𝘦𝘤𝘩𝘯𝘰𝘣𝘪𝘭𝘭𝘪𝘰𝘯𝘢𝘪𝘳𝘦 𝘤𝘭𝘢𝘴𝘴?

Goodnight. 🖼️ Peter Pan, Barrie, artist~ Mary Blair, 1953.

British wildlife is pretty chill, and then there's this one little gang of white-flowered umbellifers where, unless you know all the specific identifiers (see the chaos of the replies), it could be harmless cow parsley, or poison hemlock, or The Hogweed That Makes Your Skin Blister In Sunlight

This dragonesque brooch is typically Romano-British. While they only started appearing after the Roman invasion in 43AD, they use British motifs & reflect local tastes. These brooches were also used as fasteners for cloaks (the pin is sadly now missing). 🕰️C1-2AD 🏛️📷BM #FindsFriday

My (human) version of this story is that, when I broke my arm around the age of seven, I was so thrilled by the hospital, the X-ray, the cast, etc. that as we passed back out through the waiting room I apparently shouted: "This is the best day of my life!"

Tablet with calculation and addition of the areas of five fields clay 3200-2900 BCE proto Sumerian culture Jemdet Nasr, Ancient Mesopotamia present day Iraq #handmade #ancient #ancientculture #ancientwriting #cuneiform #tablet #clay #mesopotamia #sumerianculture #jemdetnasr #iraq #mathematics #art

Realised how close the period of Halley's Comet (~76yrs) happens to be to a human lifespan, and it's weird to think how many people must • live their whole life between returns • get it once (most of us) • get it twice, in childhood and in old age, bookending a long life

Goodnight. 🖼️ The Great Bear, Flowers of the sky, 1879.

The rain has arrived, and with it the thunder

A #Roman mosaic detail showing a little frog sitting on a lily-pad 🐸 #AncientBlueSky

Finally got a physical copy of Vegetius' De Re Militari (translated by N. P. Milner), and browsing it is even more of a delight than I expected

A 1,800 year-old Roman glass flask shaped like a mouse! 🐭❤️ The Met 📷 by me #Archaeology

If the Pope continues to quote The Lord of the Rings and speak out against AI, he's in danger of turning my atheistic-agnostic ass Catholic

Viking Age silver brooch with Norse futhark runes on reverse, found in Penrith (England).

Fell shamefully out of habit with this one, even though it's a very small book, and I've read multiple actual novels in the meantime since 'starting' it Time to sit in this glorious afternoon sun and give it a solid session

An ancient Greek silver coin depicting a bee! 🐝 😍 Minted in Ephesus, 390-380 BC. Photo Getty Museum #Archaeology

Curse Howard Shore and Ramin Djawadi (said with love) that in my fantasy compositions I can never arpeggiate a major triad + ♭6 without worrying it sounds too much like Rivendell or arpeggiate a minor triad + ♭6 without worrying it sounds too much like Light of the Seven

Edvard Munch, The Sun, 1911

Hmm, not sure how I feel about all this disrespectful booing of speakers talking about AI at graduation ceremonies. It doesn't seem appropriate. The students should be throwing squishy tomatoes as well

The Strickland Brooch, AD 800s. A fabulous example of Anglo-Saxon creativity and craftsmanship! This large silver disc brooch is inlaid with gold and niello, and decorated in ‘Trewhiddle-style’ with an intricate pattern of puppy-like animals. 📷 British Museum #Archaeology

The facial expressions I make to manoeuvre my chin while beard-trimming are between me and God

Brentor church and bluebells on its lower slopes as a couple of crows fly overhead, taken on Wednesday, #Dartmoor, #Devon. #photography

What winds me up the most (not going to quote-post directly, because I won't put AI slop on my profile) is that "this medieval art looks just like [celebrity]" is funny when it's *actual medieval art* If you've had to AI-generate "[celebrity] as medieval art", you've missed the whole bloody point!

Light! Themelthorpe, St Andrew, Norfolk #norfolk #churches #heritage #light #sunlight #windows #photography

A printed envelope by 19thC artist Edward Burne-Jones. Note the clever use of an easel to display the stamp! #MailArt

Big fan of how the evening light hits the piano

If a Croque Madame talked to another Croque Madame about anything other than a Croque Monsieur Would they have passed the Béchamel test?

Found the place where they make all the rainbows

Holy Island and Lindisfarne Castle, through the keyhole……

A cuckoo flower in Ennerdale, where today I heard my first cuckoo of the year

This incredible carved gemstone depicts Jupiter in spectacular detail, all the more spectacular given it is only about 5cm tall. Incredible craftsmanship (and eyesight!). 🕰️ C1stBC - C1stAD 🏛️📷 Kunsthistoriches Museum, Vienna #AncientBlueSky

The falafel raptor lived many millions of years before the rise of 𝘏𝘶𝘮𝘮𝘶𝘴 𝘴𝘢𝘱𝘪𝘦𝘯𝘴

The magnificent Kingston Brooch which was found by the Antiquarian, Bryan Faussett, in 1771, near the village of Kingston in Kent. Dating to the early 7th Century AD, the Anglo-Saxon brooch is part of the collections at the World Museum in Liverpool. 📸 My own. #FindsFriday

Sunshine so glorious that I almost got too hot on my run. On the way back, I stopped in the shade of a tree full of goldfinches and linnets, and watched swallows diving over the drove

Morning. 🖼️ Joseph Crawhall

Ash keys old and ash keys new, together on the tree

Just seen an amazing shooting star and a chubby hedgehog on my little pre-bed dog walk, and as there's nobody up at mine I'm having to tell you all instead

The near-full moon is telling me secrets

#MosaicMonday - A vibrant Roman polychrome wall-mosaic, showing a ship and lighthouse: ca. Late 2nd-Early 3rd Century AD. Discovered in Rome in 1876 during excavations in the garden of Palazzo Rospigliosi Pallavicini. #Roman #Art 🏺 Image: Capitoline Museums, Antiquarium (AC 32360)

The apple blossom has been abuzz with bees

A bluebell walk, at last!

Deer in Forest Landscape, Alexander Brodszky.

May Trump's folly in Iran drive us away from oil, to green energy. May the flood of AI slop drive us to art that is complex and beautiful and human. May all the hatred in the world drive us to redoubled and emboldened love. If the world is to endure these storms, then let our fields drink the rain.

This may look like a boiled sweet but it’ll bust your tooth. It’s actually a beautiful Minoan cornelian seal. It depicts a man driving a two-horse chariot, grasping the reins in his left hand and flicking his whip with the other. 🕰️ 1450-1300 BC 🏛️ British Museum 📷 my own #AncientBlueSky 🏺

"AI art/fiction is just another tool" well yes, a tool used by frauds to fake that which actual creatives can achieve themselves! Perhaps you should leave art and writing to those with the skill, passion, and determination to which you merely pretend :)

Mel Shaw art for 'The Black Cauldron'

A friend has joined me for reading time

Bluebells season