"Happiness is in the quiet, ordinary things. A table, a chair, a book with a paper-knife stuck between the pages. And the petal falling from the rose, and the light flickering as we sit silent." - Virginia Woolf

Linocut by contemporary printmaker Mariann Johansen-Ellis #WomensArt

In Japanese, "tsundoku" means collecting books and letting them pile up, not for neglect, but for the joy of knowing they're there, full of untold stories.

I feel this so deeply these days

“When you arise in the morning, think of what a precious privilege it is to be alive - to breathe, to think, to enjoy, to love” ― Marcus Aurelius, Meditations (art by Will Barnet)

When the sun stands still at Midsummer, the veil thins, and stories ripple through the heat like mirages. Across centuries, people danced, leapt fires, and whispered spells, hoping the longest day would bring strength, luck, and a little bit of magic. #WyrdWednesday Art: Rackham

Áine (Irish pronunciation: [ˈaːnʲə]) is an Irish goddess of summer, wealth, and sovereignty. She is associated with midsummer and the sun, and is sometimes represented by a red mare. She is the daughter of Egobail, the sister of Aillen and/or Fennen, #FolkloreSunday 🧵

The #newmoon rises on Wednesday 25th June. Set your intentions against a backdrop of summer light, whispering your desires to the soul of the rose. #FairyTaleTuesday #LegendaryWednesday Image: John William Waterhouse

Just announced: the first exhibition in the UK devoted to Francisco de Zurbarán will open at the National Gallery in May 2026. A giant in the history of Spanish art, Francisco de Zurbarán was one of the great painters of 17th-century Seville, a centre of global trade. His vivid

Like Dürer almost 400 years before him, van Gogh found single blades of grass and weeds to be worthy of our full attention ~ here’s Dürer's Large Piece of Turf (1503) and Van Gogh’s Patch of Grass (1887)

when Virginia Woolf said, “Autumn is my season, dear; it is, after all, the season of the soul” and when F. Scott Fitzgerald said, “Life starts all over again when it gets crisp in the fall” and when Anne Shirley said, “I’m so glad I live in a world where there are Octobers.”

One autumn eve, an apple tree lifted its gaze to the heavens and longed for a star of its own. The orchard fairy, hearing its wish, took pity, and as reward for its faithful toil, set a star at the heart of each fruit, to cradle the seeds of orchards yet unborn. #FairytaleTuesday

Georgia O'Keeffe carrying her canvas in the desert, c.1920 (via FB) #WomensArt

"To see takes time, like to have a friend takes time." Georgia O'Keeffe on the art of seeing: themarginalian.org/2018/11/15/geo…

A round of applause for the French is in order! 👏👏👏

We all have an "antilibrary." You know, the stack of yet-unread books we might never read. Here is Umberto Eco's wonderful and counterintuitive take on why that unread stack might be as essential for our inner lives as the read themarginalian.org/2015/03/24/umb…

The dark half was once believed to be the dreaming season. Earth sleeps, animals hibernate, and humans turn inward. Folklore says this is when the soul’s stories rise like breath in cold air. #FolkloreSunday

"I'm sure I shall always feel like a child in the wood." ~ Lucy Maud Montgomery

“What an astonishing thing a book is. It’s a flat object made from a tree with flexible parts on which are imprinted lots of funny dark squiggles. But one glance at it and you’re inside the mind of another person, maybe somebody dead for thousands of years.” — Carl Sagan

"Men liked to put me down as the best woman painter... I'm one of the best painters" - Georgia O'Keeffe (1887-1986) US artist #InternationalWomensDay