I demand snow in London! This is an outrage. (Albeit lovely for the Midlands)

I’m feeling worn out.

uh holy SHIT?

Choose 20 paintings that have stayed with you or influenced you — one painting a day for 20 days, no particular order. No explanations, no reviews, just paintings. #blueskyartchallenge #art #paintings Day 17:

I wasn’t planning on spending any time in swamps this year but oh well. Maybe 2026 is actually the year of revitalised anti-roadbuilding protests and I’ll find a niche there

Think someone at the Beeb has been at the New Year drinkies early... 🤣 #Archaeology 🏺 #Hic #HappyNewYear

Choose 20 paintings that have stayed with you or influenced you — one painting a day for 20 days, no particular order. No explanations, no reviews, just paintings. #blueskyartchallenge #art #paintings Day 16:

My plans for tonight

Happy new year! The cat has woken up and seen fit to join us.

Happy new year, people! I am so glad I decided to stop being shy about my interests and join here; I’ve met some truly lovely people on here and in real life. As for resolutions…don’t do them, but I do hope to spend more time by the sea, & to do something with the giant mass of info I carry around!

1825 Resurrection Men Roundup Everyone else gets a year in review, so why not bodysnatchers? Wishing my readers a Happy New Year, and all best wishes for 1826 burkeandhare.substack.com/p/1825-resur...

What was Edward Forbes doing on New Year’s Eve, 1853? Having dinner inside a model dinosaur, obviously! Benjamin Waterhouse Hawkins, the sculptor of said creatures, held a dinner for 21 guests, mostly scientists, inside the hollow model of an Iguanodon. 🧵

I love learning that classic literature is full of dorky pop culture references that we just don't notice because they're outdated. A favorite is when Scrooge in A Christmas Carol, ordering the prize turkey, says "Joe Miller never made such a joke as sending it to Bob’s will be!”

Just ordered this because I don’t know how I never came across it before, and it looks brilliant, and also Edward Forbes is involved, of course

Oh @whrwlfthrwlf85v.bsky.social

Yeah, so I don’t know who this is but it’s not Edward Forbes.

Back at work, and suddenly I’m even more enthralled by my non-work interests than I usually am. How strange.

i have very rapidly become incapable of thinking about anything that isn’t this video

Choose 20 paintings that have stayed with you or influenced you — one painting a day for 20 days, no particular order. No explanations, no reviews, just paintings. #blueskyartchallenge #art #paintings Day 15:

Now those are the kind of zooms I like to see! Anemone catching krill while getting caught by the manip. @schmidtocean.bsky.social dive 888 #argentiniandeepseeps #MarineLife #CONICET

I’ve had this song in my head all day, and now you can too! m.youtube.com/watch?v=Q0zz...

OH WOW> Some Psalidaster feeding action going on there! FIRST TIME!

Yeah well my buddy already lost his job to artificial intelligence. He was an art thief.

You can also read my recent article in which I spoke to Ken and looked at the 40+ years of efforts to get the government to act to save the angel shark 🦈 www.irishtimes.com/science/2025...

I just started reading this and can really recommend it; ok, the basic subject matter is right up my alley but there’s so much to it so far!

'Three Plateau culture area men, who are salmon fishing with dip nets, standing on individual hanging wooden platforms suspended by ropes over the edge of a cliff at Celilo Falls on the Columbia River, between Klickitat County and Oregon, c.1952' www.washingtonhistory.org/research/col...

I think this goes for so much about the past! History is not a constant forward progress from stupidity to intelligence. Everyone was modern in their time. People 500 years ago were at the cutting edge just as we are. What will people in 500 years’ time think of us?

A radical new field of history asks if we can ever really understand how our forebears experienced love, anger, fear, and sorrow, Gal Beckerman writes.

These are amazing, I wish I had half the patience 😭

Choose 20 paintings that have stayed with you or influenced you — one painting a day for 20 days, no particular order. No explanations, no reviews, just paintings. #blueskyartchallenge #art #paintings Day 14:

Choose 20 paintings that have stayed with you or influenced you — one painting a day for 20 days, no particular order. No explanations, no reviews, just paintings. #blueskyartchallenge #art #paintings Day 13 (a day late because of new phone login issues)

Choose 20 paintings that have stayed with you or influenced you — one painting a day for 20 days, no particular order. No explanations, no reviews, just paintings. #blueskyartchallenge #art #paintings Day 12:

One-footed herring gull waiting for the train

Soon to embark on the long slog back to London, I’m thinking of hiding in the cupboard in the attic like I used to when I was a kid

Choose 20 paintings that have stayed with you or influenced you — one painting a day for 20 days, no particular order. No explanations, no reviews, just paintings. #blueskyartchallenge #art #paintings Day 11:

Also! Carreg y Bwgan - or the Bwgan’s Rock - a bwgan is a mischievous or menacing ghost. If you walk around it three times at midnight you’ll see one, and this is totally true because my friend’s mum’s cousin did it in 1952 and was never the same.

Another lovely beach afternoon. Props to the woman swimming in -1 degree water.

Dragging my other half to a beach two miles away while it’s minus two and windy. #AngleseyLife

Choose 20 paintings that have stayed with you or influenced you — one painting a day for 20 days, no particular order. No explanations, no reviews, just paintings. #blueskyartchallenge #art #paintings Day 10:

I feel it is important that we honor British film pioneer George Albert Smith. Yes, he helped pioneer editing, closeups, science fiction films, etc. but I think we can all agree that his greatest contribution was as an early trailblazer in the Cat Video genre.

I’ve choked down my one and only sprout of the year, meaning it’s definitely Christmas

Merry Christmas!

I love my mum, I do, but she seems to be conducting an experiment to find out how many episodes of The Chase a human can watch consecutively

The closest known relative of insects is WEIRD! Remipedes live in marine caves (you have to cave dive) and are venomous. Their names are fun: Godzillius & Morlockia. How did insects go from a common ancestor with these guys onto land? Here's one idea (but no fossils so we don't know)! #Crustmas 🧪🦑

Choose 20 paintings that have stayed with you or influenced you — one painting a day for 20 days, no particular order. No explanations, no reviews, just paintings. #blueskyartchallenge #art #paintings Day 9:

You know it’s nearly Christmas when The Workd’s Strongest Man starts up. They seem to have a lot more money now, being in some kind of sports hall in California instead of a car park under a flyover

Obviously I can’t afford this. But I really, really like it.

Tbh, I think this applies to all kinds of nonfiction writing. We’re all standing on the shoulders of giants and although new perspectives are always refreshing, reducing films, books etc to a series of ‘spot the trope’ exercises makes me sad.

Cosplaying 19th-century men about town with some whitebait and beer.