Xander Sable

@wellmanneredxs.bsky.social

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Egyptologist typing behind a fake moustache, à la Ellis Bell or George Sand. Likes: conservation, history, gardens, cooking, art, and writing quirky fantasy.

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There's such poetry in this simple, explorative curiosity. Lots of my talented folks on here could come up with something lovely in response, I'm sure, if you need a prompt today. 😊🏜️🐫🏖️ Thanks for posting @hels.bsky.social and for highlighting @davidrafferty.bsky.social and @ohrobin.bsky.social

Every so often Reddit surfaces simply the most pure and beautiful human moments

Very encouraging news for frog-friends out there! Hope emerging from Australia, for helping frogs self-care out of a Chytrid infection. (Also, frog saunas. 😍🥰🐸) Thanks for sharing @sheencr.bsky.social and for highlighting @loreandordure.com and @tkingfisher.com 🐸

This is so cool! Frog & amphibian have been dessimated by the disease chytridiomycosis, caused by a fungal pathogen. Researchers have realised that the fungi is heat intolerant so little brick saunas for frogs can help kill the fungi! Recovered frogs more resistant to further infxn 🧪

These frog 'saunas’ could help endangered species fight off a deadly funguswww.nature.com How a hot resting spot can help frogs survive chytridiomycosis infection, and the decades-long hunt for dark matter in black holes. Hear the biggest stories from the world of science | 3 July 2024

You'd be gullible to think they're *actually* as big as turkeys, but they're handsome, smart, and whip chips from your fingers between paper bag and mouth, especially if you're emphasising a point with it (personal exp). While laughing at you. Love 'em. Ta for sharing @langurlover.bsky.social 😊

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XL gullies: how birds ‘as big as turkeys’ took over Britainwww.theguardian.com From Aberdeen to St Ives, it seems nowhere is safe from supersized swooping scavengers. But you must not fight back

A good crop of greenfinches along the canal in Somerset, that summer-air wheeze from the occasional tree that throws its shade near the pyramidal orchids by the towpath. 🦉🌱

This made me laugh out loud. 🤣 Yes. Yes, this is the fundamental dichotomy of existence. Thank you @elleisanisland.bsky.social

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood

Thanks loads @brainchain.bsky.social - ah, my Muppet days! Here's my movie hairdo on the day I met Animal, and the crazy grin of someone having the best 16 hour day at work. #Extralife

Xander is finally posting her story about being on set with ‘Animal’ (the Muppet 🥁) . This is your must read thread 🧵 of the day.

Bluebells cling by the mountain, recalling lost scent. Ragged Robin sprawls.

Those who were there neither forgot, nor talked about it. This captures that perfectly. Thank you, @brianbilston.bsky.social

Here’s a poem in commemoration of the 80th anniversary of D-Day. It’s called ‘Queueing for an Ice Cream’.

Last night, I leaned out to hear expat lions roar, and the sky was alexandrite, migrating light no less displaced. Torn out of bed, we all stood up the garden in our dressing-gowns, while solar winds dancing the seven veils shed tapered scarves of jade and magenta. Oh, wonder.

Why yes, I would indeed like a teeny tiny grappling hook made by the superb acolyte of iron-working deities that is @theuglymachine.bsky.social. I am unashamed to admit it! 😊

Do you want a pocket sized grappling hook? (Yes, duh) I'm giving this one away! To enter: 1 Follow me 2 Like this 3 Repost this 4 Leave a comment or tag someone else you think would want it. THATS IT And if you'd like to see more giveaways in the future consider a small donation ⬇️ Good luck

Art is in everything. You just have to chip away at what keeps it under wraps. Thanks for sharing this beautiful image, @womensart1.bsky.social and for the lovely work Diem Chau. 🖍️🌈

We need our wetlands, and wildlife needs them more - congrats to Birdlife Australia and all the community who mobilised to save Toondah Harbour - and well done to the decision-makers who rectified a serious threat - it shouldn't have happened, but it's been put right. #wetlandwin

Toondah Harbour is saved! - BirdLife Australiabirdlife.org.au A real-estate proposal threatening critical habitat for migratory birds has been officially withdrawn. Toondah Harbour is saved!

Surely someone's done Neandertile already?

Wait, I know what this is! Homo floor-esiensis

Super article about hopeful work for Elm conservation. Lovely that it's Kent-based! The aims of this, to replace traditionally-shaped trees, are valid, but I recently learnt that elms are great as hedges and don't get diseased = great way to provide butterfly/moth food. More Elm hedges!

The disease-busting hybrids that could bring back the majestic English elm www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2024...

The disease-busting hybrids that could bring back the majestic English elmwww.theguardian.com The tree all but vanished in the 1970s. Now, thanks to two amateur nature lovers, it may soon grace our landscapes again

The little pond that is about to be demoted to bog garden today revealed 4 (four), read it, frogs happily chilling in what can only be about an inch of water on top of all the detritus and rampant bog garden growth. 🐸🐸🐸🐸 Won't change things in there until they decamp. #ifitaintbroke

Am simultaneously excited and daunted by the prospect of creating a wildlife pond from the old 8' dinghy. We may have to get the village gravedigger (yes, you read that) to come and help with this, as I am not up to shifting 2 tons of solid bedrock clay...

Moved a huge pot, only to find jumbo-leopard-slug convention underneath. Too heavy to replace, so provided alternate convention facilities. Then half-uprooted an old laurel-stump to plant a loganberry, to find two fine slow worms. Stump carefully replaced, loganberry elsewhere. #wildlifegardening🐙🐍

'She soon learns that the new realm, filled with plants and magic, is under threat, and she bands together with a botanical expert, a boy who can talk to animals and a cat to save the green paradise.' When someone writes a book apparently just for you... 🌱😊

Botanical fairytale set in Kew Gardens wins the Waterstones children’s book prizewww.theguardian.com Greenwild: The World Behind the Door by Pari Thomson – about a girl who finds a door to a magical realm while searching for her mother – wins the overall and young readers awards

Hopeful news here from South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands - biiig new Marine Protected Areas to conserve feeding habitat for baleen whales, penguins, sea lions and seals - and krill. Small in size, mighty in importance, as a food-chain foundation. Avoid krill products, folks!

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Huge new no-fishing zones give Antarctic marine predators and their prey a breaknews.mongabay.com Thousands of miles off the southeast coast of South America lies a set of remote islands, one broad and comma-shaped, the others a series of small dots that trail off into the South Atlantic Ocean. Th...

Sometimes, rather large little miracles bask on dead trees in the Kent sunshine. A truly marvellous surprise, attracted perhaps by the flowering pussy-willows nearby. Might the Large Tortoiseshell be creeping back from extinction? Slow and steady wins the race! 🦋 #hymenoptera #butterflies #insects

There is lots of extreme cuteness over on the Reptiles and Amphibians feed, if anyone's wondering... 🐍

I have fallen in love with this tiny perfect snake and now I live in this meadow so I can admire it. Some one should probably tell my husband. #herps 🌿

Wow - what a wonderful bird, and a resounding call for timely action in protecting cloud forests and other unique environments. Thanks for posting, @langurlover.bsky.social

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First known photos of 'lost bird' captured by scientistsphys.org For the first time, scientists have captured photos of a bird long thought lost. Known as the Yellow-crested Helmetshrike, or Prionops alberti, the species is listed as a 'lost bird' by the American B...

Last of the elementals from the Year of the Dragon in 2012 - Water - I'm not sure we'll see his like again. ❄️

Metal and stone also teamed up quite well for a little wearable dragon... 🐉🐲

Be more Seal, folks. 😊🦭 Thanks for this lovely post @cstrawbridgeart.bsky.social 😊

Seal looked forward to every single day. Even if it was a fleeting moment, or hard to see at first, something always filled her with joy. Going on an adventure, feeling a tingle of sea air on her whiskers, sunbathing or just bobbing in the water; there was always joy to be found. #WhenBeastsSpoke

Happy New Lunar Year of the Dragon! 🐉 May it bring chances for growth, blossoming, and above all, peace, to all. Harking back to the dragon's last visit, and a little project to make dragons incorporating all five elements. Wood and fire, here, since he was a willow-and-paper lantern.

Frail white, doughty still, Hopeful Damson blossoms now. Winter blusters on.

The carnival exuberance of the Queen's Tears is just going over now - a firework of brief exploding colour after eleven months of unassuming messy green. Or a Studio Ghibli cross between a prawn and an umbrella, if you will. #houseplants #Bilbergianutans

I'm just going to take a minute to rail against the fact that the full text of the Merchant Shipping (Carriage of Grain) Act 1880 is not available on the internet and WHAT ARE WE COMING TO, PEOPLE? #whydoweevenbother #firstworldproblems

Thick ice in the ditches, swirled with a stilled current, bubbles frozen in mid-rise. Ticking, creaking, chipping out its plasticky whinge about the fast-approaching melt; then in a shattering CRACK, the whole sheet sunk - one fractured second, as if Winter's end would be so quick.