Dr Rob
@robheighton.bsky.social
he/him • Doctor of Physics • Worldbuilder & Conlanger • Fan of Fantasy • Whovian • Amateur Enthusiast of Linguistics, Archaeology, Classics, and many other things
📍 UK • 📖 Meduseld • 📺 The Taskmaster House
📍 UK • 📖 Meduseld • 📺 The Taskmaster House
Pinned
Dr Rob
@robheighton.bsky.social
· Nov 12
Folks with any reach on Bluesky, please consider reposting so I can find friends old and new:
I'm Rob; I like fantasy books, maths and physics, ancient stuff and mythology, linguistics and music, British wildlife, and a whole bunch of other stuff. And I might occasionally mention Doctor Who
I'm Rob; I like fantasy books, maths and physics, ancient stuff and mythology, linguistics and music, British wildlife, and a whole bunch of other stuff. And I might occasionally mention Doctor Who
Reposted by Dr Rob
An idea for your Christmas tree this year - stacks of Celtic gold torcs! Known as the Ipswitch Torcs after the location where their hoard was found, the terminals are decorated in the swirly La Tène style (Tène II), save the top one which is unadorned. 🎄🏺 1/
150-50 BCE. 📸 me
#BritishMuseum
150-50 BCE. 📸 me
#BritishMuseum
November 8, 2025 at 5:27 PM
An idea for your Christmas tree this year - stacks of Celtic gold torcs! Known as the Ipswitch Torcs after the location where their hoard was found, the terminals are decorated in the swirly La Tène style (Tène II), save the top one which is unadorned. 🎄🏺 1/
150-50 BCE. 📸 me
#BritishMuseum
150-50 BCE. 📸 me
#BritishMuseum
A Fenland walk the other day
November 9, 2025 at 5:57 PM
A Fenland walk the other day
Reposted by Dr Rob
Joining #BlueSkyArtShow on today's theme #Evening with my super moon! 🌝
For years I've tried to capture a sharp moon and detailed foliage in a single, balanced exposure but it's always a challenge; this was the best I could do!
Happy Saturday! 📷 🕊️
#photography #moon #landscape #EastCoastKin
For years I've tried to capture a sharp moon and detailed foliage in a single, balanced exposure but it's always a challenge; this was the best I could do!
Happy Saturday! 📷 🕊️
#photography #moon #landscape #EastCoastKin
November 8, 2025 at 9:05 AM
Joining #BlueSkyArtShow on today's theme #Evening with my super moon! 🌝
For years I've tried to capture a sharp moon and detailed foliage in a single, balanced exposure but it's always a challenge; this was the best I could do!
Happy Saturday! 📷 🕊️
#photography #moon #landscape #EastCoastKin
For years I've tried to capture a sharp moon and detailed foliage in a single, balanced exposure but it's always a challenge; this was the best I could do!
Happy Saturday! 📷 🕊️
#photography #moon #landscape #EastCoastKin
Bristol Cathedral, and the Helios installation therein, were spectacular!
November 8, 2025 at 6:11 PM
Bristol Cathedral, and the Helios installation therein, were spectacular!
Reposted by Dr Rob
Whiskers & Rhymes, Arnold Lobel, 1985.
November 6, 2025 at 10:27 PM
Whiskers & Rhymes, Arnold Lobel, 1985.
[youth pastor voice] You know who else from Galilee left the place where his body had been stored?
November 8, 2025 at 11:27 AM
[youth pastor voice] You know who else from Galilee left the place where his body had been stored?
Reposted by Dr Rob
Find yourself something that makes you as happy as Edward Barlow's 'dolphin' was to 'swim in the sea'. #skystorians #earlymodern
(National Maritime Museum, Journal of Edward Barlow, JOD/4/197-210, 213-294)
(National Maritime Museum, Journal of Edward Barlow, JOD/4/197-210, 213-294)
November 4, 2025 at 9:15 AM
Find yourself something that makes you as happy as Edward Barlow's 'dolphin' was to 'swim in the sea'. #skystorians #earlymodern
(National Maritime Museum, Journal of Edward Barlow, JOD/4/197-210, 213-294)
(National Maritime Museum, Journal of Edward Barlow, JOD/4/197-210, 213-294)
There shouldn't be any need to explain
(a) why I want to read books written by human beings, nor
(b) how that might be somewhat jeopardised by an industry intended to produce an ever-more-passable simulacrum of the end product, at lower cost, in a capitalist landscape.
And yet here we are!
(a) why I want to read books written by human beings, nor
(b) how that might be somewhat jeopardised by an industry intended to produce an ever-more-passable simulacrum of the end product, at lower cost, in a capitalist landscape.
And yet here we are!
November 8, 2025 at 10:17 AM
There shouldn't be any need to explain
(a) why I want to read books written by human beings, nor
(b) how that might be somewhat jeopardised by an industry intended to produce an ever-more-passable simulacrum of the end product, at lower cost, in a capitalist landscape.
And yet here we are!
(a) why I want to read books written by human beings, nor
(b) how that might be somewhat jeopardised by an industry intended to produce an ever-more-passable simulacrum of the end product, at lower cost, in a capitalist landscape.
And yet here we are!
Reposted by Dr Rob
Other work by the Ladybird artists
‘November Farm Work’
Farm Crops in Britain - Puffin Picture Book, 1955
Artist: SR Badmin
‘November Farm Work’
Farm Crops in Britain - Puffin Picture Book, 1955
Artist: SR Badmin
November 6, 2025 at 8:17 AM
Other work by the Ladybird artists
‘November Farm Work’
Farm Crops in Britain - Puffin Picture Book, 1955
Artist: SR Badmin
‘November Farm Work’
Farm Crops in Britain - Puffin Picture Book, 1955
Artist: SR Badmin
Just watched last night's #Uncloaked, and I'm still simply enamoured with that Traitors final. What a season 😭
November 7, 2025 at 2:16 PM
Just watched last night's #Uncloaked, and I'm still simply enamoured with that Traitors final. What a season 😭
Reposted by Dr Rob
This is just to say
I have beheld
the works
that you left
in the desert
At which
you were probably
hoping
I would despair
Forgive me
your legs were mighty
so vast
and trunkless
I have beheld
the works
that you left
in the desert
At which
you were probably
hoping
I would despair
Forgive me
your legs were mighty
so vast
and trunkless
Once upon a desert sandy
As through winds the trav'ling man he
Spied the face of Ozymandy
Lying, simply lying there
Suddenly there was some writing
Pon the plinth that he was sighting
That the sand and time were blighting
Quoth the statue, "Now despair"
As through winds the trav'ling man he
Spied the face of Ozymandy
Lying, simply lying there
Suddenly there was some writing
Pon the plinth that he was sighting
That the sand and time were blighting
Quoth the statue, "Now despair"
There was an old man you could gaze
At his works in despair in a daze
If you looked upon them
And were mere mortal men
'Ozymandias mighty', it says
At his works in despair in a daze
If you looked upon them
And were mere mortal men
'Ozymandias mighty', it says
October 30, 2025 at 3:43 PM
This is just to say
I have beheld
the works
that you left
in the desert
At which
you were probably
hoping
I would despair
Forgive me
your legs were mighty
so vast
and trunkless
I have beheld
the works
that you left
in the desert
At which
you were probably
hoping
I would despair
Forgive me
your legs were mighty
so vast
and trunkless
The sky earlier this evening
November 6, 2025 at 11:21 PM
The sky earlier this evening
Reposted by Dr Rob
Goodnight from Rob Eley, sure he can see rough and not entirely human shapes on Salt Tear Marsh. Goodnight from Weychester University Library, where the sound of pages being turned has not stopped even though no living reader is left on the premises. Goodnight from Hookland.
November 6, 2025 at 10:09 PM
Goodnight from Rob Eley, sure he can see rough and not entirely human shapes on Salt Tear Marsh. Goodnight from Weychester University Library, where the sound of pages being turned has not stopped even though no living reader is left on the premises. Goodnight from Hookland.
Kinda fun that writers of medieval manuscripts were cracking open the emoji keyboard
Yeah you know what, the description of Lugaid beheading Cú Chulainn was really missing hand-drawn emoticons, that's absolutely what we needed in this specific moment
November 6, 2025 at 11:17 PM
Kinda fun that writers of medieval manuscripts were cracking open the emoji keyboard
Reposted by Dr Rob
Red Stag and Doe in a Heathered Field, Rosa Bonheur.
November 6, 2025 at 7:29 AM
Red Stag and Doe in a Heathered Field, Rosa Bonheur.
Reposted by Dr Rob
“All your ducks in a row” - 🦆 🦆 🦆
Etruscan “navicella-type” bronze fibula
8th-7th Century BCE
Museo Archeologico Nazionale,
Complesso Museale Santa Maria della Scala, #Siena
Etruscan “navicella-type” bronze fibula
8th-7th Century BCE
Museo Archeologico Nazionale,
Complesso Museale Santa Maria della Scala, #Siena
November 6, 2025 at 7:56 AM
“All your ducks in a row” - 🦆 🦆 🦆
Etruscan “navicella-type” bronze fibula
8th-7th Century BCE
Museo Archeologico Nazionale,
Complesso Museale Santa Maria della Scala, #Siena
Etruscan “navicella-type” bronze fibula
8th-7th Century BCE
Museo Archeologico Nazionale,
Complesso Museale Santa Maria della Scala, #Siena
Aww, proper chuffed with that conclusion to the Traitors final. The ending was so sweet and wholesome 😭
November 6, 2025 at 10:32 PM
Aww, proper chuffed with that conclusion to the Traitors final. The ending was so sweet and wholesome 😭
Reposted by Dr Rob
The night of Shab-i-barāt. Mughal c.1735-40. ‘Woman Holding Fireworks’.
November 5, 2025 at 8:55 PM
The night of Shab-i-barāt. Mughal c.1735-40. ‘Woman Holding Fireworks’.
My phone photos fail to do it justice, but on our walk this afternoon the fields were over-woven with thin and almost invisible spider-silk, in such a way that wherever you went there was a glimmering silver path on the ground (best visible in the right-hand image) leading straight to the sunset
November 6, 2025 at 6:49 PM
My phone photos fail to do it justice, but on our walk this afternoon the fields were over-woven with thin and almost invisible spider-silk, in such a way that wherever you went there was a glimmering silver path on the ground (best visible in the right-hand image) leading straight to the sunset
Reposted by Dr Rob
#EpigraphyTuesday
Dedication to Serapis, Isis, the Nile and the Theoi Euergetai (Benefactor Gods), Ptolemy III and Berenice II. From #Egypt. #History #Archaeology
[To Sarapidi Isis Neilo / And to King Ptolemy / And to Queen Berenice / Benefactor of the Gods / Kallikrates, son of Antipatros]
Dedication to Serapis, Isis, the Nile and the Theoi Euergetai (Benefactor Gods), Ptolemy III and Berenice II. From #Egypt. #History #Archaeology
[To Sarapidi Isis Neilo / And to King Ptolemy / And to Queen Berenice / Benefactor of the Gods / Kallikrates, son of Antipatros]
October 7, 2025 at 8:44 AM
#EpigraphyTuesday
Dedication to Serapis, Isis, the Nile and the Theoi Euergetai (Benefactor Gods), Ptolemy III and Berenice II. From #Egypt. #History #Archaeology
[To Sarapidi Isis Neilo / And to King Ptolemy / And to Queen Berenice / Benefactor of the Gods / Kallikrates, son of Antipatros]
Dedication to Serapis, Isis, the Nile and the Theoi Euergetai (Benefactor Gods), Ptolemy III and Berenice II. From #Egypt. #History #Archaeology
[To Sarapidi Isis Neilo / And to King Ptolemy / And to Queen Berenice / Benefactor of the Gods / Kallikrates, son of Antipatros]
My LotR reread has reached the end of both 𝘍𝘦𝘭𝘭𝘰𝘸𝘴𝘩𝘪𝘱 and the Fellowship itself
November 5, 2025 at 5:53 PM
My LotR reread has reached the end of both 𝘍𝘦𝘭𝘭𝘰𝘸𝘴𝘩𝘪𝘱 and the Fellowship itself
Reposted by Dr Rob
A coat of arms has to be impressive, full of symbolism, it's important, it represents an powerful family or person, so you have to think long and hard about its design and take it very seriously.
Or just put some underpants on it.
Like Lord Jan van Abbenbroeck did;
Or just put some underpants on it.
Like Lord Jan van Abbenbroeck did;
October 15, 2025 at 10:05 PM
A coat of arms has to be impressive, full of symbolism, it's important, it represents an powerful family or person, so you have to think long and hard about its design and take it very seriously.
Or just put some underpants on it.
Like Lord Jan van Abbenbroeck did;
Or just put some underpants on it.
Like Lord Jan van Abbenbroeck did;
Another red admiral, this time on the gate!
November 5, 2025 at 3:53 PM
Another red admiral, this time on the gate!