iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Tim Holt-Wilson @timholtwilson.bsky.social · 14/10/2026

A cobble from the Westleton Beds of the Norwich Crag - a nice example of a Picture Flint, a vision-inducing pattern of iron staining, aka Café au Lait patterning beloved of @pavementgeology.bsky.social. The Westleton Beds were deposited in tundra conditions - is that why I see a phantom Polar Bear?

A split flint cobble displaying concentric bands of iron staining, with variable shades of russet and brown. The core of the nodule has a purplish tint outlining a pale irregular splodge.

The core of a split flint cobble displaying concentric bands of iron staining. It has a purplish tint outlining a pale irregular splodge which pareidolic fantasy tells me looks like a galloping Polar Bear.

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Tim Holt-Wilson @timholtwilson.bsky.social · 13/10/2026

I love Wych Elm, Ulmus glabra. Sometimes its leaves look Lothlorien; sometimes Barad Dur. They are always rough and leathery. #Suffolk #native #trees

A large Wych Elm leaf held up with the photographer's hand. It has an asymmetrical obovate shape. It is coloured mid-green with darker veins. It is beginning to take on an autumnal hue.

A dark green Wych Elm leaf on a cloudy-looking background of silver and aquamarine. Its outline is jagged, especially towards the tip.

A microscope view of the surface of a Wych Elm leaf. It is magnified about ten times. It shows a pimply mosaic of leaf structures.

Twigs of a Wych Elm tree showing this year's growth outreaching from a hedge. The leaves are set alternately along the twigs and have a weighty look to them.

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Tim Holt-Wilson @timholtwilson.bsky.social · 12/10/2026

Tracey calls it Critch but I've always called in Bullace; taxonomists call it Prunus mirabilis or P.cerasifera. The trees quietly shepherd their secret DNA identity. They fruit abundantly in my garden most years - this the best year ever. Their mother was a sucker from a hedge in Finningham.

A bough laden with small, round mirabelle-type plums. There is a sunlit field with trees in the background.

A close-up view of small, round mirabelle-type plums hanging on a branch. Their colour is delicates shades of peach, purple, gold and green, beneath a yeasty bloom. The twigs in the background are hoary with lichen.

A bough laden with small, round mirabelle-type plums. There about 50 in view. There are sunlit trees in the background.

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Tim Holt-Wilson @timholtwilson.bsky.social · 11/10/2026

Apple Day and Guided Walk at Thrandeston today - we had a plethora of apple & pear varieties to sample as well as rare specimen saplings to buy (for me, a Golden Russet). We are lucky to have such wonderful diversity. Among them a hard pear stored and used as winter survival food 500 years ago.

A wooden tray with compartments occupied by labelled varietal apples in a colourful display.

A basket containing the Suffolk Thorn apple variety.

A basket containing the Norfolk Beefing apple variety

A blue plastic basket filled with the Jupiter apple variety. The colours are golden with scarlet patches

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Tim Holt-Wilson @timholtwilson.bsky.social · 10/10/2026

A great day in good company :-) How to build on it?

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Tim Holt-Wilson @timholtwilson.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

Some trees are absolutely loaded this year! The sloes in the photo on the left had just enough sweetness to eat raw without crabbing the tongue.

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Tim Holt-Wilson @timholtwilson.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

Silver Birch magic. The visual and textural contrasts in its bark: mithraic light and dark, smooth and rough. Is there a word for the pleasure of looking at birch bark? Betulismus? Björkenscrute? Beithenfreud? It should be a word which enacts contrasts, leaps the stave, sings the rum wonder.

The sunlight-dappled bark of a birch tree looking up the trunk into its leafy canopy, with pale blue sky beyond.

Ragged patches of silvery grey birch bark in the centre of the picture contrasting with eruptive patches of rough, stiff, corky-looking, grey-brown bark.

Fluid but ragged patches of silvery grey birch bark contrasting with patches of rough, reddish-brown bark.

Ragged patches of silvery grey bark birch contrasting with eruptive patches of rough, stiff, corky-looking, grey-brown bark which are in the centre of the picture.

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Tim Holt-Wilson @timholtwilson.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

The Vestal moth (Rhodometra sacraria) in its pinky-coloured form - an immigrant native of southern Europe - espied today at Ickburgh, Breckland, during a Norfolk Flora Group outing. Worth recording? @norfolkmoths.bsky.social @norfolknats.bsky.social

A small, pale crimson coloured moth resting on a grass leaf. The wing has a darker diagonal stripe across the wing.

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Tim Holt-Wilson @timholtwilson.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

Is there any possibility that bioerosion traces on Pliocene cetacean bone could be made by echinoderms? I have assumed most likely siboglinids, due to their phosphate munching propensities on whale-fall debris.

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Tim Holt-Wilson @timholtwilson.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

Ralph Knevet (1600-1671; vicar of Lyng, Norfolk) FAREWELL TO ARMS The Helmett now an hive for Bees becomes, And hilts of swords may serve for Spiders loomes, Sharp pikes may make, Teeth for a rake: And the keene blade, th’ arch enemy of life, Shall bee digraded to a pruneing knife:

Woodcut image of an ornate 17th century military helmet which has become a beehive.
Image from a blog post by Andrew Green
https://gwallter.com/literature/the-poet-and-the-mapmaker.html

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Tim Holt-Wilson @timholtwilson.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

This paper reminds me of a floating ice berg - most of its mass is underwater, in a colossal compendium of references. Meanwhile my quest to understand the mystery of pitting on Pliocene Crag bone continues...

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Tim Holt-Wilson @timholtwilson.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

'Government report highlights Britain’s overseas invertebrates are in great peril'. www.buglife.org.uk/blog/governm... Based on 'Update on the status of endemic and globally threatened species in the UK Overseas Territories' (Report 835 @jncc.bsky.social). #Buglife #Insects #conservation #ecology

Spiky Yellow Woodlouse - Pseudolaureola atlantica - looking like a bright yellow, bristly loo brush. Photo @ MikeThorsen

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Tim Holt-Wilson @timholtwilson.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

Black, sooty-looking patches on Sycamore bark. Zooming down 40x under the microscope I see lineated, bundled structures. I assume a sooty mould fungus, perhaps feeding on honeydew fallout. Any thoughts? @ians4ad.bsky.social @britmycolsoc.org.uk Fumago vagans?

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Tim Holt-Wilson @timholtwilson.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

'Recording for nature recovery - how biological recording will benefit wildlife in crisis'. A joint conference @norfolknats.bsky.social @suffolk-nats1929.bsky.social at Diss, Norfolk, Sat Oct 10th Oct. What should bio recording look like in the future? Booking via sns.org.uk. Please share.

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Tim Holt-Wilson @timholtwilson.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

Snap! Here, in an old sand pit in Suffolk with chalky till as well as sandy Crag substrate.

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Tim Holt-Wilson @timholtwilson.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

The Gipping valley has a deep peat sequence awaiting palaeo-environmental research. If you jump on this land at Creeting St Mary it wobbles. Subsurface, poss a deep chalk solution basin like nearby Bosmere. @simon-blockley.bsky.social @amywalsh.bsky.social NB just up the valley in 1846... 🧵

View of level pasture land dotted with reeds and thistles, part of the floodplain of the River Gipping at Creeting St Mary. There is woodland in the distance.

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Tim Holt-Wilson @timholtwilson.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

Osmia rufa have taken over my work zone: neatly blocking electric plug socket holes in two cable reels in the garden shed. Power tools fall silent. Grubs pupate. Time ticks Spring-wards ... www.inaturalist.org/taxa/124164-... #insects #suffolk #bees #hymenoptera @suffolk-nats1929.bsky.social

The black centre of a blue plastic cable reel equipped with four electric plug sockets. There are 12 holes for the plugs' teeth of which two have been blocked with pale brown mud by Red Mason Bee nesting activity. There will be hibernating pupae inside. Only two plug sockets remains usable without destroying bee nests.

The black centre of a red plastic cable reel equipped with four electric plug sockets. There are 12 holes for the plugs' teeth of which three have been blocked with pale brown mud by Red Mason Bee nesting activity. There will be hibernating pupae inside. Only one plug socket remains usable without destroying bee nests.

Close-up view of two plug socket holes filled with pale yellow mud by Red Mason Bees.

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Tim Holt-Wilson @timholtwilson.bsky.social · 20/09/2026

Old sandpit habitat in the Gipping valley explored @suffolk-nats1929.bsky.social today. Plants, spiders, fungi, bees; also lichen species & diversity very engagingly presented @aspenecology.com.

A loose group of people on the floor of a disused sand quarry, with a large heap of former quarry spoil and trees in the background.

A large clump of grey foliose 'reindeer moss' lichen Cladonia rangiformis. It is being held between someone's cupped hands.

Lichenologist Anthony Speca sitting in partial shade on a steep sandy bank. There are trees and blue sky behind.

A sparsely vegetated sward dotted with small heaps of ochre-brown soil made by solitary wasps excavating breeding holes.

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Tim Holt-Wilson @timholtwilson.bsky.social · 19/09/2026

The pond here hasn't recovered from the drought but - OMG - it is full of food!! It is carpeted with a dense crop of Rorippa palustris (Marsh Yellow-cress) which tastes like a kind of spinach when boiled, and is crisp & peppery when shredded in a salad. Last year was nothing but Lemna. #FoodForFree

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Tim Holt-Wilson @timholtwilson.bsky.social · 19/09/2026

"Accusations of shifting baseline syndrome rely on judgements of degradation, whilst judgements of degradation depend on the establishment of a baseline. So where do baselines come from?" An important 🤔 philo discussion about #normality here. 🧵 philsci-archive.pitt.edu/31078/1/PreP...

A small field of rough grassland next to a trunk road, with a row of about 10 heaps of yellowish, stony clay lying across it. An environmental baseline is about to be altered.

A large excavated 'ghost pond' site in a field, showing a shallow depression lined with dark brown, organic-rich sediment. There is a group of three people standing on the lip of the depression on the right of the view, with the trees of a wood behind them. A new environmental baseline has been set, ready for monitoring ecological restoration.

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Tim Holt-Wilson @timholtwilson.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

Vole is an anagram of Love. I found a Clethrionymus love-nest under an upturned bucket this afternoon; reminding me that it is not just MY garden.

A rounded nest made of dried grass leaves resting on bare earth. It reminds me of a miniature Robin's nest. There are green leaves of Ground Ivy, White Clover and Creeping Cinquefoil growing nearby.

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Tim Holt-Wilson @timholtwilson.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

Cringleford Neighbourhood Plan is up for consultation until Oct. 10th - www.cringlefordpc.org.uk/neighbourhoo.... Please send comments in favour! It includes 12 patches of Local Green Space e.g. 'East of Round House Way' which I wrote about a year ago - storvaxt.blogspot.com/2025/10/rewi....

An area of rough land with a rich variety of shrubs and herbs within a suburban area. Autumn colours are beginning to show.

An Ivy Bee (Colletes hederae) bringing back a load of pollen to its nest hole in crumbly brown soil.

Rough land with a Pyracanthus bush displaying hundreds of scarlet berries. A variety of shrubs and herbs and brambles can be seen around it. Autumn colours are beginning to show.

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Tim Holt-Wilson @timholtwilson.bsky.social · 08/09/2026

Explained by the delighted Prof Andy Gale, a chalk paleontology expert @ Portsmouth Uni. He has a monograph on cirripede (barnacle) evolution coming out soon.

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Tim Holt-Wilson @timholtwilson.bsky.social · 08/09/2026

Catton Grove Chalk Pit SSSI has had a face-lift! Thanks to its community owner group, supported by Natural England and managed by Ed at Harrison Group Environmental Ltd. A key exposure of the Catton Sponge Bed hardground. #Cretaceous #geology #geoconservation #Norfolk @geolsocnorfolk.bsky.social

A group of people in Catton Grove Chalk Pit looking at a recently cleaned-up geological exposure. There is a tiered embankment on the left covered in cascading ivy - it forms the retaining wall of a backfilled quarry area.

The recently cleaned-up geological exposure at Catton Grove Chalk Pit, about 8 ft high and 15 ft wide. It is overlying by reddish- brown sediments of the Norwich Crag. It is overshadowed by trees.

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Tim Holt-Wilson @timholtwilson.bsky.social · 06/09/2026

The Earth heritage 'pop-up' event @artbranches.bsky.social at Bawdsey Quay yesterday. engaged over 50 people in the fascinating rocks and fossils of the Suffolk & Essex Coast & Heaths National Landscape. #geology ##geodiversity #Suffolk

A family looking looking intently at specimens on a table set up on a shingle beach. A woman in a dark green top is pointing things out. There are clouds in blue sky over the sea at the mouth of the River Deben estuary.

A bryozoan fossil from the Coralline Crag seen at 10x magnification showing the colony with tesselated chambers (zoecia) with apertures where the organism's feeding arm (lophophore) whisks out to collect food particles from sea water. This fossil is about 4.5 million years old.

A fossil impression of the edge of a scallop shell embedded in brown and yellow sandy mudstone. It is from the Red Crag about 3.5 million years old.

A rounded flint pebble of brown and white bands against a dark green background. It is an example of a banded flint created by rhythmic variations in silica chemistry during the flint formation process.

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Tim Holt-Wilson @timholtwilson.bsky.social · 06/09/2026

Could similar crystallisation fluxes explain banded flint formation?

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Tim Holt-Wilson @timholtwilson.bsky.social · 03/09/2026

ObsIdentify says this species can change colour according to its surroundings (taking about three days to effect the change). This old girl must have been in an arable margin of pale grasses, mustards, etc. Was rescued from graded soil near the digger. Put near a beech tree, so may turn brown!

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Tim Holt-Wilson @timholtwilson.bsky.social · 03/09/2026

They are splendid little beasties. Seen here, Araneus quadratus we found today at a 'ghost pond' excavation site.

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Tim Holt-Wilson @timholtwilson.bsky.social · 03/09/2026

Two more Breckland "ghost pond" restoration sites now ready for wildlife - one with thick organic-rich sediments beneath its floor, the other with none (the luck of the draw!) - but both are in ancient, chalk-solution hollows (dolines). @carlsayer.bsky.social @hburningham.bsky.social

A large natural hollow in the landscape, excavated to remove many tons of backfill and to prepare for aquatic wildlife to return. The picture shows dark, organic-rich sediment uncovered and spread around the hollow to form a substrate for seeds to sprout in. All that is needed is time and rainwater.

A mechanical digger excavating a shallow pond on a site identified as a former natural, damp depression in the landscape. There are piles of sandy sediment next to a graded area and a wood in the background

A shallow basin-shaped depression excavated by a mechanical digger. It is intended as a wildlife pond once it has rainfall to fill it. There are two cars and the corner of a wood in the background.

A large gravid spider with notably striped legs and an interestingly marbled pattern on her swollen abdomen which is full of eggs. The species is Araneus quadratus, and she was rescued in advance of excavation. She is pictured on a purple chequered handkerchief.
@britishspiders.bsky.social

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Tim Holt-Wilson @timholtwilson.bsky.social · 01/09/2026

Out in Breckland today, the 'ghost pond' team @carlsayer.bsky.social @hburningham.bsky.social excavating a backfilled Ice Age doline pit, had to contend with sediments full of smelly burnt wood, barbed wire and mutilated tree trunks, before reaching the sought-after organic-rich sediment layers.

A group of pond sediment investigators in a partly excavated 'ghost pond' site. They are hoping to find seeds buried in the mud which might be in a fit state to sprout again.

Two people taking sediment cores from the dark-coloured floor of a 'ghost pond' excavation trench about 6 ft / 2 m deep. There is a yellow dumper truck in the background.

A pile of excavated 'ghost pond' sediment with decaying wooden posts and rusty barbed wire recovered from the infill of a pond site.

A large, mutilated oak tree trunk being pulled out of a 'ghost pond' excavation trench by a mechanical digger.

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Tim Holt-Wilson @timholtwilson.bsky.social · 29/08/2026

I have an attractive visitor tonight: Araneus marmoreus, the Marbled Orbweb Spider, of the pyramidatus subspecies. Said to be 'uncommon' with an East Anglian and southern English distribution. @britishspiders.bsky.social #Suffolk #spiders

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Tim Holt-Wilson @timholtwilson.bsky.social · 29/08/2026

This enormous steam-powered machine was made in 1959 - a BR-9F class locomotive (92203 'Black Prince'). I was born in 1959. It is amazing to think that this kind of complex C19th engineering was still being made (and could still be made) in my lifetime. It looks prehistoric. #steel #coal #steam

A massive, black steam locomotive with red front buffer beam. It is in a large shed with strip lights overhead.

The interior of the cab of 92203 'Black Prince' showing a complex of pipes and gauges. There is a cabside window on the left and the dark, open mouth of the firedoor is on the right.

The side of BR-9F 92203 'Black Prince' viewed from close to the cab door.

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Tim Holt-Wilson @timholtwilson.bsky.social · 29/08/2026

Exquisite, wafer-thin tree wasp architecture at Larling.

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Tim Holt-Wilson @timholtwilson.bsky.social · 26/08/2026

Nearby on the plateau, other ponds are dry. They are lone pit-holes full of dead twigs and branches, dens for clattering woodpigeons and ratty scavengers. They must be fed by field drains rather than springs. Could they ever become valuable for biodiversity?

Sprawling branches, grey sediment and dead leaves across the floor of a dried out pond.

A tangle of dead wood scattered on the dried-out bottom of a farmland pond. Two piles of woodpigeon feathers can be seen where two of these birds have been ambushed and plucked by a sparrowhawk.z

A pile of twigs in a grey tangle of willow branches, once a moorhen's nest. Some green leafage is visible at the top of the picture.

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Tim Holt-Wilson @timholtwilson.bsky.social · 26/08/2026

How are such things possible? A pond in the High Suffolk claylands still holding water after weeks of drought. It is a refuge for ducks and the odd chiffchaff or tomtit. Boulders in the draw-down zone are far-travelled debris of the ice sheet which shaped this land, founded on 'boulder clay'. 🧵

A murky-looking circular farmland pond surrounded by trees and bushes.

A variety of grey, glacial boulders exposed along the shoreline of the pond. There is rambling thorny vegetation around the overhanging bank.

A rounded glacial erratic boulder surrounded by blue-grey coloured clay. Its surface is striated by ice-contact scratch marks.

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Tim Holt-Wilson @timholtwilson.bsky.social · 26/08/2026

I repurposed an old wooden test tube rack fitted with segments of artichoke cane this year. Sadly no takers so far. However a blackbird found it a useful place to build a nest. I may move it to somewhere less shaded.

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Tim Holt-Wilson @timholtwilson.bsky.social · 25/08/2026

Micro-crystals of silica in flint can pick up exquisite fossil detail. Seen here, a section of Late Cretaceous sea urchin shell from the beach found during a 'pop-up' @artbranches.bsky.social at Bawdsey, Suffolk. Thanks to Suffolk & Essex Coast & Heaths National Landscape for funding the event.

A small, broken, water-worn flint pebble showing a concavity containing rows of dots and circles which are the interior mould of a sea urchin shell.

Close up view of dots and circles which are the interior mould of a sea urchin shell. The circles are where the spine bosses were located. The dots are probably where the tube feet were located

A group of people avidly looking at sharks, teeth near to the Art Branches stall on Bawdsey beach.

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Tim Holt-Wilson @timholtwilson.bsky.social · 25/08/2026

Selenite - 'Moon Mineral' crystals are found in Suffolk in the London Clay. They are formed from the interaction of calcite and sulphuric acid derived from the weathering of pyrite (iron sulphide) in the clay. I marvel at their translucent, icy beauty. #geology #Suffolk @geolsocnorfolk.bsky.social

Selenite crystals seen through the eye of a microscope looking like an icy moonscape.

A clump of selenite (gypsum) crystals exhibiting characteristic, contact twinning in an 'arrowhead' or 'swallow-tail' configuration. A blue biro pen gives a sense of scale.

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Tim Holt-Wilson @timholtwilson.bsky.social · 25/08/2026

Down among the freshwater algal strands, a small insect larva is hunting for food. It has distinctive wavy white lines along its flanks and a tuft of whiskers at the tail end. Should be identifiable, poss a tanypodine midge. @dipteristsforum.bsky.social @norfolknats.bsky.social

The head of a larva seen under water among algae. It has small black button eyes and a segmented body.

The segmented body of an insect larva seen under water among algae. It has an interesting wavy white line along the side of its body.

Side view of the body of a larva seen under water among strands of algae. It has an interesting wavy white line along the side of its body.

The tail end of an insect larva seen under water among algae. Tjere is a tuft of whiskers sprouting from the final segment.

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Tim Holt-Wilson @timholtwilson.bsky.social · 24/08/2026

No ego, green being. My aim is greenery, Questing strands With no telos but The growing Which is my being. Green cladophoran strands Grabbing water In a haste to create More life, more green, more strands outreaching Through fluid space And holding it, greened. ...

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