yarnquester

Giorno

#jjba

10/10 nature center. I also got bit by a duck there; would go again

A terrapin swims directly at the glass in her tank. She is a whitish gray color, with markings on her upper jaw that look like a mustache.

The head of a red-spotted newt is visible peeking through a gap on green leaves. In the foreground, there is a yellow button for enrichment.

Things making me happy today:
NEWT!!!
Turtle with a mustache!!
The extremely excellent names the nature center staff have given all of these cute critters: the newt is named Fig; the turtle is Mabel

wip digital painting of a dank corner in the forest

When you intend to work on your painting from yesterday but you look at it and don't know what to do because today you're a different person

digital illustration of various antiques including, a ceremonial dagger, a netsuke, a pistol, a bell, a whistle, a music box, and a statuesque container

drew some things from the v&a museum catalogue

A digital illustration of two people holding hands (actually dancing but it's not clear in the painting). One hand is pale and blueish, with long dark claws. The other hand is more human-like and veiny, with some deep scars further down the arm. There's also a frame made of gnarly branches, with the image of a crow, a snake and the crescent moon engraved in the wood.

A little something something for yet another personal project (and because... hands!) 💜

#art #fantasyart #artsky

Here's another one

digital illustration of a branch of wood with red mushrooms growing up one side, and moss and some small teal elf cups on the other side. The background is green.

some good mushrooms i saw
#art

Can I get in on this? Saturday mornings are usually iffy for me, but I'd love to get these notes!

I don't think to me! What novel?

I've had great fun reading trashy romances en español

Yesss! I watched a D&D stream that played in Spanish a couple times: So. Fun.

So many new words!!

Finally, once you have some basics down: media in that language!

Magazine articles! News! (The Duolingo podcast I actually find quite fun: it's got short stories in mixed Spanish/English)
I put subtitles on my fave movies

and MY favorite resource: is an old retired teacher's textbook! BetterWorldBooks has great used books, and often textbooks go out of date fast so they're way cheaper that way instead of buying new

BOOKS! YMMV (I learn best when I can see/write, so things like Mango, which libraries often have access to!) aren't great for me, 'cause it's more listening exercises

But you can check things out from the library

My opinion on ways that are more fun/useful than Duolingo to learn:

www.languagetransfer.org/about
The LanguageTransfer app is free and I *really* like their lessons
(there's a limited amount of languages on there, but Spanish, German, Greek, and Swahili all have full courses!)

This reminds me that I want to get back into practicing my languages

(Spanish, primarily. But I am also teaching myself some really basic Latin, from a textbook)

a man in a suit and tie holds a cup of coffee in front of a red curtain Alt: A man in a suit and tie (Dale Cooper, from Twin Peaks) holds a cup of coffee in front of a red curtain. He spills it, and makes a surprised face.

Sometimes you make an rpg character who is literally just Dale Cooper

sometimes i do love bushwick

more

a real genius walks among us

my local park is full of hundreds of snow sculptures and someone has been adding museum labels

Larval axolotl almost ready to hatch in a clear egg

Eg

Castle is situated on a high rocky peak, dominating the medieval town of Foix below

Chateau Fort, Foix
Ian Strang, 1934

I miss Margot so much. Doodle of her running towards adventure because she was always getting herself in troublesome situations in combat. She just wanted to learn any and everything she can.

#art #oc #ocart #dnd #dungeonsanddragons

The photo shows four images of the same Roman iron stylus (pen) one below the other, with knib to the left. This stylus is octagonal in shape, with an inscription dot-punched along its length on four alternate sides. The stylus is 132 mm long and 5 mm thick, and the letters are circa 2 mm high. The four images of the pen show the four lines of inscribed text (highlighted) which read: ‘ab urbe v[e]n[i] munus tibi gratum adf(e)ro acul[eat]um ut habe[a]s memor[ia]m nostra(m) rogo si fortuna dar[e]t quo possem largius ut longa via ceu sacculus est (v)acuus’ Translated as ‘I have come from the City. I bring you a welcome gift with a sharp point that you may remember me.
I ask, if fortune allowed, that I might be able (to give) as generously as the way is long (and) as my purse is empty.’ This inscription is generally interpreted by scholars as a humorous, tongue-in-cheek acknowledgment by the giver of the cheapness of the gift. The pen was used to write on wax-filled wooden writing tablets. Found in London (Roman ‘Londinium’) by MOLA, during excavations for Bloomberg’s European Headquarters in 2010–2014 . Photo by Juan Jose Fuldain for MOLA

Timeless humour!

A 2,000 year-old Roman souvenir pen with a joke inscription roughly equivalent to:

“I went to Rome and all I got you was this cheap pen!" 😂

Dated circa 70 AD, this iron stylus pen was recovered in London during excavations by MOLA. 📷 Juan Jose Fuldain/MOLA

#Archaeology

a black cat stands in the middle of a path that winds through a brightly lit field.

A dream of the fields
study

dream seer 👁️

Closeup side view of a nurse shark on the sandy sea bottom, where they spend much of their time. Two fleshy barbels frame its mouth. 📷 Jerome Paillet, CC BY 4.0. Source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Requin-nourrice_atlantique_(Ginglymostoma_cirratum)_(Ifremer_00618-73010_-_28877).jpg

To say that bottom-dwelling nurse sharks are slowpokes with all the chill is an understatement—one paper calls them "energetically suited for a minimally active lifestyle." But yesterday I spoke to a researcher who calls nurse sharks "lazy sausages" and now I will never think of them any other way