Here’s a closer look at the golden oriole peeping out of the viburnum bush

Primordial Chaos, Hilma Af Klint.

Greenery, lambs, and a bit of warmth in the air in the North West 💚

#MosaicMonday takes us to the #CapitolineMuseums in #Rome to find the most famous #mosaic in history, a copy of a work in #Pergamon by the mosaicist #Sosus, found at #VillaAdriana in 1737. It had many copies subsequently, and became a kind of shorthand for #classical taste. #AncientBluesky 🏺

Tube strike is now off - hurray!! - so do sign up for the LAF if you haven't yet!

Lovely blossom #Walking #Watwickshire #Langley

The Queen of Heaven on a 13thC roof boss at St Faith, Overbury. #SundayStonework

My teenage crush #Beatles #Liverpool #NationalTrust

#SarcophagusSaturday at the Museo Pio Cristiano, one of the #VaticanMuseums, offers us this splendid syncretic mix of classical forms and Judeo-Christian legend in this #relief front with the Crossing of the Red Sea, from 375-400 CE. #AncientBluesky 🏺

I can’t think of a better way to pay tribute to the memory of Douglas Richardson than to post some photos of the Victorian architecture he so loved. I’ll start with a building he once described to me as “unutterably lovely”: the Oxford Museum, by Deane & Woodward, built 1855-60.

To Stroud's lovely Museum in the Park to hear @stroudstory.bsky.social give a thoroughly engaging lecture, and to enjoy the beautifully planted hill-side garden. This arrangement of flowers takes the prize for most flamboyantly frilly bearded irises seen so far this year! @3leggedcat.bsky.social

Would anyone know about old chemical methods of erasing text on paper? This 16th-century ms has a rectangular patch that looks shiny under strong light, where a date was formerly written. Never noticed such a patch before

Alba Rose, Jacques Le Moyne, c. 1585 (British Museum)

12 May 1364: Jagiellonian University, #Krakow, founded by royal charter #otd (cancre) #Poland

Parable of the Talents, Rembrandt, b. 1606, d. 1669 (Musée du Louvre)

Today’s sundown

Iris time, everything’s crazy early.

St John the Baptist, Cirencester. A church with choice details.

M' goodly friend Julian Richards has just released a film on Stonehenge. He's on a (lifelong) mission. www.youtube.com/watch?v=zSu4...

John Piper stood out for mid C20 architectural atmosphere and authored some of the Shell Guides- but his grasp left some shockers. Here, Stowe's portico with 5 fat columns instead of 6 innately slender Corinthian (must be even, or a central one would obscure the door- basic.) Couldn't hang this.

Anne of Cleves' unfinished tomb in Westminster Abbey (c.1557), based on a previously approved 1540s scheme of panelling in one of her houses- probably Bletchingley. Sidelined by history, she's been holding pole position over Coronations for nearly 500 years.

May Days

Roses, 10 May - crazy times

#adoorable Cottage doorway in Ilmington #Cotswolds #Warwickshire

I'll just leave this here.

Rousham, Oxfordshire. William Kent’s most complete garden, a Thing of Wonder TM

The irisery is peak

The Quire of Tewkesbury Abbey with emblem of the House of York. They were victorious over the House of Lancaster at the Battle of #Tewkesbury in 1471.

Need a bit of help for a garden/ small estate near Bath/ Bristol. Would suit an energetic and reliable person who isn’t visibly bored by occasional chats and tea. Please DM!

Afternoon walk 🚶🏻‍♂️ Walking a public footpath, passed through a gap in the hedge to find …………………….. a Roe Deer. #FenEdge #TheFens

Details of Florence Camm's window, St Mary the Virgin's church, Shipley, Sussex #FlorenceCamm #StainedGlass #Sussex

@iangrebe.bsky.social I know which are the male Wood Ducks, & the Mergansers are also in this mix, but I'd be grateful for your help on naming the birds with confidence. I should have made better notes on the day, as I did with this very handsome Chiloe Wigeon. @churchartnature.bsky.social

It was time to set this hare running free, leaping about the ceiling in the cosy room where I organise all my church crawls. S/he seemed perfect for Spring; a kind present from @digupyourancestors.bsky.social who unravelled the stories of generations of my ancestors for me. digupyourancestors.com

Well ordered Greylag goslings, maintaining their neat line up, on the Thames between Wallingford and Benson.

Mention polychrome brickwork to me in passing, and I am round to Keble College, Oxford, in a flash! The Warden's Lodgings, built 1876-7, fizzed & popped in the Spring sunshine yesterday, with their vibrant patterns. High Victorian Middle Pointed Gothic, says Pevsner. @thehistorymouse.bsky.social

17th century Tredegar House. Complete with magnificent gilded gates!

The Lady of Shalott @3leggedcat.bsky.social Right, my David Austin rose of that name, now coming into bloom. Left, a depiction of the chaos which ensues after the Lady of Shalott has looked directly at Sir Launcelot! Her weaving is disintegrating, entangling the weaver. By William Holman Hunt.

First opportunity to venture into Magdalen, alas no sighting of deer nor Ozymandias.

Seems like a task for the global #EnvHist community: suggest talk series for ICEHO's new page! We nominate the new podcast "Mountain Stories, Mountain Futures" and the Edge Effects podcast! @edgeeffectsmag.bsky.social @futuremountain.bsky.social @libbydeq.bsky.social

New podcast! Talking with @peterhhansen.bsky.social sky.social about how #mountaineering & #modernity emerged together & how the idea of the 'summit position' came to encompass concepts of sovereignty and empire from the #Alps to #Everest shorturl.at/oI5fh #EnvHist #EnvHums @nichecanada.bsky.social

New podcast! Talking with Caroline Schaumann about Humboldtian science in the mountains - feeling, failure, and queer sensibilities + 19th C. mountaineering in print, archive and film #EnvHist #Mountaineering #Alps #Andes shorturl.at/tVj9T @mountainsofgreece.bsky.social @profpitches.bsky.social

New podcast! We talk to Harriet & Rob Fraser, environmental artist working collectively as SOMEWHERE NOWHERE about their place-based walking practices in #Cumbria #LakeDistrict shorturl.at/NHHjI #Poetry #Photography #Walking #Art #Placemaking @mountainsofgreece.bsky.social @staclassics.bsky.social

We're excited to announce the first of our Mountains of Greece episodes in the Mountain Stories, Mountain Futures podcast series. @staclassics.bsky.social @futuremountain.bsky.social mountainsofgreece.wp.st-andrews.ac.uk/2026/04/11/p...

New podcast! Molly Greene from Princeton University talks about her research on the mountain regions of northern Greece in the Ottoman period. @staclassics.bsky.social @futuremountain.bsky.social mountainsofgreece.wp.st-andrews.ac.uk/2026/04/18/h...

Delicate stained glass roundel with star design, by @fabledstainedglass.bsky.social This artwork enchanted with its diminutive beauty. Suspended on my desk between postcards of vintage Oxfordshire glass from Yarnton (little bird) & Shiplake churches (the portrait of St John the Baptist). 🌟