iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Reposted by Claudia Kinmonth MRIA FSA

Digital Brain @yourdigitalbrain.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

Mastering brushstroke control takes hundreds of repetitions. Pressure, angle, and speed of the hand shape every line in shufa, shodo, and sumi-e practice.

1468

Claudia Kinmonth MRIA FSA @claudiakinmonth.bsky.social · 22/08/2026

Exciting sights with autumn approaching our little garden in the shape of first apples on spring planted feathered maidens, Elstar etc., & was this a Damsel fly or a Dragon fly all dazzlingly green & gold on my finger?

030

Reposted by Claudia Kinmonth MRIA FSA

Nina Willburger @drnwillburger.bsky.social · 24/07/2026

2,500-year-old gold torque stolen in daylight museum raid! Thieves raided a museum in Châtillon-sur-Seine in broad daylight Friday, making off with a 2,500-year-old gold torque of the 'Lady of Vix'. 👉 www.lefigaro.fr/culture/patr...

22298104

Claudia Kinmonth MRIA FSA @claudiakinmonth.bsky.social · 29/06/2026

This hegehog family were discovered by terriers under our front steps: Fab Reg.Charity/Wildlife Rescue Cork arrived & took them to safety! WRC rescue & rehabilitate orphaned/ injured wildlife & this mother (snout peering out of red box) was feeding 3 hoglets: eyes still shut as under 2 wks old.

One hoglet or baby hedgehog lies snuggly on its back on a gloved hand about 10 cm long. Partially unrolled its pink toes & fingers are like tiny hands, held together beneath its small face with tightly shut eyes & shiny black nose. Cardboard box & siblings in the background.

Shiny snout & bright eyes of a mother hedgehog, whose furry face can be seen peering out of a small aperture in a red cardboard 'Chilli' box that she was temporarily placed safely in, out of reach of danger

A hoglet, eyes tight shut, shown in sunlight viewed sideways on, about the same width as the adult gloved hand that carefully supports it, 1 front paw & a little pink tongue are visible beneath a softly prickled back: coloured predominantly grey

View looking down into an open cardboard box containing one large mother hedgehog plus 2 out of 3 of her very small babies, one back leg is showing of the 3rd baby & all have white & black protective spikes all over their backs.

020

Claudia Kinmonth MRIA FSA @claudiakinmonth.bsky.social · 19/05/2026

This is brilliant, it'd be great to have them rolled out in Irish urban areas!

042

Claudia Kinmonth MRIA FSA @claudiakinmonth.bsky.social · 16/04/2026

Sustainable post on its way. This could see a rural revival the way things are going with fossil fuels!

060

Claudia Kinmonth MRIA FSA @claudiakinmonth.bsky.social · 08/04/2026

Watching some of our adorable swallows return this week reminds me of my dear late mother who unfailingly noted the dates they came & went, left her shed door open for them & knew about all the other Irish migrant & native birds too...

Swallow in flight on blue cloudy background with trees and green fields

Swallow flying towards its nest on an outhouse

Swallow in flight top right of shot, heading for a familiar nesting place in an outhouse. Sea inlet below. Green valley.

150

Claudia Kinmonth MRIA FSA @claudiakinmonth.bsky.social · 03/04/2026

People used protective marks by doors, windows & hearth openings, with symbols like Hexfoils or Daisywheels or the Sawtooth star motif, seen in this Maltese wrought iron balcony & fan light (& lozenge shapes & serpents). Hexfoils were common in Spain & Italy as well as GB & of course Ireland.

Photo of a 2 storey corner house with pale blue & white ground floor entrance, 2 elegant front doors have a wrought iron grill above & a matching one above, on a balcony.

Over a pair of front doors, an elaborate wrought iron fan light protects the glass, at its centre is a six petalled Daisywheel or Hexfoil framed with leaves & curves.

Detail of the 1st floor wrought iron balcony incorporating 2 Hexfoils & a larger central Sawtooth star motif flanked by pairs of snakes & curvilinear decoration.

Elaborate white painted wrought iron balcony detailing incorporates one of 4 encircled hexfoils in an upper corner, with 2 snake heads beneath

160

Reposted by Claudia Kinmonth MRIA FSA

The Analyst @militaryanalyst.bsky.social · 01/04/2026

HEGSETH CONDEMNS RARE WHALE SPECIES TO EXTINCTION I have a passion for the whales of this planet planet and saving them. It makes me sick to my stomach to read this. I’ve met many whales over the years - they’re truly extraordinary creatures. www.vox.com/climate/4844...

vox.com

If these whales go extinct, we’ll know who to blame

Just 51 of these whales are left on Earth. Trump officials may have just doomed them.

1613537

Claudia Kinmonth MRIA FSA @claudiakinmonth.bsky.social · 26/03/2026

Fascinating to observe various protective hexfoil motifs in the Grand Marshall Palace's Armoury, in Valetta, Malta. Carefully detailed on a c.1700 flintlock gun stock & also, less meticulous yet obvious, repeatedly on gilt copper c.1550 Ottoman armour and shields.

Hexfoil with multiple compass lines, inscribed meticulously on a dark timber flintlock gunstock in a museum display case

Photo of a modelled dummy soldier wearing chain mail plus chain linked leaves of decorated gilt metal bearing 3 of about 8 hexfoil motifs on the shoulders and armpit.

Close up photo of one of the dark black on golden encircled hexfoil motifs, with six petals symmetrically placed in a circle, on the gilt metal plate of a soldier's 16th C shield. Dots and petals surround and feature in the pattern.

A photo of a section of shoulder armour decorated with a looser depiction of a hexfoil, centred on a small circle, & with double circle surrounding the motif, and a series of low loops all around the edge. Chain mail connects this segment of armour with others beside the soldier's neck & shoulder.

030

Claudia Kinmonth MRIA FSA @claudiakinmonth.bsky.social · 24/03/2026

Butter packed & sold in 56lb flat packed pine boxes had tapered bases & lids c.1880s-1970s. @buttermuseum.bsky.social Imaginatively repurposed with textile covers & comfy lidded seats, a woven rush 1 is uniquely good & the skillfully woven basket matches! Have you got one too? @corkup.bsky.social

Blue and White textile has been tacked onto a characteristically tapered square butter box, making a padded seat with a hinged lid & container inside.

A photo shows a butter box covered in woven rush of various decorative patterns beside a rectangular shopping basket with looped handles made by the same craftsperson. On a patterned carpet.

Detail of the rush work showing rectangular and linear weaving alternating to make it look really complex and elegant. The top half is part of the matching basket with some similar weaving techniques, all in dark golden hues.

Detail colour photo of the base of a rush shopping basket, revealing the bright golden colour of its chequerboard weave as it's not faded by sunlight. Tiny holes are part of its technique. Two looped handles pass beneath the base: plaited in Chevron shapes. Beneath is the lid of the rush covered butter box & part of the upper section.

051

Claudia Kinmonth MRIA FSA @claudiakinmonth.bsky.social · 22/03/2026

& on the subject of resourcefulness when I photographed this built-in press I found pencil-sized holes inside the panels: trademark of Naval Shipworm activity, so boards salvaged from the sea often resurfaced as vernacular furniture. This interior's sadly long gone, early oilcloth on the stairs too.

Photo of a colourfully painted rural kitchen, stairs with clothes left on them, descend by a big pale cream cupboard by an open red front door, concrete floor & a pair of hoop back side chairs & a pale blue wall.

020

Claudia Kinmonth MRIA FSA @claudiakinmonth.bsky.social · 22/03/2026

Here's another lovely example of 'natural knee' furniture, but cleverly using most of a tree for an Inishmaan 'thistle' to dry children's clothes by a fire in my latest book @corkup.bsky.social Irish Country furniture & furnishings 1700-2000 (2020) S. Coleman's sketch for IFC @duchas-ie.bsky.social

Sketch of a floor level turf fire & an adjustable crook with no pot hung on it. To its left a tree with short clipped branches that jut out & upwards hangs by its tip against the back wall ready for drying clothes, Aran Islands, Co Galway

030

Claudia Kinmonth MRIA FSA @claudiakinmonth.bsky.social · 22/03/2026

The same tiny Irish coastal home has ceiling boards frugally rescued from the sea. Deep pencil-sized holes are from Toredo or Shipworm which only burrows in wood immersed in seawater. So this timber was cut after salvage exposing the holes & it's rare to see it despite centuries of paint.

Photo of a ceiling painted white: 3 loft floorboards are viewed from beneath with a supporting joist. Several wiggly grooves remain where naval Shipworm ate its way into a tree trunk, straight lines are the places where one board abuts another.

051

Claudia Kinmonth MRIA FSA @claudiakinmonth.bsky.social · 22/03/2026

I'm researching wooden things Irish people made from natural tree forms so this strong hook needed no glue or joints & was nailed up to a joist over a hearth for drying things like clothes or salt fish. It's a rare survival of skilled labour-saving choice of a shape, from a tree, in a tiny home.

A white wooden hook all grown from a small single branch was shaped to be flat at the back & project in a V shaped to be a hook. All painted white it's smooth from use.

2155

Claudia Kinmonth MRIA FSA @claudiakinmonth.bsky.social · 19/03/2026

It's exciting working with Galway Co. Council to discover apotropaic dot & circle marks, on a huge vernacular armchair, with grained paintwork & great potential for conservation, plus many more treasures.

Large painted armchair with traces of red paint plus darker, grained finish imitative of oak. The armrests are worn to pale wood, from years of careful use.

Backrest of armchair with a small but distinctive circle and dot apotropaic mark on the right at the front, the background of stonework & other wooden items.

Circle and dot mark near the front right side of the armchair's seat. Black curved marks above are probably where old tins of paint etc have been resting for years.

Close up showing the circle and dot or compass graffiti on the painted backrest of an armchair, which is emerging as an Irish ritual probably pagan practice on a mass of objects: subtle but deliberate.

051

Claudia Kinmonth MRIA FSA @claudiakinmonth.bsky.social · 21/02/2026

Traditional vernacular kitchen tables frequently had long double stretchers underneath, sometimes mentioned as a place to lay out a corpse, or to place shoes or boots (which can be seen here) but it's rare to find photographic evidence.

1153

Claudia Kinmonth MRIA FSA @claudiakinmonth.bsky.social · 05/02/2026

I'm looking forward to this IPMAG event in Waterford this weekend. I'll be presenting 'Apotropaic marks & protective graffiti in Irish Material Culture' 11am Sat. Check this out! IPMAG XXVI Death & Superstition in Post-Medieval Ireland - allevents.in/waterford/20... allevents.in/waterford/20...

Compass graffiti across an early 19thC mill door, revealed in blue overlaid lines to show over a dozen circles, some overlapping to create vesica symbols, to protect & deflect what's inside. Author's photo.

030

Claudia Kinmonth MRIA FSA @claudiakinmonth.bsky.social · 31/12/2025

Centred on a beautiful hexafoil: like so many others, deliberately off centre...

010

Reposted by Claudia Kinmonth MRIA FSA

Richard Chambers @newschambers.bsky.social · 17/12/2025

President Catherine Connolly has welcomed Greta Thunberg to Áras an Uachtaráin on a courtesy call. The Swedish activist is in Dublin for a fundraiser for Palestinian relief at Bohemian Football Club this week.

9745165

Claudia Kinmonth MRIA FSA @claudiakinmonth.bsky.social · 14/12/2025

Rome's peppered with hexafoils in mosaic floors @hexafoils.bsky.social even cut into stone drains & and all may be protective like the octagonal graffiti in the Colosseum #RIADawson @antiquaries.bsky.social @corkup.bsky.social #Apotropaois @varchgroup.bsky.social

Detail of a hexafoil or daisy-wheel created in white on black mosaic, framed in a linear hexagon, connected to other hexafoils making up an entire Roman floor in Museo Nazionale Romano, Palazzo Massimo, Rome.

Brown white green & yellow fine mosaic Roman floor, centering on a slender hexafoil or daisy-wheel, surrounded by Vitruvian scroll motifs

Square street drain arranged with holes cut into 6 long radiating shapes centred on one central hole into which rainwater can flow away from the road, cut into stone

Fragment of a large smooth-surfaced grey stone, found with fragments in Rome's Colisseum, bearing 8 crudely inscribed lines, crossing at a central point, surrounded by a circle, with a series of loops connecting their tips.

050

Claudia Kinmonth MRIA FSA @claudiakinmonth.bsky.social · 14/12/2025

Spotting historic stone circles in Rome: carved in hands, mosaic floors, and the amazing Pantheon dome...

051

Claudia Kinmonth MRIA FSA @claudiakinmonth.bsky.social · 30/11/2025

Hugely enjoyable afternoon with a happy group of wreath making pupils taught by brilliant Ruth Fortune who grows all the organic materials we incorporated (& forages some of the moss etc). Her indoor wreaths (2 here) are spectacular & can be posted out #sustainable #organic #local #creative #craft

Claudia Kinmonth stands looking happy beside the wreath she just made in Ruth Fortune workshop, using ivy, holly, spruce, moss, teasel, nigella, hebe, pine cones, pussy willow etc, with a red ribbon beneath, hung temporarily on a glass door

Poster for Ruth Fortune Flowers, locally grown cut flowers, bouquets, weddings, workshops ruthfortuneflowers.ie surrounded by abstract paintings of coloured flowers on a grey wall

Indoor large wreath incorporating seed heads of Honesty, beech leaves, poppy, love-in-a-mist, pussy willow, spiralling outwards

Small indoor wreaths with dried flowers of pale pink, golden yellow, off white & with seed heads of Honesty & various grasses with an open centre on a white wall

020

Reposted by Claudia Kinmonth MRIA FSA

Becky Wallower @bwallower.bsky.social · 22/11/2025

#StaircaseSaturday Breathtakingly lovely. The Palladian 'Tulip Staircase' in Inigo Jones' Queen's House in Greenwich - the first unsupported spiral stair in Britain. Commissioned c.1616 by Anne of Denmark, Queen to James I. Completed c.1635 for Henrietta Maria, Queen to Charles I.

A spiral staircase, cantilevered from surrounding circular walls, all in white. Bannister railings in elegant blue wrought iron with designs featuring spiral stems and tulip like flowers. These were probably meant to be lillies, connected to French royal symbolism of Henrietta Maria.

216743

Reposted by Claudia Kinmonth MRIA FSA

Cork University Press @corkup.bsky.social · 22/10/2025

Thanks to everyone who joined us last night for the launch of Irish Dressers and Delph by Meredith Chesson. Our launch speaker Professor Diarmuid Ó Giolláin spoke beautifully about the way communities and individuals make homes out of houses. Out now: www.corkuniversitypress.com/978178205067...

053

Claudia Kinmonth MRIA FSA @claudiakinmonth.bsky.social · 01/10/2025

Red, rounded, autumn tempts me into the damp outside

030

Reposted by Claudia Kinmonth MRIA FSA

Reuters @reuters.com · 17/09/2025

Projections of U.S. President Donald Trump, Britain's Prince Andrew and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein were put on display against the walls of Windsor Castle while Trump was in Britain for a state visit.

882012815

Claudia Kinmonth MRIA FSA @claudiakinmonth.bsky.social · 11/09/2025

Brilliantly inspiring presenters for today's symposium in Uni College Cork, for example Prof Claire Connolly MRIA, Feargal Keane & Eoin Reardon who brought some of his vernacular-inspired furniture: celebrating 100 yrs of publishing by Cork University Press @ucc.ie @ucclibrary.bsky.social @ria.ie

5 Speakers seated to answer questions from the audience after their presentations, including Prof Claire Connolly MRIA 2nd from right, & Eoin Reardon, woodworker & social media influencer, centre.

Author Claudia Kinmonth stands with woodworker Eoin Reardon. He is holding a copy of her latest book, 'Irish country furniture & furnishings 1700-2000' (Cork University Press, 2020) that he had been telling the audience about. Beside him is a chair & a stool typical of what he makes.

Author reporter Fergal Keane at the podium discussing realism and journalism and the Atlas of the Irish Revolution

Eoin Reardon at the podium talking about the sugan chairs & three legged stools that he makes

0103

Claudia Kinmonth MRIA FSA @claudiakinmonth.bsky.social · 05/08/2025

We use a Victorian Gardener's pruning tool called a 'long arm', to cut hard-to-reach brambles etc. Neglecting to store it in the shed, it was lent in a porch where 'swallows against neat gardens' moved in reminding us to continue our rewilding plan, instead! Long arm will stay put til Oct. now...

191

Claudia Kinmonth MRIA FSA @claudiakinmonth.bsky.social · 29/07/2025

We need to force the Gaza Legal Case to the top of the national conversation. I just shared this video to get everybody talking about the Gaza Legal Case and the Irish government's role in facilitating genocide. Will you do the same? action.uplift.ie/campaigns/ga...

action.uplift.ie

Gaza Legal Case - share the news

000

Reposted by Claudia Kinmonth MRIA FSA

Dorothy Cashman @irishcookbooks.bsky.social · 20/06/2025

Gourmand Awards 2025. Best Culinary History Book in the world. “this is a very difficult category, given the higher number of excellent books”. And the winner is…. Irish Food History: a companion 🎉🎉🎉 Take a bow all you wonderful contributors, our brilliant designer Brenda Dermody, and @RIA.ie

Poster advertising the 2025 Gourmand awards

Text from the award ceremony praising Irish Food History: a companion, with its contributions from leading historians and for its masterful blend of storytelling, research, and evocative descriptions

A slide shown of the book covers of the four finalists at the award ceremony.

4184

Claudia Kinmonth MRIA FSA @claudiakinmonth.bsky.social · 18/05/2025

What a lively review, it's great the reprint's back in shops, & free online!

041

Claudia Kinmonth MRIA FSA @claudiakinmonth.bsky.social · 14/05/2025

One of the best ways to understand a thing, is to spend time drawing it...

1132

Claudia Kinmonth MRIA FSA @claudiakinmonth.bsky.social · 25/03/2025

I'll be talking on @rteradio1.bsky.social The History Show on Sun 30 March from 6pm, about 'Joining in Butter' (Ch.16 of 'Irish Food History a Companion'); hear how Irish women collaborated to profit from their butter making pre 1880. @ria.ie

0126

Claudia Kinmonth MRIA FSA @claudiakinmonth.bsky.social · 25/03/2025

Hi BlueSky followers! Please join me here and resume our historical stories...

060