the reluctant optimist

Morning meditation

CHUUNIBYOU DEMO KOI GA SHITAI REN

CHUUNIBYOU DEMO KOI GA SHITAI REN

a square filled in with pinkish gray color #cfc8c4.

#CFC8C4

Dark bronze statuette of the naked youthful god Mercury standing on a plinth. He's standing contrapposto, all the weight on his right leg, with the left foot back and the heel lifted. A cloak is draped over his left shoulder and arm, and his left hand is lifted at a 90º angle, clutching a missing object - the shaft of the missing silver caduceus. His right shoulder is held lower than his left, and he holds the small marsupium - money bag - in his lowered right hand (it has tied off little arms and he's clutching its neck, obvious that this used to be a small animal's skin, perhaps a rabbit). He looks to his right and slightly down, his hair short but shaggy, with wavy curls. His cheeks are slightly plump, as if he were still very young. His body is muscular, with a broad thickly-muscled chest made more noticeable by the shiny copper nipples. The base is round, with pale silver and dark niello inlaid palmette designs.

It's remarkable to see a pristine surviving high-end sculpture like this one. Depicting the god Mercury, it may have once decorated the tablinum of a Roman patrician's home. The figure originally had a gold torc and held a silver caduceus in his left hand. 🏺 1/

Gallo-Roman, 120-140 CE. 📸 me

A tiny gold earring of a head covered in a cap, with hook.

Gold earring - 3rd Century BCE

Such beautiful workmanship in creating a tiny object nearly 2,300 years ago!

This Etrurian example was found in Volterra & is 1.85 cm high.

It has an amber head & has a cap covered in granulations.

Now in Guarnacci Etruscan Museum, Volterra.

#FindsFriday

'Tis the season for coughs + colds.

Jane Austen's 250th birthday is coming up in December and I hope you'll celebrate by taking a turn about the room, acquiring a passion for dead leaves & closet shelves, and taking a fancy to the last person you could ever be prevailed upon to marry.

Olive Oil Granola With Dried Apricots and Pistachios (Published 2009)

I just made this oldie but goodie again and it has made me happy on a gloomy afternoon, so sharing: cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/1012...

a square filled in with brilliant orange color #f19345.

#F19345

Eggs benedict on biscuit halves on a yellow daisy plate.

Ever since I learned the fast, no fuss, darn near foolproof way to make a small batch of hollandaise, eggs benedict has become an easy option, limited only by my arteries.

This uses up the last of the sage and cheddar biscuits very nicely. 🍜🍽️🍳🥚

Butternut squash soup 🍜
Perfect for a relaxing Sunday.

a square filled in with dark yellowish green color #2a4c1a.

#2A4C1A

'Awakening can appear sudden, but that moment is the flowering of countless unseen steps taken in silence.'

Light mauve hydrangea

👀 Coffee time ☕️☕️🌺 - #DownhamMarket #Norfolk

Hydrangea still flowering -
📷 25.10.2025

#elevensestime

Qui ne tente rien n’a rien

[He who risks nothing, has nothing]

a square filled in with pale reddish purple color #b990a3.

#B990A3

PERFECT BLUE

PERFECT BLUE

KAGUYA-SAMA LOVE IS WAR ULTRA ROMANTIC

KAGUYA-SAMA LOVE IS WAR ULTRA ROMANTIC

a square filled in with yellowish gray color #a5a396.

#A5A396

A gold and silver torc that was discovered in south-west Norfolk in 2003 on the surface of a ploughed field. Iron Age in date, the torc is now part of the collections at Norwich Castle.
📸 My own. #FindsFriday #IronAge #NorwichCastle

Modesty, and all that, is very well in its way, but really a little common honesty is sometimes quite as becoming.
#JaneAusten #NorthangerAbbey

'Something Hannah Arendt writes in “Between Past and Future” about Ulysses, in which he sees who he has become only when his life is narrated back to him.'

The Booker Prize Foundation launches Children’s Booker Prize

The Booker Prize Foundation has launched the Children’s Booker Prize, the charity’s first award for children’s fiction. 👇 #BookSky

a square filled in with pale orange yellow color #e8cb8f.

#E8CB8F

Paella with chicken thighs, aged chorizo, and prawns with lemon slices and herb garnish in a pan.

I made paella tonight. 🥘🍽️🍜

A blue bowl with pappardelle, a thin sauce, slightly wilted, arugula, topped with salmon, salt and pepper, and chives.

Pappardelle with half a TJs lobster bisque (save the cooking water, you’ll need it) with arugula and topped with buttered salmon and chives . No complaints! I should have put a little ricotta on it but I was too sleepy. 🍜🍽️

My brother tells me that Silo is worth watching.

a square filled in with deep orange color #c5761b.

#C5761B

My super modern regulatory plan is that any entity named for a thing from Tolkien has to publicly explain why Tolkien wouldn’t immediately throw it into Mount Doom

A new LACMA exhibit uses art and science to unlock hidden histories Artist Tavares Strachan's first L.A. show blends his research into climatology, ocean science, aeronautics, chemistry, genealogy and undertold scientific breakthroughs by Black people to create a mult...

Tavares Strachan loves to blur the lines that separate art, science and historical reckoning — as well as past, present and future.