"... Red fangs have torn his face, God's blood is shed: He mourns from his lone place His children dead. O ancient crimson curse! Corrode, consume; Give back this universe Its pristine bloom." Isaac Rosenberg - On Receiving News of War [died 1918] #Remembrance #LestWeForget

#BookWormSat "We got to Pegu and were all lined up ready to go in and the word came that the war in Europe was over. And we shouted, 'What the bloody hell use is that to us? When's our was going to be over?'" Julian Thompson - Forgotten Voices of Burma 🎨Jacqueline Hurley - Forgotten Army

This weekend's #ShakespeareSunday theme: LOVE & LOSS

#BookWormSat "Standing as I do in the light of god and eternity, I realise that patriotism is not enough, I must have no hatred or bitterness towards anybody ... My conscience is clear. I die for god and for my country." German Report on the Execution of Nurse Edith Cavell, 1915

#BookWormSat "... Thus violent deeds live after men upon the earth, and traces of war and bloodshed will survive in mournful shapes long after those who worked the desolation are but atoms of earth themselves." Charles Dickens - The Old Curiosity Shop 📷Flanders Crosses [Great War 1914-18]

#BookWormSat "They could talk of nothing but officers; and Mr Bingley's large fortune, the mention of which gave animation to their mother, was worthless in their eyes when opposed to the regimentals of an ensign" Jane Austen - Pride & Prejudice - the role of the army in peacetime 🎨William Hogarth

Rainbow through the archway. This morning on Glastonbury Tor.

#BookWormSat "True, a new mistress now I chase, The first foe in the field; And with a stronger faith embrace A sword, a horse, a shield. Yet this inconstancy is such As you too shalt adore; I could not love thee, Dear, so much, Loved I not Honour more." R Lovelace - To Lucasta, Going to the Wars

"The harps to which we sang are hung On willow boughs, and their refrain Drowned by the anguish of the young Whose blood is mingled with the rain." Translation of Final Verse of Rhyfel [War] by Hedd Wyn - who died on the first the day of Battle of Passchendaele #Remembrace

“Even if it's not your fault, it's your responsibility.” Terry Pratchett - A Hat Full of Sky Politicians worldwide - Take Note! #BookChatWeekly

#FolkyFriday Quetzal bird feathers were particularly prized for headdresses by Mayan & Aztec priests - it was believed their vibrant red feathers were acquired after a quetzal bird landed on the chest of dying hero Tecún Umán, dipping its feathers in his blood. 🎨 WeltMuseum Vienna

#FolkyFriday "I saw there wading through rivers wild Treacherous men and murderers too, And workers of ill with the wives of men: There Nidhogg sucked the blood of the slain ..." The fate of the evil people in the Viking realm of Niflheim. ✍️The Völuspá 🎨IrenHorrors

#FolkyFriday For ceremonial purposes, Aztec priests painted their bodies with a black paint made from crushed scorpions & insects. They then provided blood sacrifices for the gods from their tongues, cheeks or genitals ... 🎨Codex Vaticanus

‘No mockeries now for them; no prayers nor bells;  Nor any voice of mourning save the choirs— The shrill, demented choirs of wailing shells; And bugles calling for them from sad shires.’~ Wilfred Owen This #BookWormSat, join us to mark Remembrance Day with war and peace in literature.

#WyrdWednesday #BookChatWeekly "The soul will breathe hell-fire, and smoke and coal will seem to hang upon its burning lips, yea the face, eyes and ears will seem to be chimneys and vents for the flame ..." John Bunyan 🎨Caorthannach - Fire-spitting Celtic entity & mother of demons.

#WyrdWednesday Telamon & Heracles journey across the Phlegraean Fields where [according to Greek writer Pindar] the hill "vomits fire" - most likely the area of volcanic activity around Naples - where they encounter and defeat the giant Alcyoneus. 🎨Pietro Fabris & Sir William Hamilton

#WyrdWednesday Descendants of one of those burnt at the stake in 1558, Thomas Carmen, from New Zealand and the USA - who knew nothing of one another's existence - coincidentally met each other in the Lollards Pit Pub while having a pint!

#LegendaryWednesday Meinir disappeared on her wedding day during a playful "Wedding Quest". Grief stricken Rhys searched tirelessly for his sweetheart until, while sheltering under "their" Oak during a storm, lightning split open the tree, to reveal her skeleton - still clad in her wedding dress!

Mamdani came across as genuine & truthful - something most mainstream politicians have lost the ability to do! People are not as stupid as those mainstream politicians like to believe ... roll on local elections here next year! Congratulations Mr Mamdani.

Sam Zitouni - hero of the LNER knife attacks - wishing you a full and speedy recovery 💜 news.sky.com/story/train-...

#MythologyMonday The Hedge of Mist from Arthurian folklore ... 🎨Gustave Doré

North Elmham, Norfolk looking good in the autumn sunshine ...

‘Harvest End’ - #RSThomas (Experimenting with an Amen, Macmillan) - from the Welsh of William Williams (Caledfryn)

#ShakespeareSunday "Sweet lord, you play me false." "No, my dearest love, I would not for the world." "Yes, for a score of kingdoms you should wrangle, And I would call it fair play." The Tempest 📷 Derek Jarman's Tempest - Toyah Wilcox & David Meyer

#FolkloreSunday Tail feathers of the Quetzal bird were as precious to the Mayans and Aztecs as jewels. Headdresses of the luxurious, turquoise feathers were reserved for priests & the bravest warriors in the belief that the wearers were brought closer to the gods ... 📷 WeltMuseum Vienna

#ShakespeareSunday "Mark you this, Bassanio, The devil can cite Scripture for his purpose. An evil producing holy witness Is like a villain with a smiling cheek, A goodly apple rotten at the heart. Oh, what a goodly outside falsehood hath!" The Merchant of Venice 📷Al Pacino - Shylock - 2004 Film

#ShakespeareSunday "Gentles, do not reprehend. If you pardon, we will mend. And, as I am an honest Puck, If we have unearnèd luck Now to 'scape the serpent's tongue, We will make amends ere long." A Midsummer Night's Dream

#BookWormSat "'I meant,' said Ipslore bitterly, 'what is there in this world that truly makes living worthwhile?' Death thought about it. CATS, he said eventually. CATS ARE NICE.'" Terry Pratchett - Sourcery 🎨Natalia Poluyaktova [ArtStation.com]

#BookWormSat "'... I think you were sent to me by Heaven.' 'Or you to me,' says Sydney Carton. 'Keep your eyes upon me, dear child, and mind no other object.' 'I mind nothing while I hold your hand. I shall mind nothing when I let it go, if they are rapid.' 'They will be rapid. Fear not!'

#BookWormSat "'Are you Death?' IT'S THE SCYTHE, ISN'T IT? PEOPLE AWLAYS NOTICE THE SCYTHE." Terry Pratchett - the Fifth Elephant 🎨Jenny Jinya

#BookWormSat "... Nothing in his life Became him like the leaving it. He died As one that had been studied in his death To throw away the dearest thing he owed As ’twere a careless trifle." William Shakespeare - MacBeth 🎨Lady Butler [Waterloo: Scotland Forever]

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.

#WyrdWednesday After the bodies of two crewmen from the SS Watertown were buried at sea off the coast of Mexico, several other crewmen reported seeing the men in the water at the stern of the boat. A contemporary photo taken was reputed to be a forgery ....

#LegendaryWednesday 🎨Elizabeth Shippen Green - So Haunted at Moonlight with Bat and Owl and Ghostly Moth

#WyrdWednesday "You have beguiled me with a counterfeit ..." Shapeshifter Merlin was tricked by the dark arts of Nimue [Vivien] into passing on his great wisdom. She then imprisoned him in a cave - where he waits for the enchantment to be broken ... 🎨Speed Lancelot & Gustave Doré

Sad news about the death of the lovely, talented Prunella Scales who - with the love & support of husband Timothy West - proved that you can lead a fulfilling life while living with dementia. So funny in Fawlty Towers, but she & Geraldine McEwan were wonderful in Mapp & Lucia. RIP Prunella Scales

#MythologyMonday "Learn what treatment may enhance your face, girls, and the means by which you must preserve your looks" Ovid For Roman women, these "enhancements" such as chalk or lead to whiten the skin and ochre or cinnabar to add a 'healthy' blush were often highly toxic. 🎨Pompeii Mosaics

#MythologyMonday Interesting idea to stain teeth with cochineal ...

#ShakespeareSunday "Gracious my lord, I should report that which I say I saw, But know not how to do't ... As I did stand my watch upon the hill, I looked toward Birnam, and anon methought The Wood began to move ... Within this three mile may you see it coming. I say, a moving grove." MacBeth

#FolkloreSunday "Adref, adref, am y cyntaf’, Hwch ddu gwta a gipio’r ola’." [Home, home, at once The tailless black sow shall snatch the last] The Welsh Halloween tradition of Yr Hwch Ddu Gwta

#ShakespeareSunday "I loved Ophelia. Forty thousand brothers Could not with all their quantity of love Make up my sum ..." Hamlet 🎬Ophelia [2018]

#ShakespeareSunday "... To England send him; or confine him where Your wisdom best shall think." "It shall be so. Madness in great ones must not unwatched go." Hamlet

#ShakespeareSunday "... Nothing in his life Became him like the leaving it. He died As one that had been studied in his death To throw away the dearest thing he owed As ’twere a careless trifle." MacBeth 🎨Edmond-Louis Dupain

#FolkloreSunday "The baby bat Screamed out in fright, 'Turn on the dark, I'm afraid of the light!'" Shel Silverstein

#BookWormSat "The bell struck twelve .... As the last stroke ceased to vibrate, he remembered the prediction of old Jacob Marley, and lifting up his eyes, beheld a solemn Phantom, draped and hooded, coming, like a mist along the ground, towards him." Charles Dickens - A Christmas Carol 🎨sueworld

#BookWormSat "The last man on Earth sat alone in a room. There was a knock on the door ...." Fredric Brown - Knock 🎨Nevermore Horror

#BookWormSat "I did not fear to go to sleep again, although the boughs or bats or something flapped almost angrily against the window panes." Bram Stoker - Dracula

#LegendaryWednesday The first person to be convicted under the 1562 Act Against Conjurations, Enchantments & Witchcrafts was Mother Gabley - hanged in Kings Lynn in 1583 for "conjuring" the storm which resulted in the drowning 13 men - by boiling eggs in cold water. 🎨Wellcome Collection