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Flustered Duck
@flusteredduck.bsky.social
220 followers 150 following 1.5K posts
Poetry fan, avid reader, provides editing and self-publishing services as well as transcription, based in Albany, Western Australia.
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This painting by Helen Allingham (1848-1926) is our writing prompt this week. Why has this man paused to look back? Why he is carrying a scythe? #writingprompts #writinglife #writingtips #helenallingham #artworks
A man carrying a scythe in one hand and holding a dark jacket over his shoulder with the other hand has paused on a dirt track and is looking back over a stand of shadowy trees to the horizon where a sun/moon is rising/setting. He is wearing a soft black hat, a long-sleeved white shirt with the sleeves rolled up, a red sash, light brown trousers and sturdy light brown boots. The track seems to be passing through a field of cut grass/grain. Image by Helen Allingham (1848-1926) from Wikimedia Commons.
December 7, 2025 at 2:00 AM
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Love Army 2.0 by Candy Royalle (Cindy Malouf)
It is easy to feel despondent with the state of this world where politics is less about the people and more about the media where the image is stronger than the policies and the words written and d…
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December 7, 2025 at 1:35 AM
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"The Curse of the Cole Women" by Marielle Thompson is a gothic fantasy featuring a family of three women struggling against a generational curse. #bookrecommendations #tbrlist #mariellethompson #thecurseofthecolewomen #gothic #fantasy
Book cover.
December 6, 2025 at 2:00 AM
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Ode to My Shoes by Francisco X. Alarcón
my shoes rest all night under my bed tired they stretch and loosen their laces wide open they fall asleep and dream of walking they revisit the places they went to during the day and wake up cheerf…
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December 6, 2025 at 1:35 AM
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Jumble Publishing and Editing (jumblepublishing.com) can manage your self-publishing and editing so you can stop and glory in the sunset.
Image: Louis Rémy Mignot (1831–1870) #jumblepublishing #publishing #selfpublishing #editing #louisrémymignot #artworks
An almost photographic painting of a sunset over a flat landscape with two tall trees with long trunks marked by broken branches and spreading crowns together in the foreground on the left. The focus is on the light illuminating the clouds almost covering the blinding sinking sun. The colours are the darkening reds, magentas, golds and purples of sunset. There are no buildings visible but the ground seems grassy with occasional rocks and there are rolling hills in the background. Image by Louis Rémy Mignot (1831–1870) from Wikimedia Commons.
December 5, 2025 at 2:00 AM
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The Sapling by Umberto Saba
Today is made of rain. Morning looks like evening, spring like autumn, and a great wind is blasting a sapling that holds—surprisingly—steady; it stands above the plants like a boy grown too tall fo…
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December 5, 2025 at 1:35 AM
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One of the many odd facts related to lions in medieval thought were that they slept with their eyes open so this lion from the Lutterell Psalter (c1325-1340) may not be as awake as it seems. #medievalmanuscripts #medievalbeasts #lions #lion
A very wide-awake looking lion staring out of the page while lying down with its body facing towards the right. It has pale spots on its tawny brown coat, very long claws and fringed legs. Its very long ruff looks like a beard and it has upright hair curling up into a tuft on the top of its head. It seems to have human-shaped ears with and a goatee. It has a long tail which ends in a loose tuft. It seems to be smiling and looks rather silly. Image from British Library, Additional MS 42130 (The Lutterell Psalter), folio 25r.
December 4, 2025 at 2:00 AM
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The Lost Ideal of the World by Eric Sutherland Robertson
A novice in the School of Paradise, I leant beside the Golden Gate one day ; Eternity’s blue deeps before me lay That girdle the Queen Island of the skies, And soul-content was lit within min…
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December 4, 2025 at 1:35 AM
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According to medieval thought, lion cubs were born dead and were brought to life on the third day by either the lioness breathing in their faces or the lion roaring over them. This image is from the end of the 13th century. #medievalmanuscripts #medievalbeasts #lions #lion
A very brown lioness with a long red tongue is facing towards the left and two dead-looking brown cubs. She is either licking or breathing on them. The cubs are under a stylised two-leaved green tree and the animals are shown against a blue background in a red frame. The lioness appears to have a small ruff on the back of her neck and teats on her paler underside. Her tail appears to have two end tufts which have twisted to form a fork. She has prominent claws and looks more like a wolf than a lion. Image from Bibliothèque Nationale de France, lat. 2843E (Physiologus), folio 64v.
December 3, 2025 at 2:00 AM
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This Nothing by Juan Ramón Jiménez
My heart entered this nothing like that bird that, flying from the children, entered, blind and trembling, the shadowy and abandoned chamber. Now and again it attempts a flight to the infinite, whi…
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December 3, 2025 at 1:35 AM
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This lion from a c1350 French "De proprietatibus rerum" has a long sweeping tail suitable for clearing a trail in line with the medieval myth that lions erased their own trails. #medievalmanuscripts #medievalbeasts #lions #lion
A sheepish-looking lion with brown highlights/patches over its predominantly yellow colour in a half-seated position with an extravagantly long tail which starts off thin towards the body and becomes a wide broom-like swathe trailing off the page towards the end. Part of the left-handed side of the face appears to be missing. Its thick ruff is mainly straight and wild and it has rounded ears. Image from Bibliothèque Sainte-Geneviève, Ms. 1029 (Livre des propriétés des choses), folio 253r.
December 2, 2025 at 2:00 AM
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Love’s Prison by Marc-André Raffalovich
I. A gleam of sky that lets in space, A bitter fountain in a lonely place, A bird that sings by day and wearies not by night, A pool that mirrors still one face. And with its dead fair undecaying g…
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December 2, 2025 at 1:35 AM
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This week's medieval beast is the lion. The lion was considered the king of beasts in medieval thought and as such was usually the first beast described in bestiaries. This image is from a 1460 version of "Liber Floridus". #medievalmanuscripts #medievalbeasts #lions #lion
A tawny-coloured lion is facing to the right on a manuscript page. It has an oddly flat face with large eyes and has a long curly mane that trails down its forelegs and over its back. It has a very long tufted tail curving between its back legs and folding over her nearer back leg. It has large paws with long claws. Its round ears look like an extra curl in its mane and its whiskers look like a moustache. There is a much smaller animal seated under its chin looking up at its with a pointed snout and a smile. The text says this is probably a pig. Image from Koninklijke Bibliotheek, KB, 72 A 23 (Liber Floridus), folio 44r.
December 1, 2025 at 2:00 AM
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Erosion by Edwin (E. J.) John Dove Pratt
It took the sea a thousand years, A thousand years to trace The granite features of this cliff, In crag and scarp and base. It took the sea an hour one night, An hour of storm to place The sculptur…
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December 1, 2025 at 1:35 AM
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A portrait by Georges de La Tour (1593-1652) for today's writing prompt. The title says the instrument is a hurdy-gurdy so why is this gentleman playing it? And how does it work? What sort of sound is it making? #writingprompts #writinglife #writingtips #artworks #georgesdelatour
An elderly gentleman with a receding hairline and silver hair covering his ears and curling above his collar is playing a wooden shield-like hurdy-gurdy on his lap. He has a bushy beard. One hand is resting on the bottom part of the instrument while his other hand is grasping a strap holding the instrument against his body. He is wearing a drab-coloured cloak, a small white ruff and brown trousers. There appear to be ribbons tied to the lower left corner of the instrument. He is shown side-on in profile and has ruddy skin while his hands seem gnarled with age. It is hard to tell whether the ingrained dirt shown on his visible skin is a deliberate part of the painting or a sign of the painting's age. Image by Georges de La Tour (1593-1652) from Wikimedia Commons.
November 30, 2025 at 2:00 AM
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Annunciation by Katharine Coles
What matters is what occurs occurs Between them, not to them. It’s only that The angel doesn’t matter, nor the virgin. A blade of light scissors the air Between them. To them it’s only that: A glan…
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November 30, 2025 at 1:35 AM
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"A Different Type of Poison" by Liz Alterman is a slow-burn thriller featuring an author invited to her home town to discuss her latest book who finds herself living a different thriller… #bookrecommendations #tbrlist #lizalterman #adifferenttypeofpoison #thriller #mystery
Book cover.
November 29, 2025 at 2:00 AM
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Lull by Sarah Rehfeldt
It has been a long time, Mountain, I have been here. Where tiny, black pools of light have blended into soft gray shadows, I have worshipped: dark on dark, wood on wood (water is heavy). Half of wh…
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November 29, 2025 at 1:35 AM
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Let Jumble Publishing and Editing (jumblepublishing.com) help you with your editing and self-publishing.
Image: Antonio Ermolao Paoletti (1834–1912) #jumblepublishing #publishing #selfpublishing #editing #antonioermolaopaoletti #artworks
A young boy is straining to draw water at a public well with a smiling woman watching him as she leans of the well's edge. The boy is dressed in a brown jacket with a white shirt and blue trousers with dirty knees as well as a black hat, red socks and brown shoes. His face is red with exertion and he is totally focused on the rope he is pulling. The woman is wearing a brown and red striped gown and a red scarf/shawl over her shoulders. She has dark curly hair and has one hand on her hip and her other elbow is propped on a dark stone fountain-style well. Image by Antonio Ermolao Paoletti (1834-1912) from Wikimedia Commons.
November 28, 2025 at 2:00 AM
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Our Quiet Spring by Barbara Murphy
For Judith Through a thick winter window I stare at a locust tree— willing it to bud, to perform exactly as it did last year and the twenty before that, transforming that pale, shaky spring into br…
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November 28, 2025 at 1:35 AM
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If a reminder is ever needed that not all medieval illustrators were masters of their art, a glance at this 13th century pard will be highly salutary. At least it is definitely spotted! #medievalmanuscripts #medievalbeasts #pard #pards
A very crude line drawing of a seemingly male quadruped with what seems to be curly paws. One paw is shown upraised and the animal has a thin but long and forked tail held over its back. Its coat is shown covered with brown spots and a lattice of green stripes. It is looking at the viewer with red-centred purple ringed eyes and with a wide very red mouth which may be showing a tongue blep. It has rounded upright ears and what looks like a shock of upstanding hair. It looks incredibly derpy. It appears to be shown in a background of trees but the perspective (or lack of) makes it looks like it is standing over them. It looks like an animal drawn by a very young child. Image from Universitätsbibliothek Tübingen, Mc 365 (Bestiary), folio 1r.
November 27, 2025 at 2:00 AM
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An Ode to Crying by Taylor Franson-Thiel
And it came to pass that he said to the woman let there be light, water, blood and a backbone. Watch how it bends, watch how it caves in, watch how the woman’s body trembles. Look at all the ways I…
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November 27, 2025 at 1:35 AM
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Medieval pards were said to be extremely swift and able to kill their prey with a single pounce. This c1170 pard from an English bestiary appears to be pouncing while sticking out its tongue. #medievalmanuscripts #medievalbeasts #pard #pards
An outlined drawing on a mansucript page of an almost cat-like beast pouncing to the right. It has a ruff which appears to extend down its chest and has an even semi-circle of spots crossing its forehead and running under its jaw. It has a rather blunted face with a distinctly almond-shaped eye and slightly pointed ears. Its tail ends in a large tuft and is shown curved over its back. It is sticking out a very long and rather thick tongue. Image from British Library, Additional MS 11283, folio 2r.
November 26, 2025 at 2:00 AM
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Remedy by Amy Newday
Sliced garlic under tongue for fever. Red pepper poultice on foot-soles for fear. Insomnia? Make soup from last year’s black swallowtail wings in an empty milkweed pod. Bind raw onions to chest if …
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November 26, 2025 at 1:35 AM
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The medieval pard was described as being spotted so this illustration from an English bestiary (c1225-1250) showing a distinctly unspotted pard should be rare.
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In a plain double frame of red and blue, a brown quadruped with a five-layered ruff, is moving towards the right. It has odd paws which look like unscaly bird feet and has a very smooth unspotted coat. It has a long tail in an S-shaped curve above its back with the top curve looking like a knife blade. It has a flat face with a broad nose, a tufted beard and what looks like hair combed back on the top of its head. It appears to be looking at the viewer with a Wallace-style toothy smile. Image from Bodleian Library, MS. Bodley 764, folio 9v.
November 25, 2025 at 2:00 AM