11 years on, I revisit Mr Antis and his Contrivance. Taking a look at a US born inventor, musician and Man For All Seasons, who lived in Leeds. His "contrivance" was an add-on widget that turbo-charged ordinary spinning wheels. penelopehemingway.substack.com/p/mr-antis-a...

This week our little table-top spinning wheel - a very rare wheel found randomly on eBay - went to the restorers'.
open.substack.com/pub/penelope...

There's bees on the blackthorn (sloe)! And a beautiful blue sky, earlier this afternoon. It's been a long winter. Spring, soon.

Colour and Light, York Minster, last night. Dragons on the Minster!

We all need some escapism from this future dystopia we find ourselves living in, so how about some 18th and 19th century escapees? Check out my new Substack and subscribe if you can. It's free! open.substack.com/pub/penelope...

Yesterday, tried my hand at wildlife photography. In the new M & S food shop which just opened in Selby. It didn't see me, right? Tell me it didn't see me.

I do love a good Blue Sky.

Our next (virtual) talk. Contact London Guild WSD if interested…

Last night’s aurora borealis. Pics taken looking East around midnight then shot of Orion around 3 AM… Ar one point could see blood red sky with naked eye. #Northernlights #aurora

Huge old willow down the lane. 4 years ago - and yesterday. Finally brought down in the storm last week. This tree now in the middle of nowhere but used to be opposite a row of long-demolished cottages where my favourite ancestor lived from 1830s to 1870s. Tree might have been there before him...

Dark Sky site near Thirsk, watching the Perseids last night...

This (now tangled) skein of Poppleton's guernsey yarn was probably put up in the 1950s or 60s. Had to wind it into a ball manually, from my old Sunflower swift, because it was so tangled. Managed to save it all. Casting on a gansey today. I have 900g in skeins - so hopefully, enough. #knitting

This fossil (?) would once have been hidden from view under the layer of masoned stone, at Byland Abbey, North Yorkshire. I like thinking about the intrigue of something that would prove Darwin's theory of the origins of species, unseen inside the layers of wall, last seen by a lay brother builder.

So I laid on the grass and stared at the sky for a bit, today. We used to do this for hours when we were kids. Although not in the garden but in the corner of the monks' graveyard at Byland Abbey. Everyone does it. Right?