Cat Crossley
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catscreatechaos.bsky.social
Cat Crossley
@catscreatechaos.bsky.social
510 followers 450 following 120 posts
Medievalist and musician, long-haul PhD at Liverpool on “monstrous men” and mappaemundi. Mountains, mushrooms, music, festivals and cats. 🏳️‍🌈🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿
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catscreatechaos.bsky.social
It’s Wednesday, so today’s tea is Lung Ching Dragonwell, which is particularly delicious.

Had a zoom call w/my supervisor, who said there’s “nothing atrocious” (lol!!) he could see in my thesis, so I should crack on with polishing and finishing it.

Went for a micro walk in the sun. All is well.
A very large brown paper bag of tea with the Black Dog Teas logo, labelled Lung Ching Dragonwell, a China Green Tea.
December 3, 2025 at 4:17 PM
catscreatechaos.bsky.social
Today we are fixing some of the problems I found in the Maps chapter yesterday, and we are now exactly a week out from the thesis resubmission date. Fuck.

It is Tuesday, so today’s tasty tea is Ti Kuan Yin Oolong.
Image of a brown paper bag with a blue sticker and the Black Dog Teas stamp on, labelled “Ti Kuan Yin” China Oolong tea. A black cat mug is peeking out from behind, ready to be filled up with tasty tea
December 2, 2025 at 11:24 AM
catscreatechaos.bsky.social
Just over a week until my thesis resubmission deadline, and I’m back on the massive maps chapter edits.

Turns out that in the big restructuring, I skipped over f.119 of the Getty miscellany, which is why a big chunk doesn’t make sense!

Anyway, here’s today’s tea, Genmai Cha aka popcorn tea
A brown paper tea package with the Black Dog Teas logo, labelled ‘Genmai Cha’ aka popcorn tea. It’s a Japanese green tea with toasted rice and popcorn and it’s very tasty. Just peeking out behind is a big black mug with ears and a cat face on it
December 1, 2025 at 1:30 PM
catscreatechaos.bsky.social
Orangina was Very Brave last night as various people nearby decided to let off ALL their fireworks over several hours. She only hid under the bed for a little bit, after trying to sleep through the noise on the windowsill. She even ate some snacks and had some playtime whilst the bangs went off!
Close-up photo of Orangina, a black and orange cat, looking a bit silly with her pink tongue sticking out in a major blep and only one eye open. I’m giving her head scritches while she bleps, which makes my hand look huge above her head.
November 3, 2025 at 4:47 PM
catscreatechaos.bsky.social
Yeh I can think of a few options, but they might get you fired...
Headline from the Guardian saying: 'The two words you need to help you push back at work'
October 20, 2025 at 1:04 PM
catscreatechaos.bsky.social
Okay so this is on me for not realising I was using the 'library books search' bar when I was trying to find out the library address for me to post a late book back to, but this single result had me in absolute hysterics, top tier trolling from the library!!
Screenshot of the single result that came up on the University of Liverpool library search when I put in 'Sydney Jones [Library] postal address': 'A Longitudinal Examination of the Hopelessness Theory of Depression in People Who Have Multiple Sclerosis' In case it isn't clear why I found this so fucking funny, it's because I have Multiple Sclerosis, after eight years on the same goddamn PhD we can certainly identify with a certain level of Hopelessness and (see points A and B) of course I'm fucking depressed!! But how and why was this the only result returned from the mistaken query?? 'Jones' and 'postal' are highlighted in the search, so yes there is some rationale behind it but really...? Targeted trolling, in my book.
October 16, 2025 at 1:31 PM
catscreatechaos.bsky.social
Another early wake up call from my rascal cat today. No mice involved, just her yelling in the hall at 5am.

When she does this it seems she’s had a nightmare or scary garden encounter and needs me to tell her she’s safe. I miaow back, give her a cuddle and fall asleep again. The light stays off.
Blurry, low-light close up picture of a rascal cat called Orangina (a naughty tortie — black fur with orange bits) lying on her back on turquoise bedding, with one eye closed, her little pink tongue sticking out, and paws vogueing around her face. She looks pretty silly.
October 16, 2025 at 9:36 AM
catscreatechaos.bsky.social
Three guesses who brought a mouse into the house c.11pm, lost it in the kitchen, then tracked it down at 4am and woke me up with the unmistakable scuffling sounds of a cat chasing a mouse on laminate flooring.

Today’s Gladiator Mouse was incredibly lively, and lives to fight another day.
Close up photo of a naughty tortie, the bastard cat, the scourge of mice, the sleep-disruptor, my feline housemate Orangina, snoozing at the foot of my bed this morning after a busy night bringing mice into the house and waking me up chasing them around the kitchen. She has black and orange fur, and is resting her sleepy head on turquoise bedsheets. She is quite annoyed that I stole her very lively living toy from under her nose shortly after she found it again at 4am. Just grabbed it. Was far too springy to transfer to a container for garden return, so yep I just had to head out in the dark with a very wiggly mouse in my hand and let it disappear off into the night, ready for another round of Mouse Gladiators!
October 14, 2025 at 8:36 AM
catscreatechaos.bsky.social
I had my first contact with Pretty for ages yesterday, the first time in years! We’ve been friends for a while (she’s on my usual daily walk route) but she’s been a bit scared to come out to see me. Had to trespass a bit to stroke her, but totally worth it. Lovely puss.

@thecatreviewer.bsky.social
A photo of my white-pink hand in a teal thumb-loop sleeve petting the head of a black, orange and white (calico) cat whose name I don’t know, but who I call Pretty because she is pretty. She has little white socks with orange bits, and white whiskers. The background is grey tarmac with little hints of green moss A slightly out of focus picture of Pretty, the calico cat, with a clearer view of her lovely orange and black face markings, pink nose and yellowish eyes. She is stood on the grey-green tarmac, with a cream wall and a grey metal gate in the background. You can see her cute pretty paws quite well, which are white with orange splodges. Pretty the pretty calico cat striding towards the camera. This is the first time I’ve been able to pet her in some time (I don’t usually go onto peoples’ driveways to pet their cats, but I haven’t had contact with Pretty in YEARS so I made an exception when she was on the drive this time) The low sun is behind her, and she’s walking across grey tarmac with hints of green, a grey metal gate in the background. A closer look at dem paws, oh they are pretty! White socks with ginger splodges at the end of black legs, with some white whiskers getting on on the action at the top of the image. You can more clearly see the green moss between the grey tarmac stones that she’s standing on.
October 10, 2025 at 2:11 PM
catscreatechaos.bsky.social
SFA OK!! 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿

Another fun thing for post-PhD life lined up, can’t wait to see them again, back where I saw them play the very first time a lifetime ago 😺
Screenshot of my ticket confirmation, dark and light grey text on a white background reads: Super Furry Animals 15 May 2026 - 19:30 @ Venue Cymru (opening time 19:00) ARENA (GA) - GENERAL ADMISSION TICKET TYPE Standing General Admission …so it’s going to be in the hall where I first saw Super Furries back in like, 2002 or something?? Woohoo!!
October 3, 2025 at 9:17 AM
catscreatechaos.bsky.social
Cooked a few of these various foraged mushrooms up with a tonne of garlic last night, made a delicious meal and didn’t die!

I was pretty sure they were all fully fine to eat, but I nearly never pick and eat edible mushrooms so this was a bit out of my comfort zone. Will do it all again tonight…
A selection of large mushrooms — field, parasol and horse? — with pale flesh and some dark brown gills, sitting upturned on a grey plastic bag on a table. There’s a lot of general kitchen table detritus in the background (including a dried up pot of tippex, a beautiful red crab apple and a blue glass bottle) on the top edge of the frame. A small brown mushroom knife with a brush, used to clean the various mushrooms, sits on the right of the image
September 30, 2025 at 11:57 AM
catscreatechaos.bsky.social
Cat!
Black and orange cat called Orangina, lying all curled up and cute with her belly showing and little rabbit feet, looking at the camera above. She’s lying on a scattered pile of yellow-brown, blue and red cushions, on a beige leather sofa (one of her primary snooze spots.) She is clearly actively trying to look sweet and lovely and it’s working
August 30, 2025 at 6:37 AM
catscreatechaos.bsky.social
Sharing my late lunch with this rascal cat. My smoked salmon and cream cheese was on ryvita but I didn’t think she’d appreciate that bit.
Image foreground, in focus: a tiny piece of pink smoked salmon with a white cream cheese topping, held delicately between my (pink/white) thumb and forefinger Image background, out of focus: a small black and orange cat sits patiently on the brown wood-effect laminate floor of the kitchen, gazing up at the tiny tasty treat in my hand and hoping it’s for her…it is for her, but god knows why I’m giving her such tasty treats after yesterday’s Indoor Robin Incident. When I came to get my lunch, I thought she was asleep…
August 29, 2025 at 4:09 PM
catscreatechaos.bsky.social
Image of a previous post of mine from commenting on a previous post saying: Back on my off-brand, bargain bucket Disney Princess bullshit again it seems 😺
August 28, 2025 at 7:55 AM
catscreatechaos.bsky.social
Perfectly innocent little cat. No crimes here. Just a snoozy little kitty on my bed, being perfect and pretty.

No don’t look at the alt-text, no you don’t need to read the alt-text, there’s no crimes against birds documented in there.

(CW bird stress, but not bird death. Happy ending alt-text)
A black and orange (“brindle tortie”) cat called Orangina curled up all snoozy on turquoise bedsheets, looking completely innocent of any crime whatsoever. However, this abomination of a feline fiend caught and brought in a robin through my bedroom window at 7am. I feared the worst when the bird played dead, but when I went to pick it up it flew off into the kitchen, under the cooker. Twenty minutes of building barricades, poking sticks in corners and crawling around on the kitchen floor later, I managed to grab the now Very Upset Robin in my hand and get it out the back door, where it flew off into a nearby tree with an annoyed chirp. So everyone survived the ordeal, and Orangina got a severe telling-off, but by the looks of it she hasn’t learned any lesson at all...
August 28, 2025 at 7:30 AM
catscreatechaos.bsky.social
Found a vole on the road didn’t I. Possibly a youngster?

Squeaky lil boi he was, he seemed okay and ran off fairly energetically after a quick pause to recover from being (very gently) manhandled by a giant. Dunno why he was just crouched by the road, hope he finds his way home okay.

#SqueakyBoi
Picture of a small brown-grey rodent (a vole, I think) cupped gently in a slightly pink white hand, with grey tarmac in the background - the road I just picked it up from The same little grey-brown rodent (probably vole) sitting on a pale brown leaf in the patch of riverbank woodland I dropped him off in nearby. There are some bright green leaves and many other shades of brown in the background
August 10, 2025 at 4:16 PM
catscreatechaos.bsky.social
Guess what I’m working on today…

#MedievalSky #RoseWindow #ThatsNotScorpioThatsCancer #YesItDoesLookMoreLikeALobsterThanACrabButCloseEnoughYeh
Pixelly printed-out PNG of a medieval rose window design, made up of overlapping squares, circles and other shapes, with my purple pen notes scrawled across.
August 4, 2025 at 1:02 PM
catscreatechaos.bsky.social
Guess who brought a Very Lively Mouse inside at 5am, repeatedly dropping and losing it, in various rooms of the house??

I’m a bit out of practice with Mouse Gladiators, but eventually managed to construct a sort of barrier system that sent it safely out the front door. Well played, contender mouse.
Close-up picture of a black and orange cat (a “naughty tortie” today) curled up and snoozing on a turquoise bedspread, covering her face with her paw
July 31, 2025 at 8:03 AM
catscreatechaos.bsky.social
Alright kids, have almost finished the slides for my paper tomorrow. Do come along if you want to hear me excitedly chat crap about monstrous men, again, with lots of pictures!

Session #1227, Political Exegesis c.1100-1300
Parkinson B.10, 14:15 slot

#IMC2025 #MonstrousMen #WhatAgain #YesStillOnIt
View of a computer screen on a bed, with the title slide for my #IMC2025 paper “Mapping the Descendants of Cain: Politicised Exegesis of Monstrosity in the 13th-century Imagination”. Left-hand image, a Satyr on a blue background with a finger raised. Central image, the Psalter Map’s monstrous men lineup Right-hand image, a headless Blemmye sashaying in a frame with a red background (Left and Right images from BNF Valenciennes MS 320)
July 8, 2025 at 12:54 PM
catscreatechaos.bsky.social
Forgot to do the usual “I’m on my way to Leeds” journey post yesterday, but here I am. Picked up my programme and lanyard and was instantly *forced* to buy a new book about maps, so have now doubled the weight of my bag… #IMC2025 #Leeds #medieval
Picture of a shrink-wrapped new book called Cartographies of Exclusion by Asa Simon Mittman, with the orange Leeds IMC 2025 programme behind. Background of black trousers and green grass
July 7, 2025 at 10:53 AM
catscreatechaos.bsky.social
I tore up a load of cardboard for the recycling, and Orangina claimed it all as hers…

Cardboard sheets and boxes all over this house, she can’t get enough of the stuff
A black and orange cat lying with her front paws tucked in on a pile of cardboard pieces (that were SUPPOSED to be going in the recycling…) on a tatty black and white rug.
May 12, 2025 at 5:06 PM
catscreatechaos.bsky.social
Yes that’s the one, which makes some changes from Westrem’s earlier version, pictured here…
Latin text and English translation of the Tiger legend from the Hereford map, Scott D Westrem’s version: “The tiger is a beast; when it sees its cub captured, roused to action, it pursues the one fleeing with its cub, but this [thief], taking flight with the gait of a swift horse sets up a mirror in front of the tiger and so, unhindered, escapes”
May 11, 2025 at 2:30 PM
catscreatechaos.bsky.social
Research Assistant go “cronch”
A black and orange cat (very helpfully) attacks my white right arm as I try to work in the sunny shed. Lined paper with pencil notes about medieval maps sits on the left of the image, with two pens crossed, one with the lid off mid-notes. The background is unpainted grained wood, with a red blanket and grey carpet to the top and bottom. The cat (Orangina) has all four paws kicking or wrapped around my hand, and is sinking her teeth into my wrist just as the picture is taken. It’s fine, she’s not being nasty, she just loves to wrestle!
April 10, 2025 at 2:13 PM
catscreatechaos.bsky.social
“Scarf Time” came a bit earlier today, just as I was trying to finish up some note-taking… but the scarf gets what the scarf wants! It only lasts a few minutes anyway, and I love it, so I’ll finish my notes in a bit
March 24, 2025 at 4:50 PM
catscreatechaos.bsky.social
Reckon I should introduce my “Research Assistant”…

This is Orangina, she was a long-term foster from my sister’s family while they lived abroad a while, but it looks like she’s officially mine now!

She likes running, licking people, and wrestling hands. As an assistant, she’s quite useless.
Picture of a black and orange cat (“brindle tortie” colouring) sitting on a piece of mottled grey carpet in bright sunshine, with her eyes closed. The background is wood panelling in various shades of brown. She has a black nose and black whiskers, with slight pink colour to her ears. She is absolutely delightful and of no use whatsoever in translating Latin.
March 24, 2025 at 3:16 PM