Time to update your Palaeolithic palettes... 🔵 Very proud to share our new research on the OLDEST use of blue pigment! We identified traces of azurite - a vibrant blue mineral - on a stone object around 14-13,000 years old. Why is this so exciting? 👇🏺 doi.org/10.15184/aqy...

New (to me) paintbox! Passed on by a friend who had inherited it. Only two tubes had hardened & had to be thrown out. Most seem from the late ‘60s / early ‘70s, but a couple look older. A good selection for landscape painting. Will try them out tomorrow.

Each #quill became a paddle and the boat flew over a calm blue sea. #whistpr

If you’re anywhere near Peterborough and like beautiful pottery, I highly recommend this! Horus Eye Pottery is the source of my favourite coffee cups

Mostly horizontal today, but worked for a while on the last step in finishing my new cane. Adjusted the length for a perfect fit when I’m wearing my usual shoes, then tapered the end to fit a brass tip.

My town’s birthday. The picture attached shows the set of locks leading up to the canal from the Ottawa River. The building beside the locks is now a museum. On the right is Parliament Hill, you can see a glimpse of the military barracks which preceded our parliament buildings.

Female Spy Network Uncovered in Medieval Ypres, Study Finds www.medievalists.net/2025/06/fema... #Spies

We're excited to announce that Nash the Slash Rises Again! will make it's world premiere on October 29th at the Institute for Contemporary Arts in London, England as an official selection of the Doc'N Roll Film Festival. Tickets available at ica.art/doc-n-roll-n...

Not much painting lately, but here’s an old piece that popped into my memory this morning. The purchaser sent this as a gift to Tajikistan as a gift to his son’s new father-in-law. Apparently tradition was for groom’s father to give bride’s father a ram at the wedding as part of gift exchange…

#Ontario #wastewater graph updated with August 31 data - Peel updated: wwater.ca/Ontario - Also updated: AB, NB, NL, PEI wwater.ca Source: health-infobase.canada.ca/wastewater/

Looking for your next COVID-19 or flu shot? Here’s when you can get it in Ontario CBC News September 18, 2025 By Gabriela Silva Ponte stillcoviding.ca/en/news/look... #Ontario #vaccines #COVID #CovidIsNotOver

A clip from this week's episode of Canadian History Ehx! Wop May and Vic Horner endured some very cold conditions to deliver medicine to Fort Vermilion in 1929 in what is now called The Race Against Death. Listen on all podcast platforms link.chtbl.com/chx

The fallen pine was left to the #Mushrooms and to silence. #Whistpr “Fallen Tree”, acrylic on panel, 8”x10”.

Good morning for coffee and a book in the garden.

Quote post with the energy you bring to Bluesky

Beautiful day here, so took the new cane out for its “sea trials” down to Lazy Bay Common. Handle shape and finish is comfortable, but need to shorten by about 1.5 cm. The plum wood feels sturdy with just a slight spring to it, more like blackthorn than ash.

New cane! Plum wood finished with linseed oil, really happy with the colours of the wood grain and bark. Many thanks to @horuseyepottery.bsky.social for setting the wood aside for me from last year’s pruning.

‘Seeing an Earl as an owl on a mantelpiece, and having part of one’s face removed by a cat, both on the same morning, can temporarily undermine the self-control of any man.’ ~ Titus Groan, Mervyn Peake. #BookWormSat 🖼️ Steerpike surveying Gormenghast, Charles W. Stewart, 1973.

Playing with oil paints this evening. Felt like a little Ornamental Hermit was needed.

Carving the handle on the new cane on a lovely warm day in the garden. Worked on it for about 45 minutes, now need to rest. Maybe come back to it tomorrow.

Cat’s hogging the bed. Guess I’m staying up a little longer…

Egret with morning fog along the Bay of Quinte.

Slightly diminish a book Squabble and Peace

Sunday afternoon status.

Study of OTC supplement for ME/CFS symptoms. Home based. No travel. Participants paid up to $100 (gift card). US and Canada. Hydrogen Water Intervention With Heart Rate Variability as an Outcome Biomarker in ME/​CFS Image from September AMMES newsletter #PwME #MEcfs #CFS

Deposited another piece in my sporadic free miniature abstract art project. Escape Acrylic on scrap wood, about 7x20cm.

If you see this quote post your cat art #catsofbsky

First phase on the new cane. My friend @horuseyepottery.bsky.social gave me a pruning from her plum tree last winter, and it’s been drying with sealed end grain in my furnace room since. Did some test cuts and the wood now seems stable and ready to work.

Resting on Labour Day…

Excellent clouds over the Ottawa River yesterday. Gatineau Hills in the distance.

Proof of Cat. Mr Socks and I enjoying a slow Saturday morning.

None Shall Pass! Mr Socks setting up my morning obstacle course on the stairs.

Kiln shot of pieces getting bisqued for the Victoria County Studio Tour happening this Sept 27-28 & Oct 4-5. 10-5 each day. Map is available via the Toureka app. #horuseyepottery #victoriacountystudiotour #studiotours #falltours #kilnshot #bisquefire #canadianpotter #kawarthaartist #buylocal

Making best use of the sunbeam.

Out for a slow walk in search of toothpaste for the cat. Deposited “Orbital Decay” en route. It’s the latest in my sporadic series of miniature abstract paintings I’ve been leaving as free offerings for anyone in need of some original art.

“Bring your watch” said the raven, “you don’t want to be #late” #Whistpr

Too good to not share. By @justinling.ca

Mr Socks says Goodnight

The new commissioned painting of The Queen of Owls is nearly done. Another little piece of #Hookland taking form.

New version of The Queen of Owls in progress. Egg tempera on basswood panel. Got my hands on some white lead for the sake of verisimilitude, but thought better of trying to source cinnabar or orpiment… #Hookland

The most important part of this article, to me, is the end. It challenges a false binary between “long COVID” and “everyone else.” Maybe it's a spectrum... 🧵 (1/5) www.bmj.com/content/390/...

Finlandization of Canada. 🇫🇮🇨🇦

"Umwelt" will be at Wallack Galleries in Ottawa (305 Bank Street) from September 11-21st. Come out to the vernissage on September 11th, 5:30-9:00pm. #ottawaartist #ottawa #artshow

A timely reminder of who may need a measles vaccine. Vaccination is the best protection against measles. You can find more information at OttawaPublicHealth.ca/Measles Ps. These graphics are available as a PDF in English, French, Arabic, Simplified Chinese and Somali at the link above.

Mr Socks briefly remembering he’s an apex predator in his weight class…

As the fog cleared, the moon came into view nesting in the branches of a tree #whistpr #fog

Rain! Unfortunately also thunder, so the cat is hiding inside the sofa and he has a checkup at the vet later this morning. Hope we don’t have to extract him from his safe furniture cavern…

Fulcher of Chartres’ eyewitness chronicle of the first crusade, read when I was 14. My introduction to the horrific combination of violent bigotry and religious fanaticism, as written by an enthusiastic participant.