My husband just tried a little of my Lost Orchards low alcohol cider, made in Dundee. “It’s like apple-y scrumpy. Impressive!” That’s high praise from someone from Somerset 😜

A form of touch-screen interface. In a Ladybird book. In 1971 How it Works: The Computer, (1971) Artist: BH Robinson

I’ve been slowly starting to read Ian Nathan’s book about Peter Jackson and the making of the Lord of the Rings films. It’s vastly over written and too waffly so I’m skimming big chunks (in my library’s Libby ebook version). But still enough gems to keep reading if I can find them. #Booksky #Tolkien

That is some phenomenally high tree climbing from young Iris (still growing, she's a young Maine Coon) in Sweden. #cats youtu.be/a_0XOwZBr2I

Guess Where I Found Iris!

YouTube video by Maine Coon Adventures

youtu.be

I've been agonising over whether to take off my wedding ring before surgery. Strictly speaking it's not necessary. But I could be spaced out and ill afterwards - especially if things go pear shaped and I'm in for a month - and I worry it might slip off over that prolonged time. Better safe at home.

Getting something else to help with my upcoming post surgery hospital stay - which will be for at least 5 days and could be up to a month. Ordered a foldable keyboard + stand to use with my iPod touch (like iPhone without the phoning). Would rather not take tablet or laptop in, but this should help.

‘Swifts, swallows and Canada geese’ Artist: CF Tunnicliffe What to Look for in Summer, 1960

Me earlier: Tractor shop! There’s a tractor shop! Yes we were driving via Cupar to check on our old flat. We’ve a running joke about how many tractors we see when travelling through northeast Fife. I lost count today. And umpteen combine harvesters.

Recently acquired by the Wadsworth Atheneum, Hartford, Conn., a snuffbox depicting the card game Comète and a comet-viewing party (Meissen, c1750-60) #c18 #c18th #18thc

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

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

Clearing more things from the study accumulated over many years. Too many packaging boxes, at least mostly cardboard so can be recycled. Rationalising fountain pen boxes - I still keep original boxes for expensive things, but can reduce things a bit. And some academic journals to pass on to charity.

An incredible new PhD opportunity at @uhihistory.bsky.social under Dr Nicola Martin: An Environmental History of the Jacobite Risings in Scotland. This is a fresh and fascinating filter to apply to Jacobite Studies and the programme is under the very best of direction and care.

Scotland’s most dangerous animal, filmed in the wild youtu.be/Wty6sJfVnBY

Scotlands most dangerous animal, filmed in the wild.

YouTube video by Maker of Adventure

youtu.be

Gorgeous cabinet card from my collection, likely 1890s.

Shelved today's newly arrived signed books (Tom Baker bio and Douglas Adams H2G2) and moving out three smaller books to donate to charity to make space. I'm trying to clear out a huge backlog of books, so if I get more in it's important that I don't have too big a net gain! Happy with that. #Booksky

Just arrived from Cold Tonnage Books two signed books. Both books by Tom Baker and Douglas Adams are in my list of favourite books by year - one book nominated for each year of my life, and had to be published in that year. vivsacademicblog.wordpress.com/2025/06/22/f... #Booksky

Look out for the Count Binface Comic Book! Out soon! 👍

The Count Binface Comic Book - Launching 6th August

"The Count Binface Comic Book" from SelfMadeHero launches on 6th Aug 2026. 10% of sales support charity Shelter.

downthetubes.net

Just ordered me a Fermentation Project coffee kit from Glen Lyon roasters in Aberfeldy. James Hoffmann's next coffee tasting experiment. The full list of roasters taking part still to be announced, but some are already offering kits for preorder in September. www.glenlyoncoffee.co.uk/products/jam...

James Hoffmann's The Fermentation Project | Quartet Box

A boxed selection featuring four different processes of the same single origin coffee so that Glen Lyon Coffee lovers can participate in The Fermentation Project by James Hoffmann. Perfect for those t...

glenlyoncoffee.co.uk

Current main reading, on my Kindle, with gargantuan font. A mix of fiction and non fiction. Trying to finish "The Spellshop" ASAP before getting deeply into "Theodora's Tea Shop". Non fiction books include a couple of Venice ones, in my ongoing Venice virtual tour. Full titles in alt text. #Booksky

Extremely impressed by Lost Orchards low alcohol cider. Not the full whoomph of Sheppys low alcohol from Somerset. But it’s got a good sharpness, and smells like proper cider. Vastly better for us than Thatchers Zero. Best of all, it’s made in Dundee, on city edge. lostorchards.co.uk/collections/...

Lost Orchards - Pure Apple Cider

Pure Apple is our original cider. Carefully selected and hand picked ‘Katy’ apples are harvested and processed on site to ensure quality and flavour. Crafted carefully over time we wash, press and pro...

lostorchards.co.uk

‘We are preserving a tradition’: how Ghana’s sensationalist film posters became collectible art www.theguardian.com/world/2026/j...

‘We are preserving a tradition’: how Ghana’s sensationalist film posters became collectible art

Hand-painted works are often wildly unfaithful to the movies they portray – reinterpretations that sometimes resulted in threats, insults and even physical attacks from viewers who felt duped

theguardian.com

There's been a user interface update on the British Newspaper Archive. Let it just be said, I'm not happy 😡 They've gone into the trap of moving well-established menus around and adding extra clicks in simple steps in the name of a slicker appearance, totally breaking muscle memory of regular users

A large collection of artworks and studio models from Peter Firmin are shortly to be auctioned. The creator of Bagpuss, Noggin the Nog, Ivor the Engine, the Clangers and more. www.thecanterburyauctiongalleries.com/home

Also the feeling, currently being lived painfully and angrily by hundreds of academic and academic units across the UK including at Exeter, when you've worked sedulously and very effectively for years to attain research and/or teaching excellence, only to be at risk of sweeping redundancy.

University of Exeter Special Collections@exeterunispeccoll.bsky.social · last wk.

The feeling when you've been looking at a handwritten document for an hour and you still can't read THAT word...! This illustration of a sea monster can be found in our sixteenth-century atlas of the counties of England and Wales by Christopher Saxton. 📷 Rare books B 1590/SAX/XX

Amusing my husband by standing in front of our home landline phone, calling it from my mobile phone, which triggers the VIP caller ring, then using my iPod touch (like an iPhone without phoning) in other hand to use Google Search app to identify the phone ring sound! open.spotify.com/track/2O0tYn...

Serenade No. 13 in G Major, K. 525 "Eine kleine Nachtmusik": I. Allegro

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Wiener Kammerphilharmonie · Eine kleine Nachtmusik · Song · 1991

open.spotify.com

Waking up to a new catalogue email from a favourite cult/pulp books dealer. Going sleepily through the listings. Signed Douglas Adams H2G2! Signed Tom Baker! Erm oops 😜 #Booksky

‘Great Inventions, 1961’ Jodrell Bank Radio Telescope Artist: Robert Ayton

Young Osprey 'Blue 2J8' Take to the Skies - Loch of the Lowes Webcam youtu.be/X_A1oCPV-ZQ #Birds #Scotland

Young Osprey 'Blue 2J8' Take to the Skies - Loch of the Lowes Webcam (2026)

YouTube video by Scottish Wildlife Trust

youtu.be

Short-sighted, stupid cuts to the UKRI budget include shutting down Jodrell Bank, the icon of British astronomy. (Many other cuts too, including 20% to our brand new @vrubinobs.bsky.social). Interesting politically to shut down a major facility in...um..Manchester 🔭 www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Jodrell Bank's Lovell telescope faces axe in science cuts, BBC understands

Astronomers warn it would tear the heart out of UK science, and leave a generation untrained.

bbc.co.uk