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alisonfoster.bsky.social
Zooarchaeologist based in Worcestershire. Malvern Buzzards Running Club. Cats (well, just the one cat). Power metal
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#Malvern May #welldressing this weekend. One of the largest to be decorated (human for scale) is the Wyche Spout - an enormous feat of planning and cooperation. The theme this year is Myths and Folklore. I love the way the team have made the wall into the dragon's body. More in the alt text.

submitted 1 day ago • 0 comments

Pangolins as 'apologetic minions' is great, but I saw them once described as the warrior caste of the Clangers which I think is brilliant.

submitted 3 days ago • 2 comments

May Day celebrations as described by Molesworth.

submitted 368 days ago • 10 comments

RHS Malvern Spring Show soon - I can see them setting it up from my house. Meanwhile, this is the reality of gardening on, as opposed to in, the Malverns. Ridiculously steep gardens made mostly of rocks. And brambles.

submitted 7 days ago • 1 comment

Huge congratulations to the first ever female outright winner of the Fellsman. Anna Lewellyn in 10:18 Superb running. #running #ultrarunning

submitted 8 days ago • 4 comments

A modern re-make of a Roman tile makers experiences, in Gaul circa 120 AD.

submitted 9 days ago • 32 comments

I saw a thread a week or so back listing well-known authors who published their debut novels in their later years. This "if you haven't done it by the time you're thirty you are of no consequence" attitude is discriminatory and has no foundation.

submitted 9 days ago • 1 comment

Went to see this show at Malvern last night. The history of land rights and protest with story and folk song. Great if you fancy a singalong which includes The World Turned Upside Down. I also met a nice man who had ploughed with oxen so I picked his brains in the interval. threeacresandacow.co.uk

submitted 9 days ago • 0 comments

On a day when swearing is the right and proper thing to do, and I suspect that's most days recently, check out the swearing in my shop. These are some past offerings: www.poorfrankraw.co.uk/shop

submitted 10 days ago • 0 comments

What a great thread. I've listened to a fair amount of Deep Purple and the clip of the Blues Magoos (from 1967!) really made me smile.

submitted 10 days ago • 0 comments

Hey #zooarchaeology peeps! I'm giving a talk on Friday on the World's Saddest Draft Horse; if you're interested in equid pathologies, this is the place to be! I'm in the Historical Archaeology panel but I really need zooarchs who know their horses to give me advice so please come! #SAA2025 #SAA

submitted 11 days ago • 2 comments

PLEASE don’t buy into Amazon’s booksale this week. They are intentionally trying to eat into profits from Indie Bookstore Day this weekend, a really important annual event for our important community institutions. Check out your local fave or bookshop.org.

submitted 11 days ago • 47 comments

Any artefact researcher faces various challenges in their work. I wrote this to shine some light on some of these issues & to highlight why I found the recent Norton Disney dodecahedra situation concerning. #Archaeology #Torcs #Gold #Dodecahedron #Dodecahedra bigbookoftorcs.com/2025/04/22/p...

submitted 11 days ago • 4 comments

Bank holiday weekend in the Malverns, lots of visitors on the lower slopes taking pictures of the bluebells, which are spectacular. But they never look as good in photos as in real life. These oak flowers came out ok though.

submitted 13 days ago • 0 comments

Black Kite in Shropshire!

submitted 15 days ago • 0 comments

Latest Graun toon www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

submitted 16 days ago • 4 comments

In the spongy rabbit warren end of the churchyard a metal grave marker for a 1932 passing has been reclined against a tree - and is now part of the tree. Absorbed. Eventually this memory will be another ring within the tree. A metal ring, like a token of love.

submitted 17 days ago • 0 comments

Given that habitat loss is demonstrably the single biggest threat to endangered species, this move effectively ends protection for most species, and a lot of things will go extinct.

submitted 17 days ago • 14 comments

I’m about to board my flight to El Salvador, where I hope to meet with senior government officials to discuss the return of Kilmar Abrego Garcia. I also hope to see Kilmar and check on his condition — and remind him that we won’t stop fighting until he’s home.

submitted 18 days ago • 4259 comments

Mussorgsky!

submitted 19 days ago • 2 comments

You know when you've only ever heard something and never seen it written down? Looks like Rimsky Korsakov wrote "A Night on the Bare Mountain" and I feel a bit silly because for decades I'd heard it as Night on Bear Mountain. 🐻🐻🐻 Sounds plausible though?

submitted 19 days ago • 2 comments

The woolly rhino has an isolated ring in the enamel of the upper molars, which other interglacial species do not have. #archaeology #iceage #zooarchaeology

submitted 21 days ago • 0 comments

Another item ticked off the bucket list today with a trip to see the evolutionary marvels that are the Chillingham Wild Cattle 🐮 Amazing to think that these animals have been casually going about their business in this quiet corner of #Northumberland for c700 years!

submitted 22 days ago • 1 comment