I just switched to the block editor to test out the new WordPress Block patterns feature.

You go to the pattern library, copy a pattern and paste it into your editor. I did that here and replace the 3 images that it came with. I added some captions. Using this pattern.

Here is another pattern.

animal apodemus sylvaticus blur brown

And the days are not full enough.

And the nights are not full enough

And life slips by like a field mouse

Not shaking the grass

– Ezra Pound

I don’t think I am quite ready for the Block Editor yet but these look interesting.

Sarah Frier documents how Instagram co-founder Kevin Systrom wanted Instagram to be an outlet for artists (in a high-school essay, Systrom wrote that he liked how photography could “inspire others to look at the world in a new way”).

And

Click on Instagram today and you will still see plenty of photos, but you’ll also be confronted with a carousel of short, vertical videos (known as “Reels”) as well as the more-than-occasional ad. In his video, Mosseri explained that “the number one reason people say that they use Instagram in research is to be entertained” and the app was going to “lean into that trend” by experimenting with video. Citing TikTok and YouTube as competition, Mosseri said Instagram would “embrace video” and users could expect a number of changes in the coming months.

I use Instagram, I don’t see much of the work of “creatives” ’cause I don’t follow any. I do see an increasing number of adverts and have hated the changes like algorithmic photo order, lack of linking and locked down API.

Almost everyone I follow on Instagram I have met. It is the only place I follow relatives. I’d love to be able to follow then in micro.blog or some other nicer place. Interoperability please.

Listened BBC Radio Scotland - Scotland Outdoors, Treachery, Sex and Death - The Fascinating World of Rock Pools with Adam Nicolson from BBC
Mark Stephen visits author Adam Nicolson's homemade rock pools on the Morvern Peninsula.

Really enjoyed this one. Some amazing stories of crab sex & the shorey shore-thing. I was left wondering why Adam Nicolson made rock pools rather than observe pre existing ones? I think I might get the book, The Sea is Not Made of Water: Life Between the Tides.