Robin Hardy's Abbey Lands
The Stories of the Abbey of St. Benedict on the Sea
Random Mutterings
Scamming the Scammers
Then I found this hysterical video of a normal American citizen who received such a call and ran with it to a realm beyond belief—probably to keep the scammer on the line long enough for law enforcement to trace his location. I'm guessing that the uniformed man in the squad car is one such officer, and that the citizen's wife (or significant other) is the one laughing in the background. Click the photo to watch.
Dec. 7, 2025: First up, we have this note by an anonymous poster commenting on a message he received purportedly from the IRS.
How Fast, You Ask?
Dec. 4, 2025: I don’t know about the one above, but the Cincinnati Zoo says that ostriches are “the fastest-running birds on Earth. They can reach top speeds of about 37–43 mph. Each stride can be up to 16 feet long when they’re in full sprint.” Oh, and you can ride one, too.
Here's an ostrich in high gear at the Cincinnati Zoo. (Click the photo to see the video)
And here's a man demonstrating how to ride an ostrich, if you can't catch a cab. (Again, click the photo to see the video short.)
Pigeons Are Sweet
Common Wood Pigeons photo by Ernesto Orellana
Dec. 1, 2025: I don’t care how irritating pigeons are; they are indisputably sweet. If you want to know more about them, Grokipedia explains:
Common wood pigeons are sociable, forming flocks ranging from 10 to 100 individuals while they forage on farmland or in wooded areas. There, they search for seeds and fruits. These flocks can expand to several thousand birds when food resources are abundant. The large number of birds helps them keep watch against predators. . . .
Socially, these flocks form loose hierarchies based on a literal pecking order, where dominant individuals gain priority access to food. But these hierarchies tend to shift as other birds come into dominance. . . . Vocalizations play a minor role in coordinating flock movements, with cooing calls signaling direction or alarm.
MJ the Magician
Nov. 28, 2025: This is the cutest magic act you'll ever see. Via Penn & Teller's Fool Us, MJ and his handler Alex Ramon show how it's done. Click the image to watch:
Speaking of magic, you've got to watch this crazy magician Yann Frisch.
The Sound Stones
"The stones will cry out."
Nov. 25, 2025: Angela Corrias is the creator of the "Sardinia Revealed" travel blog. As she was born and raised in Sardinia (a small island off the coast of Italy), she wanted to introduce its charms to her readers. One of the unique features of the island is its collection of stones that make sounds.
(Above: Researcher Pinuccio Sciola with some of the sound stones.)
In this article, Ms. Corrias describes her interview with the researcher who works with the stones, Pinuccio Sciola:
It was a misty morning, the night before it had rained, the air was still heavy with dew and the shifting sky sullen with clouds threatened more showers. “Listen,” he shushed me raising his finger to his lips. “Can you hear them whisper?”
As soon as we reached the swarm of sculptures, he grabbed a little rock and started rubbing it gently against a stone that stood tall among its peers in the middle of the countryside. The very moment the music started and the magic was unleashed, I was mesmerized and suddenly felt incapable of interviewing him: there was no right question and, despite my previous research, I realized I hadn’t managed to grasp his art, so the best choice was to let him talk wildly. No need to tell him, he knew it would have happened. . . .
With Pinuccio Sciola’s singing stones, I discovered a whole new universe. I had always considered stones as unbending objects devoid of life, but Sciola started unfolding a whole new world in front of my eyes. “I want to establish a new relationship with nature,” he declared while we ambled about his open-air museum. “Did you know that stones bleed?”
Nothing could surprise me anymore, so I confessed immediately: “No, but please, show me.”
We were standing in front of a big grey stone, its tip covered with black. “Now this is black,” he announced, “but when I put it close to the fire, it started bleeding a fire-red liquid. A highly emotional moment.”
The article is fascinating with its many photos, and even sound clips of the stones' music (which you can hear on YouTube). Ms. Corrias also discusses the “fairies’ houses” and “giants’ tombs” that are part of the stone ecosystem on the island.
Doggo Has Skills
Nov. 22, 2025: We just don't give dogs enough credit for their superpositioning power.
How Trees React to a Solar Eclipse
Nov. 19, 2025: Researchers from the Royal Society of London set out to discover the extent of bioelectrical synchronization among trees. They did this by placing “sensors on spruce trees in northern Italy to track their natural electrical signals during the solar eclipse on Oct. 25, 2022. These signals, called bioelectrical impulses, flow through all living things. In trees, they help control water flow, growth and even communication. The trees didn’t just react to the eclipse—they showed changes in their signals hours before it began. As the eclipse approached, all three trees started syncing up electrically, even though they were different ages and in different spots.”
cycles, light and gravitational effects before, during and after the eclipse. . . . Remarkably, we detected a sharp spiking activity, particularly at the levels of the two upper pairs 𝛼−𝛽 and 𝛾−𝛿 and visible as several quasi-square-waves concentrating until the onset of the eclipse, and then disappearing in the stage immediately following the eclipse end.” (see diagrams above)
There is FACT
Nov. 16, 2025: There is FACT; there is OPINION, and there is TRUTH. This meme expresses truth. I know this from experience.
The kamikaze image was created by TheNobleGent.
Flowers Under Ultraviolet Light
Nov. 13, 2025: This image shows flowers photographed using ultraviolet-induced visible fluorescence (UVIVF) photography. This technique captures the glow that plants emit when exposed to ultraviolet light, revealing patterns and colors that are not visible to the human eye.
UVIVF photography is used to study how flowers appear to pollinators, as many insects such as butterflies and bees can see in the ultraviolet spectrum.
The patterns seen in the UVIVF images, such as the dark center on some flowers, are often referred to as "nectar guides" because they direct pollinators toward the pollen and nectar. This UV vision helps them locate nectar and pollen guides on plants, and allows them to distinguish between already-pollinated and unpollinated flowers. (Adapted from Google.)
Are You Too Saxon?
Nov. 10, 2025: Since we're into historical research here, I thought you'd appreciate this medieval brain teaser. If you're unclear about the implications of the text, see this antique piece.
Michelangelo and the Human Brain
Nov. 7, 2025: In the early 1500s, Michelangelo Buonarroti painted The Creation of Adam on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. This famous fresco has been studied intently ever since, particularly in its composition. In a 2021 article in Medium, Sayani Sarkar writes, “In the year 1990, an American doctor Frank Lynn Meshberger published a comparative observation in a paper titled ‘An Interpretation of Michelangelo’s Creation of Adam Based on Neuroanatomy.’ He observes that the reddish cloak surrounding God on the right side of the fresco resembles the sagittal section of a human brain. The author hypothesizes that God gave Adam the gift of intellect and the message was hidden by painting it in the anatomy of the brain.”
Above is a graphic created by Dr. Meshberger to detail the points of comparison he observed between the painting and the human brain.
After noting that a number of Renaissance artists performed autopsies to learn more about human physiology, Sarkar goes on to observe: “What fascinates me is that God’s hand seems to be positioned through the part of the brain that has evolved last in the course of brain evolution. The frontal cortex, as shown below, [is] the seat of higher cognitive functions like analytical planning, creativity, etc. It is touted as part of the brain that makes us different from other beings.
“So, God bestowing Adam with higher intellectual capabilities hence sparking life into his otherwise organic body seems a meaningful interpretation for the hidden symbolism in the painting.”
Efran Has a New Shirt
Nov. 4, 2025: Okay, here’s what happened: When I decided to make illustrations for the Abbey stories, I used a number of models for Efran until I hit on just the right one with Book 25: Lord Efran and the Minor Regent. So I used him consistently until Book 29: Lord Efran’s Reciprocal Gift. There I found a photo of my favorite model posed just right—except for the shirt he was wearing. It was a rather tropical black-and-white floral shirt that I’m sure Efran would never touch. So I had to add a scene in that book explaining his wearing this shirt. That scene goes like this:
As [Efran and Minka] entered the foyer, a woman’s voice said, “There he is! Lord Efran!”
He stopped abruptly, Minka at his side. Frozen, Efran watched Lady Neanne bustle up to him with a young woman. Efran had kissed Neanne jokingly, and did not wish to do it again to her or anyone else other than Minka.
But Neanne was gushing, “Lord Efran, this is my niece Gwynne, who wants to start her own clothing design shop here, and she’s made this beautiful shirt for you which she hopes you’ll enjoy.” Neanne then shook out a man’s short-sleeve shirt in a black and white floral design.
While Efran stared blankly at Neanne, the plump young woman beside her gazed at him with stars in her eyes. Reaching over to begin unbuttoning the stained, frayed shirt he was wearing, Minka said, “Oh, that looks wonderful! Look at the detailing, Efran! And such a fresh, original pattern! He’ll wear it gratefully, Gwynne!”
While the women watched, pleased (and the rest of the foyer watched, amused) Minka stripped off his old shirt to drop it to the floor and dress him in the new one. He half turned his blank face to Minka while Neanne began fussily buttoning the shirt with many pats and adjustments.
Minka exclaimed, “Look how well it fits!”
“She just had to guess his measurements, but she has a good eye for it,” Neanne said in satisfaction.
“Isn’t that lovely? Thank you, Gwynne. We have to get down to Ryal’s now,” Minka said, pulling him along as she fluttered her fingers at them. Neanne blew a kiss and Gwynne clasped her hands.
And here is my model, smirking at getting his way with his attire. Photo by Leonardo Hidalgo on Pexels.
Two Trees Touching
Nov. 1, 2025: “Inosculation is a natural phenomenon in which trunks, branches or roots of two trees grow together in a manner biologically similar to the artificial process of grafting. It customarily results when tree limbs are braided or pleached. [in which living and dead branches are interwoven]. The branches first grow separately in proximity to each other until they touch. At this point, the bark on the touching surfaces is gradually abraded away as the trees move in the wind. Once the cambium of two trees touches, they sometimes self-graft and grow together as they expand in diameter.
“In forestry ‘gemels’ (from the Latin word for ‘a pair’) are trees that have undergone the process. Inosculation can happen across related species and occurs most commonly for branches of two trees of the same species."
“Inosculation is commonly observed in trees with thin bark, which facilitates the abrasion needed for cambium contact. Examples include apple, beech, maple, pear, and olive.” (From Grokipedia)
In this photo, the smaller tree had been cut down years ago, evidently leaning against the large tree, which then began supporting it and feeding it. They send out new shoots together in the spring and shed their leaves together in the autumn.
Again, we learn something divine from the natural world.
A Very Poe Halloween
Oct. 29, 2025: As Edgar Allan Poe is the king of Halloween, we're honoring his memory with a tribute to his poem "The Raven."
Poe had his photo taken several times in the 1840s. This photo was colorized later.
This painting of a raven is one of my favorites ever (source unknown).
And of course, 21st-century fame must include a meme, this one by an unknown wag:
Happy Halloween!
As you can expect, anything famous gets its own customized treatment. Hence this cartoon by Dave Coverly.
A Boy and His Fawn
Oct. 26, 2025: Here’s 4-year-old Dominic Brown with a new friend he found while playing in the back yard of his family’s vacation home in Virginia. Dominic walked his new friend over to meet his mom Stephanie, who was so surprised, she just took a photo. Dominic gave his pal some cereal, but as the family was about to leave, she told him to take his friend back to the neighboring woods, which he did. More on the story here.
The Notorious James Fridman
Oct. 23, 2025: James Fridman is a celebrated photo editor who takes requests from people worldwide desiring their photos to be corrected. And he happily "corrects" them according to his own whims.
Ksour Essef Cuirass
Oct. 20, 2025: Here is what I envision when I write about Efran and his men gearing up and putting on breastplates. This two-sided breastplate is known as the Ksour Essef (pronounced K-SOOR ESS eff) cuirass, as it was found by Tunisian workers in a tomb of ancient Carthage not far from Ksour Essef, Tunisia. Made of gilded bronze, it was crafted some time around the 3rd century BC. After its discovery on Feb. 20, 1909, it now resides in the Bardo National Museum in Tunis. Below is the front view.
The Romanian Athenaeum
Oct. 17, 2025: The Romanian Athenaeum is a concert hall in the middle of Bucharest, the capital city of Romania. Designed by the French architect Albert Galleron, it was begun in 1865 and opened in 1888, although work continued until 1897. In 1992, the building required extensive reconstruction to prevent its collapsing. The work was done by a Romanian construction company, and restoration painter Silviu Petrescu contributed to the refurbishing. The Athenaeum is now a major tourist attraction.
Stories Feed You
Oct. 14, 2025: Be discerning about the stories you take in. They don't just affect you, they fill you, like food for the soul. After you've consumed a particular story, how do you feel? Uplifted or beaten down? Encouraged or depressed? Clarified or confused? Clean or dirty? If you don't put nasty things in your mouth, then respect your soul as well. You need to be strong for the battles to come. Okay? (Art by Tyler Miles Lockett)
Technological Progress
Oct. 11, 2025: Everything you see in this photo (besides the guy) is now on your smart phone. Some of the things I see here are a boom box, landline telephone, camera, video camera, TV, watch, alarm clock, voice recorder, computer, calculator, tablet, CDs and player, DVDs, cassette tape and player, and timer. What am I missing?
J.R.R. Tolkien's Letter
Oct. 5, 2025: For all the Lord of the Rings fans, this is J. R. R. Tolkien's handwritten letter in Tengwar (the script of Sindarin, the language of the elves). The letter is from Aragorn, King of Gondor, to the hobbit Sam Gamgee, in which King Aragorn informs Sam of his future visit and expresses his desire to "greet all his friends."
Have a Seat!
Oct. 2, 2025: I don't know why, but I've been looking at chairs, and have found a few I'd like to try out. What do you think?
This is a cute Alice in Wonderland chair by John Suttman. I don't know that anyone could actually sit in it without sliding off.
Here are three variations of the chairs above. I have no idea who designed them, but they may be for viewing only.
Here's another along the same lines by Tony Paul Peacock. At least you won't be sliding off, but you might not want to lean back.
This green leather chair is by Nodic Design. I'd love to test it out just to see if the leather folds hold up. But since it costs about $2,000, I'll just speculate.
You could call it Chataine's Guardian 2.0