nicolaz.bsky.social - Profile | ThreadSky | a Reddit-style client for Bluesky

nicolaz.bsky.social

PhD. Novelist (Hild, Spear, Menewood). All things Early Medieval. Here: Cats, crips, queers. Books, beauty, beers. MS ♿️🧪📚 nicolagriffith.com and linktr.ee/nicolagriffith Banner ID: B&W image—pint of Guinness flanked by 2 books flanked by 2 tabby cat

1,790 posts 7,921 followers 1,433 following

Posts 27 Comments 23

People from Leeds—all the North—understand condescension, understand the urge to drink and get into a fight with those pig-ignorant—wilfully ignorant—voters who got us into this mess and are now shocked—shocked!—to find themselves in a jam. Here's my favourite Leeds band to explain.

submitted 17 hours ago • 2 comments

Kitties in Michigan get severely ill from bird flu caught from their owners, eggs in Nevada could be about to get weird, and our food supply is quietly going to hell. But hey, don't worry, we might all evaporate in a nuclear blast before we get too hungry. Happy Thursday!

submitted 2 days ago • 1 comment

We now have H5N1, H9N2, and H5N5 travelling the wild flyways and starting to play in the same space. The party might be about to get out of hand—with only an underfunded WHO and hollowed-out CDC to cope. Such joy!

submitted 4 days ago • 0 comments

Did you know it's LGBTQ History Month? No, nor did I. The news cycle is overwhelmed by monstrous children smashing everyone else's toys that there's no room for anything else. But we're here. We've always been here. We were here then, we're here now, and we'll be grinning at you in the future.

submitted 4 days ago • 1 comment

It is shameful that RAINN, representing sexually abused people, erased trans people because they are scared of Trump. To any org censoring themselves: you cannot jettison trans to save yourself. Yes, if you don't, other groups may suffer, and you might too. But we are all in this together.

submitted 5 days ago • 88 comments

Always such a special night that requires a visit to both the people ER and the kitty ER. (I'm fine. Kelley's fine. Charlie and George are fine. This is just the usual family, not-comedy routine. And in fact the family kitty is also essentially fine—person not so much.) I'm just so tired...

submitted 5 days ago • 5 comments

Here's an update on what's coming soon to my Patreon. If you're curious—you don't have to be a member to read it—go read about upcoming queer love poetry, maps—lots of maps!—music videos, and more. www.patreon.com/posts/coming...

submitted 9 days ago • 0 comments

I could never quite justify the time/energy/money. Especially when you add in transatlantic airfare :) The only way I got to attend, finally, in 2023 was to be invited and sing for my supper. But if I lived in the UK, I would make it work. I'd find a way to attend. Every. Single. Year. #MedievalSky

submitted 9 days ago • 0 comments

How did Earl Medieval scribes relate to dogs and cats? Going by illustrations in the Lindisfarne Gospels and Book of Kells, very differently. So many dogs! So few cats...

submitted 9 days ago • 1 comment

Someone needs to love these lovely kitties!

submitted 10 days ago • 1 comment

So I’m not going to crack the medieval cat today, but here are two happy kitties I drew as practice because, hey, it’s more soothing than the news.

submitted 10 days ago • 3 comments

Distracting myself today by trying to figure out how to draw cats that look medieval but don’t look like this (a George Bain sketch from the Book of Kells).

submitted 10 days ago • 2 comments

No good news today on the bird flu front, whether H5N1 or H9N2. Different varieties and genotypes are spreading, sickening people, domestic cats, backyard flocks, commercial flocks, diary herds, feral cats, wildfowl, birds of prey. And the spring migration is coming...

submitted 10 days ago • 1 comment

Hi! Just to let you know: as part of my project to design B&W zoomorphic animal early-medieval style graphics I've added a new Patreon post. This time a look at how differently the scribes of Book of Kells and the Lindisfarne Gospels represent dogs. My Pitchfork Jester? Just play 😀 bit.ly/4gDgBE3

submitted 10 days ago • 0 comments

I'm still having fun with my zoomorphic designs based on Early Medieval gospels, sculpture, and metalwork (6th-8th C mostly). So many birds and dogs and fish—and so few cats (found only 1 in Lindisfarne Gospels). I want more cats! Anyone got any pix or links to cat images? #medievalsky

submitted 10 days ago • 1 comment

A few days late (I've been busy, working on 4 books at once) but for the first time US dairy cattle are confirmed infected by the more dangerous-to-people HPAI H5N1 (bird flu) genotype D1.1. And starlings in Nevada are being culled.

submitted 15 days ago • 1 comment

Stunning, rainbow-colored object spotted by James Webb telescope could be an alien solar system in the making. But to me it looks remarkably like a contact lens balanced on a fingertip in the bathroom light of a hip-cool hotel... www.livescience.com/space/astron...

submitted 15 days ago • 1 comment

I've updated this post to add another resource and a couple of footnotes.

submitted 15 days ago • 0 comments

There are all kinds of resistance and some is far from futile—people are not Borg. People in power are people, fallible and eminently confusable. One way to resist: get grit in the gears until the the machine stutters and stops. Buy time. Some ideas about how.

submitted 16 days ago • 1 comment

I wish these photos came with a scale—I have no sense of its size #medievalsky

submitted 17 days ago • 3 comments

Via @emilyscartoons.bsky.social #MedievalSky

submitted 18 days ago • 1 comment

Just listened to my first @ouropinions.bsky.social this morning and it was AWESOME!!! Hosts @annaleen.bsky.social and @charliejane.bsky.social are sublime and @nicolaz.bsky.social and @tananarivedue.bsky.social are brilliant and inspiring guests. #HistoricalFictiom #SpecFic #CorrectOpinions

submitted 19 days ago • 2 comments

Bowie did it first and best, but BONES UK are doing right for right now, when so many of us are, actually, afraid of—and for—Americans. Including those of us who are. BONES UK need to be played loud.

submitted 19 days ago • 0 comments

Here comes the snow…

submitted 19 days ago • 1 comment

UK readers (and writers): which are your favourite Litfests, and why? I’m pondering coming over for book stuff this summer but have no clue about the bookfest scene these days. Thoughts? Links? 📚💙

submitted 22 days ago • 3 comments

If you love this (& it's amazing), check out Slow River by @nicolaz.bsky.social

submitted 22 days ago • 0 comments

The Europeans once again show how it's done if you're serious about mitigating the risks of zoonotic avian influenza. I'm filled with admiration for their clarity and focus.

submitted 23 days ago • 0 comments