Philippa R. Francis

My photo shows a Roman fresco of a brown rabbit with long ears, curled on the ground, with a rounded, soft-looking body. Its head is lowered as if nibbling at three figs placed in front of it. The figs are small and round with short stems, painted in dark reddish and bluish tones. From Pompeii. Now on display at the National Archaeological Museum in Naples.

Here’s a charming Roman fresco of a little rabbit eating figs 🐰❤️

From Pompeii, 45-79 AD.

Now at the Museo Archeologico Nazionale di Napoli. 📷 by me

#FrescoFriday
#Archaeology

empty playgrounds -
over the quiet land
stormclouds gather
#haiku

Fuzzy catkins soon,
Spring starts with soft and furry,
Winter is all teeth.

#dailyhaikuprompt catkin

plum blossom scent—
a hazy memory
of my granny's house

Kobayashi Issa (1762-1826)
#haiku #micropoetry
Tr. David G. Lanoue
Date of #poem: 1814

beginning to move
in every green dimension
a pot of parsley

A black pen in crosshatch technique and black ink applied with a small roller on white paper illustration of a scene of Venice. A black Cat sits in a Gondola, Crows sit atop long poles that rise from the water. Water laps at the Gondola and a little wooden jetty, across the water hazy buildings, their lights just visible through a fog. Crows circle above. A dark figure of a man stands on the jetty by the Gondola on the left of the illustration. Mysterious.

Decided to part with this one. An illustration I made when my mum was ill & one of the last she saw me make. A piece probably about grief, illness, sadness & departure so of course I called it ‘Don’t Look Meow’ 🤷🏼‍♂️

Image: 21 x 29.7cm

Original artwork: £350 plus P&P

Email: nicktankardart@gmail.com

And this morning the Shed is a colourful stencil portrait of a shed, on the side of a trunk bound for distant lands...

Unsolicited writing advice, no. 671:
In dialogue, remember that accent is only one way to differentiate between speakers. Real people have all kinds of verbal mannerisms; favourite words, expressions, silences, gestures, sentence length, different vocabularies.

Delighted to be chairing this terrific new prize -and in such good company!

& the arclights ping on & the sky's ebb tide indigo hour & evening creeps later & the movement & stillness a time on the cusp of hesitation & go

& reed buntings flickering out over water & back to tapers in rushy shallows, a sky clear & deep - & over the Solway, thin snow on fells

Animation is where most of the absolute best in meaningful film and series storytelling is to be found. If you’ve anything to recommend then I am ready to listen

White waves incoming on a black sand beach over some rocks. There is a weird yellow/orange light on the clouds in the distance (from snow showers) and on the horizon a couple of jagged peaks under cloud. Dark clouds in the distance. Long exposure so the water movement is smooth.

Snow storms bring some weird but amazing skies! It snowed just after this, taken just before sunset at Stokksnes earlier.

#Iceland

The photo shows a hollow tree trunk and lopped boughs spread on the ground for habitats. The poem reads: tumbled offcuts stubs/ a giant’s emptied tower:/ left as settlement

Photopoem shared 6th March 2026

A little clump of sunny-faced primroses…

The welcome face of spring…

The photo shows a damaged tree trunk. A torn limb resembles a wild boar's head. The poem reads: fracturing the bole:/ medieval wonderbeast/ sporting new offshoots

Photopoem shared 5th March 2026

World book day event madness tomorrow. I have my props (horse's head, giant snake, various beards, cuddly toy Mjolnir) and my hand sanitiser. Now I just need a clean joke to tell the kids if something goes wrong and I need to fill time. What's your favourite child-friendly joke?

Middle aged brown lady in official World Book Day merch

Bookshelf stack: The Destiny of Minou Moonshine The Girl of Ink and Stars Dream Hunters The Night Curs Magic Has No Borders Songs for Ghosts The Serpent’s Secret Greenwild

Happy #WorldBookDay to all who celebrate!
I am three school visits in, eight to go and so very happy the sun is shining!!
#kidlituk #ukkidlit #booksky

ALT text: doodles with the words World Book Day, read what you love!, read in any format you want, comics = reading, and a robot doodle saying I love sci fi

Happy World Book Day! Celebrating with a fun little doodle from Anaya (age 10). The message: read whatever you love in whatever format you want! 📖 🎧 ✨ 🎉 It’s ALL reading. #kidlit #worldbookday

Some of the superb late 19th century buildings in Dewsbury.

at the height if its industrial success. These wonderful images were taken recently by Tim Green. All CC BY 4.0

Some of the superb late 19th century buildings in Dewsbury.

closures, economic decline, and the movement of retail and investment to larger nearby centres such as Leeds. The result a town centre that many residents feel has been significantly diminished. It does though contain some superb late 19th century architecture that harks back to when the town was

Some of the superb late 19th century buildings in Dewsbury.

As I have written before Dewsbury like many former manufacturing towns in West Yorkshire, has struggled in the post-industrial era. Once a thriving centre of the textile trade, the town was hit hard by the decline of its industry. In recent decades its town centre has suffered from shop

three paperback guidebooks - a green one for Devon, one called Let's Halt Awhile in Devon, Somerset and Cornwall, and a Penguin one for Suffolk and Cambs

page describing Burgh Island in Devon

We inherited a small collection of county guide books and walking books. We love dipping into them reading about tourist hot spots.

#WorldBookDay

Thank you for such a fab response.

moonlight and starlight
what’s shining from the pavement?
a blueblack beetle

Our Learning & Participation Coordinator Billie wrote the latest blog post on Children's Poetry Summit, reflecting on our annual slam for Tower Hamlets primary schools - an occasion when we get to hear stellar rhymes like 'dinosaurs come at night creeping / they arrive while your nana's sleeping.' 🦖

& the lengthening bright, go wellytrudge a length of burn & find greywagtail behind the wire that keeps cattle & you out, riffled lochan on the way back & the settling in goes on

human disguise
worked for decades until
unexpected molting

#thingstowriteabout (disguise)
#senryu #poem 🐦‍⬛

The photo shows two ancient trees sprouting fuzzy masses of twigs. The poem reads: these trees’ unshorn pelts/ dense nests of gathered shadows/ hold slow coated growth

Photopoem shared 4th March 2026

I’ll have some of that.