Old Oswestry is also home to Mark Evans’ beautiful Janus Horse sculpture which is featured in an excellent blog post on borderland identities from @archaeodeathprof.bsky.social howardwilliamsblog.wordpress.com/2021/06/29/j...

Another thoroughly relatable article from Tim Dowling. Two archaeologists walk into a local beer garden with their Vizsla and recognise one person at a crowded table. Six people all say “Hello Hamish”

Well, it certainly looks like our Lewes queen had had enough of the hot weather. Feeling her pain. . .

I really enjoyed this piece for the @theguardian.com by Federico De Blasi on tracing the Mediterranean’s common culinary heritage. Water has defined how we have navigated our world over millennia and this is equally true for the Atlantic coast too evidenced through its archaeology 👇

Ooh ‘The heatless whispers of the ancestral dead’ In the Anglo-Cymric borderland some of us also choose to seek shelter from most ancient of trees.

I usually try to keep my politics off this platform, but I’m prepared to make an exception for Elon Musk. These figures are simply horrific. Everyone Hates Elon’s response can’t be improved on

Our starling family are so close to leaving. Two out of three chicks survived and they are now very interested in the outside world. We’ll miss their early morning chattering on the other side of the wall 🥰

You know you’ve got a good book when early afternoon has morphed into early evening without you even noticing. For anyone with even a passing interest in the natural environment, history and hope for the future of the Anglo-Cymric borderland ‘Hafren’ by @sarahchave1.bsky.social is one such book

Yay, it’s Brit Arch mag day! The May June edition of the bi-monthly magazine from @archaeologyuk.bsky.social includes an account of a visit to the Roman site of Venta Silurum, capital of the Silures at Caerwent in Monmouthshire

Even on a very grey March morning the Shropshire Hills look great

Strangely, I was up on Kinver Edge earlier today. We always stop at the war memorial before heading back down to the road. Kinver is unusual in having two memorials. This is the earliest where the survivors would meet to honour their fallen comrades. The second was

I may have mentioned how I love a good graveyard - for lots of reasons. St Bartholomew's at Much Marcle is also home to one of the most impressive yew trees in the country. @iwm21.bsky.social, Hamish and Cavall providing scale. It's breathtaking. Well worth a visit if you're in the area

Wow, you go out in the pouring rain with @iwm21.bsky.social and the dogs and encounter three enormous gull sculptures made from recycled materials by @gulljunkart.bsky.social that are paying a flying visit to the park. They’re amazing 😱

And otters have even inspired local artists taking part in the city’s Paint Festival

I really enjoyed the video of @profaliceroberts.bsky.social on her restorative walk through the woods in her fight against the decrepitude accompanied by her Wirehaired Vizsla, Lupa. Here’s our Hamish with his mate Cav (an equally wirey Griffon) demonstrating the utter joy of beach walks too

If anyone is looking for a present for a book lover who has an interest in the Anglo-Welsh border, its landscape, heritage and folklore I can highly recommend Sarah Siân Chave’s Hafren

Cavall the Spanish rescue Griffon says hi back

It was a day for magazines in the post. We also got our latest update from @englishheritage.bsky.social including an account of the varied uses of castles featuring Stokesay Castle in #Shropshire. It’s a truly magical setting and a wonderful haven for wildlife too

So excited to receive a copy of the first Annual Review of the Offa’s Dyke Association. There is so much going on. Conservation work, conferences and research all feature!

Wise words from @wwf.org.uk ‘20 minutes of nature a day can improve your wellbeing’. Even better it it’s mixed with archaeology too like at the beautiful @wtscotsocial.bsky.social site of Credenhill, Herefordshire 👍

You did a cracking job on turning my Anglo-Welsh border over millennia ramblings into something coherent and I loved the positivity wrap up with @iwm21.bsky.social too. Definitely up for another expedition when we're next in deepest Shropshire with Hamish and now also Cav!

I’m revisiting Rowland Parker’s magical The Common Stream - a reminder of why I love landscape archaeology because it tells the stories of “the ordinary men and women who in their countless thousands have trudged through life and then departed from it, leaving little visible trace”

Hamish too. He wants to be a bones specialist when he grows up.

#Shropshire stone circles in the sunshine. Mitchell’s Fold ❤️

Not the Anglo-Welsh border, but archaeology and dogs. The best kind of content ❤️ In our house it would have to be ‘Destroyer of beer mats and tissues’

❤️ Timeless

Likewise further along the Severn

Thank you to @archaeologyuk.bsky.social for this news on new discoveries in Flintshire. If you don’t subscribe to British Archaeology you’re missing out if you love your heritage. Why not make hints for Christmas and support the work of the Council for British Archaeology?