sovay | Some have learned the way to turn themselves to trees

It is amazing how much the dominant note on returning from any masked walk in the cold is "Oh, thank God, now I can blow my nose." Yesterday we left the house late enough in the day that

spatch got some incredible dusk-lit pictures of the part-demolished high school and it was too cold for me to take my hands out of my pockets without a better grade of gloves. This afternoon we made a point of bolting from the house before sunset hit. I took a bunch of photos, but almost none of them came out as I wanted, more than documentary. Rob took a carefully, quickly unmasked photo of me. I did not at that time think to blow my nose.

We were right that this building was not scheduled to survive the renovations. Now its windows really open into sky.

Around the side of an apartment block on Highland Avenue. I loved the embers of the brick in the setting sun.

At the edge of the library. There was a rather nice daymoon just out of shot.

Everything else I had planned for the day was crashed by pain, but the mail brought me a substantial hardcover of The Book of Dragons (ed. Jonathan Strahan, 2020) courtesy of

selkie, so I should be fine on the couch for a while.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Archaeologists in Pompeii, the city buried in a volcanic eruption in 79 AD, have made the extraordinary find of a frescoed hot food and drinks shop that served up the ancient equivalent of street food to Roman passersby.

Yes! I saw about the thermopolium! I love that sort of thing. Thank you for making sure I knew about it.

People are people, and it's astonishing sometimes how “modern” the Romans were - or vice versa (no pun intended). Gladiators did product endorsements - they were going to include that in the R Crowe movie Gladiator, but the audience would have taken it as a joke by the filmmakers, spoiling the mood of the story!

[By the bye, if it seems sometimes that my comments are irrelevant non sequiturs that ignore what you’ve actually said, I do apologize; I could only say (and mean) what others here say. I seek to provide more interesting content, when I can, to entertain and distract from chronic problems.]

I seek to provide more interesting content, when I can, to entertain and distract from chronic problems.

I appreciate the check-in. I never mind interesting links, even if off-topic. Sometimes I haven't seen them.

Some have learned the way to turn themselves to trees

Re: Re Hot Ruins

Re: Re Hot Ruins

Re: Re Hot Ruins

Re: Re Hot Ruins