Fiona McLees

My partner bought a La Pavoni lever machine, I scalded myself on it almost immediately. He makes all the coffees now. It makes great coffee but I am unwilling to spend that much time learning how to use it 😬

Sign stuck up in a cafe window: ‘The Awake 2nd Monday's Meeting 7.30pm At the Deri Inn Rhiwbina A friendship group of conspiracy theorists whose theories are now common truth and we are looking for new conspiracy theories. Come and join us, speak freely, laugh at the implausibility of the new truths. We are ordinary people living our lives but accept that our world is changing, In a way that is perhaps not in our best interests. 2nd Monday every month. Blue water bottle on the table’

I don’t know what to make of this. A creative prompt to dream up new conspiracy theories? I suppose they have to originate somewhere…

A puddle on tarmac on which manifold leaves float

Pattern made by high winds and suburban parks

Oh Bluesky messed up the line breaks

The Panther by Ogden Nash - Poem Analysis ‘The Panther' by Ogden Nash is a children’s poem about panthers. It uses humor to depict the panther and the dangers it poses.

Oh wow there is a 10 point analysis of The Panther! “Readers are meant to quickly consume these poems and find some joy in them.” Desperately despondent at the world whilst trying to find ‘some’ joy in Ogden Nash poemanalysis.com/ogden-nash/t...

Also this Ogden Nash gem:

The panther is like a leopard,
Except it hasn't been peppered. Should you behold a panther crouch, Prepare to say Ouch.
Or better yet, if called by a panther, Don't anther.

Some of the few bits of poetry I have committed to memory are Ogden Nash’s comic couplets.

A cow is of the bovine ilk;
One end is moo, the other, milk

A display featuring a large rock embedded with fossils. Above it a sign reads: “SECOND BEST CRINOID. This Crinoid plate comes from the Mississippian (Early Carboniferous) of Montgomery County, Indiana and is about 350 million years old. Of course it doesn't fit naturally into this museum (wrong age, wrong location) but it is so wonderful I couldn't resist.”

SECOND BEST CRINOID. Dinosaurland Fossil Museum, Lyme Regis (it’s wonderful and I love museum labels with personality)

A brick gatepost, topped with a concrete ball. A hedge is enveloping it slowly

Hard not to identify with this gatepost receding into the hedge / being subsumed in collusion. Please hide me

Ha! I knew it reminded me of something!

A brick gatepost, topped with a concrete ball. A hedge is enveloping it slowly

Hard not to identify with this gatepost receding into the hedge / being subsumed in collusion. Please hide me

Drystone facade with large megalithic stones forming entrance to passage entering large cairn

Passage of cairn with large stone side slabs all covered incised decoration and with stone slab floor and capstones

Large standing forming side slab of passage. Covered in incised decoration comprising rainbow 🌈 shaped forms, large ones in middle and smaller to side.

View into large square chamber at end of passage. Two large decorated backslabs and massive single paving stone.

Gavrinis is the most amazing megalithic site I have been privileged to visit. Taking a boat to reach, you encounter a remarkable concentration of #Neolithic rock art at a single megalithic monument. A deeply powerful & inspiring place.

@megalithic.bsky.social #rockart #archaeology #TombTuesday

Close-up image of a sand coloured stone, with a diagonal crack. The sand rock has a textured surface, and small spots of blue can be seen towards the centre of the stone. The background is grey.

Microscopic photo of the blue spots, that are irregular in shape and size and positioned diagonally across the image. The rest of the photo shows the rough sand coloured texture of the stone.

Time to update your Palaeolithic palettes... 🔵

Very proud to share our new research on the OLDEST use of blue pigment! We identified traces of azurite - a vibrant blue mineral - on a stone object around 14-13,000 years old. Why is this so exciting? 👇🏺

doi.org/10.15184/aqy...

Screenshot of a lettings advert for a property in London: Full Description The Caxtons, this is a huge two double bedroom property with two bathrooms as well as generous study room. The property offers a fantastic sized open plan lounge and kitchen. The property comes fully furnished to a very high standard, modern bathrooms as well as a top spec kitchen. The property is in a great location, minutes from Oval tube as well as all local ammonites. This property will not disappoint. Please call our lettings team on 02078204141.

Probably worth repeating that exercise with the estate agent’s blurb, to see what tale one could draw from that. I still remember a lettings advert fondly that had a wonderful typo suggestive of a different world entirely; in fact I kept a screenshot of it:

More examples welcome of views through artists’ windshields!

Ha! A surprising homage!

By pure coincidence I just came across the same astounding Hermes work in Susan Owens’ book Spirit of Place, having never seen it before. It reminded me - another of the same unusual subject: Matisse’s painting The Windshield, On the Road to Villacoublay
(1917) www.clevelandart.org/art/1972.225

Urgh Phillips’

Tom Phillip’s amazing house, on the market

The ornate ceiling in Lady Bute's bedroom at Castell Coch, Cardiff.

The 5th anniversary of my lockdown project is coming up. The ceiling in Lady Bute's bedroom is an iconic feature of the castle.

I've written a post every month so there's loads to explore if you've not visited before.

castellcoch.com

#Cadw #CastellCoch #Tongwynlais

‘Nature is an inexplicable problem; it exists on a principle of destruction. Every being must be the tireless instrument of death to others, or itself must cease to live, yet nonetheless we celebrate the day of our birth, & we praise God for having entered such a world’. Emily Brontë, 1842

One for @themerl.bsky.social, surely

Garlanded pig, drawing

Garlanded pig, drawing, back view, with card notation from Beaumont Hall, Lancaster

Did not realize how much I needed Pre-Raphaelite artist Edward Burne-Jones's utterly adorable drawings of pigs (thread). First up, front & back views of a prized pig adorned with a flowered garland, from Lancaster @darthbluesky.bsky.social @themerl.bsky.social eb-j.org/browse-artwo...

Will look that up, thank you!

Your thesis would make a lovely book too

Surely someone has done it?

Yes I was thinking it would be too broad to go into printing / sculpture. Perhaps wall painting / oil painting / works on paper limitations

There’s surely a book on this, right? A nice chatty history of artists’ tools from fingers to brushes to nibs to pencils to pens etc? www.timetoast.com/timelines/th...

This sounds fascinating - wish I could make it

Someone left a legacy to clean the Scott lighthouse memorial at Roath Park a few years ago & it made such a visual difference, & must’ve had an impact on many people who walk past it. Real beautification of the environment. But the army of memorial benches in the same park show no signs of slowing