Vivian H

Two cats with very similar coloring. One has got its head peaked out of a basket and the other one's head is invisible so it sort of looks like the cat is had its head chopped off

Cat the Baptist

Suspect Reform rather than Tory, especially in that neck of the woods.

It says more about them than about the books...

My first thought was:

Has Kemi Badenoch been speaking to the press again?

And the underwear is Jaegers Woollen.

Benedict Cumberbatch?

There's always a TS lyric. Always.

In *one week*, if nothing goes wrong, which given the last decade or so is a very real possibility, I will be on a sleeper train going up the Rhine valley. I am very slightly excited.

A richly decorated biscuit tin labelled "Nyakers Pepparkakor". A ruler next to it shows that it is just under six inches tall.

This is the size we got, about twice the size of what I'd think of as a 'standard' biscuit tin. I have at least four filled (to the top) with buttons, and another couple housing some of the reels of thread. My late mother hoarded many things, but particularly haberdashery.

Pepperkakar? My mother used to get those for me and her from Costco. The tins make excellent button tins afterwards.

Exactly.

Something I've started but which keeps getting sidelined in favour of newer shinier projects. Also, it would be something fairly simple without very specialised equipment.

The Swansea terraced house that looks like a stately home Artist Royston Jones has transformed his three-bedroom terrace house into a neo-classical wonder.

This is beautifully bonkers - done with love and care and deep knowledge. Compare and contrast the current state of the White House... www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

I once came across a border collie x cocker spaniel (both excellent breeds in their way and if you have a lot of work for them to do, but total menaces if bored), and I hope to goodness nobody did that *on purpose*.

Back to original point, I sometimes bake cookies, but always consciously "American-style". N, 13, bakes them often, without descriptor, but sees them as a different class of food. "Can I have a cookie?" is not the same question as "Can I have a biscuit?" (& biscuits far less likely to be home-baked)

I am a huge fan of Italian biscotti, which are so dry you risk your fillings if you don't dip them in coffee. And the children devour pepperkakar whenever I can get to a Scandi shop.

Softer than a proper biscuit (this is probably a moral judgement), might include an egg, which proper biscuits do not.

Zwicky Swiss Cotton : poster by Donald Brun : c.1955 : A famous Swiss product, Zwicky sewing cottons, by a famous Swiss poster designer and artist Donald Brun. Brun's career spanned many years during the 20th century and he was a highly acknowledged producer of posters such as this charming cat! Zwicky is now part of the Gütermann company. The poster is dominated by a smiling black cat, with green slits for eyes, holding a bright red bobbin of red thread that is wrapped around its two front legs.

Apparently its yet another International World Day of something - cats apparently. Anyhow for all you lovers of moggies here's a c.1955 Swiss poster for Zwicky cotton thread by the marvellous artist/designer Donald Brun #cats

↘️ flic.kr/p/egHNW8

(The author is a Chalet School fan too, I discover, which is nearly always a good thing)

It's brilliantly *not* yet another run through the six wives, but a look at the women who served them (and served their own families' purposes, and frankly just tried to survive as Henry 8 got worse and worse). Pressing it on all my friends.

Favourite book of summer so far one I had no idea existed & did not set out to buy, but it was in The Works (of all places) when I was talking Child 2 out of buying a 2nd tub of miniature plastic ducks. The Waiting Game by @nikkiclark86.bsky.social. Lovely stuff about relationship & networks.

Direct train from Norwich. On the other hand, it's *that* train...

My FIL is 72 and trained as a French teacher with a diploma, no degree.

I didn't know Manchester had Roman remains! Now I want to visit it even more (shamefully, I never have)

I feel this book is going to be relevant to the interests of most of the people I know ( @mthrjo.bsky.social , @lrbudd.bsky.social in particular)

For a start, the average teenager is not going to be able to *lift* a broadsword, and the worst injury they are likely to do with it is losing one of their own toenails when they drop it on their foot.

Today I start my research trip sailing down the River Seine from Paris to Honfleur (via a few stops) in a reconstruction of the Klåstad cargo ship built in 998. It’s the penultimate stage in the ship’s journey from Rome to London throughout the summer. I’ll post updates as we go #Saga25 #MedievalSky

N is very excited because he got a new number on the Lowestoft - Ipswich line this week, and that only leaves one in that class to get, apparently.

Given how many days jobs I have had where I have been "the weird one", it's slightly comforting that I could be mistaken for someone else.

We weren't, because I went to Exeter (the city, not the college) followed by an OU Masters.