Is it wrong, too much, to top off elderflower cordial with gin? Once-a-year opportunity to hoard June, white froth of flowers and lemon-slices mounded in water, pollen drifts fixed in sugar like insects in amber, in hope of decanting a taste. A libation down each bottle-neck to the gods of stasis.

First loganberries ripened each sharpsweet mouthful plump with bloody juice like a throbbing hammered thumb

DELICIOUS thread of people's favourite cakes here, and @marissalingen.bsky.social's upcoming book sounds supercool. This is Schwarzwalderkischmisu, chocolate-cherry-marscapone-zabaglione-liqueur lunacy. In a bowl.

Bluebells in Kent have been out for weeks, and not the odd one or two, but in swathes on sunny slopes. And we're only 1st April today. Snowdrops were out at NT Chartwell on 27th December, though more widely exactly the Feb weeks that are traditional.

4/ cultural heritage, likely found new life for performances to the entire school. This well-preserved academic institution is unique in Mediterranean archaeology, and shows how long Alexandria persisted as an intellectual and cultural heartland in Egypt. Today, a modern auditorium has 'flipped'

4/ The theatre area developed over its lifetime; by the 5th-7th centuries CE, the site had extended, with 22 auditoria or lecture halls built next door, around the porticos of a large public square. The school could have accommodated several hundred students. The theatre, already long-established

Thanks for this cheering news @patrickbarkham.bsky.social!

Slightly late for Imbolc, but very much on point. Need the Lady even have been a priestess? She could well have been the water Goddess herself... We found bog iron - a lot of it - on this site at Point Rosee in Newfoundland. Magical Stuff. #Bridget #Mythology #Archaeology #AncientBluesky

After the drought, the flood. Unprecedented survival, no chance in kinder, damper years, ten months' thirst and heat hanging by the wall a Darwinian divide between them and their cosseted one-shot-wonder predecessors. Merry blue faces promising warmer times ahead.

Hastening Spring, blossom coaxed out of its time. Wishing a peaceful and joyous Christmas to all who celebrate in the Eastern tradition. Thanks to @greyauk.bsky.social who taught me the lovely tradition of Barbara Twigs. 💚🌸

A different world entirely. #Egyptology

What a shame this poor panel has suffered - presumably on the outside where it rubbed a bit during transit etc? Doing work that tiny is quite a challenge - I've only ever done something similar once.

Gorgeous Christmassy shenanigans from @elizacarthy.bsky.social and @jonboden.bsky.social at St Dunstan's, Cranbrook for last night of The Wassail Tour. Made my Yule. 😊🎄Had to rush off - taxi going frantic: 'Sorry I'm late, there was this song about a hippopotamus...' 😀🦛 Merry Christmas, guys! ❤️

Top marks to National Gallery shop for its yummy display in 1600sish (?) still life. Why would one *not* want candles looking like cheese, bread and fruit? Or sparkly glass vegetable baubles, pretty, if, at the core, decidedly odd? I coveted the mediaeval glassware. And the #crustmas brooches! 🦀

It's finally getting chilly out - time to frost-protect your dahlias if you grow those flamboyant lovelies for your bumbles, bees, and hoverflies. Either overwinter in shelter or lift and take into protective custody! Link below. youtube.com/shorts/5T4Er...

This is the best I can do - a purple heron, quite small, on the scale of heronage. I know I've seen Grey Herons in Aswan, but my bird photography is lamentable.

Leeds Castle's Neverland Christmas was still under construction when I visited last week - and building it looked like the best fun ever. 😀 Much piratical cheerfulness was evident, including sea-creatures galore. ⚓🦀🦜

Most people don't realise that this part of possibly the largest colossus Ancient Egypt ever created is for storing your eraser to stop it getting dusty. #Egyptology

Very unexpected little visitor to the ivy on Saturday morning - and seemed much larger than usual! The photobombing greenbottle is trying on butterfly-wings. A third generation this late in the year is apparently unusual, but could be a sign of our changing times.

The wheel is turning, and around we go again. Into a tree canopy's withering, ivy springs up to give shelter in its place, offering the last sweet nectar before the flowerless dark, and berries to fill out the thin times. Light the fires. Broach the barrel. Life is too brief, and the winter cold.

Planting bulbs, a yearly recitation of hope, half the wheel wished away. Cheerfulness timebombs, fuses unpredictable as luck.

Vizier Pepy-Ankh wanted to have his cake and eat it! Specifically, a delicious-sounding creamy honey-sesame stuffed pancake, preserved by ingenious vacuum-inducing cookware for 4000 years since the reign of Pepi II. Discovered at Meir, Egypt, in 1913, it's officially the world's oldest cake. 1/

This is unequivocally #GoodGreenNews - just look at the percentage increase for some of our rarest species. And you can see it immediately in Orkney - species I never thought I'd see. #conservation 🌍 #ecology #birds 🦉 #smallmammals #invasive #predators #Scotland

I didn't need to refer back to this photo to summon up the caves; they're once experienced, never forgotten. Swimming out in Derrible Bay, you can whoop and every cavemouth sings back to you. I won't post the short, as I feel buoyed up to polish it and try to home it somewhere. #nature #senseofplace

One of the loveliest bookshops, especially the library up beneath the 1600s beams, with an antique typewriter in a cubby for folks to play on and a table to sit and scrawl a few lines. Open windows looked out over the Seine. Interesting selections, inc @damianbarr.bsky.social's recent release. 😊

Very excited to say that my poem 'A crow is quite small, in the hand', about hurt wild things and the complications of trying to rescue them, was longlisted for the Canterbury Poet of the Year 2025, part of Canterbury Festival, and appears in their anthology. Thanks so much to all involved!

I had to go and look! But no, it is artfully arranged seaweed. Good spot, though!

Reflecting on Orkney, such heartstopping wilds that have been on my mind for a while, now. Can you spot the wrack's little shy friend here? 🥰🦀

2/ Lured in by buddleia and warm concrete, a sweet gap filled between now and ivy-flowers, one last sip of sunlight before the long, cold, sleep.

Over the broken station fence, earth scabbed with cans, sun-cracked plastic, a peacock flashes black satin, auburn velvet, organza in violet - each scale glistering fresh emergence. 1/