Wildgoose Tracks

My photo collage shows five cylindrical Minoan cups each with a single handle and slightly flaring rim. Each cup is decorated with a different geometric polychrome motif: Top left: swirling white vine-like lines and round reddish-orange medallions framed by white circles on a black background. Top right : large white spiral on front of cup with a reddish-orange oval shape with stylised white petals beside it, on a black background. Middle left: diagonal zig-zag stripes in alternating black and white above and below a band around the middle of the cup Bottom left: swirling white lines and reddish-orange and white geometric band on a black background. Bottom right: diagonal white stripes below a row of red dots outlined with white circles on a black background. This type of ornamental Minoan pottery is known as Kamares Ware, named after the Kamares Cave on Mount Ida on the Greek island of Crete where this kind of pottery was first discovered. Kamares Ware vessels were luxury items produced by palace workshops at Phaistos and Knossos on Crete. These five cups were excavated at Phaistos and are dated 1800-1700 BC.

Marvellous Minoan cups made by Bronze Age potters about 3,800 years ago!

Which is your favourite? ❤️

Heraklion Archaeological Museum 📷 by me 🏺

#Archaeology

For those who missed it this week, here is my latest piece for @blaetter.bsky.social - on how Maga is preparing to take over the UK as well and why we are (constitutionally) more vulnerable here than other European countries.

Have a good weekend, everyone - in spite of everything ;-)..

Christ, Trump just admitted he gave Zelensky nothing, but forced him to travel all the way to Washington to be told he needed to make concessions to Putin for "peace". He really just tortured the Ukrainian president because it makes him feel good.

Why can I remember no Labour politician making this point, this well?

Everybody except the Greens seems to think the best way to fight Reform is to agree with Farage about everything.

This, right here, is brilliant. And genuinely patriotic. And so, so true.

I've been reading a lot of analysis of current French politics - and this is the best and most succinct! Certainly resonates with me.

Freedom is Action: A Campaign for Ukraine A fundraiser for life-saving drone-jamming cars and trucks

open.substack.com/pub/snyder/p...

YouTube video by Glosa Piano The PERFECT performance by COUNTERTENOR Jakub Józef ORLINSKI - VEDRO CON MIO DILETTO - Vivaldi

youtube.com/shorts/kaspB...

Well worth reading indeed

✨🎶 Today we celebrate the birthday of Ralph Vaughan Williams with his Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis. https://www.digitalconcerthall.com/concert/16914?utm_medium=social&utm_source=bluesky It was performed in all its architectural splendour at a concert in 2013, conducted by Sir Simon Rattle.

On 4-5 October 2025, more than 27k people took part in EuroBirdwatch 2025! 🦅👀

Across Europe and Central Asia, 34 national BirdLife partners hosted over 800 events, observing together over 2.8 million birds heading south to their wintering grounds

Find out more: www.birdlife.org/news/2025/10...

A huge orange orb lit from within is suspended between the stone pillars of Fountains Abbey in the dark

The huge glowing orange orb of Helios hangs between the stone arches of Fountains Abbey under the dark blue sky of dusk

A glowing orange orb pokes up from behind the arched ruins of Fountains Abbey under a grey brooding sky. Dark green lawn is in the foreground

Illuminating the ancient ruins from within, Helios shines at Fountains Abbey.

Photos: Anthony Chappell-Ross and Jenni Shepherd

YouTube video by decay21450 You Don't Own Me - Bette Midler, Goldie Hawn & Diane Keaton

youtu.be/Q_oFL_b719g?...

If at first you don't succeed try and try again ... and again ... and... so ad infinitum.

Today, Robert Badinter, the architect of the abolition of death penalty in France, and a great conscience, is entering the #Panthéon where he will be resting next to Condorcet, the French Enlightenment philosopher.

YouTube video by International Civil Society Action Network - ICAN Open Statement to the UNSC on behalf of Women Peacebuilders Marking 25 Years of the WPS Agenda

25 years after #UNSCR1325, women are still fighting to be heard in peace & security.

ICAN's @sanambna.bsky.social reads our open statement from women #peacebuilders marking 25 years of the #WPS agenda.

Unmet commitments are just words. What are you waiting for?

www.youtube.com/watch?v=qQ_E...

Meanwhile in France ... my train was delayed because of a medical emergency of a patient so we were going to be about an hour late at destination ... I got an email while still on train that my compensation for the delay would be automatically credited to my account within 24 hours ... and it was

Screenshot of an Express article; it says: Robert Jenrick lists 30 'activist judges' he vows to axe in war on UK's open border In a bold move, Robert Jenrick is set to unveil a controversial plan targeting what he calls 'activist' judges, at the Conservative Party conference.

I say this with the bluntness it requires: they will get people murdered if this continues. This is not just populism anymore either: it’s completely unhinged and a deliberate choice that does endanger lives. I am not saying this lightly at all.

Who really controls the BBC?

Given the state of the world politic the deepening, largely Macron - inflicted, domestic political crisis in France does terrible damage to the European Project, where, ironically, Macron has spoken sense

You might easily take this for tropical rainforest in some faraway country.

But it's an Irish temperate rainforest, a much *rarer* habitat.

And it's equally threatened, only by masses of deer, goats, and sheep, rather than chainsaws or bulldozers.

The German-born French composer Jacques Offenbach died on this date in 1880. The author of dozens of wildly-popular operettas, he was considered a hack by metaphysically-oriented composers like Berlioz and Wagner. But Debussy, Bizet and others loved the directness of his style.

🎶 #OTD in 1964 Mstislav Rostropovich made his debut with the Berliner Philharmoniker. https://www.digitalconcerthall.com/concert/56206?utm_medium=social&utm_source=bluesky We are celebrating with this clip from 1990 - Tchaikovsky’s String Quartet No. 1 in a version for cello and orchestra.

Over one million back Nobel Peace Prize for Francesca Albanese and Gaza doctors A PETITION for the UN Special Rapporteur for the Occupied Palestinian Territories to win a Nobel Peace Prize has gained over one million signatures.

🗣️ #WPSWednesday: “Awarding the 2026 Nobel Peace Prize to Francesca Albanese would not only honour her personal integrity & contribution but also reaffirm the international community’s commitment to the foundational principles of peace through justice.” www.thenational.scot/news/2549413...

Afghan women lose their 'last hope' as Taliban shut down internet For many women, the internet was their last resource. An internet shutdown threatens to end this.

🗣️ #WPSWednesday: “We dreamed of finishing our education & helping our father financially, but now...we all sit at home doing nothing.” Mahfouz Zubaide shares the fears of #Afghan men, women, & children after the Taliban-imposed internet blackout. www.bbc.com/news/article...

Jane Goodall and a chimp named Freud

We mourn the loss of Dr. Jane Goodall. A scientist and conservationist who worked tirelessly for our planet and all its inhabitants, leaving an extraordinary legacy for the protection of nature. We are lost without you Jane, but we will proceed as best we can.

I’m sad to hear the news that the wonderful Jane Goodall is no longer in the world. Her work with chimpanzees at Gombe in Tanzania taught us to look at other apes - and ourselves - differently. I was privileged to meet her later in life and tell her what an inspiration she was to me.

Never shall I forget those flames that consumed my faith for ever.
Never shall I forget the nocturnal silence that deprived me for all eternity of the desire to live.
Never shall I forget those moments that murdered my God and my soul and turned my dreams to ashes....

Excellent thread but I would judge that while brexit supercharged British racism it has a very long history

Would you consider the Ulster Scots part of the Scottish diaspora?

Then this month, the Afghan Education Ministry wrote to schools saying it was removing 51 subject headings from the curriculum, describing them as anti-Islamic.