Sunday Links

Image: Winter Gardens

An English garden with an otherworldly beauty Clare Foster's collaboration with the photographer Andrew Montgomery, explores the topiary garden of a Hampshire manor house. I’ll have my new yard looking like this in no time (as if).

Do you want to dress up like a sandwich, a firecracker or a Christmas pudding? Jane Asher’s Costume Book (1991) will show you how.

A newly discovered camera reveals more about one of mountaineering’s most enduring mysteries. Ghosts On The Glacier (NYT link) 

“The book—ventriloquized by Joni Rodgers, who describes herself as a ‘story whisperer’—is as vapid and vaporous as the fragrances Hilton sells; all the same, archaeologists may one day consult it in the hope of understanding how and why our species underwent a final mutation into something glossily post-human.” - From The Most Scathing Book Reviews of 2023

This Is Where All Your Holiday Returns End Up “Whole systems of infrastructure—transporters, warehousers, liquidators, recyclers, resellers—work to shuffle and reshuffle the hundreds of millions of products a year that consumers have tried and found wanting. And deep within that system, in a processing facility in the Lehigh Valley, a guy named Michael has to sniff the sweatpants."

The Psycho-Expander develops neck, chest and shoulders to striking beauty! Nothing like it was invented before (or since). Via Memo Of The Air

I hope this is just a figment of someone’s imagination.

Three earthquakes hit Mexico City on the same date in 1985, 2017 and 2022. The coincidence left the city stranded in time. Read more: Aeon Essays 

Do you trust AI to plan your next trip? Then check out Touring, “A private city tour right in your pocket.” (via Web Curios)

Breakfast Burrito recipe with chorizo and tater tots. I’m in.

A Canadian village incinerated by record temperatures: The small village of Lytton in British Columbia hit the global media when it smashed Canada's highest temperature ever recorded in June 2021, at 49.6C. Two days later, a wildfire burned the entire village to the ground. (video)

Are you looking for a good read? This list will keep you busy: The Award-Winning Novels of 2023. I have read one (Notes On An Execution) and have started Bee Sting. Thumbs up to both.

This song by Ron Sexsmith is one of the handful of contemporary Christmas songs I listen to each year.

The List of Books Ernest Hemingway Believed Any Writer Must Read

“I ran away from William Pann near what is now Arbutus, Maryland on this day in December 1855. I had an iron collar on my neck when I ran; I might have removed it, as Pann was still advertising for me in January 1856. He called me BLACK BALL, but my name was WILLIAM JOHNSON.” Tweets From Runaway Slaves

Did you know that most Canadians live south of Seattle? We're Wrong About The Location of Many Countries 

Why you shouldn’t bring a gun to an MRI appointment (I shouldn’t have to tell you this)

And a very merry Christmas to you! “I return your seasonal greetings card with contempt. May your hypocritical words choke you, and may they choke you early in the New Year, rather than later.” - Kennedy Lindsay, Letter to Garret FitzGerald,
December 1975 (More heartwarming seasonal correspondence at Letters Of Note)

An article about Laurel Canyon's 1960s Music Mecca. If you’re a fan of that scene you might want to watch the doc Echo In The Canyon, a favourite of mine.

Notable Literary Deaths in 2023 The losses of Louise Gluck and Refaat Alareer were heartwrenching for me.

A tale of Exploding Marshmallow Teacakes (via 2601: The Snacker Quarterly)

Why The Long Face? There’s an explanation for that. (via Miss Cellania)

Is being a pleaser making you feel frustrated and resentful? Learn how to build up your “no” muscle

Cattle Bleaching??