I'm learning a lot, but the absence of female authors is heartbreaking. VC Andrews is the only one interviewed, and very few female names are mentioned by any of the others when listing their influences and favourites. We need a current version of this book ASAP!

On my way to Manchester by coach(took an hour to get out of London!). Here, my travel companions

"They produce nothing save Mascarons, wretched Cartouches, and the like idle and impertinent Grotesks." --- John Evelyn, translation of R. Fréart, Parallel of Antient Architecture, Preface 3. 1664.

Metalwork designs (1679): Grotesque studies of a satyr’s head. #Mascaron moves beyond a human #mask to present something more fantastic, ludicrous, buffoonish, or grotesque.

The Return of the Prodigal Son, 2025 by Nataliya Bagatskaya (Ukraine, b.1967). Acrilyc on canvas | 60 x 95 x 1.8 cm #art #painting #artist #BlueSkyArt

#TheVictorianBookoftheDead #NationalPoultryDay Ancient Hearse Ends Its Career as a Chicken Brooder thevictorianbookofthedead.wordpress.com/2025/04/02/a...

You guys. This just happened 😳This falcon/eagle works scaring away and hunting pigeons to keep Harrods clean.

My talented mother, doing a collab with William Morris

Smash or Pass? Raspberry Tiramisu Dessert | 🧑‍🍳Easy Recipe Hub FB 🍽️

Georgia O'Keeffe (American, 1887-1986) Squash Flowers 1, 1925 Oil on board 18 x 14 inches The Georgia O'Keeffe Museum #art #painting #artist #BlueSkyArt

Eugène Jansson (Swedish, 1862-1915) I Skymningen [In The Twilight], 1902 Oil on canvas 149 x 134 cm Private collection #art #painting #artist #BlueSkyArt

Marie Duhem (French, 1871-1918) Tending the Garden, 1912 Oil on panel 13 x 10.5 in (33 x 26.7 cm) Private collection #art #painting #artist #BlueSkyArt.

Watching The Other Bennet Sister. Mary Bennet stands up to Caroline Bingley My brain: "Call the Midwife Vs Sex Education" Do not piss off the nun, little girl.

Mars

So, are there any secret museums or lesser known things in Manchester that I should visit? Any of the curious and unusual?

"The other Bennet Girl" is so charming, I am enjoying it immensely. So far I've counted 4 actors that have been in Doctor Who🤪

Front view of the ‘ Lily Gown ‘ by the House of Worth, c. 1896 Photo credit : Antique Trader

For St. Patrick's Day, @foylesforbooks.bsky.social asked Irish writers to recommend Irish books they love. Some great recommendations, inc. @wednesdayerskin.bsky.social on Molly Keane - everyone please read Good Behaviour. In shocking news, I picked Maeve Brennan. www.foyles.co.uk/further-read...

Reading Conan Doyle's memoirs, I've learnt that the American Consul at Monrovia(Africa) was a gentleman of colour, and now that is a biography I need to find! Sadly, he doesn't name him. Research calls.

I had a scary moment yesterday when I turned a corner and was faced with a life size Darth Vader where I wouldn't have expected him to be and I fully took a step back. It's a powerful conditioning, the Star Wars fandom.(Do you hear the sound in your head when you see this gif?)

Happy St Patrick's Day! Forever missing you, Dublin!

Osman Hamdi Bey (Turkish, 1842-1910) Young Woman Reading, 1880. Oil on canvas, 41.1 x 51cm #art #painting #artist #BlueSkyArt

I forgot to tell you all. The other morning, as my very early bus approached the Thames, I saw one of the London falcons, circling above the city. I felt so lucky!

Today, I got to see the Reading Room of the British Museum. I've read so many novels that mention it, and so many books were researched and written in it! A literary power spot. Reader, I fangirled.

"The peculiar other-world feeling of the Arctic regions, a feeling so singular that if you have once been there the thought of it haunts you all your life" Arthur Conan Doyle

"To appreciate a woman one has to be out of sight of one for six months" Arthur Conan Doyle, talking about his time on a whaling ship

In ancient Greece, a wealthy and fashionable woman’s jewellery box may have contained a diadem, earrings, necklaces, bracelets and rings. Greek craftspeople perfected gold-working, gem engraving and the use of moulds to make glass inlays and vessels.

Those who weren't there when Sherlock came out can watch it, but they won't know of the social media frenzy, the theories, the long waiting, the fan fiction, the endless scenes constructed only with gifs on Tumblr, the flowers,menssages, graffiti,painted hearts,chalk outline of a body by St Barts...

Well.....

*cries laughing*

The rewatching of Sherlock has taken me to the reading of Arthur Conan Doyle's memoirs, and to the discovery that I require a friend in possession of a car, if I am to visit his grave.

If you see this post a vampire who is not Dracula.

I had forgotten how nasty Sherlock got with Molly. I would have slapped him so many times! The little shit!

Watching the latest production of The Importance of Being Earnest online, and it proves once again that it is very hard to cast anything without at least 3 actors from Doctor Who in it!

It's getting a bit annoying. They just took a cab from the riverside near the Oxo Tower to Waterloo Bridge! I can walk that in 5, and my legs are half the size of Cumberbatch's.

Hasui Kawase (Japanese, 1883–1957) "Myohon Temple, Kamakura", 1931. Woodblock Print, 35.6 × 23.5 cm. #art #painting #artist #BlueSkyArt

Vase with Pink Roses, 1890 by Vincent van Gogh (Dutch, 1853 - 1890). Oil on canvas | 71 × 90 cm. Location: National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., USA. #art #painting #artist #BlueSkyArt

Almond Blossom, 1890 by Vincent van Gogh (Dutch, 1853 - 1890). Oil on canvas | 73.5 × 92 cm. Location: Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam, Netherlands. #art #painting #artist #BlueSkyArt

Re-watching some Sherlock, and now that I live here it strikes me how much time they waste on cabs when it would be so much faster to take the tube or even walk!

Today, I discovered that Matthew Lewis, he of The Monk fame, also wrote a book about what it was like to be a plantation owner. Reader, I bought it.

Good one. 🐈‍⬛

The Langlois Bridge at Arles, 1888 #vincentvangogh #japonism

I made a potato and beetroot bake with many herbs and it was delicious but the way it looked.....(sorry I ate it, no pic) I am calling this recipe Murder Potatoes. The tray looked like a crime scene

Have you read Chuck Wendig's Black River Orchard? How do you feel about apples now? If anything, it's made me eat more apples, and pay more attention to the way each one tastes. And I resent that shops simply label them "British apples" sometimes. I want names and pedigree!

I've eaten more beetroot during the last 6 months than in the whole rest of my life(they come in my organic box often) and I'll never stop being stressed about ruining containers and utensils while cooking them. Except with the chioggia ones, they are darling.

I've started rewatching Sherlock and now I miss the Tumblr-that-was

We need to bring back the job of "respectable lady who comes to your house and reads out loud for you".

I've just learnt the word anthropodermic to refer to books bound in human skin, and yes, I would touch, given the chance.

They've arrived! New goodies from @swanriverpress.bsky.social .

Why are bedside tables generally so pokily small? Seen here in her bedroom at La Casa Azul in Mexico, Frida Kahlo bucks the trend and enjoys a generous space for her books and other nicknacks ~ even including a miniature double bed (photo: Gisèle Freund) improvisedlife.com/2022/12/12/b...