The barn owl returned tonight, I was ready this time 😍

Rowan Atkinson, as Blackadder, especially the second, is really quite HOT! I have forgotten. Whereas as Me Bean, he's quite unappealing.

I've never related so hard to vampires. I thought the heatwave was meant to have finished. Why is my room 27°c and going up. Please just fuck off sun.

A man dressed as Turoń, 1926 postcardpoland.com/culture/kole...

After almost two weeks of this heat, my brain has turned to glitchy mush. Yesterday evening I struggled to put the lid back on a bottle of water and then realised why it wouldn't work - it was a BIC biro pen lid. I find my mislaid glasses in the fridge. I look for the spoon that's already in my hand

No, we do not wish to live in the sterilised world of AI and LLMs. We choose human messiness. Lived-experience. We refuse to be statistically robust models. You can’t convince us this planet-killing, thieving nonsense is the way forward. We are humans and we know bullshit when we see it.

it's true that AI is wrong and looks like shit, but personally the most repellent part of it is that the people who use it of their own accord are doing it because they believe what rich people say and do what rich people tell them to do

Check out this sword stuck in a stone!!

U.K. Weighs Social Media Ban Of Everyone Except Old Men Who Grow Big Vegetables https://theonion.com/u-k-weighs-social-media-ban-of-everyone-except-old-men-who-grow-big-vegetables/

The Menhirs de Monteneuf in Brittany, nearly 20 years ago. The child, now 21, needs a lift at 2.30am Sunday morning from Plymouth coach station as he managed to book a trip that doesn't return him home to Cornwall. I don't think I'll be awake when it's a normal time to post a #StandingStoneSunday!

A Devil's Arrow #standingstonesunday

45 years after my father, who would have been 100, proposed we visit Arbor Low, I finally made the trip, on my own. Photos don’t do justice to this stunning recumbent (and to my mind intentionally recumbent, no post holes) stone circle, one of the UK’s best. A magical place. #StandingStoneSunday

#StandingStoneSunday Nemrut, a #UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1987, is a 2,134-meter-high mountain featuring giant 10-m high, seated statues of King Antiochus I himself surrounded by ancient gods, including #Zeus and #Apollo, which was discovered in 1881 by a German engineer.

The commune of Avrillé (Vendée) has many menhirs the tallest of which is Camp de César in the bourg itself suitably also known as Le Roi des Menhirs; it stands 7m above ground and 1.7m below with an estimated weight of 85 tons. #StandingStoneSunday. Card by Robin c.1905.

Boskednan Circle, north stone #StandingStoneSunday

I know they're meant to be standing but I'm all for a Recumbent Stone Sunday. Arbor Low. #standingstonesunday

Stories need a place to live. We make homes for folklore in the landscape, give legends a lithic address. Old kings, names eroded by time, haunt chambered tombs. Cup and ring marks become giants' fingerprints. The Devil acquires yet another boot scraper. – Dr. K. Brophy #StandingStoneSunday

'Stone Pilgrim, Nowa Słupia, Poland. According to legend, it is a pilgrim knight who was petrified when he declared that bells ringing were ringing in his honour. Since then he is supposed to move forward a grain of sand every year, and when he reaches the top, the end of the world will come.'

Three colours of foxgloves in the garden.

Happy #StandingStoneSunday to all who celebrate 🍻🥰 The enigmatic circle of Meini Hirion ('long stones', or the 'Druid's Circle' 🤔 in English) high on an ancient mountain trackway overlooking the north Wales coast, Gwynedd 📷 My own, May 2026

Mist over the River Brathay

The Bear and the Goat Poraj, Poland, 1966. Photo S. Stępniewski.

Heya folks, if you followed me on Twitter at the start of the Ukraine war, I did a big auction that raised 15k. I'm looking at doing another auction for people affected by the earthquake in Venezuela. Will be looking for lot donations of big ticket items. DM's are open and will have a mull.

The upstairs of my house no longer feels like you've entered a fiery pit of hell and the air is hot soup. I've never been so excited. I also don't trust it.

Feeling the heat? The UK and much of Europe are sweltering under a heatwave. So why not listen to an episode of weird in the wade about caves. What could be cooler than descending into the depths of a cave to hear spooky stories! Royston Cave and Mother Shipton's are explored in 1/2

I think about 150 people bought it yesterday from Blackwell's as a result of my posts here and the newsletter. Which probably isn't much, to a publisher, but it's very pleasing to me. And it would probably have been more if the site hadn't erroneously showed it as "sold out" for about 14 hours.

Nearly up to 40 potential participants!! Thank you!!!!

heatwave day five: just came inside, closed the front door, and it fell apart. Entire inside panel fell off

There are no traditional #ghost stories attached to Acton Burnell Castle, #Shropshire (my photo), but I can't resist posting it because it's such a charming, atmospheric place. In recent years, weird lights, eerie whispers and a female figure have all been seen here, though #PhantomsFriday #medieval

Blade Runner was released on this day in 1982. #NowPlaying the orchestrated version of the score, which was the only one available until the mid-90s when Vangelis' original was finally released. Inevitably, the delay triggered many multi-disc 'ultimate', 'definitive', 'collector edition' bootlegs.

Just finished Hogfather, because I'm an absolute maverick who reads Christmas books during a heatwave. Dammit, Pratchett made me cry again, mum. #booksky #Discworld 💙📚🪐📚 #fantasy

My weird cats do not like the fan's wind (or wind, really). Whenever they have to go through the path of the wind, they do a weird army crawl, as if they're trying to pass through enemy fire. They also always choose the hottest room in the house to spend most of the day.

COMING SOON In the next episode of The Folklore Podcast, you can hear my recent conversation with BBC Radio 6 Music's ZAKIA SEWELL about her Women's Literature Prize shortlisted book FINDING ALBION. This episode was recorded live at @thebookery.bsky.social and will drop this weekend.

This is a photo of Isaac Clare-Watts who was tragically discovered dead at the Nine Ladies Stone Circle Stanton Moor, Derbyshire last Monday afternoon. Police are appealing for witnesses and video/dashcam footage which may help catch his killer. More 1/

To mark the occasion we are handing out some codes for the album. Redeem at bandcamp.com/yum j7m9-beef 6lrz-wura usmu-h5h7 mjba-jrp5 fgxr-ksur m2c5-glal bmjb-um3e wbgl-e6du pvu4-uy4p rf5j-euj2 awr8-bp9c 7k4a-3pj3 vnpb-hnts 7a9w-5aul l7t4-7baj 45nq-5huy qra6-b5ef gl7t-cfra 3c52-xph7 Enjoy 🤍

PSA - If you're keeping any unopened cans of beer for decorative or sentimental purposes, go move them to somewhere cool. They will open themselves explosively in the 30°+ heat and your room will stink, and your books will be soggy, and you will be sad.

It’s the 106th anniversary of this beautiful jewel being acquired by Christopher Blayre, Professor of Mineralogy at the University of Cosmopoli. You can now see it at the Natural History Museum in London, but BEWARE! For it has killed! and is TREBLY ACCURSED! Well, that’s the legend, anyway... 🧵

For it is St. John’s feast and all our shadows are given permission to walk abroad independently. We can only hope that they get up to the right sort of mischief.

The most “metal” photo you’ll see all day. (Pic credit: Nick Bull)

Jellyfish fact of the day: in Irish Gaelic, "jellyfish" translates as "seal snot".

According to Richard Folkard, you could heal all open wounds by rubbing a piece of oak on your body before sunrise on Midsummer's Day. You just needed to do it in silence!

Last night's sleep

An illustration I did for The Small Hand by Susan Hill. This story was published together with The Woman in Black in a nice hardback edition in 2024 by Vintage Classics. Signed giclee print £75 free UK P&P Email: [email protected] for worldwide shipping costs and enquiries. Thank you.

Going to bed like... #heatwave

Bastard

Boosting! Nearly at 35 sign ups!

ALL HAIL PETER GLAZEBROOK!

Oh this is very good indeed. Exactly how to do the trailer. Lean hard into the A24 vibe. Oh yes. BRILLIANT WORK, YOU CLEVER PHANTOMS! youtu.be/enE6YJoy-n0?...

I’ve been on quite a few #podcasts & #radio shows talking about #BlackTudors & now #Heiresses over the years - have now put them all together for your listening pleasure… www.mirandakaufmann.com/podcast-and-...