Sign in

Dr Rob

@robheighton.bsky.social
6.7K followers 7.5K following 2.3K posts

he/him • Doctor of Physics • Worldbuilder & Conlanger • Fan of Fantasy • Whovian • Amateur Enthusiast of Linguistics, Archaeology, Classics, and many other things 📍 Britain • 📖 Winterfell • 📺 Trotters' Flat

PostsRepliesMedia
Dr Rob @robheighton.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
Regardless of any mixed feelings and trepidation evoked by much of what we've seen of Greta Gerwig's The Magician Nephew, this promo image in particular is just exquisite
A promotional image for Greta Gerwig's adaptation of The Magician's Nephew, showing Diggory and a horse. A wing design on the van behind the horse is positioned as though the horse has wings
522932
Dr Rob @robheighton.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
The Eye of September
A red apple on its tree, suspended in a gap in the foliage such that it looks vaguely like the centre/pupil of an eye
0486
Dr Rob @robheighton.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
Every now and then I have a look at ClearSky to see what Bluesky lists people have added me to, and most of the time it's incredibly, incredibly sweet
A list of Bluesky lists I feature on, including: Happy-Making, Interesting people, Cool PeopleMore of the list, including: Less Politics More Fun, Friends & stuff, Little joys
1170
Dr Rob @robheighton.bsky.social · 20/09/2026
Another sunny Sunday, and I am now a good chunk into my reread of A Game of Thrones
A copy of George R. R. Martin's A Game of Thrones next to a cup of tea on a metal garden chair, with glimpses of sunlit grass
2250
Dr Rob @robheighton.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
Look whom I met in the garden
The black-spotted back of a yellow-green frog amid the grassThe same frog from a front angle, its eye black and beady like a gemstone
1491
Dr Rob @robheighton.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
Red admiral on the pears
A dark butterfly, brightly orange-striped and white-spotted, perching at a jaunty angle among silky green leaves and brown-speckled pale green pears
1473
Dr Rob @robheighton.bsky.social · 13/09/2026
Sunny Sunday, and I'm enjoying the third and (as yet) last of the Dunk & Egg novellas
George R R Martin's A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms with a mug of tea on a garden chair
0232
Dr Rob @robheighton.bsky.social · 09/09/2026
Went and checked, and it's exactly the waterfall I was thinking of when I said it looked very Twin Peaks! Appears in the title sequence of every episode – youtu.be/yFMaEIHIrGw – and in lots of establishing shots in the show. Your downward pan in your video was very reminiscent of the titles
000
Dr Rob @robheighton.bsky.social · 06/09/2026
September skies
Very grainy mackerel clouds in a blue skyA red apple on its treeTrees beneath the aforementioned sit
2461
Dr Rob @robheighton.bsky.social · 03/09/2026
Light
Variously patterned reflections and refractions of sunlight on the side of a bath
0360
Dr Rob @robheighton.bsky.social · 27/08/2026
Rainy pears
A green pear among leaves on the tree, sprinkled with bright raindrops A pair of pears
0560
Dr Rob @robheighton.bsky.social · 17/08/2026
Hullo :)
A frog peering at the camera with a glassy eyeThe same frog from the back: green, brown, and black-spotted
1440
Dr Rob @robheighton.bsky.social · 17/08/2026
Many, many hours of watering and harvesting this fortnight, but there are perks
Bright red tomatoes in a red colander on dry grass
1490
Dr Rob @robheighton.bsky.social · 15/08/2026
They appreciate my watering :)
A frog on white plastic A frog in a pot
1460
Dr Rob @robheighton.bsky.social · 15/08/2026
Also a big fan of how my phone camera's lens flare was the precise shape of the eclipsed sun, reflected
The partially eclipsed sun between some trees, with a crescent-shaped green lens flare The same again at a different stage of the eclipse
0260
Dr Rob @robheighton.bsky.social · 12/08/2026
Eclipse '26
The red sickle of the 90ish percent eclipsed sunCrescent shaped dapples of light on a wallCresent shaped holes in the shadow of a colander on white paperThe partial eclipse, red sun on black
2989
Dr Rob @robheighton.bsky.social · 12/08/2026
We have liftoff
The sun with a sliver taken out of it by the beginnings of a partial solar eclipse
1604
Dr Rob @robheighton.bsky.social · 12/08/2026
Helped this peacock butterfly back outside
On the bannister of a sun-dappled staircase rests a reddish and eye-patterned butterly
2602
Dr Rob @robheighton.bsky.social · 08/08/2026
Twelve years after reading ASOIAF, I'm finally giving this a go. Meant to get round to it sooner, but ah well: for everything there is a season!
On summer-dry grass: a copy of George R. R. Martin's A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms, and a glass of red drink
1210
Dr Rob @robheighton.bsky.social · 07/08/2026
Ladybirds on the apples
A green and sunlit apple among its neighbours on the tree, with a little red ladybird in its divetAnother ladybird in the crevice between two apples, with a summery blue sky spotted in the background
0360
Dr Rob @robheighton.bsky.social · 07/08/2026
Red admirals enjoying the overripe figs
1460
Dr Rob @robheighton.bsky.social · 06/08/2026
A green-veined white (?) on the verbena by the apple tree
A whitish butterfly on a bright purple flowerhead. In the blurred distance, bright green apples lie on the soil
1502
Dr Rob @robheighton.bsky.social · 05/08/2026
Red admirals in the garden this afternoon
A red admiral butterfly - dark but for some spots of white and stripes of orange – resting on a concrete slabAnother red admiral resting on a sliver of broken brick in the sun
1671
Dr Rob @robheighton.bsky.social · 22/07/2026
Monument to July
An impressive stack of cuboidal straw bales in a field
3313
Dr Rob @robheighton.bsky.social · 19/07/2026
Is it just my imagination, or does this flower seem to be watching me?
A bright orange flower amid greenery. The arrangement of petals creates the vague illusion of an eye
2280
Dr Rob @robheighton.bsky.social · 16/07/2026
Just seen a website copyrighted from the future!
Screenshot: "[copyright symbol] 2035 by..."
1150
Dr Rob @robheighton.bsky.social · 07/07/2026
Always been partial to this lovely Roman border pattern – not least because one of its variations memorably graced the covers of the wonderful Roman Mysteries books (by @carolawrence.bsky.social) with which I grew up
The book cover of The Thieves of Ostia, first in the Roman Mysteries series
0340
Dr Rob @robheighton.bsky.social · 04/07/2026
They're chunky bastards now
Yellow- and black-striped cinnabar moth caterpillars on some ragwort
1531
Dr Rob @robheighton.bsky.social · 03/07/2026
Mine is now hiding both (that one is Non-sexual Nudity, which is more accurate at least), but I don't think the algorithm had made its mind up on that one yet when I was first scrolling your thread
110
Dr Rob @robheighton.bsky.social · 02/07/2026
More mallow
Pink-purple mallow flowers in misty sunlight
0674
Dr Rob @robheighton.bsky.social · 02/07/2026
Hanging out on the web
A brown spider at the centre of its web, in focus with a green blur of out-of-focus trees as a backdrop
0382
Dr Rob @robheighton.bsky.social · 02/07/2026
A damselfly spotted (briefly) in the garden yesterday
A long bright blue damselfly resting on an ear of grass
1410
Dr Rob @robheighton.bsky.social · 01/07/2026
Yesterday
From the foreground, moving back/up: a verge of green grass, a yellow-brown wheatfield, a line of distant trees, a blue sky spotted with fluffy white clouds
0400
Dr Rob @robheighton.bsky.social · 01/07/2026
A tiny cinnabar moth caterpillar and – as I only noticed after I'd started taking photos – his near-microscopic siblings close by!
A yellow- and black-striped caterpillar on a blade of grassPast the little caterpillar, some even tinier caterpillars
4421
Dr Rob @robheighton.bsky.social · 30/06/2026
Farewell to June!
Green apples growing on their branches
0260
Dr Rob @robheighton.bsky.social · 30/06/2026
Kirstie Allsopp started this round, I think, but plenty of others have weighed in
120
Dr Rob @robheighton.bsky.social · 30/06/2026
Every now and then, big British names of a certain age start bemoaning the supposedly recent prevalence of "pass (away)" as a euphemism for "die", and every time I'm confused because it goes back centuries and appears in the works of authors like Shakespeare, Chaucer, and Barrie
1340 Non ne wot huanne he ssel sterue ne huanne he ssel paci.
Ayenbite (1866) 241 (Middle English Dictionary) 


(c1395) Myn harm I wol confessen er I pace.
G. Chaucer, Squire's Tale 494


1417–18 Ȝyf þat I passe Rather þan sche.
in F. J. Furnivall, Fifty Earliest English Wills (1882) 38


a1500 (?c1450) Oon of yow two moste nede passe [French morir] in this bataile.
Merlin 55 (Middle English Dictionary)


1608 Vex not his ghost, O let him passe.
W. Shakespeare, King Lear xxiv. 308


a1616 Disturbe him not, let him passe peaceably.
W. Shakespeare, Henry VI, Part 2 (1623) iii. iii. 251715 The Fair, the Black, the Learned, the Unlearned, do all pass away.
translation of Thomas à Kempis, Christian's Exercise i. vii. 13


1803 Immediately as he uttered the words he passed away.
R. Southey, Selections from Letters (1856) vol. I. 366


1911 There was no kennel, for Nana also had passed away.
J. M. Barrie, Peter & Wendy xv. 258


1993 Ring announcer Howard Finkel announced that earlier in the day Andre the Giant had passed away.
WWF Magazine April 46/1
6182
Dr Rob @robheighton.bsky.social · 30/06/2026
So many tiny cinnabar moth caterpillars on the growing ragwort!
Tiny yellow- and black-striped caterpillars on some green plants
3340
Dr Rob @robheighton.bsky.social · 29/06/2026
Mallow
A purple flower amid the grass
0481
Dr Rob @robheighton.bsky.social · 29/06/2026
Poppies
Bright red poppies amid the green grass
1351
Dr Rob @robheighton.bsky.social · 29/06/2026
The Eye and the Abyss
A peacock butterfly (with an eye patterned on its wing) perched near the precipice of a dustbin lid
0220
Dr Rob @robheighton.bsky.social · 28/06/2026
A scarlet tiger moth, today in the garden!
A moth among grass and weeds, patched with bright red and white-spotted black
1724
Dr Rob @robheighton.bsky.social · 24/06/2026
Large skipper on the toadflax
An orange-brown butterfly on a purple flowerhead
0595
Dr Rob @robheighton.bsky.social · 24/06/2026
Bringing this app some nominative determinism
A broad tract of blue sky
2381
Dr Rob @robheighton.bsky.social · 21/06/2026
The sun has finally shown itself on this summer solstice, and so I've set up a little solar alignment of my own
A mug and a book on a garden chair, in a stripe of sunlight between regions of shadow
3581
Dr Rob @robheighton.bsky.social · 20/06/2026
June
A verdant verge bristling with purple mallow flowers; beyond it, seen under the sprawling branches of a tree, sit hay bales in a freshly moan field beneath a clear blue sky
0613
Dr Rob @robheighton.bsky.social · 20/06/2026
Malloway
Purple mallow flowers in the sweep of a farm road on a summer's day
0441
Dr Rob @robheighton.bsky.social · 20/06/2026
Beginnings
Bramble flowersEarly green blackberries
1390
Dr Rob @robheighton.bsky.social · 19/06/2026
More mallow
Purple mallow flowers on a sunny day, with hay bales sitting in a field in the background
0403
Dr Rob @robheighton.bsky.social · 18/06/2026
Moon!
A waxing crescent moon in a grey sky
4421