iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

This made me laugh out loud - centre, Helen of Troy "Ta-DA!!"; left, Leda "Zeus, this is all your fault.".

Close up of a red figure Greek vase. Left is Leda (mother of Helen of Troy), inspecting the nails on her left hand with her aie of someone who just cannot possibly deal with this. Centre is a tiny, fully naked Helen, arms spread to celebrate the splendour that is her. Right is a male figure I've decided is Zeus (father of Helen), who frankly has a lot to answer for.

KateW @kateweb.bsky.social · 10/10/2026

Last night, I had a very low key, calm glass of wine in this bar. Tonight, they have a DJ and are hosting a street party that's blocking an entire street - this is just one side of it.

Curved archways over an Italian pavement; that pavement is FULL of people, hanging out and drinking.

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KateW @kateweb.bsky.social · 10/10/2026

I'm becoming quite fond of this thing where drinking before dinner becomes "aperitivo" and snacks appear with the drinks.

A Birra Moretti goblet (full of Birra Moretti) and a tiny wooden crate with compartments for peanuts and crisps.

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KateW @kateweb.bsky.social · 10/10/2026

Julia Domna (wife of Septimus Severus) has had it with all this.

White marble statue of a woman, wearing a draped robe, with hair curled around her face, who is just incredibly over it. (Apparently she's being portrayed as Ceres/Demeter; holding pomegranates in her left hand.)

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KateW @kateweb.bsky.social · 10/10/2026

The Home Office refused twice as many student visas on the first half of 2026 as they previously, while halving the % of visa rejections universities can have before they're not allowed to ti recruit international students. Are those refusals on good grounds? Oh no, not at all.

Screenshot from the FT article quote-posted.
"Vanessa Wilson, chief executive of Univesity Alliance, a group of 20 professional and technical universities, said: "This is goin to result in restructures, which inevitably results in job losses, course closures, campus closures."
Universities cite examples of visas rejecyed because applicants had previous consideree studying in other countries, or because a PhD applicant could not name course modules, even though they do not exist for such research dgrees."

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KateW @kateweb.bsky.social · 08/10/2026

Finished dinner, then discovered both my phone and my power bank had zero charge left. While I could /possibly/ have found my way back to where I'm staying with no map, decided the prudent course was to sit and drink cremant while a kind bartender charged my power bank. Prudent.

Big wine glass, half full of cremant (sparking wine).

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KateW @kateweb.bsky.social · 08/10/2026

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KateW @kateweb.bsky.social · 08/10/2026

Had been waiting for a bus that was just refusing to show up, so I finally gave up and went to try another route. That was also refusing to arrive, so I had a beer about it, which seemed to be very effective.

Magical, bus-summoning bottle of beer. Brown glass with a cheerful yellow label that says "RAFFO" and has an illustration of someone confidently riding a dolphin.

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KateW @kateweb.bsky.social · 07/10/2026

The other turtles are jealous.

A white train with a green stripe along the bottom, red stripe along the top, and "Leonardo express" above the window, in red.

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KateW @kateweb.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

This magnificent Yorkshire pudding is obscuring beneath it: a steak and ale pie, mash, roast potatoes and roast carrots. It came escorted by mixed vegetables and cauliflower cheese, with the option of EXTRA GRAVY.

A tower of roast dinner, topped by a large and splendid Yorkshire pudding, in a gravy moat.

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KateW @kateweb.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

Reserve Cake has been broken out.

A coffee and walnut cake, topped with little pieces of chopped walnuts; a large wedge has been cut out of it.

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KateW @kateweb.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

What stayed as a pretty dismal grey, wet day has turned into this rather lovely autumn evening. My coat's firmly in my bag and shirt sleeves rolled up.

Bright blue sky with two scuds of white cloud; the sun is disappearing behind a roofline.

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KateW @kateweb.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

They've invented the kingdom of El Ray (from The Getaway) for AI agents.

Screenshot from the Wiki plit summary at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Getaway_(novel). Key sentence is "the criminals kill each other in an attempt to accumulate money to pay El Rey"

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KateW @kateweb.bsky.social · 03/09/2026

I have a seat, wifi and iced coffee; all is well with my world.

A cafe table with cutlery in a tin can, bottles of water and an iced coffee, in a glass with a metal straw.

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KateW @kateweb.bsky.social · 02/09/2026

Artist and sculptor Ruth Asawa died in 2013. Her family was interned in 1942-she was eventually allowed to leave the camp to train as a teacher, but then wasn't allowed to teach in Wisconsin because she had Japanese ancestry. When she married in 1949, only two US states allowed interracial marriage.

Two of Ruth Asawa's looped wire sculptures; beautiful organic forms, made of shapes inside other shapes.

Two more of Ruth Asawa's looped wire sculptures; beautiful organic forms, made of shapes inside other shapes.

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KateW @kateweb.bsky.social · 02/09/2026

I can hear my lunch being cooked, there's a cross-breeze at my table and I have a cold beer.

Table in the back room of a bar; on it, a plant in a metal bucket, cutlery on a brown paper tablemat, my sunglasses and a small glass of cold beer.

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KateW @kateweb.bsky.social · 01/09/2026

This is nearly a picture of my mid-morning coffee, cake and excuse to people watch.

People sitting at tables on a vaguely industrial-looking terrace, outside a market. Very much in the foreground is a large slice of apple cake and a small coffee.

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KateW @kateweb.bsky.social · 31/08/2026

This wine was less than £2.50 and I enjoyed my fiver's worth of it very much. (Whether you believe me or not, the out of focus photo is mostly due to having broken the front camera on my phone, meaning I can only take pictures of my dinner in selfie mode.)

A glass of red wine, standing on a table; in the foreground are a big slice of tortilla with a chunk of bread, a croquetta and a little jamon sandwich.

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KateW @kateweb.bsky.social · 29/08/2026

This is so interesting - both for what it shows about waves of migration around 3,000 BC and that this migration included women.

Screenshot from the Nature paper in the quoted post:
"...Sales's Lot burial, the individual may well have been a first-generation immigrant to Britain, which might explain the special treatment her remains received in the form of deposition in the ancient long barrow. The fact that this apparently venerated individual was female raises questions regarding both the status of women in early metal-using societies and also the extent to which women actively engaged in migration, rather than makes migrating and 'marrying' or at least having children with local women."

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KateW @kateweb.bsky.social · 27/08/2026

After all the ivy plants that have resolutely refused to thrive in my kitchen, this Devil's Ivy seems very happy there. New shoots and everything!

A dark green Devil's Ivy plant with heart-shaped leaves and a new shoot ready to unfurl; behind it are a sea blue wall, with an old map of London just visible.

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KateW @kateweb.bsky.social · 22/08/2026

On a brighter note, a friend's at the seaside with her niblings, who've made this magnificent sandcastle.

A golden sandy beach, sea visible at the top; close to the camera is a substantial sandcastle, with moat, topped by a selection of seashells.

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KateW @kateweb.bsky.social · 22/08/2026

Post a picture that should be an album cover (art by @rebecca_strickson_illustration on Instagram).

A freestanding mirror, framed in bright orange, in which is painted "SUCH POWER IN JOY" in a beautiful illustrated scroll with hearts. Behind it are shiny skyscrapers and to the left, a woman is sitting on a bench.

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KateW @kateweb.bsky.social · 20/08/2026

Good morning to this rather elegant grey butterfly and to them only.

A pale grey butterfly, with darker grey edges to their wings, perched on my bathroom window.

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KateW @kateweb.bsky.social · 18/08/2026

A really fun evening of comedy, hosted by the lovely Joe Lycett, with Mick Ferry, Kyrah Gray and Nabil Abdulrashid - would recommend them all. (Too many intervals, but that's an occupational hazard.) Was pretty pleased with my seat; circular venue means quite a few seats are side on to the stage.

Beautifully purple-lit stage with curtained backdrop, seen from my seat; two or three rows between me and it.

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KateW @kateweb.bsky.social · 17/08/2026

From @florencehrscott.bsky.social's delightful and informative Aelfgif-who? newsletter.

Aedwen - possessive brooch owner (11th C)
A beautiful, intricately decorated silver disc brooch was ploughed up in the Isle of Ely in 1694. The brooch's inscription cabe into the back, is a curse from her eleventh-century owner Aedwen, which reads:
"Aedwen owns me, may the Lord own her.
May the Lord curse him who takes me from her, unless she gives me of her own free will."
Who among us has not been protective over a particulars lovely item of jewellery?

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KateW @kateweb.bsky.social · 16/08/2026

Delighted by this very slightly Mediterranean breakfast! Less delighted that there's no Cerys on the radio today; I enjoy her music choices, but her VOICE, interest and enthusiasm are essential to the show.

A pile of scrambled eggs with feta crumbled into it, next to a big wodge of warm Turkish flatbread.

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KateW @kateweb.bsky.social · 11/08/2026

That grocery shop fitted beautifully into the first installment of Murder Must Advertise, in which Lord Peter Wimsey gets an honest job.

Screenshot of the Lord Peter Wimsey BBC Radio Drama Collection, Volume 3; audio controls show below the title card, with the caption "Murder Must Advertise" (the first adaptation in this collection).

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KateW @kateweb.bsky.social · 11/08/2026

Came in, demolished dinner and now need a little sit down to think about how I should have eaten slower.

Round white plate with wedges of tortilla on the left and a mix of Little Gem, cherry tomatoes, mixed beans and Mexican rice covering the rest of the plate.

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KateW @kateweb.bsky.social · 09/08/2026

Tells me nothing, but here you go

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KateW @kateweb.bsky.social · 09/08/2026

Tells me nothing, but here you go

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KateW @kateweb.bsky.social · 09/08/2026

Tells me nothing, but here you go

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KateW @kateweb.bsky.social · 09/08/2026

Tells me nothing, but here you go

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KateW @kateweb.bsky.social · 07/08/2026

A New Cat has appeared through the cat tunnel. They sat and stared at me for a minute, established I'm nothing to worry about, then proceeded to wash themself at me. Having inspected the back garden, they have now returned whence they came, without so much as signing the guest book.

Deepl scruffy back garden, with a wooden fence that needs repainting and tree branches above that. In front of the fence is a tabby-ish cat with white bib and socks, deciding I need to be neither attacked nor fled from.

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KateW @kateweb.bsky.social · 07/08/2026

Sitting outside in the shade, not scorching; not sad about it.

Big leafy mature trees over a roofline, blue sky in between

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KateW @kateweb.bsky.social · 05/08/2026

In real life, Rod pled guilty to assaulting his pregnant partner. Wonder if the family he brought to this Christmas party was his two kids with the wife he cheated on 6 months after they married, or his daughter with the 22 year-old he cheated on her with? And in print (as well as the bigotry):

Screenshot from Rod Liddle's Wiki page:
"Comments in contempt of court on Stephen Lawrence trial" describes how an article Liddle wrote, suggesting that "the trial of two men accused (and later convicted) of murdering Stephen Lawrence would not be fair"

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KateW @kateweb.bsky.social · 05/08/2026

Lunch on my lap, in the back garden.

Round white plate with carrot batons, tortilla chips and halved pitta breads (filled with hummus and cucumber that you can't see). Dark denim knee visible under the plate.

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KateW @kateweb.bsky.social · 03/08/2026

This weekend's great discovery. I love a hot cross bun, I love lemon curd; this is M&S injecting the latter into the former, with lemon curd icing on top. I'm definitely a fan.

Close-up of the side of the packaging; a light yellow, with blue text reading "TANGY. 2 lemon curd iced buns". Genuinely delicious and even better when yellow stickered.

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KateW @kateweb.bsky.social · 31/07/2026

From that Homo naledi article:

Screenshot of the National Geographic article in my last shared post:
"For now, the new revelations have a strange serendipity to them. The right squeezes required to enter the present-day Rising Star cave system made it harder for male researchers to enter, so the initial group of paleoanthropolists to excavate the bones were all women. That these female fossils wee discovered by women, Berger notes, "I think that's one of those great, beautiful ironies of science and exploration "

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KateW @kateweb.bsky.social · 26/07/2026

@libbyapp.com I'm really mystified by the app's search function. I search for "John Dickson Carr", the app recognises that search term as an Author; I click on that and get 4 titles not by John Dickson Carr. The top two are by Cecily Gayford, whose name has nothing in common with that search. 🤯

Screenshot from the Libby app of a search for "John Dickson Carr", which recognises him as an Author.

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KateW @kateweb.bsky.social · 23/07/2026

@skullmandible.bsky.social It's not the king's feast, but see this magnificent loaf!

A golden brown, crusty oval loaf, with a split cut into the top.

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KateW @kateweb.bsky.social · 21/07/2026

This idea of tech spreading prosperity and opportunities sounds lovely, but I don't see any means for it to happen. Also interesting that the article's from October; have we seen any AI benefits to public services?

He continues: "One of the things I'm excited about is, alongside healthcare, putting AI in the service of things like our national security but also the dignity of people that we most focus on in the Labour Party. For those reasons, clearly what we can do with AI and defence is going to be a really important priority; where we can get to in supporting people with fulfilling work opportunities is going to be a really interesting area."

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KateW @kateweb.bsky.social · 17/07/2026

Starting Friday night with a scone and some light murder (not pictured).

Fruit scone, split in half with butter and strawberry jam.

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KateW @kateweb.bsky.social · 12/07/2026

Little treats I bought myself today, to celebrate voluntarily going outside. I didn't know this notebook existed, but I absolutely love it and for once in my live will start using it straight away, instead of saving it for a hypothetical future 'best'. 👩‍🚀

The front of a Moleskine NASA notebook; deep blue cover with silver grey illustration of the moon, a probe and rocket.

Bank of the same notebook; an astronaut floats in deep blue space, surrounded by stats, and a probe some distance away.

A bright pink berry smoothie in one of those glass jars with a handle, that has "Hello Summer" printed on the front, inside a strawberry.

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KateW @kateweb.bsky.social · 12/07/2026

Current status: sitting outside, not melting or even actively sweating!

View from under a bright yellow cafe awning. There's a visible strip of blue sky and the white wall of the building opposite is shining in the sun.

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KateW @kateweb.bsky.social · 07/07/2026

Tonight's dinner: not shown, half-eaten tray of French cheeses. Which I will definitely be eating the rest of before long.

Round white plate with green grapes, oatcakes, a wedge of butter, sea salt crackers and slices of seeded baguette.

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KateW @kateweb.bsky.social · 06/07/2026

Picnic leftovers; not sad about it.

Little Gem, rocket and halved cherry tomatoes, two slices of seeded bread with butter, a wedge of tortilla and slice of ham.

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KateW @kateweb.bsky.social · 28/06/2026

This should clearly be the soundtrack to a French detective shadowing someone in a very cool way (rather than to me eating a charcuterie plate).

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KateW @kateweb.bsky.social · 27/06/2026

Bought this yesterday, finished it today (which is always satisfying) and recommend it to you, if you enjoy pacey, page-turning historical fiction. Uhtred, son of Uhtred, is fictional, but the fight between the English (of various kinds), the Danes and their gods very much isn't.

Paperback copy of The Last Kingdom by Bernard Cornwell, with athe sword on the cover.

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