Dr Rob

Oh wow, literal boy dinner! I approve of it tbf, but fear I'd regret trying it

Momentarily thought those were bits of mozzarella, but realising they were raw garlic escalated the levels of "boy dinner" being reached

A magnificient medieval treasure for a medieval Monday- Sir Gawain and the Green Knight: (Cotton MS Nero A X/2, ff. 94v–95r)

How I leave the social gathering

From me, 'cup of tea' almost always means the general stuff they call 'English breakfast tea' with milk, but in this case it was indeed something ever so slightly more exotic: a red berry tea!

I have often enjoyed this strange parallel

a two-headed dragon, each head menacingly grinning in opposite directions while the dragon itself descends from a tempestuous sky

I heard y'all like dragons in august so have two for the price of one

#art #illustration

The best days are those of broken clouds sailing through broad blue skies, throwing short-lived shadows upon the ground between bursts of warming sunshine, while blustery winds fluster the treetops and the willow-branches dance

Only in the last few years have I realised that my favourite weather—like the weather here today—is a combination of sunshine and high winds

Regeneration, etching by Janis Goodman, Leeds-based printmaker. #WomensArt #NorthernArt

Saw someone (not a mutual) posting that fig newtons are a lot of work, and I had to refrain from replying "actually, fig newtons are a lot of force; if they're a lot of work, then they're fig joules"

"The Olde, Old, very Olde Man or Thomas Par" Looking good for his alleged 152 years of age here in 1635. (British Museum)

My family copy of The Fellowship of the Ring

Choosing to spend the latter part of this evening in an armchair with a blanket, a cup of tea, and this old friend

This is indeed the important question

Star-shaped tile with a phoenix and stylized flower spray

Kashan, c. 1250 - c. 1324

(Rijksmuseum)

Blimey, some of these are stunning. Worth a look for anyone who enjoys such beautiful intersections between astronomy, history, and art

1817 map snipping, "Well. Well. Well."

Look what we have here then.

Today's walk was rather wet and windy

#FindsFriday
Depictions of Gaulish mercenaries from Ptolemaic Egypt, 220-180 BCE,
📷 British Museum, London

#Archaeology #History #Artwork

Exquisite!

Not completely random; I was going through and seeing who had liked this tweet of mine from the other day (at least I think that's where I came across you?)

And interesting, I haven't heard of those books; I'll have to look into them, thanks!

Mine's lower on the page and it looks like the right-hand page there is quite different, so I think it's a different edition but definitely looks similar

Text from the end of my copy of the Hobbit: If you are interested in Hobbits you will learn a lot more about them in The Lord of the Rings: 1. The Fellowship of the Ring 2. The Two Towers 3. The Return of the King

Love how The Hobbit ends with the literary equivalent of a post-credits scene

A late 9th century sword pommel - part of the Bedale Hoard which was found by metal detectorists in 2012. The hoard is now part of the collections at the Yorkshire Museum in York. 📸 My own. #FindsFriday #BedaleHoard #YorkshireMuseum

Reminds me of a Bacchanalian thyrsus!

Really rather grey, gloomy, and drizzly here today. October, it appears, has firmly set in

PASS ME THE MUGSTARD

My photo shows a gold funerary mask which was excavated from Grave V, Grave Circle A, Mycenae, Greece. The tomb is dated circa 1550 BC. The mask is made of thin gold sheet with repoussé detail depicting the face of man. Details include a long beard below his chin, thin lips, above which is a moustache which curves up at the ends. The man’s eyes are closed as if asleep. He has full eyebrows. Just below his ears, are two small holes, thought to be for twine to hold the mask in place over the deceased’s face. It is known as the Mask of Agamemnon because when Heinrich Schliemann, the excavator, uncovered the tomb, he thought it belonged to the legendary Greek king. It is now known to predate the time of Agamemnon.

Gold death-mask, known as the ‘Mask of Agamemnon’.

Found at Mycenae by Heinrich Schliemann in 1876. Schliemann thought he’d uncovered the tomb of the legendary king. It has since been dated c. 1550 BC, predating the time of Agamemnon.

National Archaeological Museum, Athens 📷 by me

#Archaeology

Sunlit green apples on a branch, with a blue sky in the background

A horse in a field shortly before sunset, with lens flare from the low sun in the background

A copse of trees silhouetted on the horizon by an orange sky at sunset

September's last

The Problem of Writing Poems in the Shape of Deciduous Trees [The poem has been written in the shape of a deciduous tree with letters (or ‘leaves’) missing from the text]: a comm n pr ble  whe  writin p ems in the shape of decid o s  trees is t at once t ere ar ives the fir t sti rings of  he new aut mn breeze,  he   oems will begi  to shake  hemselves  ge tly  ntil their letters loos n d  like leaves, an    they  start                                     to  float  down then [The missing letters from the tree have landed on the last line to form the phrase] turntomushuponthegroun [The final ‘d’ is floating down to complete the phrase.]

Happy National Poetry Day to all those who celebrate.

This year’s theme is ‘play’ so here’s a poem which plays with some letters. It’s called ‘The Problem of Writing Poems in the Shape of Deciduous Trees’.