Tessera
Folgen

Peter McCullough

@mcculloughp.bsky.social

Things I like, make, or grow; assorted wokery; C16-17th religion, literature, and history. UK prof of English. 🏳️‍🌈

2814 Posts3038 Follower1297 Folgt
Peter McCullough@mcculloughp.bsky.social · 21h ago

The one that kills me is people giving speeches about someone (birthdays, farewells, retirement) and thinking it’s funny to say, ‘So just for fun I asked ChatGPT about x, and it came up with . . . ‘—as if that’s not really using it. Appalling and needs to be called out.

David Veevers@davidveevers.bsky.social · 23h ago

My new litmus test in social situations with people I don’t know is now whether they use LLMs. The moment a person says ‘so I asked ChatGTP’, I’m fucking out of there. My wife is getting a bit pissed off, admittedly, but I just can’t.

Peter McCullough@mcculloughp.bsky.social · 3d ago

Tale of two quads @lincoln.ox.ac.uk . Under our no-water policy, the Front Quad (L) with trad formal lawn; and Chapel Quad (R) with native wildflowers planted as plugs 9 mos ago. Only the latter are green; as they spread and knit together, this will be how to have a sustainably green quad.

Quadrangle of Oxford college with large central lawn, closely mowed with a curved pattern still visible, but entirely brown.Another quadrangle, with central portion still green from un-mown grass and developing clumps of wildflowers.
Wouter Wagemakers@wouterwagemakers.bsky.social · 3d ago

Thomas More in Utopia (1516), as timely as ever: “When I run over in my mind the various commonwealths flourishing today, so help me God, I can see in them nothing but a conspiracy of the rich, who are fattening up their own interests”.

Peter McCullough@mcculloughp.bsky.social · 6d ago

Most of coastal mid-Sussex looked like Southern California or the Australian Outback. The only natural green vegetation at ground level seemed to be in tidal basins or places left un-mown and un-grazed.

Man on a dike above channeled small river and low-lying pasture, hills beyond under harsh afternoon sun. Dusty dry except for clumps of sedge and low distant trees. (Cuckmere Valley, Seven Sisters National Park)Foreground close-up of dense wildflower grassland, crowded with white umbellifers and scattered bright yellow ragweed. Deep fold of distant down lands beyond, blue sky and thin wisps of white cloud above, all in evening light. Between Birling Gap and Beachy Head.
Peter McCullough@mcculloughp.bsky.social · 2w ago

Relearning the perennial lesson about the proportional relationship between how nice a fabric is to wear and how difficult it is to sew. Hand-loomed linen: pins fall through it, and it swims on the machine. Stripes help, kind of.

A shirt in process on the machine: chartreuse linen with a red and faint blue stripe. Showing collar and body finished; sleeve pinned and ready to sew.
Peter McCullough@mcculloughp.bsky.social · 2w ago

Pleased to pay my respects to subjects of current over-blown research project, the Elizabethan recusants Sir Thomas Cornwallys (d. 1604) and his wife Anne Jernegan (d. 1581). Badly restored mid-C19, but at least they're still there (Brome, Sfk). Impressive armorial achievement, not least the stag.

View length-wise from heads at eye-level of recumbent effigies of an Elizabethan knight and his lady; at their feet a tall stone achievement of their coat of arms in an elaborate Renaissance frame; at their feet an almost life-sized stag, the family's heraldic crest. Effigies rather clumsily painted.
Peter McCullough@mcculloughp.bsky.social · 2w ago

Not a great fan of Victorian reredoses, but this one was such full-blown diorama that it gets credit for trying. For St Mary's, Brome (Sfk) ca. 1860 by James Williams of Ipswich (Pevsner). I had to chuckle at the sculptural literalism of the empty tomb.

Stone reredos, figures deeply carved, some almost in full relief, stretching across entire east wall behind altar under east window; scenes of the life of Christ, with crucifixion centre.Detail of reredos: scene of angel and stunned soldiers before empty tomb, which is a literal cave carved into the stone.
Peter McCullough@mcculloughp.bsky.social · 2w ago

Thoughtful restoration (1874-5): angle-post of the guildhall (late C15) of Eye (Sfk), with most work heavily recut, including Gabriel (r), but adjacent panel (BVM?) was left in its original state.

Corner of a late medieval oak half-timbered building; the corner post supporting projecting floor above has elaborate architectural niches with tracery and figures, but one half of one side is heavily weathered and worn away, having been left in its original state rather than the rest which was newly carved replacement work.
Peter McCullough@mcculloughp.bsky.social · 3w ago

Suffolk Archives must have one of the finer views going among county record offices. Much controversy over consolidation of local branches here in Ipswich, but facility is excellent, part of the U of Suffolk campus.

View down steps and across road to Ipswich marina.