iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

ultima thule @thethousandthpart.com · 21/09/2026

It was painful to be there, practically no shade, but luckily there was ice cream!

ultima thule @thethousandthpart.com · 21/09/2026

It was +21 C in Donaghadee today and very little wind - the last time I was here my knuckles bled after removing gloves for 5 seconds. Have some offensively bright images bc my weekend ones will take time.

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ultima thule @thethousandthpart.com · 18/09/2026

I am so ashamed of myself I decided not to return there at the weekend. The archive staff clearly felt the same as they decided not to open on Sat, and esp not on Sunday.

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ultima thule @thethousandthpart.com · 18/09/2026

Gentle Reader, I found it (the typed English translation). I’d love to say it was my superior intelligence and 10 years of non-stop search, but in fact it was all down to the author’s long-suffering wife giving his papers to an archive, and said archive making them available ❤️

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ultima thule @thethousandthpart.com · 17/09/2026

I crossed the Forth; anything could happen now.

A fragment of River Forth, looking like a misted mirror, from high above

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ultima thule @thethousandthpart.com · 16/09/2026

Tell everyone Very Firmly that “Alison does not like the phone.” (They told me that in those very words about our whole IT dept this Monday).

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ultima thule @thethousandthpart.com · 13/09/2026

Fragments of Derry on a very sunny day (which I’m told happens once every three years).

Two black and white portrait images side by side, taken on a very sunny day in Derry/Londonderry. This one is a street view with some beautiful shadows and textures.

View of the steps leading into the First Presbyterian church - like the building’s ‘false’ facade, the intricate design on their side is a later addition.

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ultima thule @thethousandthpart.com · 12/09/2026

It bears all the marks of an Arctic Council conspiracy. If I were you, I’d be writing like mad about it.

ultima thule @thethousandthpart.com · 12/09/2026

/Makes a note, once dead, to appear to Alison as a ghoste of a Blue Lady* who repeats “Most of the ‘mysteries’ of the FE lie in London, not Canada” over and over, in a melancholy yet slightly threatening tone./ *to counterbalance the over-many Green and Grey Lady ghostes out there

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ultima thule @thethousandthpart.com · 10/09/2026

He’s got it down to a fine art through years of practice…

ultima thule @thethousandthpart.com · 10/09/2026

“Waited over 45 minutes for service at this so called restaurant, never even got a menu, crockery or cutlery and was then told to get down from my seat by the owner. Would give zero stars if I could.”

An image of a disgruntled-looking Patterdale terrier, black with a white chest, sat at a table in a leather chair too big for him. The table appears to be completely bare. He is not impressed with the lack of service at this particular restaurant.

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ultima thule @thethousandthpart.com · 09/09/2026

Tulip clearly says, “Look after yourself (also where are my treats)?”

ultima thule @thethousandthpart.com · 07/09/2026

Ouch - it hurts just to look at this one 😭

ultima thule @thethousandthpart.com · 07/09/2026

Translucent weights sound fab, though I don’t think I’ve seen them in any UK/Ireland archive I’ve been to - it’s all leather or cloth.

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ultima thule @thethousandthpart.com · 07/09/2026

Unlocked a different type of archive-related challenge: docs folded lengthways, in piles held with string, and left for a couple of centuries. As writing is v. close to edges, no amount/variety of snakes or weights can now help, so had to paw them very gingerly.

An image of an A5 sized book with a sewn spine and a marbled soft cover, containing a list of books, folded mercilessly lengthways and kept in this sad state for 200 years.

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They are great fun to read though!

Just anticipating tourists asking him for directions (I remember the rant he had about Americans writing to him asking to be shown the Tower).

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I tried for a more conventional one where you cd actually see his face but the stairs are not where they’re needed for that…

ultima thule @thethousandthpart.com · 30/08/2026

Pleased I can now enter the GRH through the main door as opposed to a succession of warrens, tunnels and traps at the side. They did have to up their security ⬇️ as those lockers are really flimsy.

The Duke of Wellington statue outside the General Register House in Edinburgh, facing the North Bridge and pointing east.

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Personally, wd love to live in the cave on the wee island with a ‘doorway’ in it and cackle wickedly at passers by.

ultima thule @thethousandthpart.com · 30/08/2026

Costa del Donegal, a blissfully underrated place

A portrait shot of coastal rocks and trees, with a glimpse of clear turquoise water.

A beach on a very overcast day; the gathering clouds with rare glimpses of sun highlight the colours better than any saturation could.

Coming down towards a semi-hidden beach through a forested bit and onto a path strewn with tiny white flowers.

Yet another beach with the sea in different shades of green and blue washing it very gently.

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ultima thule @thethousandthpart.com · 28/08/2026

Various feeds are sometimes very slow to populate for me, can’t speak re. own posts as I don’t post enough.

ultima thule @thethousandthpart.com · 26/08/2026

One of the expedition’s midshipmen, a certain Mr. Crozier, reportedly had a dressing case made from the wood of the Fury’s keel…

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ultima thule @thethousandthpart.com · 21/08/2026

Disappointed they had no Haunts (not on this page, anyway)

ultima thule @thethousandthpart.com · 19/08/2026

That “just let me explain” look is priceless

ultima thule @thethousandthpart.com · 19/08/2026

For all of you #C18 history f[r]iends ⬇️

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ultima thule @thethousandthpart.com · 17/08/2026

Especially as the typescripts were 95% likely done for a researcher!

ultima thule @thethousandthpart.com · 16/08/2026

😭 Luckily, I don’t think the person who had them typed up, owned them. Unluckily, the origs are not in any of the usual archives (where more of the same ended up). I’ll take my revenge by thinking up the worst names matching IMT at night, tormenting archivists in x, y, z by day.

ultima thule @thethousandthpart.com · 16/08/2026

And the intense “grrr” of the day goes to someone known only as I.M.T., who had 26 original C18 letters typed up in the twentieth century (chopped, xxx’ed, with clear errors all over the shop) without any thought of even indicating where he saw the originals. Yes, better than nothing, but really?!

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ultima thule @thethousandthpart.com · 16/08/2026

Thanks, Sam! Dog enjoyed the book - it is very short and mentions provisions, so an instant hit with him.

ultima thule @thethousandthpart.com · 15/08/2026

Orange looks very good on black (not saying Mishmish ought to get a job, but that black desk is too big for one person) 🐱

ultima thule @thethousandthpart.com · 13/08/2026

Have only read the DoR’s daughter’s memoir of it where she gives a good few details, but even that was probably written much later, so chances of mis-remembering or dropping what she thought irrelevant, quite high.

ultima thule @thethousandthpart.com · 13/08/2026

Didn’t realise there was a whole book about that ball - hope you report on it in due course!

It’s an interesting one. For some reason I find the claim about promising Ann[e]’s family more realistic than herself requesting such a thing of JCR. But it is a very odd thing to put into a marriage settlement for a 43 year old captain. I’d like to see that one!

And this was the weekend, pretty much…

A landscape containing a pale yellow field of barley that becomes another field of barley, this last bit sunlit. Deep tractor tracks start in the bottom centre of the image; they veer slightly to the right, and then as gently, left and right again, out of sight. It is the evening and the blue of the sky had lost its harshness. In the distance, past two dark lines of trees, stands the Prop of Ythsie.

A colourful and wonderfully tasting mess of roast potatoes, chorizo and onions with parsley, on a ribbed white plate.

An image of a slim paperback book by Sir John Ross, with an impossibly long title and contents that every person tirelessly self-proclaiming an interest in the Franklin Expedition should know by heart, but has never read. The book is set against a piece of cloth showing white clouds and the beginnings of a mountain that may well be one of the Croker mountains, but is really Mount Fuji.

A black and white terrier with a light brown mush is sleeping peacefully in the lap of a jeans-clad spare human, one black paw resting on the human’s leg. The dog’s enormously big ears may indicate he is not really asleep at all.

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Brilliant photo! Love how both humans are folding themselves carefully around the cat, and the cat just couldn’t give a toss 🤣

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Only sell house to a photographer, problem sorted😊

I’d argue that if Wordsworth were to undertake a 2026 public transport journey, even one that doesn’t involve hours among ppl who mistake public places for their living room/kitchen/toilet, he’d run back to the time machine faster than you cd say ‘daffodil.’

ultima thule @thethousandthpart.com · 08/08/2026

Get well soon, at all costs, even if it involves eating cannibalistic ginger!