iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Cat McLaughlin 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿🏳️‍🌈🏴‍☠️ @knittedpixel.bsky.social · 2m

Good morning. Currently I am running mainly on caffeine, fumes and seasonally-appropriate snacks. 💀

Halloween-themed mug which has a shiny black glaze and little white ghosties (done as a resist, so the bare ceramic cup surface shows through). The mug is kind of "ribbed" so it's visually shaped a bit like a dark-coloured pumpkin.

Cat McLaughlin 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿🏳️‍🌈🏴‍☠️ @knittedpixel.bsky.social · 16h

The grave of a family named Meuer zu Schlochtern, Berlage at the Roman-Catholic Cemetery Buitenveldert / RK Begraafplaats Buitenveldert in Amsterdam Zuid. 🇳🇱 A German surname, with "pax" (peace) in Latin, and the rest of the inscriptions in Dutch. #31DaysOfGraves #Amsterdam #Netherlands #Language

Scene from a pretty Roman Catholic graveyard in Amsterdam, Netherlands. By the grave is a statue of an angel kneeling in prayer. The upright headstone forms an ornate cross with a sacred heart and crown of thorns in the centre. Below the cross is carved with the word "pax" (Latin for peace). Names of the Meuer zu Schlochtern
family interred in the plot are listed on a vertical stone at the base of the grave.

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Cat McLaughlin 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿🏳️‍🌈🏴‍☠️ @knittedpixel.bsky.social · 14/10/2026

A memorial stone at the tomb of Scottish romantic writer Sir Walter Scott (1771-1832), in the north transept of what remains of Dryburgh Abbey, Scotland. #31DaysOfGraves #ScottishBorders #FamousScots

Red memorial stone (or possibly clay?) set into a brick/stone wall at the tomb of Sir Walter Scott, carved with a Latin inscription and heraldic crests, a skull and crossbones.

Alternate view showing the tomb of Sir Walter Scott at the ruins of Dryburgh Abbey, with vaulted arches above the grave.

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Cat McLaughlin 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿🏳️‍🌈🏴‍☠️ @knittedpixel.bsky.social · 13/10/2026

On a visit to Dryburgh Abbey in the Scottish Borders, I encountered quite a few of these (rather weathered) headstones featuring what appears to be a person reading a book! 📖 Oddly, many of them look like they have also sunken into the earth... #31DaysOfGraves #Scotland #cemetery

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Cat McLaughlin 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿🏳️‍🌈🏴‍☠️ @knittedpixel.bsky.social · 13/10/2026

A more unusual headstone for today's #31DaysOfGraves post - this large gothic revival style one, circa the late 1800s, bears some resemblance to the Scott Monument in Edinburgh. Very much of its time! Spotted in Selkirk, Scotland at the site of the Auld Kirk (Scots for "old church"). 🪦

Unusual, ornate headstone in neo-gothic style with elaborate carving and a cathedral/church-like appearance.

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Cat McLaughlin 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿🏳️‍🌈🏴‍☠️ @knittedpixel.bsky.social · 12/10/2026

A fairly ordinary headstone for today's #31DaysOfGraves post. This one is from the 1800s, and has fallen from its original position. The grave is located in the auld burial ground in Galashiels, Scotland.

Headstone with a typical curved shape. Carved flowers and ribbons adorn the top. Inscription reads: "In affectionate remembrance of George Lourie, died at Hall St, Galashiels, 31st April 1868 aged 54 years, also Ann Taylor, his wife, died 2nd March 1882 aged 65 years, and Ann, their daughter, died 23rd May 1855 aged 2 years & 6 months."

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Cat McLaughlin 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿🏳️‍🌈🏴‍☠️ @knittedpixel.bsky.social · 10/10/2026

It was so windy today that I actually had to hold the stalk of these dahlias to get a photo that wasn't a *total* blur! 🌼 #BlueskyArtShow #weather

Pretty peachy/orange-toned dahlias in bloom. The petals are backlit by bright sunshine.

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Cat McLaughlin 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿🏳️‍🌈🏴‍☠️ @knittedpixel.bsky.social · 10/10/2026

#31DaysOfGraves Day 10: #Missing This is a headstone with the most beautiful copperplate-style inscription, I love the colour it has taken on through weathering over time. It's at the Gala Aisle graveyard in the town of Galashiels, Scotland. Some graves there date back to the 1600s. #ShotOnCanon

An old gravestone which has lost some of the inscription due to weathering. What remains is fragments of beautifully carved copperplate lettering and a surface patina dappled with pale lichens.

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Cat McLaughlin 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿🏳️‍🌈🏴‍☠️ @knittedpixel.bsky.social · 09/10/2026

Another one for #31DaysOfGraves Day 9: #Lettering I was particularly charmed by the monogram on this headstone I saw at Dryburgh Abbey in the far south east of Scotland. It marks the grave of Noel Jessie Haliburton Wilson, Countess of Mayo - she lived to be 101! (b. 25th December 1890 - d. 1992)

Detail of a headstone with a circular inset, featuring a decorative crest bordered with leaves, a crown and a delicately carved monogram.

Headstone with a circular inset, featuring a decorative crest with a crown and delicately carved monogram. The inscription reads: "Noel, Countess of Mayo. 1890-1992.

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Cat McLaughlin 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿🏳️‍🌈🏴‍☠️ @knittedpixel.bsky.social · 09/10/2026

This one is super old, taken at the same spot in Gala. Shot on black & white film with my dad's vintage Cosina camera, circa the early 2000s. I love how you can still just about make out the little thistle carved into the top of the headstone. 💜

Black & white photo print from a 35mm film negative. A very old fallen headstone, which has been heavily weathered over the years. Some words/letters are just about legible, including the name "Isobel". At the top is a carved thistle flower, which is likely a nod to Scotland.

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Cat McLaughlin 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿🏳️‍🌈🏴‍☠️ @knittedpixel.bsky.social · 09/10/2026

#31DaysOfGraves Day 9: #Lettering. Beautiful #typography is one of the main reasons I love graveyard wandering. 🪦 I particularly enjoy looking for epitaphs carved in historic gothic blackletter typefaces. These headstones are all from the old burial ground / Galashiels Burial Aisle, Scotland. 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿

Detail of a headstone from the 1800s with beautifully carved inscriptions - the words "in memory of" are particularly lovely with swashes and flourishes surrounding the gothic letterforms.

3/4 view, detail of a headstone from the 1700s with beautifully carved inscriptions. The word "and" is particularly lovely, with swashes and flourishes surrounding the gothic letterforms.

Detail of a headstone from circa the late 1700s/early 1800s with beautifully carved inscriptions - the word "sacred" is particularly lovely with swashes and flourishes surrounding the gothic letterforms. The letters have softened from weathering by the elements over time.

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Cat McLaughlin 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿🏳️‍🌈🏴‍☠️ @knittedpixel.bsky.social · 08/10/2026

Kan ik meedoen? 😊 Detail is from an abstract mixed media piece I made.

Detail of an abstract art piece by Cat McLaughlin, made with mixed media (including watercolour paint and coloured pencils). The painting features energetic and rhythmic mark-making created in response to music, with sweeping bands of colour, scribbly pencil lines and colourful drips.

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Cat McLaughlin 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿🏳️‍🌈🏴‍☠️ @knittedpixel.bsky.social · 08/10/2026

#31DaysOfGraves Day 8: Animal. This is a memorial statue for a Dandie Dinmont Terrier, "Old Ginger" at The Haining in Selkirk, Scotland. 🐾

Memorial in honour of a beloved pet named "Old Ginger". On top of the stone is a Dandie Dinmont Terrier dog statue, and the upright part has a carving of a man (presumably the dog's owner) jauntily walking with two loyal terriers by his side.

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Cat McLaughlin 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿🏳️‍🌈🏴‍☠️ @knittedpixel.bsky.social · 07/10/2026

A very personal one from me today for #31DaysOfGraves. I visited my great-great uncle Bernard’s, and his wife Julia’s grave in the Eastlands Cemetery, Galashiels, which is close to where they lived (their former home was only a couple of streets away). My dad has always spoken fondly of him. ❤️

Headstone with a large stone cross. Engraved on the centre of the cross is a monogram. The inscription on the grave reads: “In loving memory of Julia O’Hara, dearly beloved wife of Bernard McLaughlin, who died 16th January 1946, also Bernard McLaughlin who died 21st June 1977.”

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Cat McLaughlin 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿🏳️‍🌈🏴‍☠️ @knittedpixel.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

#31DaysOfGraves Day 6: Weather. A frosty December day back in the winter of 2023 at the (very) Old Burial Ground, Galashiels. The building on the left is not a church, but Gala Aisle, the family burial vault for the lairds of Gala, built in 1636. #Scotland #cemetery #Galashiels #ScottishHistory

View looking over a snowy old stone wall into a frosty graveyard with old headstones, a small church-like building and a big tree. In the background are more trees and some hills.

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Cat McLaughlin 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿🏳️‍🌈🏴‍☠️ @knittedpixel.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

#31DaysOfGraves Day 4. Entrance at the Auld Kirk Yard (Scots for “old church yard”) in #Selkirk. If you wander through, there are some very *fancy* headstones within the ruins! Also said to be the site of the Kirk o’ the Forest, where William Wallace was proclaimed Guardian of Scotland in 1298. 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿

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Cat McLaughlin 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿🏳️‍🌈🏴‍☠️ @knittedpixel.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

Following on from my earlier post, this is a photograph of Gala Aisle itself - or at least the windows, which presumably once had glass in them, a long time ago. #31DaysOfGraves Day 3 - Glass. #ShotOnCanon

Photo of an elongated window with curved points at the top, reminiscent of a church. It has old stonework and has no glass, just a metal mesh (presumably to prevent birds entering). Through the window you can see a leafy green tree and the graveyard boundary wall beyond.

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Cat McLaughlin 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿🏳️‍🌈🏴‍☠️ @knittedpixel.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

Day 2 of #31DaysOfGraves - Urn. Taken on a walk this evening around the Old Burial Ground, #Galashiels, in the south of Scotland. The #graveyard has headstones dating back to the 1600s + includes Gala Aisle, the family burial vault for the Lairds of Gala, built in 1636. #3rdPlace #BlueskyArtShow

A carved stone urn sits atop a large, weathered headstone in an old graveyard at dusk.

The inscription reads: "Sacred to the memory of Eliza Anne Cochrane, wife of Henry Roberts, Manufacturer, Galashiels. Born 12th August 1834. Died 30th March 1863.

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Cat McLaughlin 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿🏳️‍🌈🏴‍☠️ @knittedpixel.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

Evening sunlight at the Eastlands #Cemetery in #Galashiels. 🥀🪦 Just spotted #31DaysOfGraves & this feels fitting for day one's prompt, flower. I also quite like graveyard walks, so I herby submit it as a #3rdPlace for this week's #BlueskyArtShow. 📷 April 2025, Galashiels, Scotland. #ShotOnCanon

Evening sunshine warms a beautiful carved gravestone adorned with flowers in the Eastlands Cemetery in Galashiels, a town in the Scottish Borders.

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Cat McLaughlin 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿🏳️‍🌈🏴‍☠️ @knittedpixel.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

Today is National Poetry Day! This poem, Ideas Coalesce, came to me fairly spontaneously earlier this year, one January evening when I couldn't sleep. #NationalPoetryDay #Poem #Poetry #MentalHealth

Poem text. Title: Ideas Coalesce.

Sewing, threads
Gathering my skills
Working with my hands, expressing Embroidering what’s in my heart
Pulling at the inkling of an idea
Stitching disparate parts together
To create a coherent whole
Coming back to myself
Darning the care-worn places
In need of a little love
Untangling the knotted mess
That somehow bound me for a while.

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Cat McLaughlin 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿🏳️‍🌈🏴‍☠️ @knittedpixel.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

One of the pretty Dutch canals at dusk, from one of my many visits to Amsterdam to visit my sister. #BlueskyArtShow #lights

View of an Amsterdam canal at dusk, with houseboats and pretty, old-fashioned street lights gently illuminating the scene.

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Cat McLaughlin 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿🏳️‍🌈🏴‍☠️ @knittedpixel.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

I made a thing! 🩷💜💙 (Turns out I naturally gravitated towards those paint colours without even realising it!)

A colourful hand painted background with the words "Happy Bi Visibility Day!!!" - the colours echo those in the Bisexual pride flag, which are pink, purple & blue.

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Cat McLaughlin 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿🏳️‍🌈🏴‍☠️ @knittedpixel.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

Spent some time yesterday admiring the lovely cosmos in my mum & dad’s garden - rather windswept, but still hanging in there! #PinkMon #Bloomscrolling

A patch of vibrant pink cosmos flowers in a garden setting.

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Cat McLaughlin 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿🏳️‍🌈🏴‍☠️ @knittedpixel.bsky.social · 20/09/2026

Golden hour sunlight at Blaikie's Hill, Galashiels, in the heart of the #ScottishBorders on a midwinter's day in 2021. A late entry for this week's #BlueskyArtShow #golden theme.

Golden evening light illuminates tall blades of grass on a hillside, making them glint like little flashes of amber in the sun. The grasses are contrasted against a dark silhouetted row of pine trees, with a white coloured sky above them.

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Cat McLaughlin 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿🏳️‍🌈🏴‍☠️ @knittedpixel.bsky.social · 19/09/2026

Taken on my visit to the Kagyu Samye Ling Monastery & Tibetan Buddhist Centre in August last year - a hidden gem in Dumfries & Galloway. It’s a beautiful place and has such a lovely peaceful atmosphere. 🕉️ #BlueskyArtShow #golden

Red and gold shrine with offerings (including a Tunnock's teacake) and a small golden Buddha statue at the gift shop of the Samye Ling Monastery & Tibetan Buddhist Centre in the south of Scotland.

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Cat McLaughlin 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿🏳️‍🌈🏴‍☠️ @knittedpixel.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

I met this handsome fellow on my way to/from the takeaway this evening! 😻 His name is Thor, and he's something of a local celebrity in these parts (Galashiels).

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Cat McLaughlin 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿🏳️‍🌈🏴‍☠️ @knittedpixel.bsky.social · 15/09/2026

Oooh interesting! I got to play with some Delittle woodtype from York during a letterpress workshop in the Robert Smail’s Printworks caseroom in Innerleithen (in the south of Scotland) a while ago. It was really lovely to work with the texture of the woodgrain in the prints I made. #Letterpress

Close-cropped photo of some wooden type used for traditional analogue letterpress printing. You can see the end of a large, retro-style curvy capital “A”, which has the words “Delittle, York” carved on them. Next to it is a smaller captital “A” letterform in a gothic typeface, viewed upside-down.

Both letterforms are mirror-image, so that when printed, they are the correct way around.

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Cat McLaughlin 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿🏳️‍🌈🏴‍☠️ @knittedpixel.bsky.social · 12/09/2026

View from the summit of Craigellachie looking towards Lochan Dubh (Scots Gaelic meaning small dark loch), near Aviemore in the Cairngorms National Park, Scotland. 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 My kind of drama! #BlueskyArtShow #undulating #ScottishHighlands #Alba #ClassicMono

Black & white photo of the view from Craigellachie, a peak in the Scottish Highlands, with a small lake, large craggy rocks and undulating outlines of silhouetted mountains far into the distance. In the sky above are clouds dramatically lit with sunlight.

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Cat McLaughlin 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿🏳️‍🌈🏴‍☠️ @knittedpixel.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

It's a beautiful day in the Scottish Highlands. 💚 Enjoyed a hike in the Cairngorms National Park area a little earlier, and there's truly nowhere else I'd rather be. #ForestFriday #scape #ScottishHighlands

A woodland view with many birch trees (sometimes known as a "birkwood") in the Highlands of Scotland. The forest floor is covered in lush green fern fronds, and there's a blue sky above with wispy clouds just visible behind the trees.

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Cat McLaughlin 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿🏳️‍🌈🏴‍☠️ @knittedpixel.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

Is #FungiFriday a thing?! Because I just got back from a hike in the 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 Highlands where there was an abundance of fungi - saw sooo many varieties, including tons of the fairytale-esque Fly Agaric. 🍄🍄🍄 Also saw lots of butterflies 🦋 (some may have been moths) and a teeny tiny wee frog! 🐸

Two fly agaric mushrooms nestled amongst moss, grass and leaves on the forest floor. They have white stems and bright orang-red caps with white spots on them, and look straight out of a fairytale book.

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Cat McLaughlin 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿🏳️‍🌈🏴‍☠️ @knittedpixel.bsky.social · 09/09/2026

I was snapping pretty flowers at the Inverness Botanic Gardens today - and got a bonus bumble bee! 🧡🐝 #Bloomscrolling #Bee #ScottishHighlands

Photograph of some pretty yellow dahlias surrounded by greenery, with their petals illuminated by bright sunshine. A chonky bumblebee is just zooming off to find its next source of nectar.

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Cat McLaughlin 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿🏳️‍🌈🏴‍☠️ @knittedpixel.bsky.social · 30/08/2026

Late entry for the #BlueskyArtShow. If a visit to the seaside doesn't say #summer, I don't know what does! 🌊 Gorgeous day trip to Spittal, Northumberland. I generally prefer to shoot landscape with my proper camera in tow, so this is prob best viewed on larger screens (or reoriented on a phone!).

A beautiful sunny day at Spittal beach in Northumberland, England. In the distance on the horizon is a red & white lighthouse. The shore has lots of waves rolling in and a young family are joyfully running into the sea for a refreshing swim. In the foreground, pretty wildflowers are in bloom and there are big tufts of wild grasses growing above the beach.

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Cat McLaughlin 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿🏳️‍🌈🏴‍☠️ @knittedpixel.bsky.social · 29/08/2026

Sweet summer roses in Gala. 🌺 In the background is Our Lady & St Andrew Catholic Church, where my great-great grandparents married in the late 1800s, + my great-great uncle who died at the Battle of the Somme in WWII is also commemorated. ❤️‍🩹 #BlueskyArtShow #Summer #Bloomscrolling #Galashiels

Pretty pink flowering roses rambling over and through old metal railings. In the background is a Catholic church building, and a blue sky with puffy white clouds.

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Cat McLaughlin 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿🏳️‍🌈🏴‍☠️ @knittedpixel.bsky.social · 22/08/2026

Colourful #chaos. Mixed media art piece I made during the pandemic, called "A love letter to live music". It was a strange time for many reasons! It's a digital collage, which incorporates analogue elements, including the hand painted background and my hand-written letter. 💌 #BlueskyArtShow #Art

Colourful mixed media / collage / digital art piece by Cat McLaughlin, titled "A love letter to live music". It features a handmade envelope, pages of a letter with hand written words, and energetic painterly brushstrokes. There is also a neon music note, which is from a photo taken at the Glasgow Barrowlands (an iconic, independent Scottish live music venue).

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Cat McLaughlin 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿🏳️‍🌈🏴‍☠️ @knittedpixel.bsky.social · 22/08/2026

My favourite kind of creative #chaos - punk rock!!! 🎸 A small selection of the books at Edinburgh Central Library’s dedicated Music Library. #BlueskyArtShow

A shelf of books on music, mostly punk/rock/alternative. The spines are colourful and varied, with an interesting mix of typographic styles. Each of the books has a small neon yellow dot sticker and the code “ML3534” printed on them.

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Cat McLaughlin 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿🏳️‍🌈🏴‍☠️ @knittedpixel.bsky.social · 19/08/2026

Just remembered it's World Photography Day! So here's a gladioli for your viewing pleasure 💛 #Bloomscrolling #Noticing #FloralPhoto

A gladioli stem with yellow flowers. The petals are curled and look very sculptural, with a lemon yellow colour in the centre and a more peachy tinge at the edges of the petals.

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Cat McLaughlin 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿🏳️‍🌈🏴‍☠️ @knittedpixel.bsky.social · 19/08/2026

Interesting read - Justin Shiels' thoughts on #creativity are definitely giving me some food for thought! I particularly liked this nugget of wisdom: "Creativity becomes the practice through which we return to ourselves." open.substack.com/pub/justinsh...

Image with a quote from a blog post by Justin Shiels: "Joy is the revolution.
Art is for everybody.
Creativity is your way back to yourself."

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Cat McLaughlin 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿🏳️‍🌈🏴‍☠️ @knittedpixel.bsky.social · 15/08/2026

Local volunteers lovingly planted up these flowerbeds in Galashiels. Always nice when Bank Street Gardens is in full bloom! #Earth #BlueskyArtShow #ScottishBorders #HiddenScotland #GratitudeAttitude

View of Bank Street Gardens, Galashiels, in the south of Scotland. A tree-lined public garden in the town centre, with flowerbeds full of colourful plants in full bloom, a green lawn and a winding path with benches for enjoying the space.

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