Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Reposted

The Guardian

@theguardian.com

2025, the year of gifts and grifts: the Stephen Collins cartoon

2025: the grift that never stopped grifting

www.theguardian.com

December 26, 2025 at 10:51 AM

toritrumanji.bsky.social

@toritrumanji.bsky.social

For the stories and the warmth, you should treat yourself to this advent calendar

Anne Louise Avery @annelouiseavery.bsky.social · 8d

#OldFoxAdventCalendar

The Twenty-fourth WIndow. Christmas Eve in Old Fox's cottage and everyone was sitting by the parlour fire having tea and telling stories – stories about winters long ago, about the Silver-tongued Nightingale of Kraków and Brave Robin Redbreast and Christ's Harsh Garland, about the golden lights which flickered on Barrowdown on St Stephen's Day and the French princess, in satins tattered and torn, who came to the village on a cold December night in 1791.

When it was Wolf's turn, he had an extra big spoonful of rum trifle and began a tale which they all knew and loved.

"When I was a little wolf, I would be sent out into the snows to call Grandfather Frost and his granddaughter, Snow Maiden, in for supper. Sometimes I would have to howl for a long time, until the Christmas moon rose high over the church, before they heard me. Then they'd sweep in, all magnificent with their silver crowns and their blue silks, and they would take the best chairs and the best plates, and they would eat with us - borscht, they liked, and all the old favourites - vatrushka and pirozhki and coulibiac - and gooseberry kissel and my mother's rice pudding.

When they'd had their fill, they would stand up and bless each one of us with a different gift. My brother had the gift of standing tall and my father the gift of tears and my sister had the gift of forgetting."

"What was your gift, Wolf," asked Pine Marten.

And Wolf suddenly faltered, the memory falling away like a cliff crumbling into the sea.

But Old Fox came in as sharp as a pike and pulled him back. "They gave him the gift of love, Pine Marten, the gift of love," he said, and tucked a blanket over Wolf, who had finally had his fill of stories for that night, at least.

"Merry Christmas, my loves, and to all who think of us from afar," said Old Fox, raising his glass of elderberry wine, "Merry Christmas one and all! Merry Christmas one and all!"

December 24, 2025 at 10:21 PM

Reposted

Anne Louise Avery

@annelouiseavery.bsky.social

❄️If you're enjoying #OldFoxAdventCalendar, please, please consider supporting my writing (and somewhat precarious health) and buy me a Kofi (ko-fi.com/annelouiseav...) or join my patreon for the price of a coffee or two! patreon.com/annelouiseav... ❄️

ko-fi.com

December 22, 2025 at 2:00 PM

Reposted

Anne Louise Avery

@annelouiseavery.bsky.social

#OldFoxAdventCalendar

The Twenty-second Window. The Little Girl had spent so many Christmases ill or convalescing in bed, it had become a family tradition to decorate a tree in her room, usually by the long windows which looked out over the parkland. That year, her bed was made neatly in the morning & only slept in at night, and she was well enough to help her Aunt. Together they dressed the little spruce with all their favourites – sweet oranges studded with cloves, scarred & play-worn wooden penguins and foxes & ermines & doves from the nursery chest, a battered old train engine once owned by her father, a dozen bold flags of elven-realms, strings of dried apples from Old Fox's orchards, baubles & pom-poms & festoons of paper flowers, delicate Japanese chōchin from Liberty's, a papier-mâché model of Felix the Cat and a protective fairy queen, dressed in silver brocade & carrying a wand of gilded hazel.

December 21, 2025 at 7:24 PM

toritrumanji.bsky.social

@toritrumanji.bsky.social

Treat yo'self to some frivolity. Life is best with a healthy dose of tomfoolery.

Tom Cox @dj-acid-reflux.bsky.social · 15d

THREAD.

Some excellent pigs I have met on walks in the British countryside.

You will find the caption to each photo in the alt text.

A tall and solid pig who is selflessly allowing his shorter friend to lean on him so he can obtain a clearer view of the beginning of what is promising to be one of the most attractive sunsets of the year.

December 17, 2025 at 8:08 AM

toritrumanji.bsky.social

@toritrumanji.bsky.social

You must read to the end, the last one is beyond beautiful

Anne Louise Avery @annelouiseavery.bsky.social · 23d

The Ninth Window. The Doctor and Grey Brock knocked on the door at half-past seven, and were welcomed in by Old Fox for a quick repast of eggs and toast and potato cakes and plain cake and coffee.

December 9, 2025 at 10:25 PM

Reposted

Anne Louise Avery

@annelouiseavery.bsky.social

🦊If you're enjoying my advent stories, then why not buy me a cup of very strong chocolate over at my Kofi! Much appreciated for body and soul! ko-fi.com/annelouiseav...

A fox gathering firewood in the snow by DD McInnes

December 9, 2025 at 6:00 PM

toritrumanji.bsky.social

@toritrumanji.bsky.social

There has always been magic in the deep woods. It's enough to know it's there, we don't need to weasel her secrets from her ...

Anne Louise Avery @annelouiseavery.bsky.social · 23d

#OldFoxAdventCalendar

The Eighth Window: The heavy snow had finally stopped that morning, leaving pale blue skies and drifts as tall as Wolf along the lane. After a breakfast of hot buttery muffins and strong lemon tea, Old Fox made his way to the far corner of the Great Woods across the river. There, ringed with gleaming holly trees, like attendants upon a great Dorset barrow-king, was the cottage's Christmas tree to be.
It was a magnificent spruce tree, twelve foot high, whose sacred life had been given freely & reverently to Old Fox for that brief season at the turn of 1930, when the light tried so very hard to level in the world.
As was usual, Old Fox stood still and listened intently to the tree's tales, stories of the haze of bluebells and violets in the spring, of the little robins and great tits and black caps who chattered and sang on his branches, of the sweet green cool of the woods in the summer, when all the village courted in its lazy realms, of the copper-dun-gilt beauty of the autumn turn, with its scarlet berries and moon-white mushrooms, and now the snows which lay so heavy on his limbs.
"Such a life I have had!" said the tree. "Such a life!" And Old Fox bowed to him, a low bow such as a great king deserves. And at that point we must leave them, for there is magic in the deep woods at Christmastide of which us humans have no right to know.

December 8, 2025 at 8:32 PM

Reposted

Anne Louise Avery

@annelouiseavery.bsky.social

#OldFoxAdventCalendar

The Eighth Window. It was very cold outside, drifts of snow in the lane, and whilst Old Fox was busy in the Great Woods, Pine Marten and Wolf had settled themselves by the roaring fire with the biscuit tin and a pile of jigsaw puzzles.
There was a wonderful selection in the cottage, entire cupboards were dedicated to them in the parlour and the lower attics. There were fierce Norsemen and love-lorn knights-errant and princesses wreathed in apple blossom crowns, there were steam ships and locomotives and stage coaches, charming views of Fairyland and wistful Rococo picnics, dozens of brightly-coloured scenes of Shakespeare and Dickens and Chaucer, romantic American views – ice skating on the Hudson! the retreat from Lexington! The first Christmas in the New Republic!
There were famous gardens of Devon, with borders bustling with lupins and foxgloves and hollyhocks, and still lifes of oranges and lilac blossoms and chocolate pots, there were cathedral closes and London railway stations and Scottish islands, portraits of French actresses holding enormous bouquets of pink roses and Gibson girls skiing and yachting and playing golf, and a parade of flappers driving different motor cars and lounging around on the French Riviera.
But that cold, snow-bound morning both Pine Marten and Wolf picked wintry puzzles to do. Wolf laboured away at "Bob Cratchit's Christmas Dinner" and Pine Marten tackled "The Christmas Waits". The latter, with its charming group of west gallery musicians, looked very much like the bright, festive eves of their own village and as such, it filled Pine Marten with a warm feeling of almost unbearable happiness as the old-fashioned picture slowly emerged.

December 8, 2025 at 6:52 PM

toritrumanji.bsky.social

@toritrumanji.bsky.social

Treat yourself to something that will make you love people (and pine martins) again

Anne Louise Avery @annelouiseavery.bsky.social · 25d

The Sixth Window. The Feast of Saint Nicholas. Well-wrapped up in an enormous rose-coloured muffler, carrying a sturdy wicker basket in paw, Babcia had taken the early bus into Dorchester to do some Christmas shopping on her own.

December 6, 2025 at 7:56 PM

toritrumanji.bsky.social

@toritrumanji.bsky.social

In an unexpected though entirely predictable move, James is honoured to accept the FIFA Piss Prize. He said in his speech, and I quote, "you can stick the Nobel Piss Prize up your arse, THIS is the prize that everyone actually wants to win. So, ner."

December 6, 2025 at 7:39 AM

toritrumanji.bsky.social

@toritrumanji.bsky.social

#R4today
Listening to Sarah Everard's mum's words this morning on the Today program and I am in absolute bits. How does Emma Barnet keep it together?

December 3, 2025 at 7:40 AM

Reposted

The Editorial Board

@editorialboard.bsky.social

I'm sorry I keep saying this, but it's sooo important: Mark Kelly is expressing contempt for the One Special Boy in the White House. We need to hear that. Men, especially *young* men, need to hear that. Listen to his voice. C O N T E M P T.

Mother Jones @motherjones.com · 29d

"I've been through a lot worse in service to my country. The president and Pete Hegseth are not gonna silence me."

Yesterday, Sen. Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.) addressed the Pentagon investigation against him:

December 2, 2025 at 8:06 PM

toritrumanji.bsky.social

@toritrumanji.bsky.social

Perfection

Anne Louise Avery @annelouiseavery.bsky.social · 29d

The Second Window. Once upon a time, there was a green-eyed Tabby Cat who ran a bookshop by the Christ Church gate of Canterbury Cathedral. It was a marvellous place, four stories high, with treasures on every shelf & free buttered toast, plum cake & hot sweet tea for all who visited.

December 2, 2025 at 7:25 PM

Reposted

Adam Bienkov

@adambienkov.bsky.social

The OBR is run independently from Government. It literally was somebody else's fault.

You'd think Kemi Badenoch would know that given her own party created it in Government, but apparently not

December 1, 2025 at 5:31 PM

Reposted

Anne Louise Avery

@annelouiseavery.bsky.social

#OldFoxAdventCalendar

Advent Sunday. At dusk, in the deep blue light, under a halfwaxen moon, Old Fox quietly left the cottage. He was carrying a tangled wreath of newly-cut holly and ivy and laurel-bay leaves to the Sheep Church, a Chapel of Ease up on the Downs, a lonely, wild place close to the sea. Few visited there.
It was dark in the little church with a faint scent of centuries-old cloves and frankincense, and when he lit the first of the four advent candles, the light was miracular: golden and vast in the ancient shadows. It is for Hope, he told the ghosts there, for Hope.

November 30, 2025 at 8:34 PM

Reposted

George Tsakraklides

@tsakraklides.bsky.social

Capitalism is the thief that never gets caught

Aral Sea, 1989-2014

November 22, 2025 at 7:23 PM

Reposted

Mark Jacob

@markjacob.bsky.social

Russia laundering its Ukraine "wish list" through Axios and getting the Trump regime to claim it as a "U.S. peace plan" should have been on all of our bingo cards.

November 23, 2025 at 1:19 PM

Reposted

dag

@davidallengreen.bsky.social

Quite the correction indeed.

Colin Yeo @colinyeo.bsky.social · Nov 21

Quite the correction by the Telegraph. The publication in question is @freemovement.bsky.social

November 21, 2025 at 5:39 PM

Reposted

Chris Packham

@chrisgpackham.bsky.social

Let’s stand up to those old fossils ! I’m excited to be heading on tour next year with my brand new live show called World of Wonder: Planet on the Edge .

Tickets at fane.co.uk/chris-packham

November 19, 2025 at 5:01 PM

Reposted

Mia Farrow

@miafarrow.bsky.social

Thoughts with Jamal Khashoggi, his family and all who loved him

November 19, 2025 at 5:04 PM

toritrumanji.bsky.social

@toritrumanji.bsky.social

A fine, fine thread.

Tom Cox @dj-acid-reflux.bsky.social · Nov 16

THREAD. A collection of photographs of the best scarecrows I have met on walks.

You will find the captions to each photo in the alt text.

A scarecrow who has got drunk on extra strength lager and, rather embarrassingly, is now reliving his glory days in the Royal Air Force.

November 16, 2025 at 7:13 PM

Reposted

Emma Mitchell

@silverpebble2.bsky.social

Around half of my Victorian ink bottle creative kits have now sold.
Kits include a booklet I've written on how this kind of project alters our brains to improve mental health, tiny dried flower posy in a handprinted gift box.
Dispatches in time for🌲-I ship anywhere:
www.etsy.com/uk/shop/silv...