Alice Sheppard

@penguingalaxy.bsky.social

1836 Followers 791 Following

Citizen scientist, Brit in Sweden, endless maker of soup for babies. Galaxy Zoo turned me into a penguin. Always looking for more galaxies.

A white dough-scraper shaped a little bit like a chick, with a hole for an eye. He's on a flat shiny black marble surface next to a pyrex bowl of flour.
An enormous display of 12 x 6 rubber ducks of various ridiculousness. Loads of different colours and costumes. One duck even has antlers.
Taken from the back of a boat on an extremely sunny day. The wake of the boat and the sunlight are both very bright on the water. The water and sky are both fiercely blue. On all horizons there are islands and dark trees. Hanging off the boat is a very big Swedish flag.
A small tabby cat named Callisto lying on my laptop, which is on a laptop tray on a couple of messy blankets on a sofa. Callisto has magnificent whiskers and far-apart thin black stripes on a slightly orangey tabby background and a rather sad expression on her face.
A black sign pointing to Lilla Ugglebo and Villa Ugglebo leftwards, and Stora Skuggan rightwards. It is by a narrow road empty except for a jogger, and it runs through fields with tall grass under a hot blue sky and some trees.
Two tabby cats on a sofa with messy blankets. One cat is on top of the other. The underneath cat is upside down and has a particularly bewildered expression. The on top cat, who was licking the underneath cat, has looked up with an indignant face.
A Facebook memory from 30 June 2016. "Hello, good evening madam, how are you?" "Fine thanks, how are you?" "I am calling about the accident you had, in a car, some time back?" ".... Oh, that! It wasn't a car. It was a rocket." "Sorry madam?" "Yes, it was a space rocket. We crashlanded over Africa." ".... and how long ago was this?" "Ooooh ... maybe 10 years?" "And how many people were in the vehicle?" "Three. There are always three astronauts in a Soyuz capsule." "And who was driving?" "Probably NASA." "Your boyfriend?" "No, astronauts don't need boyfriends." ".... Thank you madam." "Byeeeeeeeeee!"
A sleepy little tabby cat on a bed with a grey blanket. My fingers are under her paws, making them move gently. She's too sleepy to care. Excuse the mess, please.
A saucepan with yellow dal, and a frying pan with red and green bhindi bhaji
A green and white magnetic drawing board with three buttons on the side. I've drawn a big, very smiley emoji with crinkly eyes and triangular sunbeams coming off it, arms coming out at the top as if cheering or getting ready for a hug, and six legs with socks on the feet coming out of the rest of it.
Two crocheted hats trying to sit up by themselves on a white desk. They have the same pattern - yellow, light blue and dark blue. One hat is much bigger than the other - the small one is for a small child. (She's now two and it just about still fits her, but she pulls it off and throws it on the floor immediately.)
Me, looking a bit sleepy, holding a leaf mug and leaning back on a leaf-patterned cushion both designed by CanopyRobin
A close-up of some white blossom, yellow centres, 5 petals - my sister has said this is apple blossom but I'm not sure. Looking as if it's on the same branch - but isn't, of course - are twigs out of which are growing long, long pine needles. I'm not sure what kind of pine it is either. In the background is a blurred muddy/grassy bank, some more coniferous trees and very blue sky.
A wood anemone: a small white flower with a hairy yellow-green centre, six petals and long leaves with many curving tips. It's on the shaded forest floor, but the sunlight comes through it perfectly, accentuating all the details. Wood anemones are called vitsippor in Swedish and are kind of a national icon.
A close-up of a branch of pink blossom (I think it's cherry, but I'm not sure) on the end of a tree branch. Blurred in the background is a path and a bank of grass and yellow cowslips.
A meme that says "I'm happy, but I'm not 'old man holding a kitten on a bus' happy". A delighted elderly man in a brown jacket, spotted tie and white cap sits on a blue bus seat holding a black cat with a huge grin on his face. The cat is looking up at him and seems to be wrapped in a brown blanket.
Sunlight shining through early spring grass blades and some little blue star-shaped flowers. Unfortunately I don't know what they are called.
A small tabby cat with white whiskers and an adorably sad expression lying on a messy grey blanket
Four pictures of different species of cats, all stretching in the same way as cats do: head down, back arched inwards, front paws forward, bum up, tail curved, blissful expression. In order: a tiger in the snow; a lion on some sand near wire mesh (a zoo I guess); a tiger among some tropical palmy leaves; a white domestic cat with ginger and black patches on a tarmac pavement next to a wall and some weeds.
Two tabby cats curled up together on a duvet. They are lying on their sides in semicircles with their heads right next to each other and their limbs are entwined, so they look like one big cat body. They are very stripy with magnificent white whiskers.
My cats, Cosmo and Callisto, curled up together tightly on the end of a bed. Their heads are touching and their limbs are entangled. They are both lying in that sort of cat circular shape, but mirror images, so they can have their heads and limbs as close as possible. Awwwww. They are both dark brown tabbies with white whiskers. The bed is a bit badly made with a pale cover with birds and a grey blanket. Behind them is a slightly open window and a bookshelf.
My cat Cosmo on a ruckled up grey blanket. He's a brown tabby with magnificent white whiskers and chin and is giving a very serious side eye indeed. I forget why.
A pretty, fenced, wooden jetty at the edge of a frozen lake in a snowy park. Under the jetty is a small area of liquid water and there are about 100 ducks in it.
Wanted: Duckling sightings We want to hear about the mallard broods you see this year! All you need to record is: Location, date, number of ducklings, approximate age Report your brood sightings to DucklingWatch to help scientists understand what is causing changes in our mallard population Reporting the same brood more than once is particularly useful - name your brood and record the number of ducklings each day you see them to help us learn about duckling survival rates! Sightings from anywhere in Britain welcome! Get involved! Visit citsci.org/projects/ducklingwatch to submit your sightings and for more information, including a guide to estimating duckling age.
Screenshot from therelatablewall Dr Danielle Lemmon, @iLemmon Hi, PhD researcher who studies climate and human evolution here. Please stop comparing dying from poverty to Darwin's "survival of the fittest". Poverty is a social construct caused by wealth hoarding in the post-industrial age, not by some natural resource shortage you fascist.
A long concrete jetty with black railings and two old-fashioned lamp posts over an extremely blue lake which sparkles fiercely in very bright sunlight. Overhead is a hot, intensely blue sky with a few thin, spread-out aeroplane trails and a hint of a glowing sun. At the end of the jetty is my husband and a pram; on the right there is a silhouetted tall tree, whose branches are still bare; across the lake is a distant town and trees. The picture is EXTREMELY blue. Maybe my camera saturated it a bit, but it suits it.
My feet and my two-year-old daughter's feet at right angles on a wooden floor. We are wearing odd socks - her one with a bumblebee and another with a dolphin, me one with bright stripes and trees and reindeer, the other black with multicoloured stars. She is holding a plastic toy that you push buttons and it makes noises. There is a soft toy leopard on the right.
An extremely fluffy tortie and white cat. She has a pink nose, big round green eyes, and one side of her face is black while the other is orange. She is lying on her side with her paws sticking out on a large piece of hardwood (on which there is also newspaper, a crate of apples and a handsaw).
An iced-over lake in a snowy winter, seen from a snowy hilltop. There's a black fence and thin bare trees in the foreground. A setting sun is shining on the water, and there's a clearer darker patch where the ice is thinner. Across the lake are houses and a park and a blue and yellow sky streaked with clouds and aeroplane trails.
Two tabby cats curled up together in a pale green cat bed that's only just big enough to hold them both. Cosmo is basically wrapped around Callisto. His leg is over her back. Their whiskers gleam in some weak winter sunlight. The cat bed is on a wooden floor in front of a white radiator, and in one corner there is a small toy tiger left lying around.
The same lake above, but we are now on the path. It's grey and flecked with feather-like, skate-shredded snow. Two figures ahead of us are skating away, and it looks as if they're going fast. Loads of more distant figures are skating further ahead. The clouds are deep grey but also bright, and both sides of the lake are forested.
A frozen lake under a cloudy grey sky. The lake ice is snowed over, but a path has been steamrolled and distant figures are skating on it. The horizon is black trees.
A frozen lake with a bright grey cloudy sky above it. In the foreground there is a bit of a stony beach with a couple of sticky bushes. There are a few puddle-shaped bits of lake where the ice hasn't quite frozen. The horizons are black and white landscape of forest and houses, quite far away.
Part of a text display in an exhibition. "The purpose of the film is not to identify scapegoats, but to make us think about the way we act and think about other people. We're reminded how people, just like us, in a society much like ours, began to regard groups of people as non-desirable, and little by little, strip them of their humanity. The aim of the film is to ..."
An entirely frozen and snowed-on lake in Sweden, with some footprints in the snow and a ploughed blueish track making a path ahead. The sky is the deep blue of dusk and you can just about see Jupiter, looking like a single star, in the middle of the sky. There is an island of silhouetted trees with fluffy pale-brown bullrushes in front of it, and behind that there is a shore of more trees. Also honestly these are some of my favourite shades of blue ...
Two potatoes, a lot of vegetable peelings and a knife and potato peeler on a black chopping board. One potato is partly peeled. The other potato looks like two potatoes stuck together, a small rugby-ball shape and a large one. It's cute. And no, I haven't peeled it.
Two delicious, creamy-topped hot chocolates with straws in glasses, a brownie and a muffin, all on a white tray on a black wooden table. You can just see the snow to the edge of the picture.
A dawn or dusk (I forget) over a round church on a forested hill in St Paul. In the foreground is a hotel building to one side and a concrete parking lot. The sky is cloudy blue with a hint of pink appearing on the horizon.
A pink and blue morning sky through huge bare trees. A frost-covered field stands grey behind them, and a misty bit of garden.
A pair of glasses snapped in half
Two swans and their reflections swimming on dark blue water in early evening.
A small, surprised-looking tabby cat sitting on a dark pink jumper with a needle and thread sticking out of it.
Cosmo the Cat, a big stripy tabby boy, under the Christmas tree. There are red, gold and silver baubles waiting to be hung on the tree. My husband’s hand dangles a gold bauble over Cosmo’s nose and Cosmo looks up to sniff at it.
Night time. A huge (overexposed, because bad camera) moon over a very dark lake. The water is rippling so the moon's reflection is very long, thin and glittery. A few little clouds are visible around the moon. Across the lake is an absolutely black forest which you can barely see. There are no artificial lights anywhere: it's a national park.
A large yellow toy octopus on a slightly messy wooden floor. Its arms are wrapped around four smaller toy octopuses, 2 arms each. All the smaller toy octopuses are different (1 yellow, 3 blue, one with a bow tie, another with a hook to pick it up by its head, one with rope-like arms, etc).
A tabby cat (Callisto) on a blanket on a sofa. One of her ears is turned inside out, and the tufty stuff inside looks like a dandelion clock.
A positive Covid test result
An absolute mess of a chocolate cake, with cream in the middle and decorated with Mini Eggs, and a space left at the top for candles. Unfortunately, the icing is mostly in a puddle all around the cake on the plate, and some has overflowed onto the table.
A small tabby cat (Callisto) on my legs. This is the view from me lying back on the sofa with a laptop tray over my knees - but Callisto has inserted herself between it and me. She has a very possessive paw on my tummy (I'm wearing a really nice stripy red shirt).
A young tabby cat, sleepy, with his paw on my shoulder (he's on the side of a sofa and I'm leaning towards him so he can). There's the spillage of light from a nearby lamp, I'm wearing a thick red jumper and glasses and grinning hugely.
The "two buttons" meme. First option: "There are too many of them here!" Second option: "There are too few of them to need representation!" And underneath, the horrified sweating face. PS Reform UK Ltd are racist and can get in the bin.
A little twig of rowan tree leaves fallen on the grass, with other crinkled brown autumn leaves around them. There are 10 leaves. They are long and thin, with very slightly serrated looking edges, and the most incredible pinky-crimson and sunset-orange colours, like some kind of bird out of a fairy tale book illustration.
A blue spiral galaxy in space. It has two main spiral arms but many more blue bursts of star formation, and it has a small bright core with a blue ring around it. It is rotating clockwise. Another few stars and galaxies are in the space around it.
Two little reading cubbyholes, like open boxes on their sides, in a library. The outsides are painted red and there are red cushioned seats inside them, and they have wooden walls. They are a good size to fit one child, or two small children, in to read a book out of the way.
A meme showing cats roleplaying the 4 states of matter. Gas: the two cats bounding over some grass with their legs disappeared, so they look like Angry Birds. Liquid: a very fluffy cat in a small plastic box; the cat takes the exact shape of the box. Solid: A grey and white cat giving some slightly scary side-eye and just looking like, well, a cat. Maybe like a statue of a cat. Plasma: a cat's paw touching one of those plasma lamps so that a pink and purple paw-shaped bolt of light appears.
A red single-decker bus whose number is 64 and goes to Wenhaim. The captions are "Will you still need me?" and "Will you still feed me?" and there is small text saying "unknown punster 2018". It's probably a photoshop, but it's still adorable.
Brilliant red and yellow autumn trees on grass carpeted with their leaves, reflected in still water in the foreground. It's a sunny day with bright blue sky accentuating the tree colours.
Two tabby cats (Cosmo and Callisto) curled up together on a folded grey blanket on a bed. You can see a crocheted blanket behind them. Cosmo is asleep and resting his head on Callisto's tummy. Callisto is nearer, so appears bigger (she isn't) and has one paw back touching Cosmo's paws (aawwww) but also her head upside down and very near the camera looking extremely manic.
Me at a green outdoor cafe table. I'm wearing a dark purple coat and an overly tall bright blue woolly hat and big glasses. I'm holding a phone and looking down eagerly at a square plate of waffles, jam and an epic quantity of whipped cream. Behind me are more bright orange autumn trees.