iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Stewed Pears.com 🍐 @stewedpearsdotcom.bsky.social · 5h

"For when it is cooked and opened, It’s so white and mellow, You forget it ever was homely, This useful Potato. On the whole it is a very plain plant, Makes no conspicuous show. But the internal appearance is lovely, Of the unostentatious Potato." -Lillian E. Curtis, from The Potato #poem #food 🍜

A doctored sphoto from 1909 showing massive potatoes the size of cows being winched onto wagons. Massive potatoes surround the wagon
https://americanart.si.edu/artwork/potato-harvest-71738

W. H. Martin, A Potato Harvest, 1909, gelatin silver print, 3 3⁄8 x 5 3⁄8 in., Smithsonian American Art Museum,

A painting of women in a field harvesting potatoes. A woman at centre is bent over as she rolls the potatoes from her basket into a sack

Jules Bastien-Lepage, "October". 1878. Oil on canvas. Image inthe public domain https://www.ngv.vic.gov.au/explore/collection/work/3768/

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Stewed Pears.com 🍐 @stewedpearsdotcom.bsky.social · 15/10/2026

Parsley, sage, rosemary, and ... #food #foodsky #cooksky 🍜 #simon&garfunkel

Botanical illustration of two sprigs of delicate pennyroyal (member of the mint family) and thyme. Both have purple flowers

Pennyroyal (Mentha pulegium) and creeping thyme (Thymus serpyllum): entire flowering plants. Coloured etching by C. Pierre, c. 1865, after P. Naudin.
Original public domain image from Wellcome Collection, Image: Rawpixel

Botanical illustration of a branch of thyme with white flowers and the words "thymus vulgaris" "thym commun."

Garden thyme, Thymus vulgaris from Traité des Arbres et Arbustes que l'on cultive en France en pleine terre (1801–1819) by Pierre-Joseph Redouté. Original from the New York Public Library. Digitally enhanced by rawpixel.

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Stewed Pears.com 🍐 @stewedpearsdotcom.bsky.social · 13/10/2026

Went out to a restaurant. Can I be controversial and say mine are better?? 😙😂 Except for the beer. Can't do beer.🤪 #food #foodsky #cooksky 🍜

two fried potato pancakes topped with sour cream, smoked salmon and caviar on a white plate, on a white crocheted tablecloth. A little side salad

a close up of a variety fried pierogi on a white plate in foreground and another one at the back. Both have sides of sour cream in little pots. The food in the foreground is topped with bacon and onion

a. overhead view of several dishes on a crocheted tablecloth. from top to bottom; pierogi, cabbage rolls with mash and a carrot salad, a bowl of barszcz beetroot soup with floating uszki (beef tortellini)

a close up on the label of a bottle of Zywiec dark larger beer

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Stewed Pears.com 🍐 @stewedpearsdotcom.bsky.social · 13/10/2026

Just for you, my old recipe. Minus cream and seafood I'd make it for my daughter when she was a toddler, so basically just a thick, tasty, vegetable soup. You can up the oyster sauce to taste. Also that's supposed to be "pass through fine sieve" but I barely bothered.

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Stewed Pears.com 🍐 @stewedpearsdotcom.bsky.social · 13/10/2026

Been staying with daughter. One night she did a BBQ. Tho it was "simple" it was just SO amazing. Simple, fresh, good food is the best. Also being invited to stay is something I don't take for granted😭 "You are the bows from which your children as living arrows are sent forth." -Kahlil Gibran #food 🍜

various dishes in servingware. top left a plate of caramelised BBQ chicken breast, various spices. Centre bottom, home-made fries with garlic and spices, and at left a salad of baby spinach, apple, broccolini and walnuts

Close up of a plate of BBQ chicken breast

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Stewed Pears.com 🍐 @stewedpearsdotcom.bsky.social · 09/10/2026

Salad days again, with fish. Fish refused to sign the photograph release form. #foodsky 🍜

an overhead view of a salad of butter leaf lettuce, cucumber, avocado and mango chunks with olive oil and lemon dressing and adrizzle of caramelised balsamic in a bowl on a placemat. Salad servers at bottom

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Stewed Pears.com 🍐 @stewedpearsdotcom.bsky.social · 07/10/2026

Salad days. Simple baby spinach, apple, cumin-roasted carrot & sweet potato drizzled with lemon & a caramelised pear & vanilla balsamic. Potato salad with dill. Accompanied some chicken schnitzel. Ok for a week night 😉 #food #foodsky 🍜

on placements, at back is a bowl if potato salad and at front is a salad of baby spinach, sliced apple and roasted spears of carrot & sweet potato

a salad of baby spinach, sliced apple and roasted spears of carrot & sweet potato

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Stewed Pears.com 🍐 @stewedpearsdotcom.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

A tale of two households. Comforting tuna mornay at home, which we will eat again tonight, while apparently some very hungry guests and BBQs at daughter's. #food #foodsky 🍜

side view of a casserole dish partly full of tuna mornay with peas, corn, onions, garlic, parsley and a cheesy white sauce, topped with the remainder of some cornflakes. Parsley behind.

An overhead view of a large bowl piled with steak, chicken, roast potatoes, some kind of rice salad and a mango and avocado bacon salad with butter lettuce

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Stewed Pears.com 🍐 @stewedpearsdotcom.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

Oct 9 – International Beer & Pizza Day "Here, With my beer I sit, While golden moments flit: Alas! They pass Unheeded by: And, as they fly, I, Being dry, Sit, idly sipping here My beer." -George Arnold, from Beer, 1866 www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/51563/... #foodsky #poem🍜

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Stewed Pears.com 🍐 @stewedpearsdotcom.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

Been quiet because doing a little #writing. Some of the images I'm using for inspiration this round: #poetry #poetrycommunity #food

An impressionist painting with three figures at a table in the foreground. Wine and glasses. One man in rowing whites smokes as he looks toward the right. A woman in woman's navy rowing dress has her back to the viewer, looking hrough an arch in the trellis. You can see the river Seine with a coxed four and another boat with a single navy-coloured figure inside.

Lunch at the Restaurant Fournaise (The Rowers’ Lunch)Date:
1875
Artist:
Pierre-Auguste Renoir (French, 1841–1919)

An abstract artwork in colours of beige, red, blue, yellow and green

Painting with Green Center
1913
Artist:
Vasily Kandinsky

A painting of produce on a wooden table, from left to right: two mushrooms, a basket of chestnuts, black grapes, two (I think) small parmagiano reggiano cheeses that have been unwrapped from their white paper) and a bowl of unshelled nuts. Colours of blacks, dark browns, white and grey
Kitchen Still LifeDate:
c. 1640
Artist:
Attributed to Paolo Antonio Barbieri (Italian, 1603–1649)

A tender study of a young woman in long white and pink dress, black boots and green hat with a basket over one arm, who sits on a stone wall. She looks to her left. Behind the wall are two peach trees in blossom, and a field. The painting was intended as "nostalgia for a fading rural past"

Peach BlossomsDate:
1878
Artist:
Winslow Homer (American, 1836–1910)

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Stewed Pears.com 🍐 @stewedpearsdotcom.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

I don't eat breakfast, but on some morning walks, when the sun is bright, the sky is blue, and the birds are singing, the breeze seems to whisper ....𝑒𝓈𝒸𝒶𝓇𝑔𝑜𝓉... 🌸 #painauxraisins #viennoiserie #food #beestrot 🍜

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Stewed Pears.com 🍐 @stewedpearsdotcom.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

"The floral decorations are kept low to facilitate conversation" 🍜

Illustration from Mrs Beeton's Book of Household Management. A round table with a white tablecloth sits adjacent a panelled wall with pink wallpaper and pink curtains. Three pink padded chairs are around the table. The table is laid with a large centrepiece of pink flowers that takes up almost the whole table. Each place is set with plates, cutlery and wine glasses.
The writing reads: "Dinner Table. The floral decorations are kept low to facilitate conversation"
A Dinner Table from Mrs. Beeton's Book of Household Management. Digitally enhanced from Rawpixel's 1923 edition.

An illustration of a large tiered rectangular table in a panelled room with two Victorian screens at the back. The table is decorated with a white tablegloth and green-leafed garlands and flowers arrangements on stands, as well as two pineapples at either end. A dozen or more different dishes are on the tiers. Glasses and champagne bottles are dotted between the dishes. A statute (?) of a man playing a musical instrument is at the centre.
The writing reads: "Supper buffet. Suitable for a Ball or Reception"

A Supper Buffet for Ball or Reception from Mrs. Beeton's Book of Household Management. Digitally enhanced from Rawpixel's 1923 edition.

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Stewed Pears.com 🍐 @stewedpearsdotcom.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

Almost exactly year ago, I experimented with AI, asking it to improve my photos. It's way more sophisticated now. My photos at left. AI's "improvements" on the right. Genuine question, how are we going to tell what's real moving forward, w/o an AI detector telling us so? #food #foodsky #cooksky 🍜

my photo, deliberately messy and "unappetising" of a hamburger split down the middle. Visible is the burger, steak sauce, onions, baby spinach and avocado. Crumbs litter the white plate.

I asked AI to make my burger look more "appetising" and then added in chips and a wooden board and it decided to throw in a window and cloth in the background

My photo of spaghetti with prawns in a white bowl against a grey backsplash. visible bacon, prawns, parsley and pepper

AI's version after it asked it I wanted wine and bread in the background

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Stewed Pears.com 🍐 @stewedpearsdotcom.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

In another life I would like to have been a potter. From the 1500s, 1600s and 1700s #food #ceramics #art #themet

A graceful plate with a scalloped (?) edge and a concentric lattice circle that leads the eye into the very centre of the plate, each intersection of the lattice has a small red flower
Image in the public domain

From the Met description:
Plate, Manufactory Imperial Porcelain Manufactory, St. Petersburg Russian
1755–60
Hard-paste porcelain
This plate is from the factory's first table service, made for the empress about 1756–60. Every piece was decorated with a graceful molded trellis pattern, which suggests they were part of a dessert service, perhaps to be used in summer."

More: https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/204533

A round plate with gold rim and various images depicting the story of King Midas in bold colours of yellow, green and blue. At the centre is a coat of arms held by two cupids.
Image in the public domain

From the Met description
Armorial Plate (tondino): The story of King Midas
Nicola da Urbino.
Italian
ca. 1520–25
Maiolica (tin-glazed earthenware)
This plate belongs to a service commissioned by Eleonora Gonzaga, Duchess of Urbino, as a gift for her mother, Isabella d’Este, Marchioness of Mantua.The center of this dish shows Isabella's coat of arms surrounded by three of her personal emblems: a musical scroll, a candelabrum with one lit candle, and a bunch of lottery tickets. On the rim is a portrayal of the musical contest between Apollo and Pan judged by King Midas, a subject recounted in Ovid's "Metamorphoses."

More information: https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/459198

A dish in colours of cobalt, deep teal green and burnt red. The rim is decorated with intricate dots and flowers. The centre depicts various flowers and a bird sitting on a branch on the left.

From the Met description:
Dish Depicting Two Birds among Flowering Plants
ca. 1575–90
Stonepaste; polychrome painted under transparent glaze
Turkish
Two small birds are perched within the tangle of carnation, tulip, and hyacinth stems on this colorful plate. A popular literary Ottoman literary trope, bird and flower designs were a pervasive decorative element on Iznik pottery of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.

More: https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/451490

A highly intricately decorated basin in golds and navy blues
Image in the public domain

From the Met description:

Basin
Master Potter A
ca. 1650. tin glazed earthenware. Mexican.
Made by an artist who marked it with the initial “A,” this flat-bottomed lebrillo is decorated with a bold pattern of cobalt blue lines whose interstices are filled with fine black lines and dots that imitate lacework. The inscription encircling the rim of the basin indicates that it was made for the sole purpose of washing purificators, the altar linens used to wipe the Eucharistic chalice after Communion.

https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/674

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Stewed Pears.com 🍐 @stewedpearsdotcom.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

Daughter decided to make a last-minute cake using whatever she could find in her pantry. Had no buttermilk so substituted 1/2 cup almond milk with 1/2 tablespoon of lemon juice. This is what we're here for 👏 #food #foodsky #cooksky 🍜

an overhead view of a pineapple upside down cake on a beige plate on a wooden board. Pineapple chunks, not rings have been used and there is a ring of cherries

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Stewed Pears.com 🍐 @stewedpearsdotcom.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

Spambot alert. Quite a few of these lately. These 3 “food” accounts all have the exact same redirect links. Anything with an extension of something like .mom or .xyzzyk is spam.

A snapshot showing three alleged food accounts

Google explanation of spambot wave where multiple accounts follow simultaneously while sharing the same redirect link. They exoect you to click out of curiosity

Google expkains they do this to bypass Bluesky’s moderation and spam detection

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Stewed Pears.com 🍐 @stewedpearsdotcom.bsky.social · 20/09/2026

Reposting just cos I think it's fun. More details stewedpears.com/my-baes-eyes... #poem #poetrycommunity

A 1700s oil painting of a man and a woman at a table, being served by a waiter, standing. The woman, in a white satin gown with pink bustle, and a glass of wine in. her right hand, looks toward the viewer. The mann in a blue military-style jacket and long boots looks toward the woman. A duffle-type bag is at his feet.

Marcellus Laroon the Younger, A Dinner Conversation, 1735–1740. Oil on canvas. Image in the public domain. Source: Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Collection

a screenshot of a poem with emojis that reads:

My Bae’s Eyes are Nothing like the Sun

My bae 🙃 returned to me from Scarb’rough Bay.
He told me spas were good for his physique 🙄
That sand and sea for just about a week
would cure the limp he felt in his fillet 🌭
And I, of course, said, “Hey, ‘it’ might decay
if unattended it lay limp and meek
as chicken raw or beef in soup. Oblique.”
And lo, Bae brought back stockings sheer. Risqué.
So, yay? 😠 F*boy now drinks the wine he thinks
will charm the very silk from breasts and arms
his servant knows are sleek as Bae’s limp beef.
(I oop!) Rosé my lips, my cheeks, my dress.
I slay. Fair fire 🔥 Bae never did forethink
to read the room. Ignore not fire! Yaaas queen 👑

©elsp2026

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Stewed Pears.com 🍐 @stewedpearsdotcom.bsky.social · 20/09/2026

As I wandered the forest, The green leaves among, I heard a Wild Flower Singing a song. 'I slept in the earth In the silent night, I murmured my fears & I felt delight. "In the morning I went As rosy as morn, To seek for new joy; But oh! met with scorn.' –William Blake,The Wild Flower's Song #poem

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Stewed Pears.com 🍐 @stewedpearsdotcom.bsky.social · 20/09/2026

Dinner contribution sent in by my daughter today. It's a tough life she lives. #food #foodsky #cooksky 🍜 #bbq

at bottom left, a bowl with a mixed salad of rocket (arugula), red and yellow grape tomatos, avocado, walnut, cucumber and an olive oil dressing. to the right of that a beige plate with a helping of salad and above, a serving platter of a mix of chargrilled prawns and octopus

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Stewed Pears.com 🍐 @stewedpearsdotcom.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

Flowers from this morning. "Pluck not the wayside flower, It is the traveller's dower; A thousand passers-by Its beauties may espy, May win a touch of blessing From Nature's mild caressing." –William Allingham, from "Wayside Flowers" #bloomscrolling #poetry #poetrycommunity

A close up of a single bright red/orange nasturtium, seeing down into its yellow heart. Its leaves are outstretched as if greeting the day

A photo taken through the branch of a magnolia tree to the sun. Blue sky and a tree behind. The sunlight lights a spider's web between two of the magnolia branches. There are several purple/pink flowers opened up to the sky

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Stewed Pears.com 🍐 @stewedpearsdotcom.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

The other half is travelling with work, and I am positively wasting away. #food #foodsky #cooksky 🍜

A white bowl of spaghetti with enormous prawns on top. visible also some chopped bacon and parsley garnish, as well as pepper. The sauce base is just olive oil, bacon, garlic, lemon juice, a little white wine and a little parmesan.

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Stewed Pears.com 🍐 @stewedpearsdotcom.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

And here we have our 16th century lobsters #food #foodsky #cooksky #lobster🍜

Joris Hoefnagel, "Plate 45: Lobster, Squilla Mantis, and Other Crustaceans" c1575/1590s. Water color and gold paint on parchment. Image in the public domain.Source: https://www.nga.gov/artworks/69864-plate-45-lobster-squilla-mantis-and-other-crustaceans

Description from NGA website: "The image shows various crustaceans in an oval frame. A large, brown spiny lobster is in the upper left, with a similarly sized shrimp in the mid-right. A pink lobster and a spherical crab are in the lower left. Additionally, a small spiny lobster and several smaller crabs are scattered throughout the right side of the image. The color palette includes tones of brown, pink, and red against a light blue background."

Joris Hoefnagel, "Plate 44: Lobster, Two Crabs, Scallop Shells, and Other Sea Life", c 1575-1590s Watercolor and gold paint on parchment. Image in the public domain. Source: https://www.nga.gov/artworks/69863-plate-44-lobster-two-crabs-scallop-shells-and-other-sea-life

Description from NGA website: "The image shows a large lobster on the left side, with a crab beneath it on a sandy and shallow sea floor. The color palette includes shades of blue for the lobster, brown for the sand and crab, and hints of pink, red, and beige in the various shells scattered around. In the background, various seashells and a blue fish-like creature are visible across the sandy surface, with a mussel tucked towards the bottom right, and a shrimp positioned next to it."

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Stewed Pears.com 🍐 @stewedpearsdotcom.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

As they do. Jacques Callot, "Crayfish Looking at the Sun", 1628. Etching on Laid paper. Image in the public domain: Source; www.nga.gov/artworks/368... #food #foodsky #lobster #crayfish 🍜

From the NGA website:

"A lobster is in the foreground on a sandy patch of land. The scene is monochromatic, with various shades of beige and dark brown lines. To the right of the lobster, a cluster of grass sprouts from the sand. Behind the lobster, the calm sea stretches horizontally with a small sun visible near the horizon."

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Stewed Pears.com 🍐 @stewedpearsdotcom.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

Fruit-themed dinner. Salmon with brown rice and a baby salsa, followed by a mango and apple (all I had) baby crumble for 2. #food #foodsky #cooksky 🍜

overhead view of a vibrant bowl with teal interior and red rim. Inside is chopped orange, cucumber, avocado and red capsicum (pepper) with a dressing of fresh orange and lemon juice, garlic, salt and pepper

side view of serving of salsa and crispy-skinned baked salmon sitting on brown rice

a view of an oval shaped baking dish with a crumble inside and a green oven mitt in the foreground

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Stewed Pears.com 🍐 @stewedpearsdotcom.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

I also get much joy finding flowers where they probably shouldn't be 💜

A wall rendered in a terracotta colour with a crack running from top left to bottom right. Through the crack toward the bottom right is growing a groundcover with tiny purple flowers

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Stewed Pears.com 🍐 @stewedpearsdotcom.bsky.social · 15/09/2026

Dinner. These plain dinners are just not photogenic, but it's how we mostly eat. Boiled potato, steamed veg, lamb. But the vegetables were perfect. Carrots sweet & just tender, snow peas still crisp. No seasonings. Meat was perfect. A little mustard chucked in some mayo. Et voilà #foodsky #cooksky 🍜

an overhead view of seeded mustard being mixed into mayo with a spoon

A plain white plate and a plain weekday meal of boiled potato at front, snow peas, sliced carrot and fillet of lamb, some of which has been sliced. A bit of mayo at the front.

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Stewed Pears.com 🍐 @stewedpearsdotcom.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

Thank you Kafka 🤗 though I know it's not the best of shots, as hard when you're taking pics through glass & trying to move along in an exhibition. The glass was an actually an asset here. Another silver arm ring. I loved the form & knotting. Still qualifies for #WeekKforKn #AlphabetChallenge!

Viking arm ring in an oval shape with a knot of silver at the top. It sits on a black plinth with the number 7 at bottom left. The silver ring is reflected above in glass. Behind on the wall is a large gold blow up image of other elaborately decorated jewellery.

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Stewed Pears.com 🍐 @stewedpearsdotcom.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

#AlphabetChallenge #WeekKforKn Viking arm rings knotted together at their thin wire ends and bound by a smaller band arm-ring.

Four elaborately decorated silver ring-shaped bands bound together at the ends and then bound again by a smaller band. The arm-rings are part of the Galloway Hoard exhibition

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Stewed Pears.com 🍐 @stewedpearsdotcom.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

Masterchef-style problem for you. Other half bought "homemade" lasagne to "make it easy for you". I saw it lacked sauce. Put some under foil in oven to reheat. Yup, dry. Last night deconstructed the rest in the pan, added stock, tomato sauce, cheese. Not dry. Taste still not great. What wld you do?🍜

Six slices of lasagne in a pan ready to be reheated

an overhead view of the six slices of lasagne in the pan and an open jar of cherry-tomato sauce

The finished "deconstructed" lasagne, with the meat looking more bolognese-like and a garnish of parsley on top. I did add more parmesan too, but it still was not great. Should I have made bechamel??

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