Flustered Duck
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Flustered Duck
@flusteredduck.bsky.social
250 followers 160 following 1.7K posts
Poetry fan, avid reader, provides editing and self-publishing services as well as transcription, based in Albany, Western Australia.
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Medieval hamsters were described as being like squirrels and living in burrows in the ground. This pair of hamsters is from a c1350 Flemish version of "Der Naturen Bloeme". #medievalbeasts #medievalmanuscripts #hamster #hamsters
Two quadrupeds with dog-like small white heads on larger fox-coloured bodies with white bellies and long bushy tails are sitting facing each over a tree smaller than they are. Their tails extend beyond the boundaries of the elaborate red and blue decorated frame surrounded by text on a manuscript page. Image from Koninklijke Bibliotheek, KB, KA 16 [Der Naturen Bloeme], folio 53r.
February 17, 2026 at 2:00 AM
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The Ledger by Lauren Scharhag
I have dealt with death before. All my grandparents have passed away. There was everything leading up to their passing, Then the mourning, which everyone knows, Never really ends. It’s just somethi…
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February 17, 2026 at 1:35 AM
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Our medieval beast this week is the hamster which is nothing like our modern hamster from the images. This one is a French 13th century version of "Liber de natura rerum". #medievalbeasts #medievalmanuscripts #hamster #hamsters
A generic medieval dog-like brown quadruped with a bushy tail facing to the right against a deep blue background with gilt blobs in a gilt frame surrounded by text on a manuscript page. Image from Bibliothèque Municipale de Valenciennes, MS 320 [Liber de natura rerum], folio 58r.
February 16, 2026 at 2:00 AM
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It’s Here by Lila Matsumoto
Any minute now a pair of hands will crest the hill. We’ll know, then, when they’ve obscured the gloaming light. Sheep eyes return to willow-wisps and the barn owl’s call is really a child being eat…
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February 16, 2026 at 1:35 AM
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A scene by Jean-Léonard Lugardon (1801-1884) is this week's writing prompt. Is your story going to focus on the characters in the scene? And is it going to mention the incredibly vivid colours? #writingprompts #writinglife #writingtips #artworks #jeanléonardlugardon
Male traveller dressed in a red waistcoat, black jacket and black breeches with one foot on the lap of a young woman in a blue gown with a white blouse and white headdress. The woman is bandaging his foot. The man has a bundle over one shoulder and is carrying a long walking stick. It looks like they are on a rocky path which overlooks a sea vista. The colours are very bright. Image by Jean-Léonard Lugardon (1801-1884) from Wikimedia Commons.
February 15, 2026 at 2:00 AM
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Silence by Pete Mackey
Winter refuses the questions of night— no crickets click, no throbbing toads, no birdsongs amending the meaning of a moon and scabrous clouds trading places, and no imagination snared or bled into …
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February 15, 2026 at 1:35 AM
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"Black Moon Down" by Morgan Schuricht is a fantasy featuring a vampire forced to act as a courier in the vicious, highly political world of her fellow vampires. #bookrecommendations #tbrlist #fantasy #blackmoondawn #morganschuricht
Book cover featuring purple flowers, green vines and two chess pawns.
February 14, 2026 at 2:00 AM
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Visiting Hours by Maria Pascualy
A blue gum eucalyptus, its bark shedding in long strips, drips over the parked car in the cemetery. Front bumper jams against a stone stack that blocks the road. He could be anyone— but I recognize…
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February 14, 2026 at 1:35 AM
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Jumble Publishing and Editing (jumblepublishing.com) can look after your editing and self-publishing so you can mull over your next project.
Image: Myron G. Barlow (1873-1937) #jumblepublishing #publishing #selfpublishing #editing #artworks #myrongbarlow
A standing woman with a colourful mostly red cloak or shaw/blanket draped over her long pink striped skirt, white blouse and white apron. She has a blue/white scarf wrapped around her dark hair. She is holding a gilt-trimmed blue cup in one hand and a matching saucer in the other. She is standing in front of a white table with a blue, gilt-trimmed teapot on it on a white tablecloth. A dark blue cloth is draped behind the teapot. The background of the painting could be a white wall or simply absent. Image by Myron G. Barlow (1973-1937) from Wikimedia Commons.
February 13, 2026 at 2:00 AM
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The Makings by Helen Ivory
There were sprits in the fire shadows stood about, livestock gone lame, fever and that perpetual winter that nearly finished us all. On those grounds we festooned a flesh and bones puppet placed gr…
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February 13, 2026 at 1:35 AM
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This particular medieval ceruleum looks as puzzled by its definitely human arms as the viewer. It is from a c1300-c1325 version of "Der Naturen Bloeme" by Jacob van Maerlant (c1235-c1291). #medievalmanuscripts #medievalbeasts #ceruleum
Drawn in the midst of text with a tag of "ceruleum" in a small yellow box on the left, a large green-washed fish is looking at the viewer. It has human arms and hands, not green-washed, and has a definite animal-shaped head with pointed ears. It has brown upper and lower fins and a forked tail. Its expression seems both puzzled and pained. Image from British Library, Additional MS 11390 [Der Naturen Bloeme], folio 51r.
February 12, 2026 at 2:00 AM
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Little Red Wolf by Destine Carrington
Be careful of the forest who knows what might be seen. Be wary of pigs, and hungry human beings. Stay deep within the thicket in the dark where you won’t show— if you stray upon their path, you nev…
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February 12, 2026 at 1:35 AM
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The medieval ceruleum was said to be found in the Ganges River. This particularly fierce version is from a c1350 version of "Der Naturen Bloeme" by Jacob van Maerlant (c1235-c1291). #medievalmanuscripts #medievalbeasts #ceruleum
A very fierce-looking shark-like fish with two long front arms seems to be rearing out of water against a once probably gilt background. The fish has a silvery brown upper body and arms and a paler grey belly with thin white lines. It has a double dorsal fin with white trim as well as a belly fin. It seems to be giving the viewer the side eye and is baring its teeth. It has long claws and its arms are very strong-looking. Image from Koninklijke Bibliotheek, KB, KA 16 [Der Naturen Bloeme], folio 104r.
February 11, 2026 at 2:00 AM
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All the Rage by Jennifer Crow
shake fist, shake gates, shake hearts with the force of the words you hurl— and if words fail to move the world you must bend the stones themselves to your will, smother fools with rivers of lava, …
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February 11, 2026 at 1:35 AM
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The medieval ceruleum was thought to be so strong that it could bite an elephant's trunk and drag it into the water. This image from a French 13th century version of "Liber de natura rerum" shows an unusual ceruleum dragging a beast into the water. #medievalmanuscripts #medievalbeasts #ceruleum
A dark furry beast crouching in a body of water is biting the end of the tail of a grey quadruped and using its arms to drag the quadruped into the water. The furry beast has a long tail and trailing long pointed ears and isn't at all fish-like. The grey quadruped seems smaller than the beast and is looking back at it with a mournful expression. Image from Bibliothèque Municipale de Valenciennes, MS 320 [Liber de natura rerum], folio 113v.
February 10, 2026 at 2:00 AM
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My Favorite Tin Foil Hat by Matthew Olzmann
In a field of snow, it’s a legitimate option to see the tracks made by the myth but never the myth itself.  There’s nothing there. No mysterious creature to ravage the livestock, assign paw prints …
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February 10, 2026 at 1:35 AM
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The ceruleum was a medieval beast described as a very large bluish-green fish with two arms. This image is from a 1425 German version of "De rerum naturis" by Rabanus Maurus (c780-856). #medievalmanuscripts #medievalbeasts #ceruleum
A large scaled dark green fish with what seems to be four limbs as well as two dorsal fins against a reddish-pink background in a red frame on a manuscript page. It has a red chevron at the back of its head and is shown facing left with an open mouth. It appears to have an overhanging brow and a dark eye with a red patch beneath and a white patch to the side. Image from Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, Pal. lat. 291 [De rerum naturis], folio 97r.
February 9, 2026 at 2:00 AM
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I Can’t Sleep by Seema Reza
Last night the yellow teacup cracked clean in half while I washed it & when I went out on the balcony to smoke a cigarette the handle of the sliding door came off into my palm. My phone screen …
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February 9, 2026 at 1:35 AM
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A scene painted by Walter Withers (1854-1914) is today's writing prompt. What is this chap finding in that basin? #writingprompts #writinglife #writingtips #walterwithers #artworks
A squatting figure dressed in a dark waistcoat over a white shirt with rolled up sleeves, buff-colured trousers and a dark felt hat with a turned-up brim is squatting beside a winding creek shaking a basin full of water. A small wooden sluice is shown resting in the creek just above the figure. The creek is surrounded on both sides by shale-like ground and extends into a treed, dark green bush landscape with a high hill in the background. A very blue cloud with a few puffy white cloud arches over all. Image by Walter Withers (1854-1914) from Wikimedia Commons.
February 8, 2026 at 2:00 AM
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Banksia by Tess Ridgway
a black swarm of craters a bundle of woody beaks chirping a bari- tone, a bee hive made from a shark’s egg a sound boom dipped in tar, coal glue-gunned together to make a Christmas ornament a corn …
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February 8, 2026 at 1:35 AM
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"Holding the Hearth" by Everett K. Marston is a fantasy where a quiet woman's gift of unasked for comfort raises questions about consent and control. #bookrecommendations #tbrlist #fantasy #holdingthehearth #everettkmarston
Book cover featuring a picture of a very pretty verandah beside a railway line with a city silhouette in the background.
February 7, 2026 at 2:00 AM
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Persistent Feelings by John Koethe
Sometimes I’m driving, and the highway Fades into the sky, into the music I’ve got on —Mark Knopfler or the Quine Tapes— And the earth becomes a planet, and a funny spell Falls over me, a bitterswe…
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February 7, 2026 at 1:35 AM
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Get your book into your readers' hands with editing and self-publishing assistance from Jumble Publishing and Editing (jumblepublishing.com).
Image: Vittorio Matteo Corcos (1859-1933) #jumblepublishing #publishing #selfpublishing #editing #artworks #vittoriomatteocorcos
Seated in a painted turqoise chair in front of a wall beside a sea, a young woman in a wasp-waisted white gown is sitting with a book in her lap and her hands pressed together as her elbows rest on the arms of her chair. She has an elaborate up hairstyle and an irritated expression while a young man in a white suit is leaning towards her as he sits on the wall at her side. A second young man is lying on his stomach on the wall reading. A stool holding three books is placed in front of the woman's knees. Image by Vittorio Matteo Corcos (1859-1933) from Wikimedia Commons.
February 6, 2026 at 2:00 AM
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Eurydice Speaks by Caitlin Maling
(after Edward Hirsch) I You didn’t know how I hid my head in darkness, a child in the oak avoiding moonlight. How I could touch with only closed curtains, snuffed candle lingering in hair, in breat…
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February 6, 2026 at 1:35 AM
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Medieval ferrets were also kept as pets, most famously by Elizabeth I, who was painted with her pet ferret, Rascal, around 1585, although the artist added ermine-like spots to the ferret. This painting is variously attributed to William Segar (1564-1633) or George Gower (1540-1596). #medieval
A painting of Elizabeth I in an elaborate gold-decorated black gown with a large crimped white ruff. A small white ferret is looking up at her as it leans on her sleeve above her lace cuff. The ferret is wearing a crown-like gold collar and has black spots on its body but not on its head. The ferret is standing beside the gold-hilt of a sword. Image attributed to William Segar (1564-1633) and George Gower (1540-1596) from Wikimedia Commons.
February 5, 2026 at 2:00 AM