Catherine Bannister
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cbannister.bsky.social
Catherine Bannister
@cbannister.bsky.social
1.9K followers 1.3K following 5.1K posts
Contumacious and curious, an avid follower of useless information.

To learn more about the Smithsonian Campaign for Our Shared Future, go here: oa.si.edu

To help #EndALZ please visit alz.org

To protect our beautiful National Parks, npca.org
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cbannister.bsky.social
It’s snowing again and I’ve started the first puzzle of the season - and it’s 4:30 - so I think I’ve earned a 🥃
The borders of a jigsaw puzzle are laid out on a wooden table, the majority of loose pieces still in the bottom of the box and others divided by color into small blue trays. A paper version of the target picture (a plethora of decorated Christmas cookies) is lit from above
December 1, 2025 at 10:30 PM
cbannister.bsky.social
#AlphabetChallenge #WeekWForWindows
A cozy sunlit nook holds an armchair with a green plaid throw strewn across one arm and a book and small pillow resting against its back, a basket filled with packing tubes for rolled prints, and a small cube table with several magazines on top. The nook is in front of two four-paned windows, outlined with a gray border, that show green rolling hills dotted with pink wildflowers before a bright blue Atlantic Ocean and a large dark rock island. In Port Rexton, Newfoundland.
December 1, 2025 at 2:43 PM
cbannister.bsky.social
Patches of blue showing up in the sky finally!
Snow covered houses and trees on a Chicago street with tiny patches of subtle blue among the clouds in the sky
November 30, 2025 at 4:24 PM
cbannister.bsky.social
#AlphabetChallenge #WeekVForVowels
Oars
A slender young man, in light blue denim jean and a blue rain jacket with its hood pulled over his head and wearing sunglasses, leans forward from the back of a flat wooden boat, one leg bent in front of him for balance and leverage. He grips the tops of wooden oars in each hand as he rows the boat away from a dock (where another boat with a teal hull waits) across a slightly choppy, green lake. On Lake Bled, Slovenia.
November 30, 2025 at 2:41 PM
cbannister.bsky.social
This is the first time I’ve noticed how the small twiggy branches on my tree create little holders for the snow along longer branches. ❄️ ❤️
A bare maple tree with several inches of snow all along each of its outstretched branches, hugged in place by smaller upward facing twig branches
November 29, 2025 at 10:00 PM
cbannister.bsky.social
Snowscape! #Chicago
White fluffy snow covers the angular bare tree branches and vertical lines of iron fences and railings on a street in Chicago
November 29, 2025 at 7:59 PM
cbannister.bsky.social
#AlphabetChallenge #WeekVForVowels
Ice rink
An ice rink, bright white with clear walls topped with blue railings, is filled with skaters in the middle of the playing field of Wrigley Field. At the far end, under the illuminated green scoreboard, is a giant, brightly lit baseball.
November 29, 2025 at 2:51 PM
cbannister.bsky.social
#AlphabetChallenge #WeekVForVowels
Umbrellas
Umbrellas, one made of cloth with its white inner panels brightly lit and the rest of straw and flatter, are in two rows above casually strewn tables and chairs on a sandy beach in Marbella, Spain. In the sky above, the bright white dot of a full moon peeks through clouds and illuminates those adjacent to it.
November 28, 2025 at 2:32 PM
cbannister.bsky.social
#AlphabetChallenge #WeekVForVowels
Art
A young girl with straight long dark hair hanging down her back and wearing a yellow tee, dark leggings and white sneakers stands facing a painting on a light brown parquet floor with her hands clasped behind her. The painting is ‘A Sunday on La Grand Jatte’ by Georges Seurat hanging in the Art Institute in Chicago.
November 27, 2025 at 2:23 PM
cbannister.bsky.social
Mincemeat pie is all set for tomorrow. Bursting at the seams this year!
A golden brown mincemeat pie with a slightly askance stenciled center and cracked edge in a pi plate sits on a cooling rack
November 26, 2025 at 6:17 PM
cbannister.bsky.social
#AlphabetChallenge #WeekVForVowels
A full suit of armor, complete with enclosed helmet all the way down to full legs of silver hammered metal, with jaunty shoulder ‘wings’ in a castle museum near Lake Bled, Slovenia
November 26, 2025 at 2:25 PM
cbannister.bsky.social
#AlphabetChallenge #WeekVForVowels
Outer Space
#SmithsonianCampaign
The planets are giant blue and beige balls (or half spheres, for the biggest) hanging from the ceiling above colorful exhibits in the newly renovated Smithsonian Air & Space Museum
November 25, 2025 at 1:52 PM
cbannister.bsky.social
Last night, reading my library book (Anne Tyler’s “Three Days in June”) I came across this penciled edit by a previous reader. It’s late in the novel and the only notation I saw.

The thing is, I‘ve reread it multiple times and think our armchair editor is wrong. @bcdreyer.social am I wrong?
Text from Anne Tyler’s “Three Days in June”: “Yes, I know you are,” he said, and he took a step in to survey the room, such as it was. Behind my desk was a low bookshelf holding files and half a dozen framed photos - Debbie in a kiddie pool, Debbie and I [a previous reader has crossed through the “I” here in pencil and written “me” below it] at the playground, Debbie and Max…
November 24, 2025 at 8:04 PM
cbannister.bsky.social
#AlphabetChallenge #WeekVForVowels
An olive green acorn with a brown braided cap on a holly oak (I think) in Sardinia. The bulk of the tree is seen blurred behind this one branch which has just the one acorn surrounded by bent, torn and browning long green leaves.
November 24, 2025 at 2:46 PM
cbannister.bsky.social
#AlphabetChallenge #WeekUForUnloved
A sign in a Chicago window in front of closed mini blinds and with a significant glare and reflection from the glass. The sign mimics the Chicago flag, with light blue stripes at the top and bottom and four red stars in a line through the center white portion. The sign reads, in black capital letters, “MANOS FUERA DE CHICAGO. JAGOFF FASCISTAS FUERA” which, translated from Spanish, is “HANDS OFF CHICAGO. FASCIST JAGOFFS GET OUT”
November 23, 2025 at 3:00 PM
cbannister.bsky.social
Dug into the archives of goodport.blog for this evening’s libation: The Brownstoner. Still had nutmeg-infused bourbon but may need to refresh the decanter.
The ingredients for a Brownstoner: nutmeg infused bourbon, cherry heering (here, Michigan Tart Cherry Liqueur) and St. Germaine with a couple Luxardo cherries, next to the shaken and poured orange-hued goodness in a coupe
November 22, 2025 at 10:38 PM
cbannister.bsky.social
#AlphabetChallenge #WeekUForUnloved
A tufted upholstered chair (faded tan floral pattern, brighter on the front edge that has clearly been covered by a cushion for years) with elaborate wooden feet, missing its seat cushion, in a Chicago alley. There’s a small green bag of dog poop where the seat cushion should be. The chair is next to a large green dumpster with white blotchy paint covering years of graffiti. An empty red french fry container lays on the damp pavement as if someone sitting in the chair tossed it there when finished. Yellow gold fallen leaves are strewn around the chair in various states of wholeness versus crumbs. On the spiky black iron fence behind the scene is a white sign that says, in black letters, “NO DUMPING ALLOWED.”
November 22, 2025 at 3:05 PM
cbannister.bsky.social
#AlphabetChallenge #WeekUForUnloved
A selection of Playbills from Broadway shows I (and critics) have not loved in the past couple of years. From left to right, “The Queen of Versailles,” “Redwood,” “Tammy Faye,” and “Bad Cinderella.”
November 21, 2025 at 1:51 PM
cbannister.bsky.social
#AlphabetChallenge #WeekUForUnloved
Picking up all the unloved items from one of my neighbors, a truck with a white cab and a blue bed with large labeling that says “1-800-GOT-JUNK? The World’s Largest Junk Removal Service” is parked under a mostly bare tree and among lots of brown and orange fallen leaves on a city street. As a bonus, you can see the very unloved round white concrete container at the edge of the parkway fence. It appeared on my sidewalk while I was in Newfoundland and no one has claimed it. Should’ve asked the Got Junk folks to haul it away!
November 20, 2025 at 2:31 PM
cbannister.bsky.social
Reminds me of this one I saw at a museum in Leuven, Belgium. It’s like the artists felt the need to anthropomorphize them.
A very fancy dressed man in high brown boots, tan suit, flowing red cape with gold fringe and a jaunty tan hat with red plume sits astride a white horse with Kristi Noem styled blonde mane (and a red bow in the center of its pointy ears) and dark, crazed eyes
November 20, 2025 at 2:11 AM
cbannister.bsky.social
#AlphabetChallenge #WeekUForUnloved 🤣
EVERYTHING about this is unloved! Me, standing up in a friend’s wedding in the very early 90s. My hair is a weird curly bob with the obligatory “claw” bangs and the dress! EEK. The dress is a bright teal shiny satin with (teal) lace on the bodice and long sleeves and a tea-length skirt - not seen here are the MATCHING TEAL PUMPS!! The flower arrangement was fine - looks like white carnations and pink roses. The groomsmen had black tuxes with teal ties and cumberbunds. I did not save this dress.
November 19, 2025 at 2:35 PM
cbannister.bsky.social
New musical tonight @goodmantheatre.bsky.social. Music (by Tom Morello) was GREAT. Book could use minor tweaks imho but overall the story is compelling and timely
Playbill for “Revolution(s)” at Goodman Theatre
November 19, 2025 at 4:04 AM
cbannister.bsky.social
Forgot to post this when I made it this weekend. Creamy milk and roast garlic soup. I also made the manchego toasts then but here I just topped with a little chopped Spanish chorizo. Really rich and very good. Would definitely make again.
A white bowl of thick creamy golden soup topped with orangey chunks of spicy Spanish chorizo
November 18, 2025 at 6:56 PM
cbannister.bsky.social
#AlphabetChallenge #WeekUForUnloved
My sad herb garden in a planter mounted on a brown iron railing has a few green leaves sticking up among dried fallen leaves
November 18, 2025 at 2:54 PM
cbannister.bsky.social
#AlphabetChallenge #WeekUForUnloved
Hundreds of protestors carrying signs and American flags crowd in front of the Trump hotel that has his name in big white letters.
November 17, 2025 at 3:04 PM