Helsbels
@helenus3.bsky.social
Susceptible to archaeology/art/landscape/wildlife/environment/nature/history/photography/old buildings/old stuff/books/beauty/cake/worry
Chester, UK
Fighting the barbarians at the gate...
Chester, UK
Fighting the barbarians at the gate...
Reposted by Helsbels
A mammoth drawings from Arcy-sur-Cure cave,France.
Outlined in red-ochre, this rotund, tuskless mammoth looks like a juvenile.
At 28,000 years old, a product of the Gravettian culture, one of the oldest examples of cave art in Europe.
The saddest mammoth from the Ice Age. 🦣😢🏺
#MammothMonday
Outlined in red-ochre, this rotund, tuskless mammoth looks like a juvenile.
At 28,000 years old, a product of the Gravettian culture, one of the oldest examples of cave art in Europe.
The saddest mammoth from the Ice Age. 🦣😢🏺
#MammothMonday
February 2, 2026 at 10:29 AM
A mammoth drawings from Arcy-sur-Cure cave,France.
Outlined in red-ochre, this rotund, tuskless mammoth looks like a juvenile.
At 28,000 years old, a product of the Gravettian culture, one of the oldest examples of cave art in Europe.
The saddest mammoth from the Ice Age. 🦣😢🏺
#MammothMonday
Outlined in red-ochre, this rotund, tuskless mammoth looks like a juvenile.
At 28,000 years old, a product of the Gravettian culture, one of the oldest examples of cave art in Europe.
The saddest mammoth from the Ice Age. 🦣😢🏺
#MammothMonday
Reposted by Helsbels
The Epstein files add in a whole new level of dodgy dealings, linking all these elements together - a conscious conspiracy to corrode western societies from within, using classic tactics of sex, power and money. All roads lead back to Epstein, Russia, Trump, big tech. Inextricably linked.
February 3, 2026 at 12:43 AM
The Epstein files add in a whole new level of dodgy dealings, linking all these elements together - a conscious conspiracy to corrode western societies from within, using classic tactics of sex, power and money. All roads lead back to Epstein, Russia, Trump, big tech. Inextricably linked.
Reposted by Helsbels
I guess "white wealthy British and American grooming gangs" doesn't have the same ring to it
January 31, 2026 at 2:04 PM
I guess "white wealthy British and American grooming gangs" doesn't have the same ring to it
Reposted by Helsbels
Again, we should not ignore the fact that striking civilian residences is a war crime, and Vladimir Putin has been doing it pretty much night after night for nearly four years.
🚨🚨Massive #Russian ballistic missile and drone attack on #Kyiv tonight, striking multiple residential buildings across the city and injuring at least five people. Details here in @kyivindependent.com report:
kyivindependent.com/russia-launc...
kyivindependent.com/russia-launc...
'Russians chose a freezing February night' — Damaged buildings, casualties reported as Russia resumes large-scale strikes on Kyiv
Russian forces launched a mass ballistic missile and drone attack on Kyiv overnight on Feb. 3, striking multiple residential buildings across the city and injuring at least three people, officials sai...
kyivindependent.com
February 3, 2026 at 8:30 AM
Again, we should not ignore the fact that striking civilian residences is a war crime, and Vladimir Putin has been doing it pretty much night after night for nearly four years.
Reposted by Helsbels
An ornately convoluted double-handled wine cup (cantharus)
Detail from a 4th century AD #Roman house found in 1899 at Olga Road just outside #Dorchester (DVRNOVARIA)
Now preserved in the floor of the wonderful @dorsetmuseum.bsky.social
📷 Sept 2024
Happy #MosaicMonday!
Detail from a 4th century AD #Roman house found in 1899 at Olga Road just outside #Dorchester (DVRNOVARIA)
Now preserved in the floor of the wonderful @dorsetmuseum.bsky.social
📷 Sept 2024
Happy #MosaicMonday!
February 2, 2026 at 5:56 AM
An ornately convoluted double-handled wine cup (cantharus)
Detail from a 4th century AD #Roman house found in 1899 at Olga Road just outside #Dorchester (DVRNOVARIA)
Now preserved in the floor of the wonderful @dorsetmuseum.bsky.social
📷 Sept 2024
Happy #MosaicMonday!
Detail from a 4th century AD #Roman house found in 1899 at Olga Road just outside #Dorchester (DVRNOVARIA)
Now preserved in the floor of the wonderful @dorsetmuseum.bsky.social
📷 Sept 2024
Happy #MosaicMonday!
Reposted by Helsbels
#MosaicMonday
Once again spoiled for choice after a few days in Pompei... So many wonderful floors, but one never gets bored. Well, this one is a little boar-ing
Once again spoiled for choice after a few days in Pompei... So many wonderful floors, but one never gets bored. Well, this one is a little boar-ing
February 2, 2026 at 7:18 AM
#MosaicMonday
Once again spoiled for choice after a few days in Pompei... So many wonderful floors, but one never gets bored. Well, this one is a little boar-ing
Once again spoiled for choice after a few days in Pompei... So many wonderful floors, but one never gets bored. Well, this one is a little boar-ing
Reposted by Helsbels
Please spread this far and wide, as stories don't get much bigger than this. When the government blocks even the intelligence services from telling us we're heading for environmental catastrophe, you know we have a problem. A very big problem.
Thank you.
www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
Thank you.
www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
The UK government didn't want you to see this report on ecosystem collapse. I'm not surprised | George Monbiot
It took an FOI request to bring this national security assessment to light. For ‘doomsayers’ like us, it is the ultimate vindication, says Guardian columnist George Monbiot
www.theguardian.com
January 28, 2026 at 7:18 AM
Please spread this far and wide, as stories don't get much bigger than this. When the government blocks even the intelligence services from telling us we're heading for environmental catastrophe, you know we have a problem. A very big problem.
Thank you.
www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
Thank you.
www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
Reposted by Helsbels
If this is what's going on now, just imagine the levels of corruption we'd descend into if the Farage cult got anywhere near Number 10.
Reform UK Ltd. are basically a front for foreign and offshore wealth and oligarchy.
Britain would become nothing more than an ATM.
Reform UK Ltd. are basically a front for foreign and offshore wealth and oligarchy.
Britain would become nothing more than an ATM.
It's rare to see how lobbyists operate. But the Epstein-Mandelson correspondence shows us what happens all the time: plutocrats and government ministers conspiring against the public interest. This is why all lobbying should be in the public domain, but despite Labour and Con promises, it's not. 🧵
February 2, 2026 at 9:12 AM
If this is what's going on now, just imagine the levels of corruption we'd descend into if the Farage cult got anywhere near Number 10.
Reform UK Ltd. are basically a front for foreign and offshore wealth and oligarchy.
Britain would become nothing more than an ATM.
Reform UK Ltd. are basically a front for foreign and offshore wealth and oligarchy.
Britain would become nothing more than an ATM.
Reposted by Helsbels
It's rare to see how lobbyists operate. But the Epstein-Mandelson correspondence shows us what happens all the time: plutocrats and government ministers conspiring against the public interest. This is why all lobbying should be in the public domain, but despite Labour and Con promises, it's not. 🧵
February 2, 2026 at 8:20 AM
It's rare to see how lobbyists operate. But the Epstein-Mandelson correspondence shows us what happens all the time: plutocrats and government ministers conspiring against the public interest. This is why all lobbying should be in the public domain, but despite Labour and Con promises, it's not. 🧵
Reposted by Helsbels
It's 1998. Peter Mandleson has resigned in disgrace from Labour.
It's 2001. Peter Mandleson has resigned in disgrace from Labour.
It's 2025. Peter Mandleson has resigned in disgrace from Labour.
It's 2026. Peter Mandleson has resigned in disgrace from Labour.
It's 2001. Peter Mandleson has resigned in disgrace from Labour.
It's 2025. Peter Mandleson has resigned in disgrace from Labour.
It's 2026. Peter Mandleson has resigned in disgrace from Labour.
February 2, 2026 at 7:06 AM
It's 1998. Peter Mandleson has resigned in disgrace from Labour.
It's 2001. Peter Mandleson has resigned in disgrace from Labour.
It's 2025. Peter Mandleson has resigned in disgrace from Labour.
It's 2026. Peter Mandleson has resigned in disgrace from Labour.
It's 2001. Peter Mandleson has resigned in disgrace from Labour.
It's 2025. Peter Mandleson has resigned in disgrace from Labour.
It's 2026. Peter Mandleson has resigned in disgrace from Labour.
Reposted by Helsbels
you grow up learning about elections and laws and social contracts and popular opinion and all this other stuff
and then when you're older the plaster starts to fall off, and it turns out underneath a lot of it is just rich weirdos doing dodgy favours for other rich weirdos
and then when you're older the plaster starts to fall off, and it turns out underneath a lot of it is just rich weirdos doing dodgy favours for other rich weirdos
February 2, 2026 at 10:18 AM
you grow up learning about elections and laws and social contracts and popular opinion and all this other stuff
and then when you're older the plaster starts to fall off, and it turns out underneath a lot of it is just rich weirdos doing dodgy favours for other rich weirdos
and then when you're older the plaster starts to fall off, and it turns out underneath a lot of it is just rich weirdos doing dodgy favours for other rich weirdos
Reposted by Helsbels
Trump says he’s closing the Kennedy Center for two years for “construction, revitalization, and complete rebuilding.” That’s code for no one will perform there since he took over and he doesn’t want another public reminder that artists and audiences overwhelmingly despise him
February 2, 2026 at 12:12 AM
Trump says he’s closing the Kennedy Center for two years for “construction, revitalization, and complete rebuilding.” That’s code for no one will perform there since he took over and he doesn’t want another public reminder that artists and audiences overwhelmingly despise him
Reposted by Helsbels
A true rarity, this bronze goose was discovered in the ruins of Constantinople’s famed luxurious hippodrome. It has a pipe in its beak, so it was probably part of a fountain, providing water to the 100,000 spectators who could fit into the circus stands. 🏺 1/
Roman, 4th c. CE. #BritishMuseum
📸 me
Roman, 4th c. CE. #BritishMuseum
📸 me
February 1, 2026 at 8:52 PM
A true rarity, this bronze goose was discovered in the ruins of Constantinople’s famed luxurious hippodrome. It has a pipe in its beak, so it was probably part of a fountain, providing water to the 100,000 spectators who could fit into the circus stands. 🏺 1/
Roman, 4th c. CE. #BritishMuseum
📸 me
Roman, 4th c. CE. #BritishMuseum
📸 me
Well that's a horrible and rather annoying ending #TheNightManager
February 1, 2026 at 10:02 PM
Well that's a horrible and rather annoying ending #TheNightManager
Reposted by Helsbels
A Roman altar from Boughton, Chester, in the grounds of Eaton Hall
Another fascinating read from Andie Byrnes 'Based in Churton': basedinchurton.co.uk/2026/02/01/a...
Another fascinating read from Andie Byrnes 'Based in Churton': basedinchurton.co.uk/2026/02/01/a...
A Roman altar from Boughton, Chester, in the grounds of Eaton Hall
xx Eaton Hall is part of the Duke of Westminster’s estate 4.2miles / 6.7km to the south of Chester. It was very common for wealthy families to feature ancient Egyptian and Roman objects on their e…
basedinchurton.co.uk
February 1, 2026 at 11:49 AM
A Roman altar from Boughton, Chester, in the grounds of Eaton Hall
Another fascinating read from Andie Byrnes 'Based in Churton': basedinchurton.co.uk/2026/02/01/a...
Another fascinating read from Andie Byrnes 'Based in Churton': basedinchurton.co.uk/2026/02/01/a...
Reposted by Helsbels
✅ Clarkson is right, people aren’t voting Reform for policies 👉there aren’t any.
It’s a protest vote powered by nostalgia not a plan for future.
Reform use farming as a prop. Their real plan is USA trade deal, hormone-treated imports and they’ve appointed Ben Goldsmith
🔗 archive.ph/2026.01.31-0...
It’s a protest vote powered by nostalgia not a plan for future.
Reform use farming as a prop. Their real plan is USA trade deal, hormone-treated imports and they’ve appointed Ben Goldsmith
🔗 archive.ph/2026.01.31-0...
February 1, 2026 at 7:45 AM
✅ Clarkson is right, people aren’t voting Reform for policies 👉there aren’t any.
It’s a protest vote powered by nostalgia not a plan for future.
Reform use farming as a prop. Their real plan is USA trade deal, hormone-treated imports and they’ve appointed Ben Goldsmith
🔗 archive.ph/2026.01.31-0...
It’s a protest vote powered by nostalgia not a plan for future.
Reform use farming as a prop. Their real plan is USA trade deal, hormone-treated imports and they’ve appointed Ben Goldsmith
🔗 archive.ph/2026.01.31-0...
Reposted by Helsbels
Here’s the full story.. and it stinks.
How anyone can think Farage will do anything good for our country when we’re already trapped in the tedious, ruinous Brexit mess he’s made, god only knows. This nasty little gobshite will never fix any problems. He IS the problem.
How anyone can think Farage will do anything good for our country when we’re already trapped in the tedious, ruinous Brexit mess he’s made, god only knows. This nasty little gobshite will never fix any problems. He IS the problem.
![Reform's churchwarden riddle
Extract
A churchwarden from Potters Bar who works for the family of a highly secretive, Kazakhstan-born billionaire can be revealed as the man behind £200,000 of donations to Reform UK.
John Richard Simpson is a 59-year-old conveyancer whose parish website describes him as an "experienced" and
"dedicated" Anglican lay leader.
He is the owner of Interior
Architecture Landscape Limited, which made seven payments to Nigel Farage's party last summer. The firm, which was originally owned via a trust in the British Virgin Islands, is so small it does not have to file professionally audited accounts. It did not display any contact details until recently and was almost wound up by HMRC after a tax dispute last year.
Simpson, known locally as Bill, "does conveyancing, but is not a fully qualified solicitor", according to a Facebook post by a neighbour in the Hertfordshire town. There is no evidence he has any background in interior design. He has no known political affiliation or background in activism.
He would not discuss the source of the funds donated to Reform last week.
Simpson has long worked for Sasan and Yasmin Ghandehari, a married couple who a spokesman for the interior design company acknowledged were "clients".
Last month, the Ghandehari family office sponsored Farage's pass to Davos and a hotel in the Swiss resort for the World Economic Forum's annual gathering. They claimed to have retained the Reform leader as "an honorary and unpaid adviser" in an arrangement first reported by the Financial Times.
In response to inquiries, Farage's spokesman said: "[Sasan] Ghandehari has attended a Reform UK fundraising event and they are friends of the party." It is understood the event in question took place at Oswald's, a private members' club in Mavfair.
It is illegal for a foreign national or entity to donate directly to a party. Yet a trading British company is automatically eligible to donate.](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:c4xtyto7nrklhfkroyrsce2w/bafkreidrxmr4miirybjl5wb5p7wwb5fuznljlajjckoz5bamxiqfhr4txa@jpeg)
![Churchwarden with connection to Kazakh-born tycoon is behind £200k of donations to Reform
Extract:
They claimed to have retained the Reform leader as "an honorary and unpaid adviser", an arrangement first reported by the Financial Times.
In response to inquiries,
Farage's spokesman said: "[Sasan]
Ghandehari has attended a Reform UK fundraising event and they are friends of the party." It is understood the event took place at Oswald's, a private members' club in Mayfair.
It is illegal for a foreign national or entity to donate directly to a party. Yet a trading British company is automatically eligible to donate. There is nothing to
stop a foreign investor or owner depositing funds in a UK company which in turn donates to a political party.
Sasan and Yasmin Ghandehari have been described as "Iranian-born" and
"British" in media reports but it is unclear whether they hold British citizenship.
Sasan gave his nationality as Iranian and his profession as "businessman" in a
Companies
House document dated
2002.
The Ghandeharis are prolific art collectors and sit on a fundraising committee for the Tate. They derive their wealth from Sasan's mother, Hourieh Peramaa, who was born in Kazakhstan and fled to Iran as a child before investing in property and becoming a billionaire.
Named by Chatham House as a "politi-
cally exposed" or
"high-risk"
person
from a post-Soviet state, she is so secretive that there is almost no verifiable information about her and it is not
known if she is still alive. She would be 97 if so.
The family faced controversy in 2008, when the former head of Kazakhstan's intelligence services claimed they had bought Royal Mansion, a £50 million home in The Bishops Avenue, London — known as "billionaires' row"
- for Nursultan Nazarbayev, then the dictator of the oil and gas-rich state.
Sasan Ghandehari denied this was the case. However, he acknowledged having a personal relationship with the ruler.](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:c4xtyto7nrklhfkroyrsce2w/bafkreigm4z3bim57cdqewaytq4af62njzxffjb7ay7joxtueuzgmp7xjou@jpeg)
February 1, 2026 at 9:32 AM
Here’s the full story.. and it stinks.
How anyone can think Farage will do anything good for our country when we’re already trapped in the tedious, ruinous Brexit mess he’s made, god only knows. This nasty little gobshite will never fix any problems. He IS the problem.
How anyone can think Farage will do anything good for our country when we’re already trapped in the tedious, ruinous Brexit mess he’s made, god only knows. This nasty little gobshite will never fix any problems. He IS the problem.
Reposted by Helsbels
Psst. Greens are best placed to beat Reform in the Gorton and Denton by-election. Pass it on.
www.thelondoneconomic.com/politics/bet...
www.thelondoneconomic.com/politics/bet...
Bookies make Green Party surprise FAVOURITES to win Gorton and Denton by-election
With all the talk about Labour's 'Burnham Block' and high-profile Reform candidates, bookmakers have an eye on the Green Party.
www.thelondoneconomic.com
January 26, 2026 at 8:00 AM
Psst. Greens are best placed to beat Reform in the Gorton and Denton by-election. Pass it on.
www.thelondoneconomic.com/politics/bet...
www.thelondoneconomic.com/politics/bet...
Reposted by Helsbels
Its #RomanSiteSaturday & how about a short thread on Viroconium Cornoviorum, at its height likely the 4th largest settlement in Roman Britain
Nowadays, this is Wroxeter
🧵👇
Nowadays, this is Wroxeter
🧵👇
January 31, 2026 at 7:54 AM
Its #RomanSiteSaturday & how about a short thread on Viroconium Cornoviorum, at its height likely the 4th largest settlement in Roman Britain
Nowadays, this is Wroxeter
🧵👇
Nowadays, this is Wroxeter
🧵👇
Reposted by Helsbels
#Roman folding chair (iron)
Second half of the 2nd century CE
Found Zavód, #Slovakia.
It perhaps belonged to an officer in a field camp. A symbol of power & rank.
Left behind damaged when the soldiers withdrew.
Marcus Aurelius exhibition #Trier
marc-aurel-trier.de/en/home/
#RomanSiteSaturday
Second half of the 2nd century CE
Found Zavód, #Slovakia.
It perhaps belonged to an officer in a field camp. A symbol of power & rank.
Left behind damaged when the soldiers withdrew.
Marcus Aurelius exhibition #Trier
marc-aurel-trier.de/en/home/
#RomanSiteSaturday
January 31, 2026 at 8:38 AM
#Roman folding chair (iron)
Second half of the 2nd century CE
Found Zavód, #Slovakia.
It perhaps belonged to an officer in a field camp. A symbol of power & rank.
Left behind damaged when the soldiers withdrew.
Marcus Aurelius exhibition #Trier
marc-aurel-trier.de/en/home/
#RomanSiteSaturday
Second half of the 2nd century CE
Found Zavód, #Slovakia.
It perhaps belonged to an officer in a field camp. A symbol of power & rank.
Left behind damaged when the soldiers withdrew.
Marcus Aurelius exhibition #Trier
marc-aurel-trier.de/en/home/
#RomanSiteSaturday
Reposted by Helsbels
We have a lot to answer for...
A great place to have a primary school trip (and start an interest in *old things* 😊). It was a school visit to Fishbourne Roman Palace that tipped me into the world of archaeology
Just don't tell @romanpalace.bsky.social 🤫
Just don't tell @romanpalace.bsky.social 🤫
January 31, 2026 at 10:27 AM
We have a lot to answer for...
That's my weekend reading sorted...a packed edition with five Welsh hillfort excavation reports & a great introductory piece by @drtobydriver.bsky.social, among other treats 😃
Nice cover photo of the Dinas Dinlle Romano-British roundhouse 😍#Cambrians #Wales #hillforts #archaeology #Ancientbluesky🏺
Nice cover photo of the Dinas Dinlle Romano-British roundhouse 😍#Cambrians #Wales #hillforts #archaeology #Ancientbluesky🏺
January 31, 2026 at 1:12 PM
That's my weekend reading sorted...a packed edition with five Welsh hillfort excavation reports & a great introductory piece by @drtobydriver.bsky.social, among other treats 😃
Nice cover photo of the Dinas Dinlle Romano-British roundhouse 😍#Cambrians #Wales #hillforts #archaeology #Ancientbluesky🏺
Nice cover photo of the Dinas Dinlle Romano-British roundhouse 😍#Cambrians #Wales #hillforts #archaeology #Ancientbluesky🏺
Reposted by Helsbels
This painting by the artist Adriaen Coorte, made in 1699, shows a simple bunch of dramatically lit asparagus, on a stone shelf.
Still life paintings of food, often called Vanitas, were a common theme in Dutch art in the 17th century and alluded to moral themes such as the brevity of life.
Still life paintings of food, often called Vanitas, were a common theme in Dutch art in the 17th century and alluded to moral themes such as the brevity of life.
January 29, 2026 at 8:00 AM
This painting by the artist Adriaen Coorte, made in 1699, shows a simple bunch of dramatically lit asparagus, on a stone shelf.
Still life paintings of food, often called Vanitas, were a common theme in Dutch art in the 17th century and alluded to moral themes such as the brevity of life.
Still life paintings of food, often called Vanitas, were a common theme in Dutch art in the 17th century and alluded to moral themes such as the brevity of life.
Blissful day immersed in the past yesterday...glowing Turners at @walkerartgallery.bsky.social, ancient gold & silver gleaming in the Treasures exhib at Museum of Liverpool, & cracking two hour lecture by Kevin Cootes at Aldford, covering the #Poulton dig from inception to present day
#archaeology🏺
#archaeology🏺
January 30, 2026 at 12:10 PM
Blissful day immersed in the past yesterday...glowing Turners at @walkerartgallery.bsky.social, ancient gold & silver gleaming in the Treasures exhib at Museum of Liverpool, & cracking two hour lecture by Kevin Cootes at Aldford, covering the #Poulton dig from inception to present day
#archaeology🏺
#archaeology🏺