As the wheel spins and turns

I cannot count this as a contributor's copy, but selidor has sent me the very first image of Vanth, taken from the Hubble Space Telescope in 2005. Yes, I'm going to put it up on my wall. What else does one do with a sky of chthonic figures? In both senses, awesome.

Not so awesome is the smell of burning that just came in sharply through the windows and the flakes of ash falling onto our yard. I can see white and brown smoke rising when I look out the front door, a helicopter circling; I can't tell the distance. I hope it is not someone's house. The air is turning peat-blue. The first thing I think when cinders start drifting down is Pompeii.