Happy 10th Birthday Greek Myth Comix

Sunday 21st January 2024 marks a whole decade of the classics-inspired art, snark and sometimes bwark that is Greek Myth Comix. In order to celebrate I’m here to answer a simple question; What’s My Favourite and Why? My choice will come as no surprise to our esteemed artist: #ClassicsTober Day 22: MOTHER. Inspired by a tweet from another wonderful classicist, Dr Ellie Mackin Roberts, the…

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On Love and Despair

A #new #poem I recently performed at an open mic night - written especially for it and looking at the themes of #love, #despair and #atypical #romance!

Written for MixMatched Post-Valentine’s Open Mic night – 15th February 2023 I could have read the one about how you and Igo through the lines on our palms,and look up and see them too, in moonlit skies.Or maybe I could sing that tune aboutyou brewing lies, eschewing tiesand being my undoing,leaving me fruitless with a ruined life.I had a sonnet, too, in mindabout the cruel ivy who entwinesa…

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Necromantic

Battle scarred, face down in the piss and dust,I find no peace, but jaws of Cerberus.Your lips they drip with unfermented mustand Circe verses to un-murder us.Wrest me from the Acheron’s miasma,my Queen, make me a body again whole,instead of this weird, impotent phasmaa rotten and forgotten Lethe soul.Hug our mother Hekate, my sweet witchborrow herbs from within her night-low swamp.Pour…

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Quintessence of Being

#Quintessence - A previously #unreleased #poem about #life, the #universe and #everything! Lots of #Chaos, #beauty and #space! Thanks to #NASA, #ESA, #CSA and #JWST for providing the perfect #Image! So fitting!

(Image Credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, Public Domain) Four nebulae in parallel met in a piercing gaze.Through the glory of Brownian rangoli powder compoundsand wandering gas, elemental,we see, and in seeing, are. Diffuse across the infinite interconnected,a spongiform network of self-similar strange attractors.Disperse pin-prick infinities on infinities,linked like nerve, like brain, vascular,…

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Silvanus' Theatre

A #NewPoem - A #Poem inspired by my trip into an #Ancient #woodland. A lot of #nature and #Natural imagery, then! As you'd expect. #Enjoy!

Summon Silvanus,a playwright he,who scripted this gift,and what we say in our scenes.He bade these ancient treesto engage with me.And each bough’s creakin the lazy breezeis his way of conveying their speech.Each syllable kills,each metaphor untames our beasts.All are rapt by the actionof each sway of a Beech.And, to the acclaim of the weeds,the unbroken Father Oakis playing the lead.Each acorn of…

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Top Five Insects I’ve Seen - #1 – The Ruby-tailed wasp (Chrysis sp. or family Chrysididae)

#1 #Insect I've seen! The ruby-tailed #wasp. Spreading the #wasplove, these #insect #species encapsulate the #diversity, #beauty & #complexity of #invertebrate #life. #Nature #Wildlife #InsectWeek #InsectWeek22 #Photography #Pretty

My first ever proper sighting of a ruby-tailed wasp (likely Chrysis sp., possibly Chrysis ignita) I had seen flashes of them before, but this was the first time I could observe and photograph one. Such brilliant, shimmering colours, amazing form, a cute little jewel of a wasp that really opens doors for people to consider wasps as more than just yellowjackets. (Credit: Me) As if you didn’t know…

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Top Five Insects I’ve Seen - #2 – The Thick-Legged Flower Beetle (Oedemera nobilis)

Our #2 #insect just dropped! It's the Thick-legged #flower #beetle! Surely one of the most #charming #species? I love them, anyway! And with no explanation why! #Insectweek #Insectweek22 #Insects #Nature #Wildlife #Entomology

Such brilliant colours, I love those little bug-eyes, and dem T H I C C thighs are just special. This is the thick-legged flower beetle, Oedemera nobilis. (Credit: Me) I’ma give ya some behind the scenes! Curating lists like this can be difficult. Because if I’d just picked my favourites you would have had four wasps and a beetle, each article would have been 100 words and as many images long…

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Top 5 Insects I’ve Seen - #3 – The Cinnabar Moth (Tyria jacobaeae)

The #3 #Insect I've seen in the #UK is the #Cinnabar #Moth. Fabulously #stylish things, #gorgeous chubby tiger striped #caterpillars. #Moths are often less well regarded than #butterflies. The cinnabar shows this wrong! #InsectWeek22 #InsectWeek #Nature

My first sighting of the adult, moth form, of Tyria jacobaeae – The cinnabar moth. Named after the red pigment. It’s really something. Easily one of the UK’s most beautiful moths, but it’s more than just beautiful! (Credit: Me) I hadn’t actually seen one of these until only a couple of months ago. Not their adult, flying form anyway. But when you see this beautiful vamp spread its wings it truly…

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Top Five Insects I’ve Seen - #4 – The Rose Chafer (Cetonia aurata)

The #4 #Insect I've seen - The #rose #chafer #beetle (Cetonia aurata). One of the most #brilliant, #beautiful #insects you can see in the #UK. #InsectWeek #InsectWeek22 #Entomology #Nature #Wildlife #Britain #coleoptera

Surely one of the most stunning insect species we have in the UK – the rose chafer beetle (Cetonia aurata) (Credit: Me) I was initially going to write a list of top five most striking UK insects but alas when I actually put grey matter to the task I realised the list would be mostly, if not exclusively, beetles. Beetles, the order coleoptera, are a huge group. Of all the species described in…

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Top Five Insects I’ve Seen - #5 – The Tawny Mining Bee (Andrena fulva)

#5 is in! The tawny mining #bee - One of the #UK's most #striking and #beautiful #bees. A valuable #pollinator of our #spring #flowers & #plants and the females are a #gorgeous #red #colour. #InsectWeek #InsectWeek22 #Nature #Wildlife #Entomology #insects

Not my best shot, but the one that shows the colour the best. Although still not great as my cheap phone camera didn’t do colour well! The thorax is covered in a deep red fluff that really stands out amidst the muted greens of spring. The abdomen has this incredible sunset-stripe effect of darker stripes fading into lighter ones. The female tawny mining bee is not only an incredible sight, but…

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My Top 5 Favourite UK Insects I’ve Seen: Introduction

A new series for #InsectWeek #InsectWeek22 as I take a look at some of the favourite #insects I've seen on my #invertebrate spotting walks and share my #love and #appreciation of them with you! #Nature #Wildlife #Photography #Bugs #Entomology #wasplove

The always beloved bumblebee may not need much effort to boost its reputation, but other insects may be just as valuable and sadly underappreciated or even persecuted. (Credit: Me) Happy Insect Week! If you’ve been following for a while you’ll know my history with insects, but if not here’s the story. I was, at one point, before an autistic burnout turned my dreams to ashes, an aspiring…

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Gutter

A #NewPoem just dropped. Very short #poem.

(Image Credit: TANAKA Juuyoh (田中十洋) CC-BY-2.0) Young mossdeprived andgutter bornis sold a lie,a green dreamof growthuntil in starsit sits. From the gutterwithered brownyoung mosssees emeraldabundanceon the eaves,overhanging.Obscuringthe twinkling sky. Karl Anthony Mercer, 2022– Feel free to share, by all means, but no commercial use, please

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The Barred Grass Snake (Natrix helvetica)

Finally written about the grass #snake. The #UK's #longest snake species, a good #study in #evolution and how we #classify #species and our #relationships with #snakes. #Nature #Wildlife

What a beautiful snake! Natrix helvetica, the barred grass snake. Once a sub-species of the European grass snake (Natrix natrix helvetica) genetic analysis led to its reclassification as a separate species in 2017. This one is photographed in France. (Credit: J-Luc by GFDL) One of the interesting things about the natural world is our knowledge of it is ever changing. It shouldn’t be a surprise,…

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Human Bias and Animal Myth in Conservation

A rework of my thread from earlier on #Bias in #Conservation. There are a few additions, other things I neglected earlier, a few examples etc.

When I was studying biology human-animal relationships (…no giggling at the back!) was something I really wished I’d had an opportunity to learn more about. A recent paper, ‘Understanding nuanced preferences for carnivore conservation: to know them is not always to love them’ by Macdonald et al. reminded me of quite why I found our human relationship with the natural world so…

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The Adder (Or European viper) - Vipera berus

A look at one of the #UK's most #beautiful #reptiles, the #shy & #timid #adder. Our only #venomous #snake. #Nature #Wildlife

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Gardener's Longing

A #new #poem in #Sonnet form (not much one for structure, forgive any errors in metre!) Lots of #nature, #flowers, #decay, #romance, #love - dare I say a bit #horny and #erotic!? Anyway, hope you enjoy.

Will dewy tears falling from you, my rose,as balm stem the blood your thorns inflicted?My hand covets your stem more as it grows.Your flow’rs hue brightened as I restricted.I tended my earth to lessen your spellyou simply spread vines with flow’rs bold and fair.I withheld the sap of my loving wellyour roots just grew deep to find succour there.Oh! Stigma and stamen in distanced dance,intoxicant…

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Alone and Silent

A #New #Poem, with #nature imagery and such.

Image Credit: RhinoMind – CC-BY-SA-3.0 When tongues develop bedsoresthey become withered lichensclung to the crumbling boughsof phantom minds.A rot the bluebirds avoidchoosing instead the perchon the pert and verdant extrovert –The cherry blossom souls.Yet in those flaking fibres ruminatethe foetal little beetles,the maggots and the grubs.I am womb for your contemptof all the soil holds dear.Let…

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