TFW you've had A LOT of garlic for lunch and your eyes are still watering... Oh and if you're around on Monday, I'll be talking at the Mind Body Spirit Festival at London Olympia. Come along! I probably won't be talking about garlic though. www.mindbodyspiritfestival.co.uk/london/whats...

#MolluscMonday Two contrasting snails from the streets of Chartres, France. One a Mesozoic fossil in a paving stone, the other a wooden carving on a 500-year old building depicting a weird animal eating grapes.

🦇 WIN a full day ticket to #RHSChelsea for Sat, 23 May and helps bats at the same time! Get a raffle ticket for the chance to win this:https://bats.charityhive.co.uk/raffle/30/rhs-chelsea-flower-show-2026-saturday-23-may-ticket-raffle . Only £5/ticket, an absolute bargain if you look up the cost 👀

Epic trolling from Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr on their new single. It sounds more like Oasis than Oasis does...

This painting is titled "Big Step II" and is part of the "Fractured Light" series by contemporary artist Michele Poirier-Mozzone. The piece captures a dynamic, low-angle perspective of a figure in a red swimsuit stepping through water. It is known for its impressionistic style.

Something special for #FossilFriday. This is Aulocrinus bellus from the Mississippian Edwardsville Fm. near Crawfordsville, Indiana. There are over 100 species of crinoid from Crawfordsville, but this is one of the rarest. It has a strange split anal tube to expel waste. This is not regenerated.

To bring a smile to your face, here’s a c. 4,500 year-old clay vase in the shape of a little hedgehog holding a bowl! 🦔 😍 From Chalandriani, Syros, Greece. Early Cycladic II period. National Archaeological Museum, Athens 📷 ArchaiOptix #Archaeology

Framing on BBC radio news is endlessly fascinating. On R2's 8am bulletin, tensions between the US & UK were due to no British troupes having been used for offensive operations in the Iran War not because Keir Starmer refused to bow to Trump & drag the UK into an illegal war in Iran. Fascinating.

Archaeologists unearth a 2-meter marble statue of Athena (27 BC-14 AD) face-down in the rubble of the Western Theater at Laodicea, Turkey - the city so wealthy it refused imperial aid after an earthquake Original post

The Mascot. Original handmade lino print. #birds #art #linocut #linoprint #printmaking Liquoricelino.etsy.com

Very much looking forward to talking about household folklore and Beltane shenanigans on 30 April at @waterstones.bsky.social in Worthing! There are a few tickets left, to nab yours there's a link in my bio... #householdlore #folklore #Beltane #Worthing #WatkinsWisdom

Congratulations to @stephenking.bsky.social for this well-deserved honor!👍 (Novels/Novellas: Approximately 65 to 67 Non-fiction books: 5 books. Short Stories: Over 200 Pseudonyms: 7 novels were published as Richard Bachman. Frequency: He has published at least one book almost every year since 1974)

I am absolutely shite at recognising when someone is flirting with me. Like, comically bad at it. My mates would mock me about it. But something happened today that made me so happy. 1/?

Very much looking forward to talking about household folklore and Beltane shenanigans on 30 April at @waterstones.bsky.social in Worthing! There are a few tickets left, to nab yours there's a link in my bio... #householdlore #folklore #Beltane #Worthing #WatkinsWisdom

Beltane or May Day Eve is magical night known for witches, fairies and divinations. Join folklorist and author, Liza Frank 7pm on Thursday 30 April at Waterstones Worthing, 28 Montague Street, Worthing, BN11 3HA, £15 / £25 with book Household Lore: www.waterstones.com/events/an-ev...

Large aquamarine cluster with mica from Pakistan 🩵

Lots of "commentators" are rewarded for spreading lies and convincing you that everything is getting worse and you should be afraid. The good news is it's not: homicides at their lowest level in 50 years and killings involving a knife are at their lowest recorded level www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

A 3,500 year-old Minoan jar with a cartoon-like octopus under the spout! 🐙 From Kommos, Crete. Heraklion Archaeological Museum 📷 by me #Archaeology

These ancient stone figures in Kyrgyzstan are part of the long tradition of Turkic balbals—human-shaped memorial stones found across the Eurasian steppes. Many examples in Kyrgyzstan date to the 6th to 10th centuries CE and are linked to early Turkic funerary culture #History #HistoryMatters

At first sight it looks like a fossil fish, with a possible head and eye. However, the solid cylindrical form suggests it may instead be a belemnite — an extinct squid-like cephalopod. Found in Asfla, Morocco by the same friend who discovered the ammonite. #Fossil #Cephalopod #Paleontology

Something ancient and wonderful for the weekend! A tiny horse figurine carved from mammoth ivory about 40,000 years ago! Imagine the #IceAge artist at work, sitting by the warmth of a fire, creating what is the world’s oldest known figure of a horse! 📷 by me #Archaeology

Pottery cup fragment from Roman Peterborough (Durobrivae) depicting a magnificent hare. Now part of the collections at Peterborough Museum & Art Gallery. 📸 My own. #RomanBritain #Peterborough

Ancient #Greece Delos, house of the dolphins, detailed view of the eponymous #mosaic from the 2nd century BCE (📸 Ancient Hellas). #MosaicMonday #Art #Archaeology #History

I call this diatom ‘the sweetie wrapper’ because of how it twists. Helicotheca tamesis. Lovely. #marineplankton 🦑

Dinoflagellate, I reckon!

Ooh, I'm on sale on #Audible for another 10hrs! Grab yourself a copy of Household Lore for the same price as a single Brighton bus ticket and listen as the lovely Kristin Atherton tells you all about all the #folklore hiding in your home... #HouseholdLore #Booksky www.audible.co.uk/pd/Household...

*Checks price of bacon flavoured crisps.

TFW you thought you were being clever by working in the cloud, but then the cloud broke. And you can't access your document. Sigh.

This mammoth ivory statue is 40,000-years-old!📷 This is the Lion Man of the Hohlenstein-Stadel, considered to be the oldest-known zoomorphic (animal-shaped) sculpture in the world. The Lion Man has the head of a cave lion with a partly human body.

I FINISHED THE SCARF!! Just in time for Spring when I no longer require a scarf.

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.