Kitty

@kittyfisher

liking stuff since 1741. arctic expeditions, medical history, marine life, flouncy mantuas, the sea, perfume. Edward Forbes fan account.

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Kitty@kittyfisher· 25d

It’s five past eleven in the a.m., some time in the early 19th century, and someone is looking magnifique

French fashion plate, undated but probably early 1830s. Showing a fairly soberly-dressed man in black tailcoat and dark blue trousers admiring the glory of his friend who’s dressed for a morning at home in a red, white and blue striped robe over cream trousers and waistcoat and silk slippers, with a high silk hat to protect his hairstyle, who’s leaning against the fireplace (looks like it’s summer bc there’s no fire and it’s got small portable curtains in front; the clock on the mantelpiece shows it’s just after 11), holding a letter and looking like he isn’t listening to a word his friend is saying because he knows he’s won the fashion game this morning.

Kitty@kittyfisher· 25d

Also, I’m not sure the OP is a particularly great retail CEO himself given the grasp of numbers on display here

In football, you can be losing for most of the match...
One brilliant pass.
One moment of magic.
One goal in the 90th minute.
And suddenly, you're a World Cup champion.

Except if you’re losing you need to equalise before you can win

Kitty@kittyfisher· 25d

Good thing he’s a footballer then, really

LinkedIn post from someone I presume is a retail CEO, claiming Lionel Messi, the international footballing legend, would make a terrible retail CEO. Which I’m sure haunts Lionel’s dreams.

Kitty@kittyfisher· 26d

Born #otd in 1723, Sir Joshua Reynolds, painter of everyone who was anyone in the mid-18th century, including some proper hotties such as Joseph Banks, Mai and my kind-of namesake Kitty Fisher!

Portrait of Joseph Banks by Joshua Reynolds. A dark-haired young man in red jacket and brown waistcoat leans against table containing a globe, pen and paper. A wealthy botanist, Banks was the naturalist on Cook’s first round the world voyage, also writing about and immersing himself in Polynesian life, and later as president of the Royal Society would serve as patron to a new generation of naturalists and scientists. He established Kew as a botanical garden and was influential in arguing for the colonisation of Australia (no one is perfect).

Portrait of Omai by Joshua Reynolds. A tall young Polynesian man dressed incongruously in light-coloured Middle Eastern style robes and a turban, barefoot and with tattoos visible on his lower arms and hands, against an imagined background of a Pacific island. His real name was Mai (‘Omai’ just meant ‘Here’s Mai’ in Tahitian), and he was the first Polynesian to visit Britain; he travelled to London in 1774 where he stayed for two years under the patronage of Joseph Banks, became the toast of society, and obtained weapons and gunpowder to get back his family’s land, which had been seized in his childhood by people from the island of Bora Bora, in his home island of Raiatea. Sadly he seems to have died a couple of years after returning home.

Kitty Fisher with a Parrott by Joshua Reynolds. A young woman with dark hair, wearing a light yellow dress with lace sleeves, sitting side-on the the viewer and apparently entranced by the parrot she’s holding. The painting is unfinished. Kitty Fisher was probably the first person be be famous for being famous. Born Catherine Fischer in the Covent Garden area of London, she became the mistress of several wealthy men and famed for her beauty and wit. She was skilled in self-publicity, likely orchestrating the fall from a horse in St James’s Park which exposed quite a lot of her person and made her hugely famous. She was adept at using the press and artists, in particular Reynolds with whom she had a close friendship, to promote herself further and take control of her image; her paintings by Reynolds can best be thought of as collaborations rather than simple portraits, in service of promoting her image. Her time in the sun was actually fairly short, only around five years, before she married a wealthy MP and became lady of the manor in Benenden, Kent; sadly she died, aged 25, only a few months later, probably of TB, at Bristol where she’d gone in search of a cure. Her name lives on today in the rhyme about Lucy Locket.

Self-portrait by Joshua Reynolds. A young man with wavy brown collar length hair, wearing a brown jacket and blue waistcoat, holding a palette and brush, raises his hand above his eyes and peers at the viewer/himself. Reynolds was one of *the* celebrated painters of his time; born in Devon he rose to become President of the Royal Academy of Arts. He was friends with many notables of his time, from Kitty Fisher to Samuel Johnson, and kept his house and studio on what’s now Leicester Square. He painted pretty much every famous or wealthy person of the time: courtesans, naval officers, foreign visitors, ladies of the manor, aristocrats, national heroes, actors and actresses and more.

Kitty@kittyfisher· 27d

@elizabethbeston.bsky.social look what I have! First thing is to hunt for your photos 😁 this is a beautiful book and looks so comprehensive 🦀

Cover of Seasearch’s ‘Marine Crustaceans of Britain and Ireland’ book by Lin Baldock, Charlotte Bolton and Iain M T Dixon. The main image is of a sweet C pagurus aka edible or brown crab sitting in a rocky crevice and glaring at the camera

Kitty@kittyfisher· 27d

I love how the bridge across the inner harbour in my home town has blue glass to zhuzh up the grey water (and everything else)

View of inner harbour, with old concrete berthing structures from when ferries docked there, and buildings behind. Thanks to the blue glass fencing, everything is a lurid turquoise so that as you cross the bridge, you can pretend you’re in the Aegean instead of a ferry port in Wales

Kitty@kittyfisher· 28d

This gorgeous amphipod print arrived today from Svalbard! This is by the v talented Sandra Setzkorn of @sarahbpolar.bsky.social’s Polar Artists’ Collective and depicts a Gammarus wilkitzkii amphipod, a species endemic to the Arctic that lives under the sea ice and I love it!

Print of a close-up drawing of a pale red amphipod on a light grey background, with a cream card mount, with the edition number, species name and artist’s name below

Kitty@kittyfisher· Jul 12

A herring gull eyeing me in case I have food, Bangor, Gwynedd. (I did not have food)

Herring gull on a grubby railway station platform, keeping a close eye on the photographer

Kitty@kittyfisher· Jul 11

A Jersey Tiger moth (Euplagia quadripunctaria) is hanging out on the computer chair! According to the Moth Recorder for S London and Surrey (it’s a thing) they never used to come this far north until a few years back, probably bc of climate change

A lovely black and cream striped moth, with slightly torn wings so it might’ve been attacked (and you can see the red part of the underside) resting on the back of a black slubby chair

Kitty@kittyfisher· Jul 10

He’d like this very much then

Section through an ammonite fossil showing all the chambers, some of which contain crystal. It’s sitting on a red quilted bag, on my knee, in the back of a taxi

Kitty@kittyfisher· Jul 10

Bye for now 😫

Kitty@kittyfisher· Jul 10

Old graves and a beautiful Celtic cross from the 1920s in St Seriol’s churchyard. The church was demolished in the 1980s but the cemetery is still there, if somewhat overgrown in places

Old granite and slate and limestone graves with lots of weed and grass growth around them. The grass in the foreground is shorter, there are the backs of houses and some short trees behind

Upright gravestone completely covered in ivy. There’s a Celtic cross gravestone behind it and many weeds among the other graves

Elaborately-carved Celtic cross grave marker in granite (I think?) with a design of knots, circles and balls. There is another less elaborate one behind it plus a market with a granite frame and white marble face. In the background are buildings of the local high school

Kitty@kittyfisher· Jul 9

I love a misty beach. Apparently so do the worms!

Wet sandy beach with the tide out and mist across the bay. There are loads and loads of worm casts in the sand

Kitty@kittyfisher· Jul 8

Visited my favourite rock pool where there’s always a lot going on. Here’s a shrimp (either Palaemon elegans or serratus, I couldn’t look close enough)

Kitty@kittyfisher· Jul 8

Now that’s what I call a fouled anchor (don’t @ me, I know what it means really)

Ancient rusty anchor now serving as art near the lifeboat station. There’s a massive beam of wood at the top. It rests on the ground and is rusty, worn and has green plants sprouting on it. In the background is the front of the old lifeboat station and a load of masts of boats in dry dock. I have no idea what ship this is from

Kitty@kittyfisher· Jul 8

The view with my coffee this morning. Am about to wade in and poke around (and cool down)

View of blue, clear sea with the tide almost out, the sky is also clear and blue, there are small boats anchored on the water with a breakwater behind, and in the foreground are seaweedy rocks

Kitty@kittyfisher· Jul 8

Not under the bed, but makes sense in this heat

Photo of a fridge full of various cold drinks in a shop, with a handwritten sign reading ‘monsters in fridge next to coffee machine :-)’

Kitty@kittyfisher· Jul 7

Meanwhile, on the warmer beaches of Trearddur Bay, lots of jellyfish strandings today. Here are a Cyanea lamarckii (I think), Aurelia aurita and Chrysaora hysoscella

Possibly a C lamarckii (blue jellyfish) washed ashore on sand and grey stones, along red and brown plants

Aurelia aurita or moon jellyfish in sandy shallows with some seaweed above it

Chrysaora hysoscella or compass jellyfish on the sand. A brown jellyfish with brown lines and a few tentacles visible

Kitty@kittyfisher· Jul 6

Some horrifying Victorian jokes, including one of my favourite kind, where the pun or punchline is explained. Sorry but I’m not responsible for anyone’s sides splitting

Very Bad Jokes from the Comic Almanack, via the Manchester Courier, 15 January 1842.

How many young ladies will it take to reach from London to Brighton?
Fifty-two; because a miss is as
good as a mile.

What part of Saturn's career reminds you of a gentlemen trying to pull on a pair of small boots?
The time when he endeavoured to overcome the Titans (tight-uns.)

Why did Jupiter descend to Danaë in a shower of gold?
To prove that he was one of the raining sovereigns.

There is a publican in New York so remarkably stout, that he retails his shadow at 6d. a pot.

"You be blowed," as the fly said to the shin of beef in the dog-days.

Kitty@kittyfisher· Jul 6

Meanwhile, in the graveyard, two sad inscriptions; a ship’s master, only 21, who died with his crew on rocks off Holyhead, and three servants who drowned with their mistress on a boating trip.

Worn stone slab with grass growing around it. The inscription reads:

Here lie the [?] Remains
of William Byrne
Late Master of the Sloop Betsy & Nelly of Carnarvon who was Shipwrecked off Holyhead the 27th day of March 1804 where he and his crew perish’d on the rocks for want of assistance Aged 21
ALSO
DAVID GRIFFITHS Ship’s Carpenter who departed this life 30th March 1818 Aged 57 years

(I have no idea why these apparently unrelated men were buried in the same grave 14 years apart)

Worn grave slab with a crack down it. The ins option is worn and reads:

Sacred to the memory of Alice, wife of James Wilcher, aged 38, Elizabeth Jackson aged 20, and Charlotte Andrews aged 23.
Fellow Servants in the Family of Sir John T Stanley, Bart., with whose youngest daughter S.S. all were drowned while boating in the Sea off Penrhos
Sept. 17th 1817

I believe the daughter is buried in the church itself

Kitty@kittyfisher· Jul 6

The tower of the Roman fort in Holyhead, with added herring gull watching me eat a croissant

Very old granite round tower, part of the Roman fort at Caergybi/Holyhead, within which stands St Cybi’s church and graveyard. There’s a herring gull sitting on it and long weedy grass with some slate grave slabs on the ground in front.

This was the end of the road, literally, for the Romans in Wales; below those walls was the sea. There’s been quite a lot of land reclaimed over the last 2,000 years though and now there’s more graveyard, a road, a railway and part of the port where the sea once was.

Kitty@kittyfisher· Jul 5

SUPERMARKET CAT at the local Asda 😍

A fluffy brown and white cat sitting outside a supermarket. Behind it is a grey panelled wall. According to the checkout lady, he’s there every day and often hangs out inside.

Kitty@kittyfisher· Jul 4

The Menai suspension bridge is 200 years old this year. Edward Forbes walked across it in 1834 on his way to his ferry at Bangor, having failed to find a rare flower on Holyhead Mountain.

Menai suspension bridge from the Britannia bridge. A long suspension bridge with heavy arches at one end. It’s crossing the Menai Strait and there are trees and greenery on both sides

Kitty@kittyfisher· Jul 4

Coffee break watching the ferry traffic. Sometimes I wish I still smoked!!

View over port with trains in foreground. Then a load of containers. Then the other side of the inner harbour with various boats moored. Then the main island of Anglesey in the background. The sky is classically cloudy

Kitty@kittyfisher· Jul 3

More Holyhead stuff! These signs are in several places along Newry Beach. So far there has not been one hell of a bang out beyond the harbour. So far.

Warning sign put up near Newry Beach in Holyhead by Stena Line, in English (on left) and Welsh (right). The English reads:
WARNING
TO DIVERS AND THE PUBLIC
THE AREA WITHIN 500 METRES OF THE WRECK OF THE SS CASTILIAN IS A PROHIBITED AREA (Protection of Wrecks (SS Castilian) Order 1997)
IT IS ILLEGAL AND EXTREMELY
DANGEROUS TO DIVE ON OR IN THE VICINITY OF THE WRECK OR REMOVE ANYOF ITS CARGO OF EXPLOSIVE ORDNANCE.
IF ANY MEMBER OF THE PUBLIC FINDS OBJECTS WHICH HE/SHE BELIEVES MAY HAVE BEEN RETRIEVED UNLAWFULLY FROM THE WRECK THEY SHOULD WITHOUT DELAY INFORM THE POLICE OR COASTGUARD ON 999
THE OBJECTS MUST NOT BE APPROACHED OR HANDLED AS THEY MAY BE HIGHLY EXPLOSIVE AND EXTREMELY DANGEROUS.
PERSONS BEING IN POSSESSION OF EXPLOSIVE ORDNANCE ARE LIABLE TO CRIMINAL PROCEEDINGS AND A PENALTY OF UP TO 14 YEARS IMPRISONMENT IF FOUND GUILTY OF THE OFFENCE.
MINISTRY OF DEFENCE AUGUST 1997
All persons using the foreshores and Holyhead Harbour are advised to exercise caution during and after the arrival and departure of conventional and fast ferries when large unexpected waves may be encountered.

Castilian sank in 1943 after hitting rocks near the Skerries, off Holyhead. Her cargo of munitions went down with her and is still there.

Kitty@kittyfisher· Jul 3

This view is down Summer Hill in Holyhead, where Able Seaman William Mark of HMS Erebus was born in about 1824. I don’t know which house but it’s likely only the ones on the upper left were there in his time; the Market Hall (now a library) on the right was built in 1855 1/2

View down a street with early 19th century houses on the left; one is boarded up and one has a shop on the ground floor. The road curves from right to left past a grey stone building with a small round window on the gable. There’s a van parked in front of it and another going down the road.

Kitty@kittyfisher· Jul 3

Happy dog, happy dog sitter. Although he’s probably scared the shit out of any animals hiding in the seaweed

Black and white collie splashing about in the sea by some bladder wrack-covered rocks, having an amazing time. The sea and sky are light blue and the photographer is very happy

Kitty@kittyfisher· Jul 3

Hahaha. We’ll see.

Message informing me that that person who has a lot of pro-AI lists has added me to a list of people who are ‘wrong about VR AI Crypto Smart-Glasses GLP1 NFTs or Bitcoin’ which is a hell of a name for a bitcoin and also one of these things (GLP1s) is not like the other, but it’s nice to see he’s presumed to know my opinion on them

Kitty@kittyfisher· Jul 2

The very definition of comfy

Black and white collie/cattle dog curled up all snug and tight on a gold velvet bed (full disclosure, he and Other Dog timeshare).

Kitty@kittyfisher· Jul 2

Other Dog. He’s very, very old and hard to get a photo of as he likes wandering around, a lot. He’s lovely and sweet and the bestest boy. And very very old. He is John Barrow Sr to the other one’s Jr.