The folkloric belief that catching twelve falling leaves ensures good luck for a year = the perfect excuse to just stand here and wait long enough for twelve leaves to fall #AutumnVibes #Folklore

I was in Glasgow’s famed Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum in July, and it’s clearly just starting to wrestle with how slavery and empire made it, and the city, happen. Some exhibits were midway through the journey.

At Beverley railway station, a remarkable survivor from the golden age of the North Eastern Railway still greets travellers, a tiled map set into the wall beside the train shed exit. Made between 1900 and 1910 by Craven Dunnill & Co. of Jackfield in Shropshire, it is

There is still so much work to do in making slavery and the slave trade a widely known and acknowledged part of the history of places that have minimized those links in the past.

Doubly vaccinated, Covid and flu. Huge thanks to the NHS staff and volunteers at Douglas Community Centre in Dundee. Extremely efficient. I was by far the youngest person there 😜

Lego boldly goes into the Star Trek universe with $400, 3,600-piece Enterprise-D arstechnica.com/culture/2025...

Slavery and colonial trail to be launched in Glasgow www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

IT’S HERE! Our first volume of strange and supernatural stories for the darker half of the year. Nine new tales by masters of the genre: Ramsey Campbell, Helen Grant, Reggie Oliver, Ally Wilkes, Steve Toase, Verity Holloway and more. 👉🏼 Get your copy on www.helleborezine.com

Another night, another movie trip to Egypt. This isn’t as good as the Peter Ustinov version I adore, and I am fast forwarding through some bits. But it’s entertaining enough. www.imdb.com/title/tt7657...

Current viewing for me, 1999’s “The Mummy”. Am amused at how much of the dialogue I can remember. www.imdb.com/title/tt0120...

Do not need to back in the closing hours the reprint of the 1985 Pendragon Classic Edition RPG boxset. Do not need to back it ... Oh go on then! www.kickstarter.com/projects/cha...

Vintage railway posters conserved - fascinating blog post from Edinburgh City Libraries talesofonecity.wordpress.com/2025/11/03/v...

Resuming my read of Wheel of Time book 10. Still enjoying the book series, though I've developed a specific way of reading it, and expect far too many characters/infodump from Robert Jordan early on! Currently pleased to see two characters again, and trying to remember prior plot for them! #Booksky

Reading @jdyer.bsky.social's recent blog posts playing interactive fiction text adventure game Fairytale (1982). And my mind is blown at the start, learning that this game is based on Enid Blyton's Faraway Tree series of books. Which I adored when I was very young. bluerenga.blog/tag/fairytal...

Hawick braces for first winter test of new flood protections www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Following another interactive fiction game design rabbit hole, researching the history of Celtic art. Will borrow a couple of key books from the university library when get a chance. Meanwhile I have a vague mental image, that I can turn into a placeholder for now in the game, to be filled in later!

Folk musician & BBC Scotland presenter Archie Fisher dies age 86. 👇 BBC News - Folk musician and BBC presenter dies aged 86 www.bbc.com/news/article...

Watching My Kind of Town from my home town Hawick for the 3rd or 4th time 🙂 It was repeated on the telly the other night and is on the iPlayer. www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/epis...

A common buzzard. They were mobbed by crows then stopped and hovered like a kestrel for a while over a field. After dropping out of sight they reappeared here chased by an out-of-shot crow (crop from previous post). 📷📸🎞️🪶 #birds #ukwildlife

Some photos from my husband's Saturday walk in the Dighty Burn wooded river valley near our home in eastern Dundee, Scotland 📷📸🎞️🪶

Some photos from my husband's Saturday walk in the Dighty Burn wooded river valley near our home in eastern Dundee, Scotland 📷📸🎞️🪶

Watching last night’s Susan Calman’s Grand Day Out, and she’s exploring south Somerset. Has just got to only a couple of miles from my husband’s childhood home 🙂 He is watching this episode very intently!

A Month of Rain and Reads is here! This is our first month-long event celebrating indie and self-published SFF! This month we'll be posting reviews, author interviews, guest posts, spotlights, and our Daily Challenge with daily giveaways! Find out more: www.readindiefantasy.com/welcome-to-a...

Happy Halloween! Keep a close eye out today for witches being driven around the countryside by their root vegetable chauffeurs in a hollowed out marrow car.

The last survivor of the Crimean War died in 2004. "Timothy" spent 40 years in the Navy. After retirement, having moved in with the Earl of Devon, she revealed she was a girl. She would wander round his garden wearing a sign that said. "My name is Timothy. I am very old. Pease do not pick me up".

Day 31 of #31DaysOfGraves - #MementoMori We're ending this year's annual celebration of the art and heritage of grave memorials with this absolutely stunning 18thC stone from Garvald, East Lothian Thanks to @annaandthedead.bsky.social for curating the themes again this year. Happy Halloween all! 🎃

Planning our Halloween viewing, possibly spread over a couple of nights. First up Hammer's movie "The Vampire Lovers", based on Sheridan Le Fanu's novella "Carmilla", which I recently read for my book club. Then bonkers supernatural comedy movie "Hundreds of Beavers". www.imdb.com/title/tt0066...

Today’s arrival, a new JRR Tolkien book. #Booksky

There is such beauty in cemeteries. These places of rest are a window into the lives of those who came before us, the loves and losses that characterise our experiences. Cemeteries are important. They are space where history and folklore entwine. 🪦💚 #History #Folklore

Adam Ellis. Andrew McMeel, (304p) ISBN: 9798881603243. Graphic Novel, read 23/10/25, Hardback ★★★★☆ I picked this up on a whim as I loved the cover… This is a collection of short horror/sci-fi stories all done out in magnificent colour, each one having it’s own palette to suit the tale being told.…

Today's second arrival (very good day!): new paperback copy of the Kickstarter-funded "Shakespeare vs Cthulhu: What Dreams May Come" interactive fiction gamebook from @acegamebooks.bsky.social. Looks fantastic! Very happy to have this in my hands at last, and very much looking forward to playing it.

Something wonderful just arrived from Felted Friends. A hand felted White Rabbit from Disney's "Alice in Wonderland" film. A favourite literary character from one of my all-time favourite books. And so very well done. Thank you!

Watching this morning's latest Dundee University session at the Scottish Parliament. This is not good.

My all time favourite book to be read to as a very young child! I also have a framed print from one of the internal illustrations up on the wall behind my desktop computer. #Booksky #cats

In Dundee, Scotland today

Pleased to attend a Jacobite studies talk about poems from the 1690s and 1710s. And alert enough to ask questions and make comments, based on my own experiences transcribing and analysing a historical Scottish poem from the 1680s. Huge thanks to @funkyplaid.bsky.social for organising these events.

The #EarlyModern and Climate and Environmental History seminars @stockholm-uni.bsky.social host Charlotta Forss from Södertörn University next week, presenting on "North of the Map: Cartography and the Image of the Far North through History." 5 November 2025, 15:00-17:00 CET In-person or online.

Very sad to hear that Prunella Scales has died. A wonderful actress, but most of all my husband and I enjoyed her charming canal trip programmes with husband Timothy West. I'm downloading (on demand in the UK) some of her past canal trips to rewatch, including the Leeds & Liverpool canal and Venice.

Pleased managed more accordion practice despite neuro illness. Not too light headed just now, though my usually automatic bellows control was a bit challenged! Focused on 5 tunes, inc this one, Windmills of Your Mind. Which on my 72 bass box required jumping from top of bass side to bottom and back!

Kayakers have ‘incredible’ encounter with dolphin in Firth of Forth www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

I took my DSLR for a walk round the very peaceful Dean Cemetery yesterday. The autumn colours were fabulous. I was touched by the wee wooden cross with the poppy between all the stone monuments. #AutumnVibes

One of 4 dippers (4 individuals) seen on my walk around the Seven Arches (Balmossie) Viaduct area of the Dighty Burn in Monifieth/Broughty Ferry on a bright cold and windy Saturday afternoon. I first saw this one 2023-Jan. 📷📸🎞️🪶 #birds #ukwildlife

A brave grey squirrel feeding on hawthorn berries hanging over the Green Circular in Monifieth. They continued eating as I moved about slightly to get a clearer view. Same place as the one pictured two weeks ago. 📷📸🎞️ #squirrels #ukwildlife

Some photos from my husband's Saturday walk in the Dighty Burn wooded river valley near our home in eastern Dundee, Scotland 📷📸🎞️🪶

Some photos from my husband's Saturday walk in the Dighty Burn wooded river valley near our home in eastern Dundee, Scotland 📷📸🎞️🪶

National Archives of Ireland prepares the 1926 census for release scottishgenes.blogspot.com/2025/10/nati...

More interactive fiction game writing, including this time trying to think about the smells of autumn so I can sum those up in a few on-point sentences. It helps to be writing this section during autumn, at least in the Northern Hemisphere. Pleased with progress. Masses more to do, but encouraged.

Sitting up, doing my monthly double external USB disk backup (Time Machine on a Mac laptop), taking the chance to work on some more interactive fiction game development. Currently fitting out a location in one of the earlier chapters of my game. Though I have been working on later chapters already.

#31DaysofGraves #Day24 #UnusualAnimal Found in the 18thC in the grounds of nearby Dyke parish church, "Rodney's Stone" features a carving of the Pictish Beast, an unidentified animal found on numerous stones around Scotland, variously thought to be a dolphin or an elephant. More at: buff.ly/B6OfAKF

Just finished my 50th book of 2025, Liz Duffy Adams's "Born With Teeth" the two-hander play featuring Christopher Marlowe and William Shakespeare. I wish I'd seen the current RSC production with Ncuti Gatwa and Edward Bluemel. But reading the play script was great fun. www.rsc.org.uk/born-with-te...