Radio Stardom ...

Fancy hearing me on radio?  All dulcet and calm?  Well, close enough ... this is me, talking on Heartland FM about being Writer-in-Residence for Blairgowrie, Rattray and the Glens with the lovely Shona Whyte, who opened with those immortal words, "Today I'm delighted to welcome writer-in-residence John Lennon."

It was recorded so we had another go at that bit, but what a scoop it would have been.

Clamouring Patches

(from the Wikipedia article on Patchwork)

I'm all for patchwork as a template for the writer's life - there's the teaching, performing, talking, admin-ing, blogging, website-ing, proofing, editing, researching, taking photographs (that may just be me), thinking ... oh, yeah, and then there's the writing.  And I think that that is all to the good, and each bit enhances each other bit, and makes us stronger and better, though sadly not taller.  The thing I really don't like about it, however, is the noise. 

The patches I am not at any given moment paying heed to, tend to clamour.  They're noisy and they're sneaky.  They say things like, "You?  A writer?  When you're not focusing on ME?!  I don't think so."  These last few weeks it's been everything on the list except thinking and writing, and the decibel level from those two is reaching ear-drum-damage level.  And I can't quite see when in the near future I'm going to be able to shush them.  So I wake up in the middle of the night to worry.  You'd have thought that would be enough.

I think I need to invest in some really good ear plugs.  

215th Birthday Wishes

Happy Birthday Mary Anning! And thank you Google for flagging it up!

Which is as good an excuse as any for putting up the cover of Daughters of Time again and inviting you to spend some time with the birthday girl in "Best After Storms" -

Oh, and I'm over on An Awfully Big Blog Adventure this week, if you fancied a visit. 

Whirlwind

Last week:  Blairgowrie, Edinburgh, Aberdeen, Blairgowrie -
This weekend:  Belfast and Bangor -
Next week:  Picking up the pieces -

See you on the other side!

Journey Planner and Friday Sparks

Pleased and proud to have 2 poems in this anthology from Cinnamon Press - find out more here.

And yesterday I posted my first blog as writer-in-residence for Blairgowrie, Rattray and the Glens, including the first ever Friday Spark.  Just waiting now to see what it ignites!

Oh, and if you happen to live in East Perthshire, have a look at the now-live Writer's Clinic Page, and maybe sign up for a chat!

Shades of Pink, Blue-gray and Surprisingly Bright Greens (Hospitalfield 8)

A last batch ...

Getting (Sadly) Near the End (Hospitalfield 7)

Fighting encroaching melancholy with photography -

P.S.  I'm over with The History Girls today being beguiled by 500 years of portraits of women -

Behind the scenes (Hospitalfield 6)

One of the (many) pleasing things about living in such an old, randomly rambling building is the chance to see some of the spaces behind-the-scenes, as hooching with history as any of the grander rooms -

So many artists have lived and worked here and gone away again.  So many stories left behind.

Shapes, Textures and the Odd Dog (Hospitalfield 5)

Shapes and textures for the shape and texture lovers ...

And for the dog lovers ...