This magnificent brooch was found in Galloway as part of a Viking age hoard of gold, silver & crystal. It remains unclear who buried the hoard & why. The silver brooch is finely crafted with sinuous interlocking patterns & the heads of 4 creatures (maybe dragons). 🕰️850-1000AD 🏛️Melbourne Museum 📷me

Am not an energy analyst but why does seem every interview with a U.K. minister this week included a pointed question about why not drilling more in North Sea and almost none about renewables/net zero as an energy security imperative? It’s bizarre, frankly

A friend of mine also found this trilobite fossil. It’s over 400 million years old and still clearly preserved. Lovely! #trilobite #fossil #paleontology #geology

Please remember that dandelions are not truly weeds. They are the bees first meal in the spring. Grow and protect the dandelions, save the bees and you save the world. ✌🏻🥰

2,400 year-old skeleton mosaic discovered in Turkey with the caption: “Be cheerful, enjoy your life” Original post

I enjoy research and I *love* writing. But the bit in between, where the research has to be turned into material that you use in the writing, is the most godforsaken activity on earth. Like extracting marrow from your bones.

everyone’s discussing how financially stupid this is and they’re right but it’s also logistically stupid. zero way to charge foreigners and not locals without a hell of a lot of racism coming out in the wash

This delightful little painted wooden horse was a child’s toy around 2,000 years ago. It dates from 1st - 3rd century AD Roman Egypt. The wood has been preserved so well by the intense dryness of the Egyptian climate. 🏛️📷 British Museum #AncientBlueSky 🏺

housing is more expensive now, but also a lot safer. this kind of home was considered cream of the crop in the 1980s

Bronze Horse, Corinth, Greece, 8th century BC

Happy #WorldWaterDay! Fetch yourself a big glass of the good stuff and take a look at the watery wonder which is Hamonshu (1903), a Japanese book of wave and ripple designs: https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/hamonshu-a-japanese-book-of-wave-and-ripple-designs-1903

It's the first day of spring and also World Frog Day and soon it'll be bullfrog time

THE NEW SORROWSCOPES ARE HERE! TELL YOUR FRIENDS. TELL YOUR ENEMIES. TELL THE FACELESS DETECTIVE WHO RELENTLESSLY PURSUES YOU FOR A CRIME YOU DIDN’T COMMIT

Accessorizing for #WorldFrogDay Silk and metal thread frog purse, 17th c. White enamel frogs dress set, David Webb Tsavorite, ruby, and diamond frog necklace, Michele della Valle www.ashmolean.org/collections-... www.sothebys.com/en/buy/aucti... www.sothebys.com/en/auctions/...

Just put out a new moth trap and my goodness, it's like Michael Caine squawking THE SWARM IS COMING! THE SWARM IS COMING! in my office.

Every dog owner: ‘What’s that in your mouth?? Omigod, drop it, drop it!’ 😱 This Greek (Boeotian) terracotta dog appears to have a red piece of, um, meat in its mouth. I’m sure he earned it (‘Hey, that dead guy over there wasn’t using this.’) 1st half of the 5th c. BCE. #MetMuseum 📸 me 🏺

Plaque with swallow (Late Period - Hellenistic Period (400-30 BCE)) Museo Egizio, Turin, Italy

In a mixture of #SaxonSunday & #SundayStonework thought we could use a thread of some of the fantastic things on display in St Mary's Church, Wirksworth in the Peak District 🧵👇

Plaque with swallow (Late Period - Hellenistic Period (400-30 BCE)) Museo Egizio, Turin, Italy

#Sculpture, Canopic Jar of Duamutef (c. 990-976 BC) #art #Egypt A canopic jar lid with a representation of Duamutef, the jackal-headed son of Horus, protected the stomach of the deceased and was in turn protected by the goddess Neith.

Mummy of a hawk (Asyut, Late Period (722-332 BCE)) Museo Egizio, Turin, Italy

'You'll never put a better bit of butter on your knife'

Lady with Bird (China, Central plains, Tang dynasty (618-906)) Santa Barbara Museum of Art, Santa Barbara, California

Put! It! Back!

#FolkloreThursday In Japanese folklore, eating the flesh of a ningyo, or mermaid, grants eternal life and youth. It was also said that Ningyo blood will cure any wound. Boxwood ningyo netsuke, Tadayoshi, 19th century collections.mfa.org/objects/19902

Okay so this is true *but* not in the way most people think. Antibiotic overuse is not “I had five ear infections in a year so I took antibiotics five times this year” It’s “Farmers feeding antibiotics to chicken to make them fatter and more profitable” and “labs dumping chemicals into the river”

I regularly see people wondering how it's possible that there are so many musicians and writers and film makers and artists from a tiny nation like Iceland. And the answer is really simple: State funding for art education and artists. I literally get a salary from the government to write books.

Today's slime mould,Trichia crateriformis, which has opened up its top to release its spores (by a process known as circumsessile dehiscence!)

Here's a photo of the late Robert Duvall wearing cue cards on his body so that co-star Marlon Brando could see his lines during the filming of The Godfather.

#TheVictorianBookoftheDead #MardiGras Death as Jester, from Quarles Emblems, Charles Bennett, 1860 collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O12363/...

Happy #ChineseNewYear The year of the #firehorse Sculpture by U.S. artist Deborah Butterfield #womensart

Yes,,, your boy has taken a ride in the 4 man bobsled,,, but im an adrenaline junkie and needed to try skeleton. And now I’ve officially joined the team and am gonna try to start competing. 66 years old going 66 mph.

I might have gone off a bit on the fairies at the end of the garden... 🧚 But if you're into garden folklore, this episode of The Happy Garden Podcast might just be for you! podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/t... #HouseholdLore #Gardensky #Podcast #Folklore #FolkloreSunday #Booksky

The theme for the hosted #FolkloreThursday 19th Feb is Water Spirits and Shape-Shifters: Creatures of Lakes, Rivers, and Seas! Our hosts will share your posts to the hashtag at these times GMT: 9am-1pm 3.30-4.30pm 6.30-7.30pm Don't forget to join us 1-2pm for: www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/water-spir...

Still want one TBH.

Happy #FridaytheThirteenth ! The only official and accurate picture of the Friday Thirteenth Jinx. ( #PhantomsFriday for good measure.)

Chat, is this real? (But I'm asking a French cat and it pretends not to understand with Gallic insouciance.)

Had so much fun earlier this morning on Midnight Mastermind! Gave @ojborg.bsky.social the choice between questions on the folklore of the number 13 (given it's #fridaythe13th) and #ValentinesDay #folklore. He went the unlucky route...

Lichenomphalia umbellifera on an algae-covered stick. This species of mushroom is a basidiolichen lichen. Fungal hyphae integrate with algal cells, using the food produced by the algae through photosynthesis. Newfoundland. #lichen #fungi #fungifriends #mushroom #algae Largest shroom ~ 4cm high.

we need to talk about that Ring Super Bowl ad

The fourth best seller in Magic and Alchemy on Amazon? Ding dong! #HouseholdLore #WritingCommunity #Littlewins #Folklore #Booksky

Wow. BBC Radio 2 reporting Trump's disgusting racism as jocular. Another low in calling out this behaviour.

So, hedgehogs. It’s not just me, the ancient Egyptians were also in awe of these spiny mammals. A very, very old Eygptian hedgehog seal. sainsburycentre.ac.uk/art_object_c...

some recs for Black history month! (and always!)

Ghosts. I finished writing this book twenty years ago. Still very pleased with it. You can buy the paperback new or e-book for around £12-15. link.springer.com/book/10.1057...

Believe it or not, on Sunday in the northern hemisphere we will have finished the darkest 14 weeks of the year. The other 38 are basically OK for daylight. We are essentially through now.

I don’t want to laugh at a small business but also VERY funny

It has been quite a week! We all need a timeline cleanse. Have a great weekend, everyone! An Egyptian relief plaque with a face of an #owl 🦉. The owl hieroglyph represents the sound m. Late Period–Ptolemaic Period. From Egypt, 400–30 BC. 📷 Metropolitan Museum