A snippet from one of the folk stories digitised by the National Folklore Collection UCD, detailing the hapless adventures of a man who took some clay for his field from a plot belonging to an abbey in Donegal. "...he took it out of the Abbey plot, and it is said that he was haunted by a plague of rats, which were even jumping out of the pot of porridge on the fire, and at last he had to leave the townland."

I love the stories on duchas.ie - too bad they have so few for Co. Down. I also appreciate that it took this particular chap in Donegal a good while to connect the rats in his porridge with the clay he took from the Abbey plot, but he did get there 😇.

Thank you, Karin! Am trying to find something to compensate for the loss of the coast 😭

A quick image of some fields with Bennachie in the distance taken pre-sunset. The combination of pale gold and new green is very pleasing, even though it's quite an ordinary shot otherwise.

Finally went up Lord Aberdeen's solitary chess piece (before the howling winds came back). While the immediate surroundings aren't wild enough for my liking, loved the light.

Mind reading on behalf of females hitherto absent from narrative (or sometimes even from the UH’s life) is a specialist skill!

A snippet of text describing phrases that regularly crop up in modern polar history writing (especially biographies), and their hidden meaning.

Ye typical modern polar biographer's phraseology (with translation):

That you care should be enough - but yes, someone somewhere at some point will care, too: just don’t ask who, when and where…

😱

We don’t get spring here, or autumn - 6 months miserable winter, 6 months miserable heat 😭

I think it’s more this particular area of Scotland - two-season nightmare - give me back the west coast any day, despite the rain.

Apparently, we are well into spring…

LdV definitely features in the book, but not the V manuscript. With notebooks, I find the more I’m engrossed in the subject, the easier to use them regularly… been guilty of early abandonment too on occasion.

Not sure at all, just didn’t want to alarm anyone…

Vertical close-up image of a storm-damaged tree trunk contorted into a very interesting shape

A close-up vertical image of a tree whose name I am blissfully ignorant of, and which I call "Bone Tree" on the account of its trunk looking like skeleton bones topped by a massive bird nest. Not a real nest, obviously.

There are some trees that truly are poor, innocent victims of storms (l) and there are others who are clearly out to get you, like the Bone Tree [not its real name] (r).

Hope you enjoy

It was definitely more fun to write it than to read the original, on this occasion...

A screenshot of a long-winded poem written by myself a few years back after reading Lady Franklin's journal describing her decision to not purchase, then to purchase Betsey Island; Sir John Franklin's thoughts on the subject; and her offering to sell it to Captain Crozier later on. She recorded the whole story in rather tedious detail which begged for a humorous treatment. Her writing style and conventions have been observed most carefully throughout.

For #WorldPoetryDay, I'm resurrecting the thing wot I wrote while terribly impressed by one of Lady Franklin's dramatic, self-contradicting journal entries. 'Tis a joke, though more historically accurate than a lot of polar writing. Dedicated to @finger-post.blog as all my high poetry invariably is.

I see what you did there 😂

You can just read the book if you're strong and focussed 😜

But they are so pretty, paper so smooth and cream, beg to be written in, give something sensational to read on train. Also, I’ll bet bad writers don’t buy them.

A cover illustration of Roland Allen's The Notebook: a History of Thinking on Paper. The image is not nearly as exciting as the book!

Picked this up on a whim for light reading and finding it hard to put down. Recommended - it might make you cry, but it definitely will make you want to buy more notebooks... #HistBookChat

I think the reason for this one's orderliness may be that it hadn't been disturbed for quite some time...

Fireplace at Haddo House, apparently fashioned from an ancient bedstead. Made of intricately cut dark wood, it is clearly a fireplace to end all fireplaces.

The morning room, Haddo House

A ceiling detail, Haddo House

The library, Haddo House

Since this is the first weekend in forever when I’m not looking for new digs, packing, unpacking or moving, I bring you Haddo House in all its glory.

I suppose it’s better than “it came to me in a dream,” but still 😱

Thank you, good to know!

A cartoon of four images, representing a pre-sleep dialogue between a girl and her brain. Brain: “Did you enjoy that non-fiction history book?” Girl: “Yes, Brain. It was well written. It was a good story. Why?” Brain: “Did you notice it had a vague bibliography and NO referencing?” Girl: (says nothing, eyes open wide, all hope of sleep gone)

Reworked this old favourite, chiefly for amusement of sad people like myself - credit owed to the original author except I don’t remember their name and not even sure I ever knew it.

I do not have the answer but it brings back fond memories of a friend at work who did this at the end of every tea break, to be responded to with "left!" Every Single Time by another friend. No slapping of thighs was involved on either side, although f1 seemed ready to slap f2 after instance 526.

A portrait image of a scene somewhere in Scotland. A thick layer of snow encroaches on the sepia-coloured edge of a pond. Neither the few bare trees, nor the house in the distance (with a flock of birds directly above it) are particularly photogenic, but the pale soft winter light makes the various tones in the sky and the foreground oddly appealing.

Edge of the winter

L was esp. close to the 2 sisters nearest him in age, but both died young - haven’t seen mentions of F in his letters so far, so no idea re. that side. They were cousins as well I’m sure, not that it implies closer ties.

It does sound very much in character!

A screenshot from the Georgian Papers Programme website stating that the papers of two monarchs, George IV and William IV, were found at Apsley House and transferred to the Royal Archives in 1912.

Quietly wondering whether the first Duke was planning to paper the walls with those, or had another practical use in mind for them...