Polly Mortimer

Archaeology of the plastic hair curler.
All found on Cornish beaches.

Every note.

His biography of Perec is a masterpiece - one of the only
Books I would consider reading again. RIP.

RIP to David Bellos, a great translator, teacher, scholar and popularizer. Here's a charming little essay about what he learned from his landmark translation of Georges Perec's 'Life: A User's Manual'. online.wsj.com/article/SB10...

The mighty Gillian Welch and Dave Rawlings kept us spellbound. Truly great.

Shiver of desperation. School trunk in hall marked PLA to be sent off to our termtime care home aka boarding school.

@tommckinney.bsky.social yikes! Nooooo! If you play this, you can play a track from the new Robert Plant album in mitigation…

Wonderful #barbicancentre concert of Preisner at 70. Wall of sound and sounds beautifully done.

@petroc.bsky.social first song Coal for Mike is about the widow of an Ohio section hand on the freight trains of Ohio. His brakes man friends threw coal over her fence as the train raced by.
Very beautiful. Kohl fur Mike.

@tommckinney.bsky.social just about to set off next week on a memorable train journey. London- Sicily via Paris, Turin, and Naples . They put the train on the ferry! 70th birthday present to ourselves.

Walking Couple by Moonlight, 1654, by Gesina ter Borch, the Dutch watercolorist and draftswoman who produced mainly watercolour paintings capturing her observations of daily life.

One of more than 900 prints available through our online shop: https://publicdomainreview.org/shop/fine-art-prints

World's largest private Rembrandt collection may be fractionalised, owner reveals Plans are underway for the Leiden Collection of Dutch Golden Age painting, amassed by billionaire investor Thomas S. Kaplan, to be offered as shares on a public stock exchange

mmhmm www.theartnewspaper.com/2025/09/22/l...

If you’re in London there’s a good place called Audio Gold in Park Rd, N8.

The British Audio Awards shortlists revealed for inaugural year

The shortlists for the inaugural year of The British Audio Awards, also known as The Speakies, have been revealed and include industry names such as Hamza Yassin, AF Steadman, and Dr Rangan Chatterjee 👇 #BookSky

A time traveller from just a few years ago would find BBC News’ coverage of Trump’s upcoming UK visit jaw dropping. All about how to make an impressionable & volatile infant feel pampered enough not to have a tantrum. That’s what our global diplomacy 2025 amounts to.

@catherinewestmp.bsky.social hi Catherine - is there a water fountain in Priory Park? Could there be?

Question 7 and Cavaliera Rusticana

When a parrot wanted to connect with a distant friend, a touchscreen showed a selection of other birds available online. The parrots learned to activate the screen, designed specially for them, by touching it gently with their tongues rather than pecking aggressively with their beaks. "We had 26 birds involved," said Hirskyj-Douglas. "They would use the system up to three hours a day, with each call lasting up to five minutes." The interactions ranged from preening and playing with toys to loud vocal exchanges. "When we went through the data, we found that most of these parrots had favourite friends," said Hirskyj-Douglas.

Pet parrots which typically live alone (whilst those in the wild live in large flocks) were given the technology to call each other. They would use it for up to three hours a day, and developed favourite friends 💔
on.ft.com/3K05vhS

@tommckinney.bsky.social we don’t all love the Proms. Can’t wait for them to be over. Far too many popular symphonies and Friday night is music night type scenarios.

@tommckinney.bsky.social v glad to see my three yr old granddaughter developing a healthy admiration for Bowie. She asks the smart speaker to play Major Tom. I used to dress as DB in the 70s - 12 inch silver platforms et al saw him twice - epic of course. I dare you to play some…

Textiles: the art of mankind at #fashionandtextilemuseum is unmissable. Ends Sun. Everything from woven plastic and QRCodes to Guatemalan trinket mats, via Chinese jackets and embroidered cats.

Canada has pledged to plant 2 billion trees. Here’s how close we are The Government of Canada says it is just over a 10th of the way to its goal of planting two billion trees across the country.

“Through tree planting and forest restoration, we’re not only repairing what’s been lost, we’re also investing in the future.” 🇨🇦
🌳🌲🌲🌳 🌳🌲🌲🌳🌳🌲🌲🌳🌳🌲
www.ctvnews.ca/climate-and-...

Isn’t Brittany gorgeous? We go every year. We saw lots of swifts - how were the 🦅 in France?

Let’s rewrite: Alma Mahler was a composer.

‘Every week I look forward to it’: Belfast woman, 97, completes 250 parkruns Grace Chambers, whose daughter dared her to join nine years ago, hopes to be first centenarian at her local event When Grace Chambers ran her first parkrun, it was the result of a dare. Now, nine years later, and at 97 years old, she has reached the sought-after milestone of 250 runs. Chambers first took part after her daughter Michele registered her for the free, weekly timed events that take place in parks and public spaces in several countries around the globe. Continue reading...

‘Every week I look forward to it’: Belfast woman, 97, completes 250 parkruns

No brush, no pencil. Just a typewriter.

Artist James, using a 1930s Smith Premier typewriter, typed out this painting.

#art #printer #unique #typewriter #illustration

Israel bombed a hospital.

Rescue workers and reporters rushed to recover the dead and the wounded.

Israel bombed the hospital again. Live on TV.

Read that again.

Our government’s legacy will be its complicity in crimes against humanity. End all arms sales to Israel, now.

Not a proms lover. Waiting for them to be over.

This will be fascinating! Especially excited for Raisa Kabirs keynote at 3.15 on day 1.

The Royal School of Needlework is hosting its first conference and though in-person tickets are sold out you can still join us virtually! I’ve put an embarrassing amount of work into this so hopefully it’ll be a fun and informative conference for all! royal-needlework.org.uk/events-exhib...