Sam Evans

A colour woodblock print of a view on to a snowy scene from inside the Kiyomizudera Temple.

#AshmoleanAdvent Day 10: Evening Snow at Kiyomizudera

This woodblock print shows a view from inside the Kiyomizudera Temple in Kyoto on a snowy evening by Kawase Hasui.

Snow falls steadily, forming drifts on the wooden balcony. Through the pillars, two figures can be seen looking out.

A view over a rural scene dotted with winter trees, as the early winter evening casts a grey sky orange yellow, illuminating hard frozen ploughed fields

Ladybird Artists Advent Calendar, window 9
‘Evening Snow’
Artist: SR Badmin

Adam Buxton speaking to Mary Anne Hobbs on BBC 6 Music about This Is What You Get and the exhibition audio guide.

On a snowy winters night, Matilda, in long white robes, looks back over the frozen River Thames towards the fire burning on the opposite bank

He’s not the best-known Ladybird artist, but I do love Roger Hall’s depiction of Matilda escaping the siege of Oxford through the snow

A Japanese painting of a black bear cub in the snow

#AshmoleanAdvent Day 8: Black Bear Cub

Painted by Japanese artist Mori Shūhō, this small bear looks directly out at the viewer while it sits uneasily on a ledge amid the snowflakes. Shūhō was a member of the Mori School of artists who specialised in lifelike depictions of animals.

🐻 EA1964.95.F

🏆 Announcing the IBC Awards 2026 LONGLIST!

This list showcases the UK’s best inclusive children’s books of 2024 in two of our three awards categories. Congratulations to all our longlisted authors and illustrators!

#IBCawards #IBCawards2026

Graphic featuring the books on the longlist for the 2026 Inclusive Books for Children Awards.

Inclusive Books for Children @ibc-reads.bsky.social has announced the longlist for its 2026 Awards, recognising outstanding inclusive books for young readers, published in the UK. #KidLitUK

Check them out and add them to your shopping list! 🎁🎄

booksforkeeps.co.uk/inclusive-bo...

On a snowy day, a small figure with his dog shines a torch as he walks past a snow-topped barn. This barn has strong echoes of ‘the repair shop’

Ladybird Artists Advent Calendar, window 8
‘Winter Farmyard’
Artist: Ronald Lampitt

A photo I took of a dense patch of snowdrops against a dark fence, with rays of sunlight shining down on them and sunlight illuminating their petals from behind.

A small reminder, especially if you struggle with low mood in the winter, that this is just 8 or 9 weeks away, fewer in some cases 👇🏼🌱🌱

Painted wooden Victorian trenchers, highly decorated in gold, red, green, blue and many more colours

#AshmoleanAdvent Day 7: Decorated Elizabethan Trenchers
 
These decorated wooden trenchers, made around 1600, would have been used as dining plates at banquets on special occasions. Placed face down on a table they would have held sugared fruits, marzipan or other sugary delicacies.

Photo of an intact Roman two-handled translucent cobalt blue glass cup dated AD 30-70. The cup has a cylindrical body with vertical sides and two narrow strap handles attached to each side as ear-shaped loops. The cup is mould-blown with relief decoration on the body which incorporates two inscriptions in Greek, one on each side of the cup. One side reads ‘ENNIWN/ENOIH/CEN’ (‘Ennion made [it]'). The other side reads ‘MNHOH/O AOPA/ZNW translated as ‘May the buyer be remembered’. Dimensions: Height 2½ in. (6.4 cm), diameter (rim): 3% in. (9.5 cm) Collection Museo Archeologico Nazionale di Adria, Italy. Incredibly this is one of two matching cups blown from the same mould, found together in a Roman tomb at Cuora, near Adria, Italy, in the early 1900s. The matching cup is now part of the collections at the Corning Museum of Glass

Exquisite Roman glass cup signed by master glassmaker ‘Ennion’. AD 30-70.

Ennion was the first glassmaker to ‘brand’ his work by incorporating his name into the mould’s design, some 2000 years ago!

Museo Archeologico Nazionale di Adria 📷 Leonardo.disimone

#Archaeology

A view over a ploughed field towards an ancient barn topped with snow. There is a hard hoar frost tracing cobwebs and making the going hard for the corvids in the field

Ladybird Artists Advent Calendar
Window 7
‘Frost’
Artist: CF Tunnicliffe

A coiled, round lidded basket made of tightly woven natural fibers, displayed on a gray surface. The basket has a flat, circular lid that fits snugly over the bowl shaped basket.

A more than 3000-year-old Egyptian basket of coiled palm fibre with a lid. Baskets served as household containers and were frequently placed in tombs, containing grave goods such as jewelry or food offerings. The basket has been remarkably preserved because of Egypt's arid desert climate.🧵1/2

📷 me

A 15th-century oil painting of the Icon of St Nicholas. With the figure of St Nicholas in the centre wearing robes and two icons in the corners of John the Baptist and the Virgin Mary

#AshmoleanAdvent Day 6: St Nicholas

Today marks St Nicholas Day.

St. Nicholas of Myra was a 4th-century Christian bishop known for his kindness and generosity.

In this icon dating back to the 15th century, St Nicholas is shown as the Miracle Worker.

The Dirigible is my go-to resource for encouraging poetry and reading poetry when I'm in school. A fantastic compendium of some of the best children's writers we have! @northernjim.bsky.social

A Christmas tree made of knitted squares with knitted and crocheted decorations

Behold! The famous Orkney Library & Archive knitted #Christmas tree begins another season of festive cheer in the library! 🎄🧶❤️

The early winter light over snow has created and almost apricot coloured sky. The country Lane is probably in Kent and we see a small farm yard with oast houses

Ladybird Artists Advent Calendar, window 6
‘Lane in Winter’
Artist: Rowland Hilder

Ok let's go.
1. It's a Big Country. Davitt Sigerson.
2. When the Thames Froze. Smith and Burrows.
3. A Fairytale of New York. The Pogues.
4. River. Joni Mitchell.
5. Thank God it's Christmas. Queen.

My photo collage shows a selection of bishop and warder chess pieces finely carved from creamish-coloured walrus ivory, dated c. 1150-1200 AD. Found in a large gaming hoard on the Isle of Lewis. On display at the British Museum. Photo top left: Two bishops and a warder. All standing. The bishops wear long garments, mitres, and hold a crozier with both hands. The bearded warder wears a long pleated garment and a conical helmet with neck and ear-pieces. He’s armed with a sword and kite-shaped shield inscribed with a lozenge shaped cross. Photo top right: A so-called ‘berserker’ warder chess piece. Standing, wearing a long garment and hood, armed with sword and a shield decorated with an interlaced saltire. The warder has large, wide-open eyes, and large upper teeth which bite the top of the shield. Height 8.2 cm. Photo bottom left: A standing warder and two seated bishops, one of which is partly obscured by the warder. The bearded warder wears a long pleated garment and conical helmet with neck and ear-pieces, is armed with sword and shield. The seated bishops wear long garments, mitres, and each holds a crozier and book. Photo bottom right: A warder and a bishop, both standing. The bearded warder wears a long pleated garment, and conical helmet with neck, ear-pieces and ornamented head-band. He is armed with a sword in right hand and kite-shaped shield in left hand. The bishop wears a long garment with cloak, and mitre, and holds a crozier in his left hand and a book in his right hand.

The Lewis Chessmen

These 12th-century chess pieces are packed with personality, and have such charmingly expressive eyes! ♟️ 👀

From a large gaming hoard discovered on the Isle of Lewis, Scotland, in 1831.

📷 by me

#FindsFriday
#Archaeology

A screenshot showing an old chair and on it, it says: "Everyone who ever sat on this chair is now dead. Play it safe and remain standing." The caption reads: "best 'do not touch' museum sign ever?

Nerd humor coming your way 😂

Five Egyptian gold hoop-shaped earrings with animal-heads.

#AshmoleanAdvent Day 5 – Five Gold Rings

These hooped earrings are richly decorated with wire, beads, and animal-heads (bull, wild goat, and ram).

These earrings were from one of two exceptional hoards discovered in 1905 at Tukh el-Qaramus.

🟡 Late 4th – early 3rd century BCE, AN1926.99–104

Happy #BookWeekScotland! We’re super excited that every P2 child in Scotland is receiving a copy of The Ballad of Cactus Joe. That’s a lot of books in the hands of young readers! I hope everyone enjoys the story.
Thank you @scottishbooktrust.bsky.social @oxfordchildrens.bsky.social #readwritecount 💙

Day 4, 11+ Fiction: 'Phoenix Brothers' by Sita Brahmachari. Two boys trying to settle into a new life - a story of friendship, shared history and challenging choices. @oxfordeducation.bsky.social #Spark12BooksOfChristmas 🎄🎁 📚

Aerial view looking down on a river running through a village. The focal point of the picture is a pink-painted inn on a stone arch bridge in a valley covered with snow.

Ladybird Artists Advent Calendar, window 5
‘Snowstorm in a Pennine Valley’
Artist: SR Badmin

Detail from the Winchester Hanging Bowl. Dating from the late C7th or C8th, the bowl was found as part of an Anglo-Saxon burial at Oliver's Battery, near Winchester in Hampshire. Now part of the collections at Winchester City Museum. 📸 #FindsFriday #AngloSaxon #Winchester

Rapunzel!

A view down to a village pond where a lot of children are skating and playing. A couple walk over a snowy bridge towards the pond.

Ladybird Artists Advent Calendar, window 4
‘Winter Village’
Artist: Ronald Lampitt

🧮 New EEF evaluations look at what boosts early maths.

Findings include:

• Numicon boosted educator confidence.
• TEEMUP led to one month of additional progress in maths.

Explore: tinyurl.com/5f48wxdh

A silver Roman coin with an eight-pointed star featured in the centre

#AshmoleanAdvent Day 4: Roman Star Coin

Prominent on the reverse of this rare silver coin from the Kingdom of Pontus, located in the Black Sea region of modern Turkey, is a large eight-pointed star.

A close-up of part of a Christmas tree with some traditional glass baubles and decorations, the sort produced by Woolworths in the 1960s and 70s and kept forever in shoeboxes in the loft

Ladybird Artists Advent Calendar, window 3
‘Baubles,’ 1964

Artist: Frank Hampson