Disappointing

The Trump effect

I downloaded it from Project Gutenberg: 3 volumes: 1 The man of property 2 Indian summer of a Forsyte and In Chancery 3 Awakening and To let - am hoping this is everything?

New study challenges notion that aging means decline, finds many older adults improve over time Aging in later life is often portrayed as a steady slide toward physical and cognitive decline. But a new study by scientists at Yale University suggests an

ysph.yale.edu/news-article...

especially since that time of day is literally between the acts

yes, I think there too

I do too! I think her books have scenes at dusk, looking out the windows, maybe before a party or a dinner. The Years and Night and Day both come to mind, but I don't have a passage without going to look for one.

It's migration season! Monarch butterflies travel over 4,000 km to winter in Mexico's stunning oyamel forests. Witness the beauty of nature's incredible journey.

Unfortunately I don't find going further in space sublime, I find it displacement activity. Where can the human race explore and degrade next, comes to mind.

Reading Pilgrimage 2026: April 6 - Honeycomb YouTube video by Neglected Books - Brad Bigelow

It was a pleasure to share some thoughts on Dorothy Richardson’s Pilgrimage with the Neglected Books Pilgrimage reading group yesterday. www.youtube.com/watch?v=tnY0...
Thanks to @neglectedbooks.com for the opportunity.

Bees sleep between five and eight hours a day. They enjoy company and even hold each other's feet.

And an open-ended mess for much of the rest of the world

The Growing Shadow of Autocracy Global freedom declined for the 20th consecutive year in 2025. But even in this especially challenging moment, there are reasons for optimism.

Last week @freedomhouse.bsky.social released Freedom in the World 2026. The bottom line: "Global freedom declined for the 20th consecutive year in 2025. A total of 54 countries experienced deterioration in their political rights and civil liberties, while only 35 countries registered improvements."

Laundry as art

[📸 Helga Stentzel]

Newnham is wonderful in any light. It does look a bit chilly today though!

Photo of novelist Elizabeth Taylor as a little girl in a black hat and belted check coat.

Text of ET’s letter to VW Dear Miss Virginia Woolf, May I tell you how grateful I am to you for The Waves. I have been reading your work since I was at school and it has always helped me to have an un-muddled attitude to life, to see the vividness and importance of every minute, the significance of every action. The Waves was a tremendous adventure. I have just read it a second time. So rarely, in prose, is anyone so keenly appreciative of individual words. It is like a symphony. Suddenly the English language is translated into fluid music, like Greek.

A disconcerting photo of the novelist Elizabeth Taylor as a little girl and her letter to Virginia Woolf about The Waves (1932). Just finished #MrsPalfrey and god how sad it is. Have also been dipping into the biography of Taylor which is really rubbing me up the wrong way.

#NYRBWomen26
#BookSky

Words and eggs must be handled with care.
Once broken they are impossible things to repair.

Anne Sexton

Airfare Is Just the Beginning Expensive plane tickets are a preview of what could come next.

www.theatlantic.com/newsletters/...

This is not a painting - its thd view from beneath an ancient pedunculate oak. Its over 400 years old
www.facebook.com/615505373000...

Old houses in the UK can still have this happen when the conditions are cold enough. Our bathroom and kitchen occasionally have this effect in winter. It was fairly common in older houses decades ago.

Or even a coat when there's ice on the inside of the windows!

Only heating some rooms is historically common practice in the UK where many houses are heated by heating oil which has more than doubled in price since the start of the US and Israel war with Iran.

Voir Il s’agit de voir Tellement plus clair, De faire avec les choses Comme la lumière.

To See It’s a question of seeing so much clearer, of doing to things what light does to them.

Guillevic, tr. Denise Levertov

#soapboxpoem 27/31

look at this baby beaver and feel better briefly

(@ wildheartrescue on TT)

UN issues new climate warning as El Niño looms The Earth's climate is further out of balance than at any time in recorded history, the UN's weather agency says.

Destroying our planet minute by minute.
Time for real change. For hope for our future.
Join @greenparty.org.uk
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Typos Have Plagued Us for Centuries. Just Ask the Publishers Who Printed the Seventh Commandment as 'Thou Shalt Commit Adultery' in 1631 A new exhibition at Yale Library explores the history of typos across five centuries. Visitors will see corrections that were listed inside copies of works by James Joyce, Upton Sinclair and Nicolaus ...

A 1631 edition of the Bible lists “Thou shalt commit adultery” as the Seventh Commandment. (The omission of the word “not” earned this edition the nickname “the Wicked Bible.”) There are only about 20 copies of a print run of 1000 left in circulation.
www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/t...

Hard to be optimistic about anything at the moment, but there is one positive development I suppose. Donald Trump has made the strongest possible case for why countries must turn their back on fossil fuel. And they seem to be listening.

yes, this would have seemeed dystopian. Now it seems neo-realistic.