Folk Horror Revival 🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️

Nearly full moon silhouetting catkins hanging from a tree.

Catkin Moon.

Bagpuss (1974)

Painting. Against a blue background, a border of late medieval artifacts. In the centre a man, the artist, who is excavating a piece of land, examines one of his finds while the ghosts of the potters look on.

'Look, he's digging up our pots'
by James Bentley (1921–2004)

#PhantomsFriday

Is that the ultimate origin of this, he made it up?

I've not tried to tackle TAE, think I may put it on the backburner now.

Most of the paperback series I bought new at the time, the others I gathered gradually over the years and then for the last one I needed for ages I eventually went down the online route.

I'd forgotten about all that and only remembered the cooler bits.

Here are a couple of jaunty Guillemots to start your week.

(Etching by Robert Gillings)

An owl is perched on a tree stump leaning forward with head turned slightly towards the viewer.

'Owl on Tree Stump' - Tejima Keizaburo, ca. 1980s.
#OwlishMonday #JapaneseArt

Happy March from my Moomins calendar #moomin

The morning of the second of March. Five and twenty past eight. "I'm terribly sorry to call so early," said the Dragon of Kensington Church Street to Old Fox, "just wanted to wish you a happy St David's Day for yesterday! I quite forget, I'm ashamed to say. May I make a toast over the telephone? I'm drinking a very nice cup of tea as I speak." Old Fox made the necessary salutations and soothing phrases – "quite alright," "no bother at all!" "I believe the Bishop would enjoy an extra day!" – and together, one in a warm, book-lined study in a Dorset cottage, the other in a rather smart sitting room in a London flat, they toasted Saint David and his mother, Saint Non, and her mother and grandmother before her, and then they settled down to a very enjoyable catch-up, as the first warm sun of the year streamed in and the first daffodils nodded in park and field.

A dark owl with yellow eyes and matching claws is perched on a branch blooming with umbellifers; a quartered coat of arms is depicted underneath. That FU motto flutters around the owl, like an aura shielding it. Am not usually one for military artefacts but this is lush

An early modern tournament shield from Germany (c. 1500). The motto around the owl reads, in translation, "Although I am the hated bird, I rather enjoy that." Know your self- worth on #OwlishMonday

LONG-EARED OWL Asio otus otus. Perched, often against a tree trunk, and in thick foliage, the Long-eared Owl spends the hours of daylight-for it is a night-hunter. It feeds on mice, voles, rats, small birds, moles and beetles. For a nest it uses old squirrel dreys, and old nests of Magpie, Crow, Sparrow Hawk, and Wood Pigeon. The so-called 'ear tufts' have nothing to do with the ears proper, but are feather tufts which the bird can raise or lower at will. They are raised only when the bird is curious, alarmed or excited. Length 13&half ins.

#OwlishMonday
Long-Eared Owl.
A picture card by
C F Tunnicliffe.

#OwlishMonday Owl mosaic cleaned up by volunteers at the tragically abandoned Leeds Library which was once a veritable arts & crafts haven of learning & literature. How the council could have let it fall into disrepair is criminal.

yellowish etching of a shrouded figure of death with a scythe slinking along the corpses of dead soldiers on the battlefield. There is a cannon and towers in the distance. Smoke and birds in the air.

#MementoMoriMonday
The Harvest/De Oogst, Marius Bauer, 1914-1918
www.britishmuseum.org/research/col...
#TheVictorianBookoftheDead

A monkey (I'm assuming) hanging onto the wall of Llangadwaldr Church on Anglesey.
#monkey #monkeys #churches #medieval #medievalsky #Anglesey #YnysMon

Closeup portrait of a manul with bright green eyes in a fenced enclosure, looking calmly ahead.

Happy Manul Monday!

Now with Scarred for Life seal of approval!

CALL FOR PAPERS

Friendly reminder that the abstract deadline for this year's York Magic and Witchcraft conference is 14th March 📜 the theme is NATURE AND THE SUPERNATURAL, broadly defined 🌦️🌛🌍

Please send your abstracts to magicwitchcraft2024@gmail.com !
@drdebsmoretti.bsky.social

Our research shows that 13% of people in England - that’s roughly 5 million people - believe that it is lucky if swallows, swifts and/or house martins build a nest in the eaves of your home.

Brilliant news! Still hope for other long lost gems out there to find.

Seems likely from follow-up comments that it's the episode 'No such thing as a vampire'.

Screenshot of an exchange on Twitter (or X as it is now) of a conversation between two people: Guy J. Pitchford: Can you say which ep? Richard Latto: You will be delighted [vampire emoji] Pitchford: Matheson! Classic.

Seems to be confirmed (the original post seems to have been deleted now)

Image

Paul Giamatti will star in horror movie BOUTIQUE.

A man journeys to the eerie English seaside town that inspired the work of his favorite reclusive author but instead gets entangled with a murderous secret society permeating the whole town.

Source: DEADLINE (on X)

The Folklore Society mistletoe logo

The Folklore Society’s Katharine Briggs Prize 2026 has opened for entries! Open to books in English having their initial publication in the UK & Ireland in the period from 1 June 2025 to 31 May 2026. Deadline for entries 31 May 2026. More info and rules: www.folklore-society.com/awards/the-k...

A painting by American regionalist artist Thomas Hart Benton (1889-1975) of a human skull and discarded revolver hidden in a tangle of roots, leaves and undergrowth at the base of a tree. In the background a farmer ploughs a field.

'After Many Springs' (1945) by Thomas Hart Benton #ArtSky #Spring

Painting of an owl with ear tufts sitting on branches that are bare of leaves but on which the first petals are starting to open.

#OwlishMonday 'Early Plum Blossoms' by Nishimura Goun (1936), painted on silk

I want to see the rest too, just have to prepare myself for what I suspect will be plenty of oirish clichés.

Now it's been pointed out, Kenneth Anger's films are what it put me in mind of when I watched it not so long ago.

Terrifying

Unhinged off the scale scary

Us: ‘oh wow a Harryhausenesque film called Jack The Giant Killer, wonder why we’ve never seen this before’

The Film:

See also the banshee in Darby O'Gill and the Little People (which, to be honest, I haven't seen, just the banshee scene, I doubt the rest can measure up).