Thicker than Water/ Y mae dafad ddu ym mhob praidd

07/05/2026

When you cancel Ancestry , one of the “why are you cancelling” options is “learned something unsettling”.
It’s a bit of running joke in genealogy circles that everyone finds something disturbing in their family history, especially if you do DNA testing.
Proceed with caution.

11/04/2026

09/04/2026

The flowers left thick at nightfall in the wood
This Eastertide call into mind the men,
Now far from home, who, with their sweethearts, should
Have gathered them and will do never again.

Edward Thomas, 3rd March 1878 – 9th April 1917

12/01/2026

Today is Plough Monday, the first Monday after Epiphany - traditionally the first day back to work after the Christmas season, but also an excuse for more festivity! It was a day for blessing the tools of work in preparation for the year ahead.

22/09/2025

An Old English word: merecandel ‘sea-candle’, the Sun as it rises from or sets in the sea. If you saw a sunset reflect off the water in a straight line, you would say “Merecandel scyfeð on ofdæle,” or “The sea-candle pushes down.”

28/07/2025

'The Intellectual Life of the British Working Classes' by Jonathan Rose.

06/06/2025

Just a few hours after this photo was taken on June 5 1944, this paratrooper would die after making the night combat jump into France on D-Day June 6 1944.
This was Col. Robert "Bull" Wolverton, commander of the 3rd Battalion, Airborne Division. The second photo is the prayer he spoke to the 750 men in his battalion.
Wolverton was killed by German machine gun fire in an orchard outside Saint-Come-du-Mont, Normandy, France. He sustained "162 bullet holes and bayonet wounds" due to German troops using him as target practice. Of the paratroopers in his plane, five were killed (including Wolverton), seven were captured (some later escaped) and three successfully fought on.
We owe these men a debt we can never repay.

06/05/2025

💔

03/05/2025

19th Century customer reviews:

25/04/2025

The word Arctic doesn't mean cold but comes from the old Greek word for bear (arktos). Arctic therefore means bear-place - and Antarctic means not-bear-place.

17/04/2025

There's a class of words called contronyms (or autoantonyms or Janus words) which can mean their own opposite, like how "to dust" can mean to remove dust (dusting furniture) but also to cover with dust (dusting a cake with sugar). Welcome to my niche interests club 😆