It’s the last day of my Huntington Library fellowship today, during which I’ve been on the hunt for imaginative readers of #earlymodern instruction & recipe books 👀 It’s been such a wonderful place to read and write over the summer, especially about plant knowledge!

An unexpected highlight of my fellowship at the Huntington this summer: getting to see & smell two corpse flowers blooming this morning (one, nicknamed Odorysseus, is making its public debut!). They only flower for 24 hours or so once every 2-3 years, so a double bloom is a real botanical event!

🌳 ’Whispers of the Wilderness’ is officially open at Beningbrough Hall! Ft. beautiful new art and sound installations inspired by the sensory experience of walking through a wilderness garden, & my 🪴 potted 🪴 history of wildernesses, told through 9 historic objects from throughout the Trust!

A blockbuster day at #RenSoc25, talking all things how-to, utility, local identity & readership alongside lovely & brilliant scholars — thank you @emilyrowe1.bsky.social for organising our roundtable on satire & sincerity, & @walla7437.bsky.social for chairing our panel on microgeographies!

We’re well underway with Birkbeck Arts Week — last call to come along to Gordon Square at 19.30 this evening to read (or listen) to a striking 10th-century #medieval play by a female playwright about the dramatic conversion of a sex worker. Free to all, sign up below! www.bbk.ac.uk/events/event...

Had a whirlwind of a week at #Shax2025/#RenSa2025 — from participating in my first SAA seminar on the wonderfully generative idea of the ruderal, to listening and learning to so many brilliant papers, to capping it all off with some dubious dance moves… Thanks Boston, you were a blast!

A bee-autiful binding for Thomas Hill’s Profitable Arte of Gardening (1593)! Spending a lovely day before #Shax2025 + #RenSA2025 hunting for annotations in the Botany Libraries at Harvard 🐝 🌱

For the Bluesky #EarlyModern York contingent: it’s the EMROC transcribathon tomorrow (yay!) and Emma Marshall and I are running a York cohort where we’ll be on hand for some extra support in transcribing some early modern cosmetic recipes. Contact me for more info and do share with your students!