Monissa
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islandhopping.bsky.social
Monissa
@islandhopping.bsky.social
43 followers 44 following 300 posts
Takes lots of photos
Writes lots of fantasy
Tries to write other stuff. Not very successfully
Grows killer plants
Autistic
Cranky.

www.monissa.com
Note: Some posts auto-post from Mastodon & the formatting/threading is odd. I'm learning to do it better.
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islandhopping.bsky.social
Rosa alba semi-plena. First flower!

Two more buds about to open. This isn't a rose if you want abundant flowers. Hopefully next year will bring more.

(A Christmas present last year but it was finished flowering by then.)

#BloomScrolling #Rose #MuchAnticipated
A white rose. Two crcles of rounded white petals, and inner petals curled over a centre. Background of small rose leaves, blurred.
December 5, 2025 at 12:17 PM
islandhopping.bsky.social
It grew more, thicker, greener stems. It's almost quadrupled in size. And last week, it flowered for the first time. Lovely big red flowers.

Cacti need love too.
A cactus of many thin columns from which emerges two bright red/orange flowers with narrow, pointed petals.
December 4, 2025 at 10:31 AM
islandhopping.bsky.social
An enthusiastic Gymnocalycium and Mammillaria matudae (too high, too soon).

#bloomscrolling #Cacti
A semi-circles od cream coloured flowers around one side of a small, round cactus. There are nine or ten scaly buds over the surface of the cacti waiting to open in flower A columnar cacti having problems staying erect. Near its top, it's encircled by a ring of tiny flower, pink with yellow centres. In front are two smaller round cacti, one spiky, one with long skinny spines.
December 3, 2025 at 9:59 AM
islandhopping.bsky.social
I bought it 15 years ago as a tiny ball, and it's grown. A lot. In recent years it's been in a far too small terracotta pot. I managed to get out & put it in a larger plastic pot. And it flowered!

*Possibly Soehrensia schickendantzii. Google insists on Echinopsis sp. but the growth habit is wrong.
A bundle of cacti balls growing in a charcoal-coloured plastic pot. To one side is a large flower with white petals and a thick furry stem.
December 1, 2025 at 7:47 AM
islandhopping.bsky.social
Just in case you think the angle of the camera is exaggerating the flower :)
A bundle of cacti balls growing in a charcoal-coloured plastic pot. To one side is a large flower with white petals and a thick furry stem.
December 1, 2025 at 7:46 AM
islandhopping.bsky.social
My cacti are flowering very enthusiastically, so I'll share some photos this week.

My oldest plant. I have no idea what it is*. It doesn't flower very often and the flower only lasts a day but it's spectacular enough visitors were taken to see it.

#Cacti #Bloomscrolling
A very large flower, with three rings of thick white petals and yellow pistils/stamens in the centre, emerging from a bundle of cacti balls.
December 1, 2025 at 7:43 AM
islandhopping.bsky.social
Done, at 50,000 words (yes, exactly).

1.02 new WIPs created
50 stickers added to laptop lid
2.25 blocks of dark chocolate eaten
Lots of tea drunk

#Nanowrimo #Novelember
A red box marked 0 to 50000, with a black line from 0 to 50000
November 17, 2025 at 11:54 AM
islandhopping.bsky.social
Plod. Plod. Plod. To 42,506 words.

The end is just ahead, at the top of the light tower sticking out of the fog on the island on the other side of the rock channel.

#Nanowrimo #Novelember
A red box marked 0 to 50000, with a black line just past the 40000 mark.
November 15, 2025 at 12:41 PM
islandhopping.bsky.social
Just over 2000 words, good
OK 2500 words a day is a nice amount.
Let's be realistic "Better than yesterday's average" it is.
Ah, this is creeping up to--
NOT 3000 WORDS A DAY. Seriously.

Maybe I'm the only person who's ever done #Nanowrimo & worried about wrting too many words a day

#Novelember
A colourful bar chart with a blue and green background, and blue bars. The title is "Daily Word Count". Up the side the number run from 0 to 3500 in increments of 500. The first nine bares are about the 2500 mark. The last two are just above the 3000 mark.
November 11, 2025 at 11:03 AM
islandhopping.bsky.social
We had an open garden today. My mother's garden, to raise money for my sister's dog training club. Busy, busy all day, but I managed my minimum, giving me 21434 words for the month.

(Photo: my puppy-nieice Jess who showed off her scent work skills today.)

#Novelember #NaNoWriMo
A cream-coloured, very cute labrador sitting on a wooden bridge looking hopefully at someone off screen. Behind is a garden bed with bushy shrubs, one covered in tiny white flowers, and a small garden statue and watermill.
November 8, 2025 at 11:16 AM
islandhopping.bsky.social
10510 today.
And a #writingtip from the past.

😀
#Novelember #NotNaNoWriMo
Snip of a post to FB via Twitter, 24 November 2011 "If writing about real events and you're not sure exactly how/when something happened, have it take place before your characters arrive"
November 4, 2025 at 10:56 AM
islandhopping.bsky.social
Day 2 brings me to 5169. I think 2500 words a day is a nice amount. (I've had problems in the past writing want to write too much each day. (Seriously.))

Even better, MC has found a voice and a temporary motivation.

#imwritinganovelinnovember #Novelember #NotNaNoWriMo
A red box marked 0 to 50000, with a black line about 1/10 of the way along
November 2, 2025 at 10:26 AM
islandhopping.bsky.social
So the first day of #November has come and gone, and I wrote 2406 works.
I'm not doing 50K this year. I've had over twenty years of doing that. Now I just want to write a first draf ms at however long it is. It's a sequel to a novella so I'm hoping it's not too long.

#NeedAHashTag #Nanowrimo
A red box marked 0 to 50000, with a black line about 1/20 of the way along
November 1, 2025 at 11:00 AM
islandhopping.bsky.social
Photo "memories" on that other place. Now I want to go to visit Cornwall, Meh.

Chysauster Village, on a foggy day. Best way to visit. Cut off from the rest of the world. Just me and the houses.)
Looking through a gap/door space between two stone walls (formed from blocks of white stones piled up, with plants growing on top). Beyond in a length of wall curving around to a doorway opening into an enclused space.Stones amongst the groass lead up and thorugh the doorway. Fog reaches to this rear wall and obscures the view beyond.
October 22, 2025 at 3:57 AM
islandhopping.bsky.social
Now I can't prove that this one has been altered but what do you think?

The Brussels International Exposition, 1910 where a large fire ripped thorugh last parts of the site. (There's a longer account of it here: history-in-your-hands.com/432postcards...)

#ModfiedPostcards #PrePhotoshop #Belgium
A printed photo lookinga broad street with large, fancy buildings along its length. The right side is mostly roofs. The near one has statues around its top. The left is mostly obscured by large smudges and blobs with inked red lines insdie, rising from the buildings and extending out over the street. In the street, people are strolling along or standing in small groups talking. (They mostly appear as black people-shaped blobs interspersed with some white people shaped blobs). Many of them are standing under the smoke-fire-blobs. Text at bottom says "Bruxelles-Exposition, L'Incendie des 14-15 Août 1910. L'Avenue des Nations"
October 6, 2025 at 10:43 AM
islandhopping.bsky.social
Two postcards from Clovelly, in Devon, showing a trio of donkeys going up the steep high street. Same donkeys and men show in each picture, but look closely at the buildings, especially the ones on the left and the New Inn.

(Publisher Valentine, coloured image 1900s, B&W 1920s)
Hand-coloured photo looking from behind at a string of donkeys walkng up a stone road of steps. The bottom donkey has baskets on its back and a man standing to one side with a hand on the basked. Just in front is the middle donkey, with a man standing beside it. A short distance in front is the third donkey, turned back as if looking at the other two. On the right of the street is a row of stone-walled gardens. About halfway along is a wooden sign hanhing from a window, which says "New Inn". On the left of the streets are a row of different height buildings. The nearest has a roof over the door. A lot of ivy makes it hard to tell where it stops and it's single-storey neighbour begins.. A small sign on the second building says "Jewell's Tea & Coffee Rooms". Then a taller, wide building of multiple storeys and attic windows. The lower windows are open, the panes are catching the lights. As is a window in the side of the wall near the top. At the top is written "Hight Street, Clovelly". Black & white/sepia photo looking from behind at a string of donkeys walkng up a stone road of steps. The bottom donkey has baskets on its back and a man standing to one side with a hand on the basked. Just in front is the middle donkey, with a man standing beside it. A short distance in front is the third donkey, turned back as if looking at the other two. On the right of the street is a row of stone-walled gardens. On the left of the streets are a row of three storey buildings.The near one has a roof over the door. It's neighbour is a sparse building with an the upper storey sticking out sligihtly. Next along appears to have a wooden structure (porch or verandah) on its front. Beside this is a wooden sign hanging from a window, which says "New Inn". At the bottom is written "Hight Street, Clovelly."
October 5, 2025 at 8:43 AM
islandhopping.bsky.social
The Merry Maidens, of Cornwall.
They were turned into stone for dancing on Sunday. Their pipers are in a paddock on other side of the road.

#StandingStoneSunday #LandscapePhotography
A ring of ~19 small stones standing on end in the middle of a paddock of grass. Each stone is about waist high, greyish-white and rectangular to some degree. Theere's one in the neariside that's an almost perfect rectangle, for a stone. Whereas one over the black is a blob. The others are somwhere in between. It's early in the morning so the sun is low and the stones throw long shadows into the ring. A high green hedge surrunds the paddocks (exceot for a wooden fence from the road behind me). The sky is very broad, and a pale blue.
September 21, 2025 at 10:59 AM
islandhopping.bsky.social
Last gaming photo, for now.

Gaming counters of bone, pottery and glass (L to R) and dice, from the Roman fortress baths at Isca (at the National Roman Legion Museum, Caerleon)
#RomanBritain #OldGames #Museum Photos
Bottom left, five cubes of different sizes. It's hard to make out the details on them, but the cream-coloured ones have pips of circles with dots within. The black one is just a dark shadow. Although it does seem a bit furry ?? Top left, a pile of discs. They look like large, wooden coat buttons but they're bone, in different shades and sizes. Some have concentric circles carved on top. Others have dots. One dot. A ring or a single central dot, or both. One have circles carved to form layers with a raised circle in the centre. (That's the most interesting one.) Top right, another piles of discs in various colours (orange, red, grey, black). They look like flat, coloured stones, but they're pottery (terracotta/earthernware). A couple of have their edges broken off. They're larger than the other piles and rougher. Bottom right, a pile of pebbles. They look like small, rounded stones you might find at the beach but they're apparently glass. Black, white, one is pale yellow with brown speckles.
September 20, 2025 at 11:17 AM
islandhopping.bsky.social
This little fellow at the Scalloway museum bears striking resemblance to one in previous photo. Its label says ""Replica of a late Iron Age steatite gaming piece found in the interior of the Scallowy broch during excavations in the 1980s."
A small gaming pieces, about the size of a thumb. It's a narrow cone with a pointed top, mostly black. Near the top is an oval indent with face formed from a horizontal ridge, a vertical right and two eyes. Above this is a triangle formed from three dots.
September 19, 2025 at 12:28 PM
islandhopping.bsky.social
I don't have many Iron Ages game pieces, so I hope you'll forgive the not very good photos. They're only small, about thumb-sized, and my camera's outdoor lens is not suited for inside.

At Shetland Museum, Lerwick. The museum just says "Gaming pieces, Tingwall".

#IronAge #OldGames #MuseumPhotos
Two small gaming pieces, about the size of a thumb. The near one is a narrow, truncated cone of a yellow stone or bone, with black patches over its sides. The top has a hatch pattern. The rearmost one is slightly out of focus. It's a narrow cone with a pointed top, mostly black. Near the top is an oval indent with a face formed from a horizontal ridge and two eyes, and a triangle above with three dots (see next photo)
September 19, 2025 at 12:25 PM
islandhopping.bsky.social
This is the third board mentioned in the label (it's to the right in the previous photo). It has circles inscribed along some of the lines.
Flat stone rock, almost square but it's missing a corner, with lines scratched on it to form a grid. But there are other lines parellel and close to the vertical lines, and circles in a rough t shape. Most of them run along the doubled lines but are couple are in the middle of a square and some others off to the side.
September 18, 2025 at 11:40 AM
islandhopping.bsky.social
Two Pictish gaming boards at the Orkney Museum. (Label text is in the Alt text). From Buckquoy, Birsay, on the Orkney mainland (overlooking the Brough of Birsay, where there are Viking & Pictish settlements), about 9th century.

#Picts #OldGames #MuseumPhotos
A flat yellow stone with irregular lines scratched in two directins to form a grid of small squares (about 8 x 6). Chalk rubbed into the lines makes them easier to see. To the side, and standing on edge, is a black stone with a grid scratched on it. The lines are straigthter. There's a circle around the middle intersection. Between the stones are two large bone object (gaming pieces but I don't have the information for them). At the back is text plaque which says: ""Stone gaming boards "This is one of three stone gaming boards from the Buckquoy excavation. This board is used for modern display, so the carving has been highlighted with chalk. It is of the usual shape, with seven lines in each direction and a circle round the centre intersection. The boards could have been used for a game like Viking 'hneftafl'. "Buckaquoy, Birsay: excavated 1970-1971."
September 18, 2025 at 11:36 AM
islandhopping.bsky.social
Viking gaming pieces again, but these are at the Orkney Museum, Kirwall.
The museum lable says "Whalebone gaming pieces. Buried in a leather or cloth pouch. The king piece is identified by an iron pin." So a tafl game then?
#Vikings #OldGames #MuseumPhotos
Twenty blobs, arranged in four columns of five with two more at the top, one of which has a black blip sticking out of it. Although they're made of bone, they looke like blobs of white clay.
September 17, 2025 at 12:04 PM
islandhopping.bsky.social
Roman Egyptian bone dice.
The museum lable says "Bone dice , from Oxyrhynchus, Roman Period, after 1st century BC" (National Museum of Ireland)
#OldGames #Vikings #Dice #MuseumPhotos
Nine white dice of varying sizes. Also varying shapes. They're all trying to cubes but some sides are small than others so more rectangular prisms. The numbers are marked by dots (tiny circles with a dot in the middle). Apparently fairly typical of Roman dice.
September 16, 2025 at 11:22 AM
islandhopping.bsky.social
Like game pieces, the boards can also be hard to associate which a particular game, especially when they're roughly made.
This board, scratched on a plank, I can't find much about. The museum label says "Wooden game board, Saint John's Lane".
A short length of board. Very worn. The edges are irregular, chipped, one side partly broken. The surface is scored with many horizontal and vertical lines, covering it in small rectangles.
September 15, 2025 at 10:16 AM