Notes on Making Art

1. 
   Quality through quantity. Don't get hung up on making this one piece good -- make ten and one will certainly be pretty good.


2. 
   Do NOT mix generating and editing. When you're making a piece, don't stop and get judgmental half-way through. If it's a piece of crap, get that piece of crap out of your system -- don't try to fix it mid-flow. Finish it, move on.


3. 
   When to judge: After you've completed a piece, look at it and decide what direction you want to go in next. Or if you're selecting pieces for submission to a show, apply your critiquing mind then. Make a piece of art; look at it; make another.


4. 
   Don't be afraid to re-use elements. If each piece has to be unique, then you're going to get hung-up when you create some bit that you like. But if you can re-use bits, then you can keep moving.


5. 
   How to have "lots of ideas": permute. Start anywhere. Once a piece is done, try varying some aspect. Think of all the variables that could have permutations.


6. 
   "Get through your first 50 failures as fast as you can." I don't think that we should be shooting for a place where we no longer make crappy art. A good artist is one who's in motion making lots of art -- you only think they're so much better because they produce so much quantity that their pile of "good art" has also been able to accumulate. For every piece of crap you create, you're one step closer to getting something you really like.


7. 
   Don't even bother "fixing" pieces. Making art shouldn't be a struggle. You're simply "thinking out loud" onto the page, photo-paper, or canvas. If a product seems confused, leave it confused. Make another piece where you contemplate whatever issues you were wrestling with. Try something different. When clarity arrives, it will come in one living piece -- not be Frankensteined together out of a single infinitely re-worked, mangled corpse.


8. 
   Work fast. Creativity is exciting. If you're not judging while you're making, then you can just throw things together as fast as your mind can move. You're smart; if you don't like what you've made, you'll know immediately. You might not know what to do about the problem you perceive... Don't "think", standing there cogitating -- try things. If your hands are in motion, you can be generating new permutations. The one that you want to pick will come out on its own time.


9. 
   Let your level show. Let the world know that despite having years of investment in your art form, you're still a beginner who doesn't know it all. Rather than hide your thought process, let your questions be present in your work. You are a fundamentally more interesting artist if people get to see what it is that you're struggling with, rather than just your final answers. Show your work. Talk about what you still can't understand (unapologetically).


10. 
    Don't hide your failures. If you are only willing to show those perfect pieces that you are aspiring towards, you're never going to display / publish your work. Show everything, the worst of the crap included, and let your ego be humbled -- and goaded to create more.

From The Scarlet Letters

Ndeble wall paintings in South Africa. They use a lot of strong colour and bordered by black. Yesterday I picked up my baby blanket which was being finished off at my mothers and as I looked at it I thought it reminded me of something. Then I realised Ndebele wall decoration. The teddy is a 'tragic teddy' knitted by my mother which she as donated for the baby in question.

"Don't ask yourself what the world needs; ask yourself what makes you come alive and then go do that. Because the world needs people who come alive." -Harold Whitman (and also often attributed to Henry Miller).

from SelfTaughtGirl

Love that quote and it reminds me of what I need to prioritze in my life. A busy period is coming up in the next few months but important not to neglect my photography and ability to noodle across the city.

Last night I had 11 people over to dinner - I am the most unMartha like hostess. About half an hour before the first guests were to arrive I phoned up one and asked if she could come with chairs. But still I'd over filled my small flat and 3 people had to perch on the sofa in a small kind sub party in the corner. As I was dishing up I realised I was running out of plates - dashed to my understair cupboard and retrieved some more and washed them quickly.

Rather than being perfectly organised I pray that people arrive late as I hurridly sweap floors shove wool into bags attempt to banish signs of life. Mean while the orange double tulips I bought from the supermarket open extravagantly. Then I give up light candles turn off the lights and hope that the slight disarray will engender a cameraderie that a more polished do with chase away.

There is always a point when I wish I'd never got myself into this situation. Why oh why did it seem such a good idea when I clicked on the email addresses and sent out invitations so gaily two weeks ago. And why didn't I start preparing right then and there? STOP ! This is the worst worst repose to life the 'I should have done it right done it better been more organised more x'. The more I relax into what I am rather than what I feel others think I ought to be the easier it is. AND I have more energy - the leakage towards the other way of living is just too much.

Imperfection
I am falling in love
with my imperfections
The way I never get the sink really clean,
forget to check my oil,
lose my car in parking lots,
miss appointments I have written down,
am just a little late.
I am learning to love
the small bumps on my face
the big bump of my nose,
my hairless scalp,
chipped nail polish,
toes that overlap.
Learning to love
the open-ended mysteryof not knowing why
I am learning to fail
to make lists,
use my time wisely,
read the books I should.
Instead I practice inconsistency,
irrationality, forgetfulness.
Probably I should
hang my clothes neatly in the closet
all the shirts together, then the pants,s
end Christmas cards, or better yet
a letter telling ofmy perfect family
But I’d rather waste time
listening to the rain,
or lying underneath my cat
learning to purr.
-by Elizabeth Carlson

There is this fantastic poem over at 37 days which I'm nicking in its entirety

Polaroid Alert!

TopMan in Edinburgh's Princes St is using them as part of a window display. I noticed it today while on the bus coming home.

postcard polaroids

here

great interview with Ianthe Brautigan

on writing memoir.

Tom McGuane had this great thing he told me. We were talking on the phone, and we don't talk often but I was in the middle of the process, and he said, "What are you doing?" And I said, "Well I'm writing a memoir" -- I knew he would disapprove because those guys, they have their own code of things.

CV: He was a friend of your father's?

IB: Yes, he was a friend, along with Jim Harrison. And I knew he'd -- not disapprove of me writing a memoir in particular, but you know, they're fiction guys, they write fiction.

And he said, "Well, whatever you're writing has you by the back of the neck. And you just kinda have to go with it." It is what it is. You have to accept what it is. And that's the roughest part about memoir writing -- or any kind of writing, I think. I love Toni Morrison; I think she's incredible. I will never write like her in a million years. It's just not going to happen. I have a very distinct style. And it's not that. [laughter] So it's accepting your writing. If you're writing a memoir, accepting that this is what it is.
And then you have to find a structure for it.... I read a million memoirs. And I would find somebody and go, "Oh, OK, you can do this; this is a structure that will work."

Eucalypt Sydney

Not well today so in bed listening to radio. Its a lovely day so a shame to miss. Tea and then venture out to supermarket I think.

Oh lovely things on the internet. Plant Amnesty who are campaigning against the torture of trees and shrubs - Seattle based but desperately needed in the UK. Kaffe Fassett who is doing a knitting workshop in Libertys ! And finally but most funnily Photoshop Disasters

Creative people should have hobbies

My Yiddish class convened in Glasgow last night to put on an entertainment in song, dramatic playlet and instrument for a group of elderly Glaswegian Jews. Luckily the class I'm in is full of talented singers, bagpipe players etc so we were able to put on a passable entertainment. I am officially the worst speaker in the class so I was in charge of surtitles on cards for the dramatic bit.

We got the 10.30 train back to Edinburgh. After all the excitement last night I'm exhausted but gathering my strength to go to work.

Anyway my rambling point is many things in my life I have to do well, photography, teaching, filmmaking. Its nice to have something in ones life that is just fun. It adds to life a rounded dimension which is not all about being good it, achieving and excelling.

Pic from here

After my moan last night to L I've got on the phone this morning to find out who is responsible for ordering the digging up of all the cherry blossom trees from Nicholson Square. It sounds silly but the cherry blossom there is one of the things that makes me feel we'll make it though the winter and out the otherside. I'm not going to take things lying down anymore.

the real toy story

from Treehugger

After many months I managed to meet my friend L at Sophies bar for the pub knitting. The endless toil of baby blanket for me and a hat for her and plunged into the ills of the world. (Edinburgh is being destroyed by a crazed council hell bent on removing all the trees, foisting a 7 year plan for trams, selling off prime real estate for a pittance - ME. HER equalities down the pan in Scotland and getting worse as fast as the statistics can be compiled). However we were the only knitters .... quelle pub knitters?

Small spark of hope on the horizon - one baby blanket down 2 to go. The first one is at the outsourced finishing collective ie mother for a crochet border. The original blanket which was made for The Cutest Neice Ever (TM) was being used this weekend to turn her into a Blanket Monster. Blanket covering small child instantly turns said child into a Blanket Monster...

Tomorrow I go to Glasgow. I think I'll splash out on more film.

Picture from Carol Hummer

Window in the Grassmarket Vintage shop

Such a beautiful day here. I sat out with my journal, coffee and enjoyed the warmth and the blue skies.

Its partly due to coming here relatively late in life from SA but we've always been taught to make the most of the weather here when its good. To extract every drop of pleasure. Its a good way to live.

rest and be thankful at a bench in Amsterdam

from Apartment Therapy

The mighty friday night

Yesterday I met a friend at the library - I was hoping to pick up the copy of Michael Pollen's In Defense of Food that I'd ordered. But it wasn't ready for collection so I picked up a few other books and we walked down Leith Walk together. My friend wanted to go and pick up spices at the Chinese supermarket. It was fantastic incredibly good value. I restricted myself to bayleaves, jasmine tea and rock sugar for the princely sum of £1.99 while she ment mad in the spices section. I'm definitely going back there to stock up. Then we kept on walking and disappeared into secondhand furniture shops as I'm looking out for a chest of drawers. (I've lived without one for 8 years I can probably live a bit longer). Sadly as we were late in the afternoon the butcher and fishmongers were closed but Fruit Heaven was open and I bought 3 avocados, an artichoke and some ginger for £2.10. Then I went to Lidels with friend and put an end to shopping as I was weighed down by library books. But I do feel bad that I don't support independent local shops more in my area and I should make more effort instead of sticking to Scotmid.

Then my friend persuaded me to go to Ocean Terminal where she lives for coffee and then it merged into dinner and Dirty Sexy Money and oh joy of joys a Mighty Boosh Compilation DVD. I keep on falling over the two protagonists when I'm in London - they must live near my friend Sarah - I loved it.

its an old file and I can't move it around - just do some desk yoga... its Manly Beach Sydney

good stuff

Half day at work. I'd cleared my afternoon for time with The Cutest Neice (TM) but she has not arrived yet. So went for a walk at Porty with a friend - gosh it was stunning today. Beautifully bright with large banks of fluffy clouds rolling across the sky. After walking along the beach we went to the pet shop to view the latest in kitten collars as her kittens have divested themselves of their collars. What a nice afternoon.

Came home sat outside with more knitting - so near yet so far to finish blanket... I was using some shetland wool which I bought at the new knitting shop in Edinburgh K1 in the West Bow. Very lovely shop with many gorgeous wools, bags and wooden crochet hooks. And a scheme where by you get a loyalty card and a stamp for every £10 spent. I've already worked my way up to two stamps.

Helped Polish lodger fill out application form and then had to lie down and have a rest while listening to The Archers. Walking on the sand is actually quite tiring.

Cat sleeping beside me on the shelf paws crossed under her chin. Off to soak my feet in Dead Sea Salts.

Great discussion about really horrible jobs

Quick links

At last The Little Red Blog of Revolutionary Knitting

and 1001 Journals the 1000 Journals extended - I've even managed to sign up for one

Easter Monday

No chocolate left. Beautiful day I tried to sit out with my morning pages but it was too cold even with a coffee in hand. Retreated indoors, threw clothes into the washer they should dry beautifully in this cold but dry weather.

Busy week and weekend. Working fulltime really cuts into my day... Yesterday saw two films The Son of Rambeau (lovely a bit tvish but sweet all the same and even sweeter that it was a free screening) then The Dybukk at the Filmhouse. I helped organise a screening of Yiddish films there which has grown out of my Yiddish class - more info here. My Yiddish teacher was worried that the screening would be very quiet but after a bit of emailing it was about 80% full. In the evening I went to a lecture by Barry Davies on Yiddish Film which was fascinating. There are apparently only about 150 surviving examples so I could easily set a project of seeing them all.

Sat I saw the Ansel Adams exhibition at the City Art Centre. My friend wanted to go to the Dean Gallery but I couldn't face the walk and cold. It was great seeing the Adams pictures in the flesh so to speak after so many years seeing them reproduced but I'm sad to say I really miss seeing exhibitions on weekdays. The entire place was filled with couples who seem to think that visiting an art exhbition is a great place to a) exibit to your potential mate that you are a good catch by being interested in art and b) just how much you love them by standing in front of the exhibits glued to each other fondling bits of each other to prevent the single exhibtion visitors from viewing the exhibits.

In honour of Spoon Cafe and meeting R & B there on Friday afternoon. Lemon cake yum !

Polaroid Roundup

Article in the NY Times about how despite its being phased out polaroids are becoming cooler.

Also via 52projects - Save Polaroid Blog

Finally My Polaroid Blog which makes me wish I'd got into polaroids... but part of me wonders if I'm just envying here west coast lifestyle!

Cult of the Holga camera - article at the Independent.

Allow yourself to create badly

Just spent an hour trying to write a first draft of a book outline. Ghastly. Dreadful. Just sent it via email to my collaborator, cringing internally.

But I also know that everything starts off unattractive and misshapen its the first step in creating something.

Roses all around metaphorically speaking today.

Maggie Nelson interview

CV: What's the most helpful creativity technique you know?
MN: I know there are many who believe in the Trollope school of thought, that one should wax one's ass to the chair and spit out novels or sestinas or whatever without waiting around for that elusive, romantic, ghost-in-machine, inspiration. But for me the work of being a writer is the easy part. I like being at work. What I like less are the soggy, ill-defined but probably necessary periods between monsoon and drought. The periods of silence, inactivity, and aimlessness that inevitably punctuate a life. Being possessed is pleasurable -- it feels good to lose control of the car while also somehow staying behind the wheel. But abiding with a dead or resting or paused brain, or numbness, or ordinariness, or sanity -- that's harder for me. So the best trick I know has less to do with tapping into creativity and more to do with cultivating the capacity to live without it. To let it go, and not feel as if the plug has been pulled on life. This abiding demands a certain kind of acceptance: If it is better that I write something again, let me write something again. If it is better that I never write again, let me never write again. (The prayer I'm cribbing from actually requires a more radical acceptance: If it is better for me to be dead, let me be dead.) I wouldn't call this a trick, exactly; it's more of a renunciation.
Poet Anthony McCann didn't teach this to me, but he smartly reiterated it to me the other day. We were talking about these periods, and he just said something simple like, the hard part is learning how to bear them. Just knowing that someone else is up against a similar problem is often enough to help me in a profound way. More profound, probably, than any nugget of advice. Neither he nor I, as relative newcomers to Los Angeles, has yet figured out how to write about the city, so we keep taking long hikes at dusk, looking for coyotes, and, at the summit, staring in awe at the ridiculous expanse of the city below. Waiting for the lights to come on, I guess. There is no guarantee that they will, but every time I've been up there, they have.

More here

I've taken quite a few pictures in loos - as I use them as handy places to load more film.

interview with Keri Smith

CV: How do imperfection and impermanence influence your work?

KS: Our culture teaches us that there is a standard that is most desirable and that things that are imperfect are less desirable. You can also see this applied to the emotional realm -- dark, ugly, or negative emotions are deemed dysfunctional; if we are not happy, we need to take a pill to feel better. So we all grow up with some kind of ideal that really has nothing to do with our personal beliefs or reality (accepting what actually exists and saying, "I am not perfect, and that is okay").

Over time we create a set of standards that none of us can possibly live up to, and so we have a tendency to beat ourselves up or become critical with much of what we attempt (which leads to depression). The goal for me at some point became to examine those imperfections, in the emotional realm but also in my creative life. I used to become frustrated when I would make a mistake or when a drawing didn't turn out the way I had intended. This is a natural part of creating, but I wanted to consider what would happen if I approached it from the perspective that those imperfections are not just beautiful but actually the thing necessary to make my work unique.
This is where the need to treat everything as an experiment came in. If you watch children creating, they often treat everything as an exercise where everything that happens is just a part of the exploration process (not a means to an end). It is adults that place value on the final product; children see it more as a journey -- "What if I add blue to the page?" Through my own research process I was introduced to the work of John Cage, who in his own work had tried to incorporate the concept of indeterminacy, a process by which the control of the artist is given over to some other means (decisions are determined by chance operations, such as dice, I Ching, or randomness). I became interested in this concept as a way for [me] to let go and not have to control the work.

More Here

away in London

Back this evening - amazing dark stormy skies as the train sped north.

Very busy trip.

Thursday - Derek Jarman Exhibiton at the Serpentine Gallery. Big big artist hero of mine and when I wrote to him when I was at uni he sent me a book of his by return post. Then to Photographers Gallery and saw amazing photographs of the US in the 70's. I know I should link properly but tired... Went to Chinatown and bought loose green jasmine tea in a gorgeous yellow tin £2.80. Resisted Hello Kitty sweetie tins.

Friday visiting the niecelet in Cambridge. Feeding herself by spoon - this included feet which had a good layer of strawberry organic yoghurt on them. Nap and then woke up early very very cross until we put her into her new trike - it has a handle for mommy to push her - but she thinks its all her own work. Park, swan feeding, swings, a giving a little boy who climbed onto her trike a very hard stare.

Friday night - back to London, birthday party. Sat into Hoxton for my friend's Short Film Production course, assistant failed to turn up so I man door, wash cups and make coffee. Sat night went with friend to town and end up sitting in on a film biz meeting in a casino. Very intriguing. Film person's mum runs the casino so went there as we could have free dinner. Very nice food - I suppose they want to keep the clients on the premises losing money rather than leaving for food. I'd never been inside a casino so it was very interesting.

Sunday course, dinner with another friend. Today went through Bloomsbury on my way to the London Review of Books Shop - totally soaked in a torrential downpour - free umbrellas are pretty useless.

Chinese Lantern Festival

I went to this at the Botanical Gardens tonight - feels a little crazy when I'm going to London tomorrow and haven't packed or charged mobile or found the essential A-Z.

It was spectacular and we made origami lillies and floated them on the pond. Afterwards we went and had Dim Sum. I hope my friends pictures come out ok as I only took the lomo.

Who, she thought,
wouldn't want
to be friendly towards
pastries?

In the park

a collie worries

the purple crocuses.

The cat lies
on the computer monitor
warming the pixels below.

World Beach Project

A project created by the V&A to get people to record the patterns made by people on beaches.

knitting recipe

For the blanket recipe

see picture below a few entries


Cast on 89 stitches.

Next row knit two together, then knit 19, knit 3 together repeat until end of row and then knit two stitches together.

Knit next row.

Knit two together, then knit 17, knit 3 together repeat until end of row then knit two stitche together

knit next row.

Change colour

Same as above but knit 15 along.

All the time each second row reduce the knitting by 2 stitches, soon you will see the 'corners' of the square develop. Change colour every 4 rows. Once you are knitting only one stitch inbetween the 3 stitches knitted together, knit three stitches together x 3 and then knit the last 3 together and cast off. Sew up the seam with the tail from casting on.

I have decided that once my first baby blanket is finished to graduate to bigger needles so my next blanket is quicker.

Heaney meets Joyce in a carpark, after a fast and pilgrimage to St. Patrick’s Purgatory in Lough Derg. The tall, older man on his ashplant, holding Heaney’s hand with his boney own, gives him this parting advice that ends the poem:
…
and suddenly he hit a litter basket
with his stick, saying, “Your obligationis not discharged by any common rite.What you do you must do on your own.
The main thing is to writefor the joy of it. Cultivate a work-lust
that imagines its haven like your hands at night
dreaming the sun in the sunspot of a breast.You are fasted now, light-headed, dangerous.Take off from here. And don’t be so earnest,
so ready for the sackcloth and the ashes.Let go, let fly, forget.You’ve listened long enough. Now strike your note.
…
You lose more of yourself than you redeemdoing the decent thing. Keep at a tangent.When they make the circle wide, it’s time to swim
out on your own and fill the elementwith signatures on your own frequency,echo-soundings, searches, probes, allurements,
elver-gleams in the dark of the whole sea.”The shower broke in a cloudburst. The tarmacfumed and sizzled. As he moved off quickly
the downpour loosed its screens round his straight walk.
Seamus Heaney, Station Island (1984)

from Do Buddists watch telly

Does being creative make you more prone to depression?

Debate over at Danny Gregory.

Holga of Bloomsbury red phone boxes.

Between

between The British Library and the Sir John Soane Museum January 08

the HOPE revolution

off to Glasgow tomorrow for an artist date - enjoy the weekend!

David Byrne of Talking Heads has a blog

Knitting News

Just been past HK handknit on Bruntsfield and its closing down - last day of sale this Saturday.

Also a knitting conference on the history and art of knitting in Edinburgh.

Oh the joy of cancelled plans and everyday miracles!

Server down at work so at home being paid until 11.30 when I have to go back. So am making an orange/almond/pinenut cake for a trip to the turkish baths tonight at Portobello. Thats the miracle my friend H is venturing out of the house for a seaside adventure.

Despite this being a made by me cake it smells so delicious I'm going to have to restrain myself from having a go at it before tonight.

You don’t have to work so hard at this. You don’t have to do so much. You don’t have to endeavor to be natural, normal, and good. It happens by itself when you least expect it. If you are confused about what you should be doing, try this. Stop what you are doing. Take care of what is in front of you, when it is in front of you, and the confusion will pass. This is called the effort of no effort. No effort is what powers the universe.

With time, your roots grow deep and your branches long. You lean a little less backward in fear and a little less forward in doubt, resting solidly right where you are. When the wind blows, you bend. When it stops, you straighten. Your boughs provide shelter and shade. Your strength supports the sky. Sitting quietly, doing nothing, spring comes and the grass grows by itself.


Karen Maezen Miller

via Jen Lemen

s l o w

I was supposed to be meeting some friends to go to an exhibition this afternoon followed by Dim Sum. One friend cancelled due to being ill so we put the outing on hold.



Instead I sauntered across to the supermarket walking along the park and admired the spring crocuses which are blooming. I bought a kitchen timer at Woolworths and then browsed in a clothes shop. Finally I did some food shopping bought a sunday paper as I had an article on my filmmaker hero Derek Jarman.

Back home I got out the timer set it for 15 mins and did some of the washing up and cleaned the grill. Then I hung out the washing in the cold clean February air. I sat for a bit and sewed up squares, drank coffee and read the newspaper. Then I went outside and planted the snow drops and foxgloves I'd brought back from the country last weekend. Finally I started a batch of bagels. I haven't made any for at least 6 months.

I would have thought this a very unproductive day about 5 years ago but I'm slowly learning that I need time, time to mull over things, time for creativity to grow slow roots underground, time to center myself, time for noticing. I think more of the pleasures of slow than I used to. I'm less admiring of people who perhaps 'achieve' a lot but skate past on the surface of life. I have to re-learn the pleasures of slow over and over again. Occasionally I start thinking I'm too 'slow' I 'should' be doing this or that but as soon as I get onto a timetable that is not right for me I can feel that giddly out of control unconnectedness that dominated my life for far too long.

On a related note we never give ourselves the leaway for processing life changes - a student will appologise for not writing in many months, then will elaborate on a job change, a family situation and a third stressful event. Regaining our equilibrium takes time.

On a related note slow & idle parenting by Tom Hodgkinson

I'm off to check on the status of my bagels.

How to cook without using recipies

article at the Independent.

Though I hardly ever use recipies myself. Usually when I try something for the first time though often from the first go I'm experimenting or changing stuff depending on what I have to hand. Lamb shoulder in the oven with garlic stuffed in crevaces, sweet potatoe, potatoe, and butternut squash cut up around it - a mixture of chili oil and olive oil sprikled on a afew garlic cloves still in the papery covering to roast.

Yum.. can't wait retreating to sofa with magazine while I wait.

Love yourself day

May I direct you towards the link on the side bar? In previous years I've organised mass outings to the Turkish Baths for friends and massages. This year its been too hectic to do so but I will be at the Baths next week. However in celebration of Love Yourself Day tomorrow I'm going to buy TWO bars of Green & Blacks Dark Cherry Chocolate and have lunch out.

You Can't Always Get What You Want ... But Sometimes You Get What You Need

words of wisdom by the Rolling Stones

Today I went swimming 2nd time for a few weeks and before that it was a year or so since I dipped my toes in water. My swimming friend stormed up and down and did 45 mins of lenghts I did about 35 mins. Left and went off to my afternoon shift feeling somewhat tired. When I arrived I couldn't find my name up on any of the job boards. So I asked. It turned out that I was only scheduled to work this evening. They offered me the option of signing up for an afternoon sift but I decided it was a sign ! left went home napped for an hour (Frida the cat enjoys co-napping). Slowly made coffee, knitted a bit and then actually made a small in road into the washing up. I felt so refreshed - was just what I needed. Sometimes life does conspire to send what you need.

I'm currently desperately knitting squares for a blanket same as above but all squares will have some black in them. I have 3 babies to knit for - one arrived and two on their way. I feel like a belegured worker on a collective farm with my 5 year plan of productivity doubled. I take knitting to work and everywhere I go incase I can do a few more rows.

out of the mist

Edinburgh was wreathed in mist when I got back on Sunday - it hung about on Monday. I went for a walk at the beach and it was strange not being able to see the far shore - but I saw a seal ! only the second in 8 years of going there.

Went to a women & business networking event - much much more interesting than I thought it would be tonight. Thank you H!

Got a good idea for marketing my classes from a woman I spoke to afterwards - thank you unknown lady !

Just shows its really good to push out of those comfortable ruts we line with duvets.

"How soon not now becomes never." -Martin Luther

quote from Sparkletopia

Right I'm back from my 3 1/2 day trip to the country. BAFTA awards going on the background - cat sleeping on a shelf beside me. Feel I've been away for about 3 weeks.

Just before I left I heard that the Planning Application I'd written 22 letters and emails to politicians about had passed. So I left the city pretty downheartened. Its very easy to see life as a slide towards things getting worse.

But it was wonderful to connect with family friends who live in Dumfries & Galloway. I realised that I'd last seen some of them last May ! too long ago... The trip down through the Borders was beautiful, snow drops out, the Devils Beef Tub as dramatic as ever. Our friends had a new addition to the family a black labrador puppy called Jock (after Jock of the Bushvelt) but I renamed The Hound of Pipercoft. SIMPLY ENORMOUS PAWS and the 5 cats of the house cowering in their porch after being bounced upon. I walked the 'policies' seeing the hens (who are a drain on the rural economy producing no eggs for months and necessitating their masters to 'buy' eggs!) and the new 'bothy' which as its being designed by a South African architect has its own stoep.

On Sat we went into Castle Douglas for shopping and I went to Hazel's a secondhand sort of shed. A great favourite of my hosts. I wasn't planning to buy anything but got seduced by a Millers Cine Camera which might be useful for a rather distant project for a documentary. I thought it was a 16mm film cine but I'm not so sure after doing a bit of googling I think it might be 9.5 mm - not sure if I can get film for it but a beautiful leather case and clockwork mechanism.

I'm delighted to be returning with a recipe for babobtie and yellow rice which I will try out on friends soon.

The two most beautiful things about this weekend were spending time with people and having those conversations which are missed by phone calls but arise out of time. The second was our last walk into the village this morning a soft mist across the landscape - ghost trees on the horizon - cows in the mid horizon - 3 pairs of geese flying over and then grazing in the field.

I didn't have a camera with me but I didn't need it.

off to country to recharge batteries - sending you the same

snow! & activism

Went out for brunch today as I was up early to take the cat for a check up. She is fine but not happy about the cat carrier and my slekit ways of getting her into it.

As I sat in the cafe I looked out on Broughton St and saw the snow coming down. Its been doing this over the past 3 days but not lying - we are too near the sea here.

I had to go to the post office to stock up on stamps - I'm about to settle down and write to all the councillors on the Edinburgh City Council Planning Committe. On Wednesday they meet to consider a plan to demolish a swathe of the High St of Edinburgh to replace the serviceable buildings with horrible modern offices, flats and a 5 star hotel in a World Heritage Site. Even Prince Charles has condemend this development. The planning department of Edinburgh Council has recommended this development but it will not necessarily be passed by the committee. They don't always go with the recommendations. PLEASE write to the concillors and ask them to vote against the proposals. You don't have to live in Edinburgh to do this - as this is a designated World Heritage Site anyone has a vested interest in these plans.

If you live in the UK please write letters to the concillors at City Chambers High St,Ediburgh. If further abroad then write emails but some councillors are known not to read emails so letters are better (hence stocking up on stamps today!)

People in Ediburgh have been fighting these proposals for 2 1/2 years please give them your support - the last round of proposals generated 1800 letters to the Head of Planning in Edinburgh. For more information go to www.eh8.org.uk

They are also looking for a civic minded Advocate to bring a legal case. If you know of one please get in touch with them!



WRITE/EMAIL YOUR Local or even all 58 AllCECcouncillorsemails
AND ALL ON THE PLANNING COMMITTEE AND COUNCIL LEADER JENNY DAWE jenny.dawe@edinburgh.gov.uk
Find your councillors by your ward at this link http://www.edinburgh.gov.uk/internet/Council/Council_Business/councillor_database/CEC_search_by_ward

PLANNING COMMITTEE MEMBERS
jim.lowrie@edinburgh.gov.uk (Sld) Planning Committee Leader
charles.dundas@edinburgh.gov.uk (Sld) (Caltongate is in his ward)
elaine.morris@edinburgh.gov.uk (SLD)
gary.peacock@edinburgh.gov.uk (SLD)
marjorie.thomas@edinburgh.gov.uk (SLD)
colin.keir@edinburgh.gov.uk (SNP)
stuart.mcivor@edinburgh.gov.uk (SNP)
tom.buchanan@edinburgh.gov.uk (SNP)
lesley.hinds@edinburgh.gov.uk (Labour)
norma.hart@edinburgh.gov.uk (Labour)
eric.milligan@edinburgh.gov.uk (Labour)
joanna.mowat@edinburgh.gov.uk (Con) City Central (Caltongate in her ward)
cameron.rose@edinburgh.gov.uk (Con)
alastair.paisley@edinburgh.gov.uk (Con)
steve.burgess@edinburgh.gov.uk (Green)

Also write/email your Msp regional and List ones, you can find their details by this link http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/msp/membersPages/msplocator.htm You can find details of Mps and Meps here http://www.writetothem.com/ (Scottish ones are listed even although it doesn’t say on home page, you just enter your postcode and they will appear) Points that you can include in letter along with your own views on The Caltongate Proposals -
ask them to oppose the sale of Common Good Land – which could provide some of the community facilities deficient in the Old Town
ask for protection of the existing community and the World Heritage Site from insensitive and inappropriate development
ask what their commitment (or not) is to the Edinburgh Community Plan, which promotes a cleaner, greener Edinburgh
ask what is their commitment to World Heritage Management Plan
And WRITE to
Head of Planning Division,
Development Department,
Scottish Executive,
Victoria Quay
The Director of Historic Scotland,
Longmore House,
Salisbury Place, EH9 1SH
requesting refusal of the demolition of buildings in the World Heritage Site and Old Town Conservation Area as proposed in the Mountgrange Masterplan
requesting the masterplan be referred to the Scottish Executive as it involves a significant departure from the Development Plan and the Council have a financial interest in the proposed development.

Write a letter to John Swinney
Who is Cabinet Secretary for Finance and Sustainable Growth
We all need to write to Scottish Government Minister John Swinney, as it will be him who will have the power to call in Mountgrange`s Planning Applications. We should all do this as soon as we can. It is on the 6th February 2008 that they are to go before the council in a special hearing. He should be made aware of the importance of calling in the applications.
Points you could include
· Many in Scotland feel that, under the previous administration, HS was "leant on" not to put the conservation case too strongly (i.e. to oppose demolitions of listed buildings) if that could stand in the way of economic development - such as the jobs and tourist boost promised by Mountgrange for example. Many believe a similar view was taken by the previous Edinburgh planning committee (especially the convenor, Trevor Davies).
· It is hoped that the Scottish Government can review this policy and strike a better balance between economic development and the conservation and celebration of Scotland's built heritage. It is therefore hoped that if the Caltongate applications are called in by the Government (as the City Council has a financial interest in the development, and has appeared to have mis-handled the application process) the Minister will not devolve the decision to HS but will take advice from a wider range of sources, and will listen to the well-argued opposition from heritage bodies, conservation experts and the local community.
· The development is of strategic, national and historic importance. A World Heritage site is a national responsibility - WH sites are submitted for designation to UNESCO by the national government of the country concerned, and UNESCO expects that government to take responsibility for the protection and care of designated sites.
It’s would mark a significant change in conservation planning policy and set a dangerous precedent
Write to
John Swinney MSP
St Andrew`s House
Regent Road
Edinburgh EH1 3DG

or email him marked for his attention to -
scottish.ministers@scotland.gsi.gov.uk

sunshine !

I walked across the park in the dry and light and felt so much better.

I did one of my resolutions last night for this year. I emailed all my friends and asked when their birthdays were and wrote the replies down in my diary. We don't do nearly enough celebrating. I forget these things very easily. Though one friend very kindy said that I was good at the 'random present' thoughout the year!

Meeting tonight to try and save the old town of Edinburgh from hideous development - 7pm Old St Pauls Church Jeffrey St.

Sir John Soane Museum

Forgot to mention this wonderful house on Lincolns Inn Fields in London. Packed to the gunnels with Hogarths, Roman & Greek Statutory, a fantastic OTT memorial to Fanny his favourite dog etc. Well worth seeing and free!

Making our own celebrations

Saw a friend on Sunday. I've done my back in so hobbled there and I lay on her sofa. She was telling me about her alternative Burns Suppers she does with a friend. Instead of the traditional meal, haggis, neaps & tatties they do fusion. This year it was Moroccan. A tagine of haggis meatballs in a prune spiced base... couscous, neeps and carrot salad, baklava with a whisky syrup. I'm hopelessly in rut as far as cooking goes time to make some effort to get out of it.

Went swimming to try and help the back - first time in 1 1/2 years - nice once the hurting stopped. Time to try new things again.

"Each friend represents a world in us, a world possibly not born until they arrive, and it is only by this meeting that a new world is born." -Anais Nin

London Trip II

Just back last night I had a wonderful time. Highlights include the Denis Severs House in Spitalfields. £12 entry but worth it. I'd hoped to make my acquaintance with Verde again but I arrived too late and they were shutting up shop.

I met my friend R in London on Tuesday - she was at a photography conference in the big smoke at the same time as me. We met at the Photographers Gallery - 2 really interesting FREE exhibitions there. The Harry Price photies are really weird. Afterwards I marched her to Foyles to have lunch and we nipped to their photography book section. Then to Chinatown to take photos, nipped up to Libertys for old timesake, then back down towards Foyles and she went off to her friends place at Watford and I went to the Hari Krishna restaurant in Soho St just off Soho Square to meet a friend - the small Thali is a very reasonable £4.95 for dinner and vegie/vegan. Then friend insisted on a trip to Top Shop in Oxford St to find jeans. If going to London with a youngish person this flagship store is a must - includes dog fashions and vintage but hell mend you if you are over size 14.

Other highlights include Meade St - pretty 18th C houses in Soho with ominous plaques bolted to door 'There are no Prostitutes here'. A bench dedicated to Kirsty Macoll in Soho Square. Oh and I saw Peter Davidson outside Cambridge and Julian Barrett of The Mighty Boosh in Swaines Lane - he seemed to have been playing tennis on Parliament Hill - how bourgeois...

Also went to Berwick Silks to get proper silk velvet for a scarf.

how to make the world a better place - by art calling

How to visit London

(This blog post prompted by conversations with C & R regarding how to have a good time in London – please note this is a partial and prejudiced view – so there. TH White said that learning something was a cure for sadness. My friend Rachel who died suddenly just after New Year believed that travel was the cure for sadness I’m going to take up her example)

First of all travel by train if you possibly can. Flying is morally dubious, hideous experience, coach is morally superior but a hideous experience. Either get your train ticket via the internet thingy at least 12 weeks in advance – then one can get a really good deal ie I’ve travelled for £50 and due to a super good deal a friend told me about in November I’m going down for £10 return on Thursday! I often buy my tickets face to face at my local station – requested to find the cheapest deals they are very obliging and often get me a seat on the coastal side of the Edinburgh-London route.

At the station obtain an uptodate London Time Out for reading matter on train. Plus whatever glossy essential you need for a long journey. If not flush buy something from M&S for the journey. If flush and it is a weekday make a dash for the restaurant car as soon as they say its open. This gives you a) the pleasure of travelling first class while paying standard fare for a few hours and b) have a leisurely meal with dinky bottles of wine as the British countryside zips by. Be warned breakfast is about £13 and lunch or dinner about £25.

After breakfast/dinner/lunch take out the Time Out and read from cover to cover. Note any interesting exhibitions, events, talks, films, building openings and start planning an itinerary. I found a note that 19 Princlet St a Huguenot Weavers House / Synagogue was open on one trip I was in London for one day in the year and was able to go and see it in the East End. Another time I saw an ad for Leighton House and had the pleasure of our bus driving through a naked bicycle protest on our way back. I’ve visited places in London just because the name fascinated me – Little Venice anyone. Primrose Hill was more of a stalking expedition to see where all the famous people lived but I found a fantastic independent bookshop at the same time. Distances are vast in London and transport … variable so don’t expect to do a lot in a day – one thing in a morning one in the afternoon and something in the evening is plenty. Also leave space in-between stuff for serendipity. Enough time to walk between museums or shops seeing unexpected pleasures or just plopping into a café for coffee to rest feet and perhaps dash off a few postcards. I often find my most interesting photos in-between places. Tubes are easy to learn how to work with the marvellous famous map but avoid at rush hour. Buses if you can get the hang of them are wonderful and faster with the congestion charge and I like seeing where I’m going.

I rarely if ever visit the known tourist sites of London – I’ve been to the Tower as a child – never seen Buckingham Palace, and thought Harrods the place that taste forgot when I was a teenager.

London is expensive. I rarely think you can get away with spending less than £30 per day on tea, coffee, lunch etc not including accommodation and exhibitions are often £10 or more for entry and quelle horreur the time I went to a film in Leicester Square and was charged £12.50! Even in Camden the tickets are £10 (and I was so horrified I had an argument with the man at the counter and that was when tickets in Camden Odeon were still only £8.99). I have however got standing tickets at the National Theatre very cheaply in the past. I’ve even got tickets for sold out shows by going to the theatre on a rainy night and queuing. The best time to get tickets rainy nights according to my theatre mad uncle who lived in London for many years.

Free and fabulous is walking in London buy an A-Z at the WH Smiths in Kings Cross the small book kind that can fit in a pocket and take long meandering walks between places. Along the river is good too both sides. The British Museum, British Library, Tate Modern and Britain (special shout out for the Clore Gallery at Tate Britain) all are free or mostly free. My secret pleasure – the National Portrait Gallery off Charing Cross Road. Again mostly free except for special exhibitions, good place to meet up with friends and a fantastic restaurant on the roof with a wonderful view across the roof tops. Really do go there even for a coffee - just for the view.
Newbolt St just off Charing Cross has the Photographers Gallery in two separate locations, great shop for photo people, great postcards and really interesting exhibitions also free.

Foyles Bookshop – Charing Cross Rd famed now somewhat cleaned up and the strange buying system reformed. The Jazz Café is a nice almost reasonably priced café in London. Gluten free and vegan options.

For shopping if that is your bag you must must go to Liberty’s of London ‘Nothing bad can ever happen at Liberty’s’ Started by Arthur Liberty at the height of the Aesthetic movement it is a wonderful Arts and Crafts revival building. I’d leave an hour or two to walk around the entire shop. Delights include, bags, scarves, jewellery, the liberty print fabrics, wool dept, (very helpful), chocolate, soap, kitchen, rugs. Filled with the unusual. I eye shop the entire place even the designer clothes which will never come in my size! They also have a very expensive tearoom and café.

Otherwise I’d look out for unusual non-chain places. Like the London Review of Books Shop, (I shall hunt for the cakeshop they are apparently opening ) and a few doors down a photographic shop I can’t remember its name.

One of my favourite things to do is to go on a London Walk. These are guided tours of London done by Blue Guides. I love learning things anyway but these tours are great because they can take you down a seemingly ordinary street and bring the past alive. Tours last two hours and are only £5 or £6 which is great value. I’ve done, A Shetel Called Whitechapel, Clerkenwell, Old Westminster, Shakespeare’s London and one on Christopher Wren. I’ve found that Londoners enjoy them as well.

When leaving London over estimate the time needed to get to Kings Cross. If you do arrive with an hour or two to spare you can wander around the British Library 5 mins up the road or be a tourist in the new Eurostar Terminal at St Pancras but do NOT leave it too fine. One of the most horrible return journeys I had back home involved being on a tube train which suddenly stopped outside Kings Cross Station roosted for 20 mins – I missed my train back to Edinburgh and had to take the overnight coach home.

Creativity is like a water table under the earth. It's not limited to writing or to painting; it's everywhere. It's a life force: You tap it with energy and effort, and it wells up through you. No matter what you do, the first step to tapping creativity is showing up. If you're a writer, you tell yourself that you're going to write for 10 minutes, and then physically move your hand across the page for that amount of time. Maybe you'll produce only one good line, but that's a lot more than you would accomplish by just sitting there. When you're pursuing a particular objective, you have a mind like a pistol. But the harder you chase something, the faster you go -- and the less you're able to let life meet life. If you're having difficulty coming up with new ideas, then slow down. For me, slowing down has been a tremendous source of creativity. It has allowed me to open up -- to know that there's life under the earth and that I have to let it come through me in a new way. Creativity exists in the present moment. You can't find it anywhere else.

Natalie Goldberg

what do you no longer believe?

" I no longer wanted to see radical change dictated from the top — even if that top claimed to be the bottom, the 'voice of the people'. I lost faith in the idea that there were quick solutions, that everyone would simultaneously see the light and things would suddenly flip over into a wonderful new reality. I started to believe it was always going to be slow, messy, compromised, unglamorous, bureaucratic, endlessly negotiated — or else extremely dangerous, chaotic and capricious. In fact I've lost faith in the idea of ideological politics altogether: I want instead to see politics as the articulation and management of a changing society in a changing world, trying to do a half-decent job for as many people as possible, trying to set things up a little better for the future."

Brian Eno in World Changing

Summer Pierre on blogging

David Byrnes survival strategies for artists in the music biz via 52 projects.

Bits & Bobs

A friend called me from London on her way to view the refurbish St Pancras Station - she's going to have coffee there and then go to the British Library. Isn't it weird that we are able to have these conversations across time and space...

Making Happy has some great photos from a holiday in Cuba.

I've got today off meeting a friend for coffee then to see Lust Caution at the Cameo.

I should do some housework before I go but suspect that all I'll manage is some journalling with a cup of coffee... I'm addicted to coffee.

I've just been to see the Joan Eardley exhibition at the Royal Scottish Academy There were beautiful illustrated letters and a sketchbook on display but I can't find images for them. It was great seeing her work out on display in rooms in a mass. I've seen a lot of her work over the years. She is a great favourite of my mother's and I've also been lucky to see a few works in private collections never shown publicly. She died tragically in her early 40's but racked up an impressive body of work including huge seascapes done en plein air.

Naturally what one does in a lifetime is really pressing on my mind at the moment. What to do myself in the next stage of my life etc etc. I saw two friends today and visited kittens yesterday - I'm anxious to spend time with the living and those I care about.

On my way between friends this evening I bumped into an ex student and told him of my friend's death. He was so kind and has promised to get the monks at Same Ling to pray for her. She was slightly Buddhist minded and certainly very interested in Buddhist ideas so this feels entirely right.

Blindsided by the new year. A friend of mine died unexpectedly - I'm hoping I post once I've sorted myself out.

I love this - images made out of spam mail by Linzie Hunter via Jen Leman.

eye shopping to the max

'Eye Shopping' is what my grandmother's maid Rosie called it. A friend of mine was regailing me with a 1 million pound shopping trip she organised before christmas. The aim was to spend a million pounds in one day on things that could be taken away on the day (no multiples allowed). She set off with a photographer, model and journalist - this was of course for an article not for real - and set out to spend spend spend. They splashed out on a £5000 Christian Dior outfit. £95,000 Raeburn bust, a ferrari, a £25,000 sailing boat, a mere £15,000 on hiring this hotel in its entirely for friends to stay over for dinner for one night (peacocks and highland cows thrown in gratis). My friend was begging them to increase the bill by putting more expensive wine on it.... in the end they only managed £920,000 in a day. They missed out she said by failing to get a motorbike. When she told us this story of the million pound day over Christmas lunch we of course leapt in with what we would have bought first class round the world ticket, Anne Redpath paintings by the dozen, a vast order at Raeburn Fine Wines. This kept us amused for simply ages.

I do think that the pleasure of thinking about what we would spend the money on theoretically was probably near equal to having actually having spent the money on it. The pleasure of having bought something evaporates quite quickly but the pleasures for example of ending up with an experince last longer.

I did spend £9.37 on wool today to go towards making a blanket for a knocked up cousin. I'm aiming for something like a wooly heirloom which will do the infant into adulthood. I have to do some serious knitting in the next few months.

What would Leslie do ?

a great blog by Lance Arthur of the wit and wisdom of his friend Lesley Harpold.

P.I.L lyrics?

A correspondent thinks my Leith Walk graffitist has quoted some P.IL. lyrics.

Meanwhile I move from bed to steaming my sinuses as I'm on day two of a cold. Housework is neglected...

Interesting website of an Indian Classical dancer via Under the Firestar

Things to be happy about - cool website via 52projects.

Article about green travel at the Independent

This is a Christmas tree outside the Conran Shop in London. I don't get a tree as I don't have a bay window which seems to me the essential component for a tree or a separate living room. There just isn't the right spot for it though I suspect Frida cat would love it and attempt to climb it. Second last present purchased today- the one other person who needs something lives abroad and as I won't be able to get to a post office before January I might as well leave off the buying of the present until then as well.

I have also failed so far on the to me from me present - H will be horrified to read that I have indeed purchased an alarm clock at the princely sum of £2.50 and awfuly pleased, I did make a special trip to buy sheeps milk yoghurt as a treat and will consider the conumdrum of the to me from me present in the New Year when hopefully there will be more funds.

I've written the last of my cards while listening to Kings College Cambridge and will in a while work up the energy to wrap things. I'm ahead of myself anyway as I don't have to give any presents over until the new year when my brother comes up. More truffle making on hold as Lidles failed to provide any double cream. I shall make some more biscuits instead.

'When it's over, I want to say I have been a bride married to amazement, I've been a bridegroom taking the world into my arms.’

Mary Oliver

from 37 days

wonderful graffiti from Leith Walk - I've just processed 2 films only abouyt 8 pictures came out - hardly any from my London trip.... but this one did.

Mrs Claus strikes again - she thinks the elves have terrible taste

behind all around

Normally by now I've decided on my Christmas card design even if I send them after christmas, decided my 'to me from me' present. But due to starting a job last week I've (gasp) bought cards ... I'm behind with my shopping and have no idea what I'm going to buy myself. It might be new cashmere gloves (though I'm desperate for a new alarm clock !), or even process a few films out of the hundreds knocking about the place. A friend is passing through Edinburgh so I'm meeting her for brunch tomorrow and hoping to get on with things.

I did make truffles though - I'm a newbie at truffles and they seem quite successful so a few more might be made before the new year.

fun freebie gift tags for people with colour printers from Angry Chicken.

66 ways to find more courage from Christine Kane.

I just need to find the strength to go up town and face the post office!

Check out Art Calling on my blog roll. I've met Sarah who writes it - we know each other via an email list we belong to and have managed to 'meet' both in the virtual and real worlds.

on oldie but a favourite

Spring frosting - very frosty this morning when I left the house... the links looked beautiful and bright I can forgive a lot if there is light.

Today its frosty and the frost hasn't melted. Never mind I have knitting and salmon for dinner.

Spring blossom 04 but the Jasmine which grows over my party wall is still flowering on Dec 14th - whither climate change?

half Roma poet

David Morley has a really interesting blog. I heard him at a poetry reading in London last week.

Lighting shop on Leith Walk (purple in honour of my friend S who is coming up to Edinburgh on her way north)

Writers are often asked: “How do you write? With a word processor? an electric typewriter? a quill? longhand?” But the essential question is: “Have you found a space, that empty space, which should surround you when you write? Into that space, which is like a form of listening, of attention, will come the words, the words your characters will speak, ideas - inspiration.” If a writer cannot find this space, then poems and stories may be stillborn. When writers talk to each other, what they discuss is always to do with this imaginative space, this other time. “Have you found it? Are you holding it fast?”

from Doris Lessing's Nobel Prize speech.

Read Living Small's commentary here

one day the spring will come

I think this is from Rose or Thistle St

Cool reminder from here.

Clear

My friend Sarah Gillam has a site specific exhibition on in the Women's Library London.

'Clear' is composed of site-specific, temporary drawing installation celebrating the history of The Women’s Library building on the site of a Victorian washhouse. Original architectural plans and archival photos inspire drawings made directly onto walls around the building by the artist.

Its free admission and closes on the 21st of Dec. I saw the opening but it was great to see it again on Friday. It was a less hurried viewing and I was able to appreciate the history behind it more.

We went for a curry off Brick Lane afterwards passing the Whitechapel Bell Foundary - 500 years old and a sign on the door welcoming browsers 'no obiligation to buy' I wonder how much a bell costs to commission?

We also saw a video art exhbition which had some quite interesting pieces in it but can't for the life of me remember the gallery name.

South Bridge in the fog. This was a really weird afternoon when I took it. Balmoral Hotel, Post Office Building, St Andrews House and the Castle all blanketed out by the white. Very disorientating. So much of the time when creating we are in the same position blindly ploughing on with no idea of the path or vista before ourselves.

"My advice to writers anywhere, published or not, is to love what you do, and forget about the rest. Writing is always hard work, always difficult, there are days of despair, that are times when the thing really isn’t working, but you have to be able look underneath all of that, and find the place of private commitment that is yours and yours alone. If that is there, and if it is real, you will be able to carry on. If it isn’t there, then you will be vulnerable to whatever other people have to say about your work – good or bad, and that is not right. For anyone who works alone, creativity is not about consensus. This isn’t to say that you behave like an arrogant shit – it doesn’t matter whether your gift is great or small, it matters that you care about what you do, and find enough satisfaction in it, through good times and bad. And remember, experiment is important, and the right to fail is important. "

Jeanette Winterson

London report

Muswell Hill : Blonde curly headed toddler kisses the window of a shop as it has a display of ginormous fake gingerbread people in the window.

Moorgate to Fenchurch St Station: I scurry along consulting my A-Z and one of the churches has a peel of bells at 6pm which floats out over the city workers leaving for home.

choc almond cake for tea

100 g of flakes almods ground in liquidiser but so there are still some big flakes. Mix with 3 eggs, some sugar, a dash of veg oil and fairtrade coca. Put into oven about gas mark 6. Await friend and make pot of coffee.

~~~
Its so DARK!

We agree that we are letting out our inner pagans, lights etc are needed to chase away this dark.