Now if only the fire safety info had not been stuck on that lovely red hose reel. I was so tempted to peel it off.

Jaunt to Kirriemuir

Yesterday took the train to Cupar - fabulous wonderful views over the Forth crossing the Forth Rail Bridge and Fife was looking very lush and green. Then a friend and I drove to Kirriemuir (birthplace of JM Barrie). A dear wee place almost like a model village. Beautiful vernacular sandstone architecture on a small hillock. We were there to go to the Bank St Gallery and see R's exhibition. She had recommended a cafe in the same street 88 degrees. Which was fab, great food, wonderful service and Vogue magazines to read. Afterwards we hit the charity shops and I scored half price tapestry wool, racking through giant bags of skeins. I can highly recommend Kirriemuir for wool. The British Red Cross seems to be well stocked with mohair by the way. We returned via Dundee and did some clothes shopping.

OK it was the extraordinary contrast between the green walls and the red fire equipment which got me here. I know whoever decorated this staircase at Liberty's was thinking about the two colours singing off each other.

March 08 Liberty's london a display of wooden painted clogs- I think purely decorative I don't think they were being touted as the next big shoe.

I got sandals ! I thought about buying them yesterday but the raingods punished me by raining down on Edinburgh all day - but they seem to have moved to London as no illeffects from my lunchtime trip to the shop.

yesterday

at work - someone came from personnel and said there had been a compaint about how loud my laughter was......

Ghost Bikes

I'm so glad that I've restarted my organic box. I'm a bit overwhelmed by veg as they delivered two weeks in a row but I've contacted them and it will go to everyother week to give me a bit of a breather to use it all up.

Tonight I'm making Leak and Potato soup with Sunflower loaf as a side to be followed by Rubarb and Apple Cumble.

Full time work is really using up my time and energy. I did a few errands today came home and had to have a rest!

I tried to swim on Friday but C and I had got completely befuddled with the opening times of the Vicky Baths in Leith. So instead we hopped on a bus to Porty (collectively whinging about our jobs) and walked by the shore. Quite blustery with lots of white horses. We then had fish and chips - yum!

27 Thoughts on Blogging for Artists

my 1002 post...

Angry Chicken and Shutter Sisters

Would like to write something very penetrating and good. But I'm feeling squeezed by work. Highlights include finding my nice pen which went awol for a few days. I went to dinner on Saturday got v drunk and came home at 3am. By a miracle I got myself the next day to St Margaret's Loch on Holyrood Park for a 'memorial walk' to my friend Rachel who died earlier in the year. The gorse was spectacular the views panoramic, my knees were knackered by walking down the steps to Duddingston. We had lunch at the Sheeps Heid afterwards. I've signed myself up to swim on Friday to see if that will help my aching knees. Meanwhile back to housework and excel sheets.

Bokeh on the tweed?

spectrum

Morsbag - love the idea but longer handles please so we can carry on shoulder?

Go to Jen Lemen's blog and read about her inspiring trip to Rwanda.

Bears Just Want to Have Fun - sorry couldn't resist

Poppytalk - cool stuff blog

The Revolution Will Be Cultivated

Beach Huts !

I said to R ~ "Its stupid but I thought if I have an interesting diary I'll have an interesting year." And she said 'That's a really Russian thing to say."

From DesignDoma

I bought a terribly expensive diary from them for next year - I saw it- and kept on thinking about it so I went back. Its impractical without dates in it and other useful stuff but its illustrated with photos which drew and redrew my eye.

Interesting blog over at Danny Gregory about learning to draw. I'm afraid that I had to weigh in on the comments.

Sydney 2004 Lomo Crown St

I've got stuck into knitting the wool I bought yesterday - a jersey for The Cutest Neice (TM). But I didn't do a swatch and now I'm worried it will be ... HUGE.

May Day

I've been all over town doing errands, picking up book orders, buying wool, cards, soap and a new calligraphy pen. Lunch out - I feel I've had a decadent day. I wrote cards while having lunch and posted them. Edinburgh looked like it was thawing from winter. It was wonderful to pass by the Canongate churchyard and see the blowsy pink cherry blossom.

I'm going to sit outside now with a coffee and sew up the third baby blanket.

Picture above to support the Fight for your right to dry - apparently municipalities are banning people from drying clothes outside because its unslightly. Our planet is frying and these eeejits are concerned about washing outside... Oh and I love this blog Two Shear Spirits.

Been working. But on Thursday I felt better a bit of my energy came back. I've been living in the 'land of the cold' for three weeks now. I went the beach straight after work and walked. Cold but invigorating. My eyes miss the view. Last night I went home shoved a chicken in the oven with potatoes and then dashed to beach. So lovely was able to take off my shoes and walk barefoot. Then I came home to roast chicken for dinner.

I know I know but I just thought I have to post this. Someone looked at their poodle an thought ' yellow and blue top knot I wonder what that would look like?'

Living in full colour

As I sneeze my way through my day this phrase popped into my head and I began to wonder what it meant. What does it mean to live in full colour? I've had periods of my life that felt like wading through grey sludge and it felt like the colours had been turned off. Like on a TV. I'd love to hear what other people think of as 'living in full colour'. Part of me thinks its a ability to live outside the parameters as what everyone else thinks as 'normal'. If you want to eat chocolate cake for dinner do so. If you want to lie on the sofa and read a novel the entire day - do so. If you want to hand knit a baby blanket at 4 times the cost of buying something new then do so. If you want to wear purple wellingtons to private views, care for 25 cats (each with a basket lined with cashmere cardigans from charity shops), have a supply of funky hats for vistors for tea in the garden, keep up a voluminous correspondence, and collect teapots then do so. If you want to commandeer students to drive you to the countryside to collect clay from fields do so. If you husband dies and he's always refused to let you live with your children 5000 miles away get yourself on a plane three weeks later and fly there. If you want to cycle across the widest part of Scotland because its there, do it. Hell if you'd like to cycle around the the coast of Australia do it. Do a degree in English at Cambridge and realise you'd rather be an artist? Take an inheritance and go to Edinburgh Art College and flunk being a teacher in a school (you would have hated refereeing Lacrosse games). If you realise that doing a degree in law is a short walk to being a solictor in a no horse town take you skills and become a film producer.*

'Living in full colour' to my mind is not just about adding a bright ribbon to your life but remaking it the way you want it.

I've love to know what you think.

*
Me
Hendrix-Cat's Mother
Kaytee Horseman Head of Ceramics Department Edinburgh College of Art
My Grandmother
My Brother
My Cousin
My Mother
Rebecca Knapp

Stuck at home ill hence the desire to see pictures of stations. My life has regressed to knitting and bad television. Relieved somewhat by K visiting unexpectedly yesterday and a phonecall this morning out of the blue from C stuck at an airport. I've now got full blown allergies. I've taken drugs but the drugs dont' work. I will tear myself away from the internets and make bagels.

glorious tulips and blossom

Cool reminder by Summer Pierre

Interview with SARK around the importance of self friendship in creativity.

FOR ONE MINUTE PLEASE STAND RIGHT HERE IN SILENCE AND LOOK UP AT THE SKY

Knitting away on the sofa and praying for a good film on the telly. This ill business is terribly boring.



However perusing Knitty and found an article on the history of Virago books.

the lights on Manley Beach

Guerilla Gardening

Pictures of Strangers for R - holga Kinnaird Park Edinburgh

What tips or advice do you have for writers still looking to be discovered?

I can't get behind the ambition to be "discovered" as much as I can get behind the ambition to write beautifully and honorably and steadfastly. Here's what I believe about creativity. I believe that creativity is a living force that thrums wildly through this world and expresses itself through us. I believe that talent (the force by which ephemeral creativity gets manifested into the physical world through our hands) is a mighty and holy gift. I believe that, if you have a talent (or even if you think you do, or maybe even if you just hope you do), that you should treat that talent with the highest reverence and love.
Don't flip out, in other words, and murder your gift through narcissism, insecurity, addiction, competitiveness, ambition or mediocrity. Frankly -- don't be a jerk. Just get busy, get serious, get down to it and write something, for heaven's sake. Try to get out of your own way. Creativity itself doesn't care at all about results -- the only thing it craves is the PROCESS. Learn to love the process and let whatever happens next happen, without fussing too much about it. Work like a monk, or a mule, or some other representative metaphor for diligence. Love the work. Destiny will do what it wants with you, regardless. Just love the work.

Interview with Elizabeth Gilbert

Knitted up my ravelled mind by a) walking on the beach which was suitably stormy which suited my mood no end b) made bagels from scratch.

I feel knackered this cold is dragging on and on and on... however on Friday went to see Shine a Light the Scorsese documentary about the Rolling Stones. It turned out to be more a concert film than doc - though I loved the occasional archive interludes. It was fabulous I was glued to my seat the entire time. I was really bowled over by seeing Mick Jagger perform. Amazing. I'm about 20 years younger and couldn't keep up. What it did make me think was that we should all go off and do what we have a passion for (whether we get paid for it or not) because it makes us alive! open! interesting! and obviously keeps us in better health. I know this but I need to be reminded. Just last week my parents took a 91 year old painter and gardner to lunch. She still paints and gardens at 91 and is in great health, totally mentally on the ball. And I'm sure its being engaged in these two creative acts which have allowed her to carry on being an active creative person.

I then went to meet my friend B for dinner afterwards. Her amazing entreprenurial can do spirit was a good kick up the pants for me. Oh and having lunch with H during the day as well. Thank you both of you. I'm percolating ideas in the tiny tired brain now.

Must go and do over due housework and find Rolling Stones CD.

Bonus: FREAK FLEE REGRESS - or the other Eat Pray Love

Things I have Learned in my Life

Picture from here - via Moonstitches.

I seem to being used as a place/person to be nipped at today. And I don't much like it. Even looking at crochet isn't soothing my soul much. I'm going to take a walk now.

Been busy knitting and assembling the second baby blanket (increasing the needle size has improved productivity no end). Its off having a border put on. I also spent part of Tuesday evening painstakingly removing pieces of fabric from a quilt which I've had since I was a child to see if it could be remade into another quilt. It feels satisifying to be remaking and conserving stuff.

Eardley revisited

I wrote about visiting the exhibition with my friend R earlier in the year. I saw her last night and she said that she'd gone to a neighbours house to return a book (in Glasgow) and for some reason she asked if they had seen the exhibition. Not only had they seen the exhibtion but had lent two pictures for it. They are an elderly couple and it turns out that they had met the Sampson children now grown up at the opening and discovered that the painting they had was of one of the brothers who now lives in Australia. They have now been in correspondence with him (they sent a copy of the picture to him) and he's going to visit them when he next visits Glasgow.

What a great day yesterday. No really it was so nice catching up with two people I haven't seen for months or just briefly in the park.

After my dinner party last week I realised I was in a rut cooking wise. I bought a packet mix to make Indian Butter Chicken Makhani from the chinese supermarket. I made it last night for my friend S and it was delicious. After checking out google I realise I could easily make it from scratch if I bought a few more spices so I'll stock up on those.

A friend sent me this link in the Guardian about artists trying to balance work/money/creativity.

And my old boss is doing a poetry reading tonight in Edinburgh. If I'm not too tired from seeing the last Yiddish film at the Filmhouse today I'm going to try and make it along.

flaneur

Got excited this morning because the book I'd ordered while ill and bored came from Amazon but couldn't read it as off to chiropody and to deliver baby blanket and blue tragic teddy to Ivor-the-baby. After tea with Ivor's mum I made my way back into Edinburgh for a few errands picking up Lush shampoo, organic chicken for tonight and got waylaid into visiting card shops, stocking up on birthday cards, dead sea salts, and finding the new Plaisir du Chocolat shop in Rose St. Luckily it had a sign in the window 'closed until 3.15' so was saved from squandering money there in but I will be back once I've been paid.

cough cough

4th day off work and at home trying to get better. Its not working so far - I'm getting bored and frustrated being at home and frankly - lonely. I broke out yesterday to go to the library and the supermarket. The Michael Pollen book In Defense of Food I'd ordered had come in. Yay 60p to order and costs £16.95 new. Excellent read by the way I now want to buy a copy to press into the hands of friends. And I will start my organic box delivery again in May. I've been online far too much and every now and again phone up friends to annoy them. I thought I'd got over being alone and now realise of course thats just because normally I've very occupied and not alone ! Duh!

In the meanwhile cool links The Art of Nonconformity and Ghostschool.

A love note from Andrea Scher

off to make French toast

Master of your time?

At home today ill again hence much blogging

Practicing the art of Sustainability- Nina Wise

"How do we live on this planet in a way that is harmonious enough to sustain our species as well as the other beings that delight us, feed us, and allow us to breathe?

The answer may lie not only in the way we relate to each other, humans, animals and plants; not only in the way we relate to resources, renewable or unrenewable, but in how we relate to ourselves. What sustains our own being? What is it that enlivens us, brings us joy, enhances equanimity, wisdom, and our capacity to give and receive love?

Awareness is growing that our hunger for possessions, our lust to consume, arises in part, if not entirely, from a craving for well- being. Ironically, that craving is unsatisfied by even the most glamorous and expensive things. The hunger continues unabated. How do we satisfy this craving and find peace?

Sustainability of the species is deeply related to the soul of our being. My greatest pleasure emerges from spiritual practice, art (which involves dancing, singing, poetry and storytelling), being in wild nature, and a community of friends. It is in these experiences that I find the love that sustains me.

I suggest we practice the art of sustainability; of soul sustenance. Let's practice meditating and chanting together, and make the entire conference a work of art. We need to reclaim what we have lost in our deluded worship of the gods of fame, power, and materialism. We need to reclaim play, spontaneity, storytelling, poetry, song and dance. We need to reclaim an intimate relationship with nature as part of our daily lives. We need to reclaim the divine as an integral part of mundane existence, as the core of our being. We need to pay homage to the light of being, the radiance that animates all life."

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