The world’s largest sand battery got through Finland’s harshest winter in years. 2,000 tonnes of sand, heated to 500-600°C by cheap power, feeding district heating in Pornainen. And it worked. Result from one install: oil down 100%, emissions down 70%. Industrial process heat is the real prize.

#SomethingBeautiful a bannister (stair rail) in Venice

Balk, Friesland, The Netherlands

#SomethingBeautiful Venice Carnival, Tisani and Zanguni.

#ArtefactSunday - Large Roman silver bowl decorated with a bust of Antinous. Found in the tomb at Armaziskhevi (modern-day Georgia) believed to belong to the high Iberian dignitary Aspaurukis. Dated between AD 130 and 138. National Museum of Georgia, Tbilisi, Georgia.

[frantically dialing the Dad Joke Hall of Fame]

I'd never heard of it until I very recently read @bluejo.bsky.social's What Makes This Book So Great (in fact, am still reading it). The fact that I now own the Abraham (but have yet to read it) is a signifier of why WMTBSG was both an inexpensive and a very expensive acquisition.

A little marginalia.

We break your usual medieval guild hall content for a bucolic scene and a medieval castle. This is Wressle Castle built for Thomas Percy and is a mere baby having been built in the 1390s. Also note the excellent clouds. 👍

Today is the feast day of St Brendan the Navigator (ca.484-577), so here's a woodcut by Robert Gibbings (1889-1958), depicting a scene from the saint's life, used to illustrate Helen Waddell's 'Beasts and Saints' (1934).

#SomethingBeautiful Venice carnival

If you could see in the UV, and looked at Saturn, its aurorae would look like this

I need to make sure you all heard that right because this did not make enough noise the first time around—THE Crawford, Stoker, World Fantasy and British Fantasy award winning Usman T. Malik, who has published incredible short fiction for over twenty years, will have a DEBUT NOVEL out NEXT YEAR

"Woman in a Blue Kimono", ca. 1970s. By the Japanese artist Keiichi Takasawa (1914–1984). Private collection. #art #painting #illustration

Pope:”Reading nourishes the mind, helps cultivate a conscious and well-formed critical sense, guards against fundamentalisms and ideological shortcuts.” Reading is “an antidote to closed-mindedness which manifests in rigid attitudes and reductive views of reality.” www.vaticannews.va/en/pope/news...

Need a quick reply to those book club scammers, fellow authors? Look no further

Up Down Charm Strange Top Bottom

Wotan Alberich Siegmund Sieglinde Brünnhilde Siegfried

John, Susan, Titty, Roger, Nancy and Peggy

#SomethingBeautiful Venice, carnival, Zanguni

Into the woods, Lee Moor #Dartmoor #Devon

#PortraitThursday - Roman Egyptian mummy portrait of a girl wearing a laurel wreath and a white tunic. Encaustic painting on sycamore wood, dated AD 120-150. Liebieghaus, Frankfurt am Main.

#SomethingBeautiful Venice, carnival, Zanguni

Dreams! Fog! Magic! Jo Walton weaves an intricate tale in Everybody's Perfect: www.abookishtype.com/2026/05/12/e... #BookReview 💙📚

#SomethingBeautiful Venice, carnival.

I am so looking forward to reading this. Two of the smartest writers out there, writing about a thing they love, that I also love? I am 100% the target audience.

The sun is shining somewhere.

We do love an allium. The medieval guild hall in the background isn’t bad either. 💜

Mad keen to read anything Jo Walton writes about science fiction and fantasy

This morning's sunrise sky over Auckland's CBD is a painting, as seen from the bus window. "There's a sunrise and a sunset every single day, and they're absolutely free. Don't miss so many of them." --Jo Walton. #publicTransport #Auckland #TamakiMakaurau #bus #somethingBeautiful #aucklandscenes

The Kaiserstuhl as seen from the hills near Burgruine Landeck, somewhat north of Freiburg, Germany.

Publishers Weekly review of Trace Elements "Deeply researched and entertaining, this is a treat for genre fans" www.publishersweekly.com/9781250372604 @adapalmer.bsky.social

#SomethingBeautiful A streetlamp, and Venice dissolving into the mist

This May, @bluejo.bsky.social shares her thoughts on some fascinating fairy tale retellings, a tale of romance and mistaken identity set in Florence, a thrilling science fiction mystery, and the joy of revisiting Ursula Le Guin's Orsinian Tales at the perfect age!

Medieval art is boring…

Fun podcast interview with @adapalmer.bsky.social and me about Trace Elements and writing and gelato www.youtube.com/watch?v=rWtX...

"Au fil de Loire" (Along the Loire) by Patrick Commecy in Brives-Charensac, France 🇫🇷 Patrick Commecy and his team transformed this once-blank wall into a vivid riverside scene inspired by the Loire. These mural paintings are called 'trompe-l'œil' in French (eyes cheat). #art #murals #streetart

I have pre-ordered @marissalingen.bsky.social's new novella. I would support your decision to do the same marissalingen.com/blog/?p=4374

#SomethingBeautiful Venice... this is another one I looked at a lot when writing Everybody's Perfect.

Nature at Work making Birds, Animals, and People on Her Anvil, circa 1405, Ms. Ludwig XV 7 (83.MR.177), fol. 121v (Getty)

Out today: A new edition of The Dispossessed, from Harper's American Classics series! www.harpercollins.com/products/the...

"This ancient vessel was replaced bit by bit and is now a patchwork, a mosaic, an olio, an anthology, a stew, a fossil, a..." -- The Ship of Thesaurus

Definitely read this, but don't wait a decade to read the whole trilogy like I did! All three books are good but the third book is my favorite.

I love this book.

This series is one of my top five favorite works of literature ever written.

This book is so great.

This book sounds like homework but reads like The Hunger Games.

This book and the whole Thessaly series are among my favorite books ever. Grab it up!

The Just City, my fun novel about people and Greek gods setting up Plato's Republic with 10,000 ten year olds, is on;y $2.99 as an ebook right now, probably just US www.amazon.com/Just-City-Th...

#Tarndanya Adelaide getting an hour’s head-start on sunset. “There's a sunrise and a sunset every single day, and they're absolutely free. Don't miss so many of them.” — Jo Walton #Kaurna country