Bunch of tulips! 🌱 #FlowerReport

Purple Erasmus Asparagus is on the menu! It's been 3 years since I first grew them from seed, but worth the wait! From here on in, it is easy spring harvests 🌱🌱🌱

OTD in 1912, five days after the Titanic disaster, a memorial service for those who lost their lives was held in St Mary’s Church. The church was completely packed. Sailors marched from the docks in order to attend. Southampton, a town in mourning, came to a complete standstill for the service.

The stalwarts of Gnomeland Security are the first to appear in the fairy garden, ensuring it is safe for the fairies to appear. They say it isn't. They were right, moments after this the hail came down. 🌱

Brief spell of sunshine this morning after days of rain, but these daffodils look only somewhat beaten down. Mind you, we had hail in the afternoon. 🌱 #FlowerReport

On this day 114 years ago, at noon on 10 April 1912, Titanic began her maiden voyage from her home port of Southampton to New York. 1/12

I was in the Nubia Gallery at the ROM yesterday, and noticed this 4th century CE box from the ROM excavations at Gebel Adda in Nubia (near the first cataract in Egypt). What interested me were the "sphinxes" with *wings* as wings are not in the Egyptian tradition, but in the West Asian tradition. 🏺

Magnified examination of the Anglo-Saxon & Medieval North Elmham pottery at the ROM yesterday. I had a magnifying lens on my head, as well, so the magnification was greater than what you see here! I was not working with fresh breaks, but you could see the fabric in some cases. #medievalsky 🏺

It seems this viola seedling is eager to take it's place in the garden! 🌱 #FlowerReport

We are having carrots for Easter Sunday dinner. Other stuff, as well, but I'm responsible for getting the carrots ready!

Easter Sunday Irises in the front garden on the sunny side of the house. Okay, not exactly sunny today, but I did go out at least long enough to take this photo! 🌱 #FlowerReport

Happy Easter to all those that observe it! And a lovely Spring day off to those that don't! This is the "Tomb of the Righteous One" in Nazareth, the nuns that found it say it is the tomb of St. Joseph. My photo of 2008.

I recently finished a short series of stories for Medium and used Hero Forge to create the header image. It really does make cute images! @heroforgeminis.bsky.social

I was at the ROM this week working on pottery from excavations at North Elmham in Norfolk. Here are some very nice 13th-14th century Grimston Ware handles! #medievalsky 🏺

As someone that studies the past I know better than to think artists depict reality. However, I suspect the strong women of the past depicted in "Calling in the Gleaners" (1859) by Jules Breton would take any incel going on about "trad wives" or "women being women" and slap some sense into them.

Someone at Nook Shop in Stoke Newington, North East London sent me this photo of a recently published interview with Monty Don, whose style I admire. I found the interview charming, so I thought I'd share it here. To me, Monty Don is a great example of developing personal style.

Titanic at Southampton on 4 April 1912, six days before her maiden voyage. This photograph was taken on this day 114 years ago. She had arrived from Belfast in the early hours of the morning and is dressed with signal flags to celebrate the first visit to her home port.

It was a lovely day yesterday, and I finally managed to clear up the fallen leaves from the Autumn! The early snow rather hampered my usual routine! Today it is raining, so I am posting this nice photo of snowdrops in the fairy garden on the north side of the house. 🌱 #FlowerReport

I love old paintings of the Countryside, before it was filled with massive lorries plummeting along the narrow lanes with a death-wish. This is, of course, "The Hay Wain" (1821) by John Constable, depicting the Stour between Suffolk and Essex. My parents had a print and said it was the New Forest!

It's doing it again.

What a remarkable story and find !! www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/a...

Best idea from Denmark since Lego! all-things-nordic.com/2026/03/05/d...

There is still snow and ice on the ground, but this south-facing slope on the sunny side of the house is ready for Spring! 🌱 #FlowerReport

Three-month paid summer internships are up on @romtoronto.bsky.social careers page along with some other contract positions! #MuseumWork #Internships www.rom.on.ca/work-with-us...

Our collection of longbows and arrows are unlike anything anywhere else in the world, but what can they tell us about archery in Tudor England? Find out with our online talk on Saturday 14th March at 14.00 GMT

I was in at the ROM yesterday and was glad to see the Safavid tile panel was still up!

Portraits of Vladimir Putin, Bashar al-Assad (Syria), Ali Khamenei (Iran), and Hassan Nasrallah (Hezbollah) in Aleppo, Syria, in 2017.

In ancient times Gaza was the port at the end of the Incense Road, bringing frankincense and myrrh from Yemen to the Mediterranean. This map shows Nabataean sites which controlled the land route, and the Red Sea route through Ayla (Aqaba).

As someone who has written on the ancient history of indigo for awhile now? This is exciting. archaeologymag.com/2026/02/olde...

The Gaza area has been on a coastline for hundreds of millions of years, once on the boundary between Pangaea and the Tethys Ocean. The sea-level has risen and fallen, each time a new beach was created. So ancient cemented sands run in ridges parallel to the coast, creating the present landscape.

John Everett Millais was born on Portland Street in Southampton on 8 June 1829. He was baptised in All Saints’ Church on the corner of Southampton High Street and East Street in the December of that year. Most of his early childhood was spent in Jersey. 1/5

Happy Year of the Horse to all who observe the Lunar Calendar! I could post a beautiful antiquity, but instead here is my favourite fictional horse: Maximus!

I have been reading about the history of Gaza lately. Apparently they minted very early coins from the mid-5th century based on the Athenian silver drachm, but with the bearded head of their own deity rather than Athena. Unfortunately the ROM doesn't have one so I stole this image from the internet!

I have been busy photographing #Roman coins minted in Alexandria, #Egypt in the collection @romtoronto.bsky.social This one of Probus is dated to 278 CE. I like the standing eagle on the reverse. Browse the whole series online here: collections.rom.on.ca/search/910.2... #MuseumWork #Numismatics

I was recently sent some 17th century Iranian Safavid tile images that are of the type in a book published by Lisa Golombek and I last year. Most of them we had already seen, but one added the poop-deck to our ship!

Both of my daughters play Sims, so I thought I would give it a go. I made a Sims version of the monastery in Syria where I did fieldwork for some years, Deir Mar Musa.

An interview with my friend Fr. Jihad Youssef at Deir Mar Musa, in Syria. religionunplugged.com/news/mar-mus...

Trying to pin down this North Elmham pottery at the ROM. This group is mostly Thetford Ware, 3 Ipswich Wares, & 3 St. Neot's ware. The latter has shell (you can see it in this photo). Ipswich ware is supposedly grittier than Thetford Ware. Time to break out the microscope. #MedievalSky #Archaeology

It snowed. Yay.

Tricky working out the numbers on the North Elmham pottery sometimes. I think this is NEP 67 102. I assume 102 is what they call a feature in the publication, what we called a context number in my day (70's-80's). Unfortunately this number is not in the publication! 🏺 #MedievalSky #Archaeology

Working on the North Elmham medieval pottery from England at the ROM and found this guy. Seems a merry sort. 🏺 #MedievalSky #Archaeology

This really is not natural. The trees know when the winter is coming, they drop their leaves before the first snows. Usually there is enough time to clear the leaves before the snows come. Things are messed up.

MEN! Have you thought about the Roman Empire today? 🏺 My pic of 2005.

I have just written a science-fiction story in which the main character has the ability to create circular kilometer-wide "cities". Today I discovered Nördlingen. However, this German city was built in a meteor crater, not by alien technology! 📚🪐 #BookSky medium.com/the-kraken-l...

I thought I had better get a pic of these fuchsias before the frost hits tonight! 🌱 #FlowerReport

Nice use of satellite imagery to reveal the destruction of cultural heritage. www.cnn.com/2025/10/23/u...

I think we can all sympathise with Douglas Walker, a 44-year-old fruit salesman of no fixed abode, who was charged with being drunk on Havelock Road on 26 August 1939. Two days later he pleaded guilty and said: “I think Mr Hitler had got on my nerves a bit during the day. I had certainly had a few.”

Looking up the precise location of the site producing the Anglo-Saxon pottery I have been asked to look at in the ROM. North Elmham was apparently the seat of a bishopric until 1071, and the excavations were to the southwest of the now ruined cathedral. 🏺 #MedievalSky

I wrote this story for a prompt by The Kraken Lore on Medium. It is the kind of fantasy that helps me sleep at night. In a good way! medium.com/the-kraken-l...

If you saw this chap, and you knew he had a story, would you be interested in knowing what that story was?