Agreed. So what do we do now?

Rylands BlogConserving the Oldknow Book: History, Heritage and Treatment Amber Russell and Zoë Lanceley discuss the context and significance of the Oldknow Textile Sample Book, and describe its recent conservation.

Really interesting piece about the conservation of a #textile sample book from the #18thcentury.

rylandscollections.com/2025/12/02/c...

The cover of a blank journal book that is brown with coppery swirls all over, in a vaguely Celtic look. In the center is the Aiden, young orange haired Monk from The Secret of Kells cartoon in his brown robe and sandals, with a quill and some parchments. On his head is Pangur Bán, the white cat of poem fame. The book has a hard cover and an envelope like magnetic flap to keep it shut. Beneath the flap is the forest sprite Aisling.

The back of the hardcover blank journal shows the film title The Secret of Kells and shows the cartoon forest. It has tall brown and coppery tree trunks leading up to green rounded tree canopies. The back of a monk in the brown cloak and the white cat are tiny figures on a path leading up to the glowing forest.

They did not have #JaneAusten in stock, but I was able to get Pangur Bán! I did not know of that one. I love that film, and usually watch it around #StPatricksDay.

That'll do.

Me, middle aged white woman with cats eye glasses. Wearing a black watch tartan shirt. My red ceramic pendant with a black lace-looking snowflake in the center on white background is my favorite seasonal thing. Behind me is local art on my walls. Raccoon print from some #SomervilleMA festival. And the clam shell wall pocket I use for all my remotes. It's blue and looks like half a clam kind of. Also behind me is a blooming Christmas cactus by the bright window.

I'm wearing my @surlyamy.bsky.social pendant that lacemakers really like. The snowflake looks so lace-like!

A hardcover blank page journal book, with a lovely period silk damask pattern on the cover. It is aqua blue, with gold trims around the edge. It has pink and white and blue and coppery flowers. It has one of those red ribbons for page marking. It also has gold raised handwriting that is reproduced from a Jane Austen manuscript. It is from Persuasion, Chapter 11. J. Austen is written on the right hand flap in her signature.

A text from the inside of my lace journal. In my handwriting, in pencil, it was my lace-related activities for that day. It includes 4 swatches of Victorian black machine lace that were donated to our lace group recently and I was investigating them. They are glued to the page and my writing in pencil surrounds them.

Hey @portersqbooks.bsky.social: you have these in stock right now? I need a new lace journal.

I loved this book for that purpose. And I'm at the end of this one.

IIRC, there was a pink one. I hope that's next. I'll be over shortly.

A large bedroom in the historic house called Smith's Castle. A bed, bureau, and chamber pot chair are around the background. In the foreground is my Ipswich Lace demo setup. We have an informational poster to the left, a table of examples and books to the right. My active lace pillow is set up on a cocktail height purple table in the center.

The mystery portrait of a young woman, maybe in the 1760s era clothing. It's flowing white silk, with big lace engageants on the sleeves. Her bodice has a black bow in the center. She seems to be wearing a white cap. But the weird part is the really long black lace that comes from behind her head and drapes down to her lap. It's an unusual use of black lace and I'm so intrigued by it. Maybe if we can find out her name and backstory we can learn more.

Scratched on the paining in some rusty looking ink there is supposedly a name. They call her Miss Elizabeth because it says Elizabeth something. But I cannot decipher the writing myself. I will email them in the future for the rest of their research on this.

I spent yesterday at Smith's Castle in N. Kingston RI. Doing a #BobbinLace demo in a home of the right period for #IpswichLace makes me happy.

But they have this mystery painting, with a sitter draped in black lace that haunts me.

www.smithscastle.org

This is wonderful. I am pretty sure it was drag queens that also made me realize that some people carved a life outside of the lines. And it looked great, and it looked fun.

But I didn't even know it was this great. What a life.

#TransRights

Sigh. Science is under assault on every front.

I never heard of a Science Museum bomb threat.

wtf is a FIFA peace prize? that's like being an NFL laureate in physics

FBI’s Bongino tries to explain his discredited conspiracy theory in pipe-bombs case Why did the FBI deputy director get the pipe-bombs case wrong? He has an answer, but it isn’t a good one.

FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino now admits that when he peddled bogus conspiracy theories about the pipe-bombs case, he didn’t know what he was talking about.

“I was paid in the past for my opinions,” he said.

I’m not sure if he’s fully thought this through. www.ms.now/rachel-maddo...

Just to be clear, there are as many 6-year-old kids on Ozempic as there are kids who had gender affirming surgery while at school without parents knowing about it or babies aborted after they were born.

Who is doing the right hand pins? Those seem to be working.

donald trump and nancy pelosi are sitting in front of a microphone applauding . Alt: Nancy Pelosi is doing the fake golf clap to Donald Trump from that State of the Union, as Trump turns and notices her.

Putting his name on the building--that will TOTALLY fool the Nobel Committee.

Sure, Donny.

Trump Renames Institute of Peace for Himself

BREAKING: Trump Institute of Peace 2026 class schedule highlights:

- Intro to Committing War Crimes
- Starting an Unnecessary Regime Change War
- Intro to Conducting a "Dear Leader" Cabinet Meeting
- How NOT to Lobby the Nobel Committee

I was not aware that #RumeysaOzturk was still held in this limbo. Damn.

#SomervilleMA

As for the #ACIP meeting today, this is the only thing you need to watch.

And, to be clear, you do need to watch this.

New England warming faster than most places on Earth, study finds Pace of area’s temperature rise, outpaced in US only by Alaskan Arctic, apparently increased in past five years

My housemate and I have joked about living in our house until the sea comes up to the bottom of our stairs.

Maybe it will.

#ClimateChange #MApoli #Boston

www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...

On MSNow last night someone pointed out that he kept his right hand under the table the whole presser yesterday.

There's something there.

A very irritating calico cat is licking the frosting off the top of an otherwise pristine and glorious birthday cake. It has tons of cream frosting and spring flowers and green leaves. Larger roses in aqua purple and yellow and some little white mayflowers. Decorative swirly bits around all the edges too. It's on a glass cake stand.

Here's a recent one. The whole household likes them....

I get my birthday cake there every year--and legit panicked when I saw the story but didn't know the dates of the move. But I'm ok. It's before they go.

Please signal boost. Need a wheelchair tech who can help troubleshoot in Silver Spring, MD.

More #lableak crankery, still getting debunked.

I will be doing live coverage of the ACIP meetings tomorrow and Friday on Bluesky.

Here's the agenda:
www.cdc.gov/acip/downloa...

And here is Your Local Epidemiologist and The Evidence Collective's prebunk:

open.substack.com/pub/yourloca...

Should be an interesting time

Exactly this. The staff at these institutions have taken decades to assemble and their collective knowledge and understanding will take almost as long to reconstitute. DOGE, RFK Jr, and the Trump regime are doing generational damage to the Crown Jewels of American science and science policy.

Holy nonsense. The slope downward to the endarkenment has been so fast.

And we can thank everyone in the #lableak gang who spread all this misinformation and got us here for this.

Damn.

I thought I remembered that guy. I was part of the protest when his male pals did political action at Planned Parenthood a while back, and he thought that was all good....

blah blah blah "freedom of speech"....

#BostonClownMarch

catholicism.org/boston-globe...

‘ICE was here’: Dedham church sparks outrage over nativity scene with political message A Dedham church is causing controversy over another political statement in their Nativity scene this holiday season.

Dedham Priest pissing off all the right people by removing Jesus from the church's nativity scene and putting up an ICE WAS HERE sign in His place.

www.boston25news.com/news/local/i...