Anywho, as usual, everything is awful but there are cute stripy Scottish Wildcat kittens thriving in the wild, and you can see a short video of them here: www.wildcathaven.com/news/eve-and...

Okay, I’m starting to get really sick of writing this thesis. 8 years into the PhD, c.10 years since I came up with the topic, and with only a few weeks until I resubmit my massively revised version, and it feels like I’ve hit a huge wall. I can’t possibly give up at this point, but it’s tempting…

It did, in fact, topple over again.

Yeh I can think of a few options, but they might get you fired...

Okay so this is on me for not realising I was using the 'library books search' bar when I was trying to find out the library address for me to post a late book back to, but this single result had me in absolute hysterics, top tier trolling from the library!!

Another early wake up call from my rascal cat today. No mice involved, just her yelling in the hall at 5am. When she does this it seems she’s had a nightmare or scary garden encounter and needs me to tell her she’s safe. I miaow back, give her a cuddle and fall asleep again. The light stays off.

Three guesses who brought a mouse into the house c.11pm, lost it in the kitchen, then tracked it down at 4am and woke me up with the unmistakable scuffling sounds of a cat chasing a mouse on laminate flooring. Today’s Gladiator Mouse was incredibly lively, and lives to fight another day.

My spellchecker is having a crisis in my footnote, and is trying to spellcheck in Italian, I think?? That’s kinda funny, but also WTF and why and please stop, I don’t have time for you being belligerently bilingual today

Don Leisure killed my iPod 😹 Bought his WMP-winning album, put it on my iPod and listened during my usual walk in the meadows. Last track ended with Dafydd Iwan and then…nothing. Screen black. Tried to charge it when I got home, no luck, still Very Off. We’ll see if it EVER turns on again…

#Medievalsky At some point I remember having a handlist of early English / general European medical manuscripts and editions - but I cannot remember for the life of me if I found it somewhere or compiled it myself. (It was c.2022 - so my memory is a bit vague due to PhD stress) Any ideas? #medicine

I had my first contact with Pretty for ages yesterday, the first time in years! We’ve been friends for a while (she’s on my usual daily walk route) but she’s been a bit scared to come out to see me. Had to trespass a bit to stroke her, but totally worth it. Lovely puss. @thecatreviewer.bsky.social

Can’t entirely believe that Adwaith didn’t win with Solas this year, but huge congrats to Don Leisure! That album sounds right up my street so will be buying and listening soon :)

SFA OK!! 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 Another fun thing for post-PhD life lined up, can’t wait to see them again, back where I saw them play the very first time a lifetime ago 😺

Cooked a few of these various foraged mushrooms up with a tonne of garlic last night, made a delicious meal and didn’t die! I was pretty sure they were all fully fine to eat, but I nearly never pick and eat edible mushrooms so this was a bit out of my comfort zone. Will do it all again tonight…

Quite enjoyed the bodge-fix garden task with my dad yesterday that involved the weirdest list of tools and materials: A bucket A spade A small bowsaw A pair of pliers A short length of wire Two kettles full of hot water A granite paving slab A large wooden beam/plank And one small piece of slate!

If you’ve got a bit of cash you can spare for a good cause, SUN food bank could really use some help. Seems I’m currently one of only two donors so far, which is worryingly low engagement, so boosting in case anyone else can help out.

Yes so everything IS awful, but there are Scottish wildcat families thriving in the wild so life on this planet isn’t all bad… Short video featuring a mother wildcat and two kittens from last month 😻 www.wildcathaven.com/news/and-the...

Welp. Great start from Cymru, then a disastrous final 30min of the half. Can’t come back from this, so looks like our World Cup will be done in the group stage. I mean, I have tonnes of work to do so it’s kinda good I won’t be as engaged with the rest of the tournament, but it’s still shit 😿

Interrupting my work to stop for (late) lunch so I can line my stomach so I can take the second of my thrice-daily antibiotics 👍 A ten-day course is really going to test my patience…the twice-daily MS meds are tough enough, adding a third meds-stop each day is 😩

I haven’t had a professional haircut for twenty-three years now. 23!! If you know me IRL you may say “yes, we can tell!”, but honestly I’ve saved so much money and time. No-one knows how to deal with my weird, super-fine hair anyway. It won’t do what you want, so I just tie it in plaits and go.

Perfectly innocent little cat. No crimes here. Just a snoozy little kitty on my bed, being perfect and pretty. No don’t look at the alt-text, no you don’t need to read the alt-text, there’s no crimes against birds documented in there. (CW bird stress, but not bird death. Happy ending alt-text)

Alright then, so what novel health problem can I come down with to ruin another attempt at finishing my goddamn PhD? **Spins the Wheel** A Breast Infection!! Amazing, what are the chances, how does that even happen?? Like seriously, WTF is happening here…

Found a vole on the road didn’t I. Possibly a youngster? Squeaky lil boi he was, he seemed okay and ran off fairly energetically after a quick pause to recover from being (very gently) manhandled by a giant. Dunno why he was just crouched by the road, hope he finds his way home okay. #SqueakyBoi

Guess what I’m working on today… #MedievalSky #RoseWindow #ThatsNotScorpioThatsCancer #YesItDoesLookMoreLikeALobsterThanACrabButCloseEnoughYeh

Guess who brought a Very Lively Mouse inside at 5am, repeatedly dropping and losing it, in various rooms of the house?? I’m a bit out of practice with Mouse Gladiators, but eventually managed to construct a sort of barrier system that sent it safely out the front door. Well played, contender mouse.

2,300 words in a word document. Tried to save it, prompted the Endless Spinning Rainbow Wheel of Death and a completely unresponsive MS Word. Will force quitting lose me the entire document, the first bit of Actual Work™️ I’ve managed to do in ages?? Tune in to find out!!

Read some parts of this new book today. Loads of interesting stuff so far, and I have another cameo in a medieval maps book bibliography! But I’m gonna have to email Asa and ask wtf is going on with the Psalter Map monstrous men he’s listed. Coz they’re not my VM ones, and I don’t understand why…

Alright kids, have almost finished the slides for my paper tomorrow. Do come along if you want to hear me excitedly chat crap about monstrous men, again, with lots of pictures! Session #1227, Political Exegesis c.1100-1300 Parkinson B.10, 14:15 slot #IMC2025 #MonstrousMen #WhatAgain #YesStillOnIt

Forgot to do the usual “I’m on my way to Leeds” journey post yesterday, but here I am. Picked up my programme and lanyard and was instantly *forced* to buy a new book about maps, so have now doubled the weight of my bag… #IMC2025 #Leeds #medieval

Yes I have a wide variety of morning alarms to wake me up. There’s the multiple sounds on my phone at various intervals, there’s the cat that miaows to come in my bedroom window, and there’s THE GODDAMN SPIDER THAT ABSEILS FROM THE CEILING TOWARDS MY FACE TO PUNISH ME FOR GETTING BACK INTO BED

Hmm, looks like I’m going to end up writing a full-page footnote about the tiger on the Hereford map and the missing mirror. Because I noticed something whilst reading Kupfer’s extraordinary analysis of the map w/all the mirroring and stuff and I have THOUGHTS!

Just 2 Welsh players for the British and Irish Lions 😩 Well done Jac and Tomos, well deserved, but by god we’ve fallen so fucking far, even just since the last Lions tour…

Amazing scenes! I just cajoled my printer (which tbf I found at the side of the road…) to actually print a whole 34 pages, two pages to a sheet, with only one minor error in the middle and just once needing to whack it with the ream of paper it said it didn’t have! Didn’t even have to scream at it!!

Damned if I can find my copy of Simon Lloyd's 'English Society and the Crusade, 1216-1307'. Could anybody help me out with a copy of Appendix I, especially pp. 248-52? You will be a life saver! #ICanHazPDF

Anyone know where I can find the stemma for major MSS families of the Roman de la rose? #MedievalSky 🗃️

Research Assistant go “cronch”

Just this minute realised I have a (fairly) legitimate way to fit the “Is this a butterfly?” meme into my PhD rewrite, and I am unreasonably excited about it…

Reckon I should introduce my “Research Assistant”… This is Orangina, she was a long-term foster from my sister’s family while they lived abroad a while, but it looks like she’s officially mine now! She likes running, licking people, and wrestling hands. As an assistant, she’s quite useless.

Finally got around to setting up on here properly. Sorry for the delay! Very much hoping I can get some medieval #ICanHazPDF? requests in over the coming months as I slowly get my PhD rewrite done…