Winter (January, Cycle Of The Months), C.1404-07 By Master Wenceslas 

My New Year's Resolutions are to be kinder, sillier, and carry a threatening aura.

New almanac side blog post. This has been really satisfying since I learned it. I'll look up and go, yup there's south, and then idk, feel like I've successfully touched grass for the day. Highly recommended.

Navigating with Orion

Orion is a highly recognisible constellation and is most visible in December and January. For this reason it's considered one of the Winter Constellations. The stars that make up Orion are usually still visible in areas of moderate of light pollution so it's a great constellation for practicing navigation.

Find South

The line of stars that will help us find south are known as Orion's sword. Imagining Orion is another person, you'll find it as a little line below his belt on his right side (your left). As Orion travels across the sky, his sword will point roughly south. This trick is more accurate the further from the horizon and the more upright Orion is.

Find East and West

Orion's belt can also be used to find the east and west. When Orion rises, the belt rises due-east (meaning exactly east) and due-west. The most northerly star on his belt/the star on his left side (called Mintaka) provides the most accuracy, rising and setting within just a single degree of these two compass points.

Bonus Info for Your Stargazing Pleasure

The middle star of Orion's sword is not, in fact, a star, but the Orion Nebula. The reddish star on his right shoulder is Betelgeuse and is showing signs of an impending supernova.

References and Further Reading:

Collins Night Sky (Wild Guide series published 2004)

Wild Signs and Star Paths by Tristan Gooley

Tristan Gooley's website, two pages on the topic: https://www.naturalnavigator.com/news/2010/09/finding-south-with-orions-sword/ and https://www.naturalnavigator.com/find-your-way-using/stars

If you have Spotify reblog this and tag what your number one song on your “on repeat” playlist is.

Sliding my timely fic into the reblogs here. Credit for the prompt goes to @futurepastme

Love Hold You 'til the Morning Sun

https://archiveofourown.org/works/61994113/chapters/158533081

Teen and Up | No archive warnings

At the whims of his magic and the demands of the world's various turnings, sleep never came easily to Merlin, that is, until he met Arthur.

Or

Lifelong insomniac Merlin discovers that he sleeps better next to Arthur, and better still in his arms.

You cannot convince me that Merlin and Arthur didn’t cuddle on trips through the forest. Like come on, Arthur literally sleeps holding his pillows and you cannot convince me Merlin doesn’t run cold in his sleep. There’s no way they didn’t cuddle, even if they didn’t mean too, they definitely woke up curled around each other. They never spoke about it, but it just got to the point where they’d place their cots right next to each other because they knew they’d end up snuggling at some point through the night.

The Silt Verses were my biggest inspiration this Inktober, and I name it thus: Siltober

(the prompts are in the alt text if they're not in the image)

learning about plants in ur area is wild. like you also learn about the histories of the plants. Like oh! Thats garlic mustard! That was brought over from europe as a crop! it smells just like garlic and you can cook with it!  And thats yarrow!  Its been used for tons of stuff and pollinators love it! Oh hey! Thats hemlock! They killed Socrates with that! 

Pere Ginard

'Witches dancing around fire' by Julia Sidorenko.

I really appreciate that the Alliterative Morte Arthure is giving Kay a solid 45 lines to go full batshit mad scientist on his feast preparations, featuring

Peacocks, plovers, pork, porcupine, herons, swans, beef, wild boar, barnacle goose, young hawks in bread, cranes, curlews, rabbits

By my rough count, approximately eight different kinds of wine

On-fire blue stews ("wavy with azure sauce all over, they appeared to be flaming")

More fire: "pheasants adorned in flaming silver"

Poison-proof gold cups: ("So that if any poison should go secretly under them [in the cup],/The bright gold would burst all to pieces with anger,/Or else the poison should lose its power because of the virtue of the precious stones")