Meta tags:

Headings (most frequently used words):

and, 2015, 2013, love, january, sunday, 11, october, in, fiddle, pins, saturday, march, 21, thursday, 22, friday, tuesday, february, 26, monday, december, 31, 2012, blog, archive, praise, of, old, school, little, film, about, books, stories, other, people, lives, heading, home, packing, burnt, sticks, pebble, dropped, pool, kittens,

Text of the page (most frequently used words):
the (121), and (91), that (41), with (30), for (19), you (18), this (18), was (17), but (16), love (15), not (13), have (13), one (13), all (13), had (12), they (12), can (11), may (10), home (10), year (10), what (10), like (10), from (10), time (10), her (10), emma (10), out (9), library (9), know (9), posted (8), who (8), new (8), don (8), unknown (7), which (7), such (7), them (7), would (7), when (7), going (7), their (7), down (6), will (6), some (6), envelope (6), where (6), very (6), about (6), here (6), oct (5), comments (5), get (5), there (5), winter (5), find (5), people (5), 2013 (5), its (5), are (5), our (5), only (5), back (5), drawing (5), well (5), gliori (5), other (5), too (5), after (5), tour (5), more (5), hours (5), migraines (5), jul (4), sep (4), dec (4), jan (4), old (4), through (4), off (4), also (4), much (4), came (4), say (4), said (4), now (4), way (4), last (4), week (4), inside (4), edinburgh (4), letter (4), book (4), years (4), children (4), didn (4), take (4), come (4), debi (4), being (4), small (4), right (4), things (4), even (4), drugs (4), jun (3), aug (3), feb (3), mar (3), before (3), want (3), days (3), haven (3), far (3), place (3), burnt (3), onto (3), horrible (3), lot (3), light (3), friends (3), because (3), word (3), heart (3), looking (3), same (3), spare (3), december (3), another (3), librarian (3), central (3), pool (3), precious (3), against (3), libraries (3), nothing (3), something (3), written (3), books (3), make (3), made (3), family (3), thing (3), think (3), really (3), did (3), hope (3), two (3), day (3), charcoal (3), black (3), taking (3), those (3), ether (3), headache (3), triptan (3), kept (3), 2015 (3), nov (2), apr (2), praise (2), school (2), posts (2), thank (2), helped (2), catgate (2), got (2), point (2), won (2), tobermory (2), still (2), falling (2), past (2), cannot (2), return (2), truly (2), realised (2), behind (2), thankyou (2), until (2), hard (2), lost (2), good (2), sort (2), never (2), imagine (2), towards (2), whatever (2), bring (2), travelling (2), these (2), fluff (2), resolve (2), door (2), post (2), yes (2), rather (2), later (2), arrived (2), thousand (2), feeling (2), growing (2), deaf (2), ears (2), upon (2), lose (2), read (2), your (2), head (2), thought (2), use (2), just (2), life (2), pebble (2), dropped (2), beyond (2), child (2), chance (2), again (2), system (2), story (2), lives (2), anything (2), entire (2), glitter (2), star (2), reached (2), knew (2), somebody (2), lived (2), exactly (2), anyhoo (2), wrote (2), she (2), stories (2), mummy (2), daddy (2), might (2), princess (2), actually (2), holding (2), horse (2), please (2), dog (2), isn (2), eyes (2), could (2), beautiful (2), special (2), were (2), keep (2), diary (2), night (2), work (2), done (2), pencils (2), watercolours (2), digital (2), deep (2), glorious (2), shading (2), next (2), sunday (2), october (2), comment (2), over (2), land (2), has (2), pillow (2), hotel (2), wee (2), quiet (2), dear (2), screaming (2), better (2), run (2), once (2), forward (2), every (2), bit (2), quite (2), ice (2), little (2), long (2), means (2), feel (2), normal (2), having (2), withdrawal (2), food (2), happened (2), took (2), simply (2), grown (2), fact (2), most (2), student (2), felt (2), january (2), version (2), grey (2), myself (2), temple (2), slim (2), metal (2), connected (2), brain (2), need (2), och (2), happy (2), breath (2), tend (2), fiddle (2), pins (2), skip (2), blog, archive, subscribe, atom, older, ends, everyone, dark, youngest, son, laughingly, refers, glad, laugh, yet, dwell, saga, cat, rumbles, war, distant, gunfire, shells, buildings, munitions, dropping, territory, hatred, outshone, everything, pouring, sunshine, darkness, ending, grateful, leave, asked, help, gave, gifts, heels, above, three, great, inadequate, implies, laid, true, chosen, lay, strange, safe, beloved, bells, ring, along, future, large, part, backwards, loved, dearly, alongside, wouldn, without, resolutions, commend, kitten, brained, ideas, improved, check, kitty, waaaay, set, paw, handle, voodoo, tonton, miawcoute, est, miaow, spend, winding, rats, predictable, fun, kittens, monday, 2012, german, stamps, airmail, sticker, grandly, titled, total, confidence, vast, knowledge, housed, parents, daughter, contents, across, scotland, few, email, explaining, package, germany, willing, furnish, address, backdrop, terry, deary, pronouncements, service, rooted, outdated, victorian, sentimentality, death, cuts, felling, poorest, regions, desperate, campaigns, save, petitions, marches, speeches, plugging, colanderish, dyke, enough, fingers, sense, pleas, infinitely, open, unrestricted, access, pay, download, fill, wisdom, centuries, human, anyone, sometimes, chapter, encounter, turns, ripples, spreading, outwards, initial, moment, stone, met, water, raised, homes, nope, breathe, generosity, gesture, humbling, parent, faith, deeply, encouraging, whole, episode, hugely, cheering, lovely, example, goodness, kindness, strangers, difference, however, slight, impact, correspondence, taken, mail, held, hands, fell, kitchen, floor, real, connection, treasure, hang, christmas, tree, remember, sent, forget, sure, paying, attention, flyleaf, outside, huge, city, directory, listed, listings, blue, photograph, private, entitled, beautifully, worldwideweb, wanted, let, enjoyed, liked, why, write, tell, assumed, sincerely, reins, accept, sincere, apologies, matters, picture, lots, reasons, question, aquamarine, fuschia, blushes, cheeks, golden, muzzle, matching, tummy, wish, computers, put, sparkly, glittery, stuff, imagination, first, fourth, bet, guess, finally, tuesday, february, wardrobe, crisis, pack, portable, studio, live, although, suspects, sell, tickets, dead, drawn, wolf, tried, 21stc, drew, straight, ipad, looked, totally, hideous, tools, trade, chalk, substitute, close, touching, pleasure, centres, happenstance, stipply, puddled, wash, watercolour, grainy, swipe, coal, sea, fog, perfectly, captures, mood, packed, phone, photos, signal, relay, packing, sticks, lucky, call, bonnie, end, south, meeting, sharing, utter, bliss, nourishes, journey, north, autumn, lakes, lockerbie, velvet, greenclad, leadhills, swallowing, miles, waverley, lighter, each, clicketty, clack, train, brings, closer, ain, wrestles, disobedient, foam, pillows, telling, pound, prod, remain, stubbornly, bouncy, hot, uncomfortable, traffic, guests, larynxes, temporarily, shrivel, pinging, lifts, god, drunken, passersby, roaring, women, four, goes, stop, 5am, milkman, tractor, raucous, dawn, chorus, blackbirds, starlings, nest, roof, lumpy, feather, sustains, heading, friday, ancient, trusty, mac, flatline, wing, battery, laters, xxxx, plus, side, coming, drug, nonsense, sorted, least, manageable, level, shriek, fest, amazing, several, brilliant, projects, residencies, wait, wiffle, shape, understand, sounds, drunk, dizzy, revolting, woman, throwing, public, attractive, freezer, purveyor, packs, own, bedside, bucket, throw, bed, show, understandably, anywhere, cure, dental, then, trying, sorry, failing, fall, break, leg, manly, stiff, upper, lipped, heavens, period, overuse, outraged, pain, sensors, reset, themselves, doing, earlier, courtesy, hour, blaaaargh, hurry, repeat, lying, shut, listen, radio, sandpapered, till, bleed, somehow, supposed, eat, drink, tastes, rubber, moving, fluid, neck, makes, guest, left, early, 22nd, mother, chugged, twelve, worked, appeared, documented, overused, wonder, extent, causing, headaches, alleviate, dismay, began, series, relaxed, month, migraine, triptans, rolling, preferred, arrival, big, dinner, planned, 21st, solstice, honour, turning, briefly, calling, decided, spending, holiday, household, filling, presences, voices, best, times, due, divorces, arrangements, full, house, look, brief, seventy, 730, rolls, round, twilight, colours, skies, glowing, windows, rib, sticking, allowed, nay, contributes, overall, hunkering, digging, hibernating, wrap, layer, walks, always, returning, mothership, comfort, casseroles, root, vegetables, pulses, beans, pull, face, lentil, art, taught, useful, knitting, become, wool, hitherto, undiscovered, craftiness, plummeting, thermometer, seems, inner, ravelry, ite, encouraged, film, thursday, systems, upgrade, dragged, kicking, into, added, greatly, sum, hairs, deepened, forehead, furrows, depleted, bank, accounts, hey, happen, judged, any, nearest, consumerism, joined, sheeple, poking, prodding, worshipful, adoration, shiny, explained, needed, fashionedness, illustrator, recent, aft, rembrandt, protools, wasn, remotely, interested, acquiring, mat, thingy, draw, stylus, connect, thunderbolt, portal, lightning, usb, hubble, feeeech, hauled, notebook, reminders, gasp, pencil, cross, dinosaur, peered, group, wet, paleontologists, paper, sun, instruction, manual, menu, require, lifetime, study, giving, secrets, rewarding, patience, accidentals, smudge, granular, texture, gradation, shade, perfect, density, stand, often, standing, hoping, awful, wiped, irrevocably, mangled, file, repair, must, ask, specific, prayers, hymns, suitable, occasions, outer, caledonia, simple, forms, moments, files, synch, correctly, crashes, kerning, nightmares, screen, doom, toly, beauty, saturday, march, sidebar, main,

Text of the page (random words):
main skip to sidebar fiddle and pins saturday march 21 2015 in praise of old school we ve had a bit of a systems upgrade here dragged kicking and screaming into some new version of os x that has added greatly to my sum of grey hairs and deepened forehead furrows and depleted bank accounts but hey it had to happen some time and i judged that now was as good a time as any i took myself off to the nearest temple to consumerism and joined the sheeple poking and prodding in worshipful adoration of all things shiny and new as i explained what i needed a new slim metal connected ether brain for i came up against my old fashionedness as an illustrator no i didn t need to run the most recent version of i d r aft or rembrandt protools no i wasn t remotely interested in acquiring a mat thingy that i could draw on with a digital stylus which would connect to the thunderbolt portal or was that the lightning door or was it the usb hubble or och feeeech and when i hauled out a notebook and wrote myself some reminders with a gasp pencil i felt like a small but very cross time travelling dinosaur being peered at by a group of wet behind the ears student paleontologists paper pencils charcoal light from the sun watercolours such things don t need an instruction manual or a menu they do require a lifetime s study giving up their secrets one by one and rewarding my patience by happy accidentals a smudge here a granular texture there a glorious gradation from light to shade that simply happened in exactly the right place and the perfect density of grey to black such things make me stand back from my drawing and take a deep and happy breath i tend not to do that too often standing back from my new slim metal connected ether brain more a holding of breath and hoping against hope that i haven t done something too awful wiped anything irrevocably or mangled a file beyond repair must ask at the temple if there are specific prayers or hymns suitable for such occasions here in outer caledonia we tend to use the simple forms ya beauty for those moments when files synch correctly and the och ya wee toly for system crashes kerning nightmares and the black screen of doom o spare us posted by unknown at 9 33 pm no comments thursday january 22 2015 a little film about books and stories posted by unknown at 6 10 pm 1 comment sunday january 11 2015 other people s lives winter twilight i love this time of year the colours of the skies the glowing windows the fact that rib sticking food is allowed nay encouraged all contributes to the overall feeling of hunkering down digging in and hibernating we wrap and layer and go for long walks always returning to the mothership and the comfort of casseroles of root vegetables and pulses and beans don t pull that face i can do a lot with a lentil all those years as an art student taught me something useful you know and knitting i become a thing of wool and felt and hitherto undiscovered craftiness in the winter the plummeting thermometer seems to bring out my inner ravelry ite and spending the winter holiday with family having grown up children home the household filling with their presences their voices truly this is one of the best times of year made even better even more precious by the fact that due to divorces and other arrangements we only have a full house once every two years i look forward to this brief time with my grown up children this at most seventy two hours for an entire 730 days until it rolls round again so imagine my dismay when december began with a series of migraines that simply kept on going one after the other day after day and december s such a relaxed month right nothing to do much i kept taking my migraine drugs one of the triptans and the migraines just kept on rolling in 4 a m being their preferred arrival time we had a big family dinner planned for the 21st winter solstice in honour of the turning of the year and i briefly thought about calling off but decided to keep on going so did the migraines as the last guest left in the early hours of the 22nd the mother of all migraines arrived i chugged a triptan and nothing happened twelve horrible hours later i took another and it worked sort of i appeared to have reached a well documented point where i d overused these wonder drugs to the extent that they were now actually causing the headaches i was taking them to alleviate and the cure no more drugs for quite a long time which means no drugs no dental work then i m trying to feel sorry about that and failing it also means if i fall over and break a leg i ll have to be all manly and stiff upper lipped oh dear heavens this is so not me and as well as normal migraines whatever that may be i m also having a period of withdrawal from triptan overuse as my outraged pain sensors reset themselves back to normal this is what i m now doing the last headache i had earlier this week courtesy of triptan withdrawal was a 72 hour blaaaargh which i m in no hurry to repeat but may well have to 72 hours of lying still with my eyes shut i can t even listen to the radio it s like being sandpapered till i bleed and somehow i m supposed to eat and drink when food tastes like burnt rubber and moving my head to get fluid down my neck makes me feel like don t know where don t know when the next headache will show up but understandably i don t want to go anywhere too far from a home b bed c my own little bedside bucket to throw up in d my freezer purveyor of ice for ice packs e people who love me and understand that this is every bit as horrible as it sounds and that i m not drunk i get quite dizzy or a revolting woman well throwing up in public isn t very attractive on the plus side this coming year once i get this headache drug nonsense sorted out or at least down to a manageable level of shriek fest will be an amazing one i m looking forward to several brilliant projects books and residencies and can t wait to wiffle on about what shape they re going to take but my ancient and trusty mac is about to flatline here so i d better wing this out on the ether before i run out of battery life laters xxxx posted by unknown at 9 17 pm no comments friday october 11 2013 heading home i m so lucky to return to what i call da bonnie at the end of a week on tour down south after meeting and sharing my new book with over a thousand very small children it s utter bliss to come back to the land that nourishes me the journey north through a land shading towards autumn is beautiful through the lakes and lockerbie past velvet greenclad leadhills swallowing up the miles to waverley my heart growing lighter as each clicketty clack of the train brings me closer to those i love and it has to be said to ma ain pillow oh the wrestles i ve had with disobedient hotel foam pillows in the wee small hours they do not take a telling pound and fluff and prod as i do they remain stubbornly bouncy hot and uncomfortable and home is so quiet so very quiet on tour we ve had traffic other hotel guests may their larynxes temporarily shrivel pinging lifts dear god all night drunken passersby screaming roaring women at four a m my heart goes out to them but also please somebody make it stop so home with its 5am milkman and 7 30 tractor with its raucous dawn chorus of blackbirds with its starlings that nest in our roof home with my lumpy old feather pillow home with all that sustains me and all that i love home posted by unknown at 9 28 pm 1 comment sunday october 6 2013 packing burnt sticks after the wardrobe crisis which i ll spare you i have to pack a portable studio to go on tour this is so i can a do live drawing although one suspects they d sell a lot more tickets for dead drawing and b keep a drawn diary at night after the day s work is done last year on tour with what s the time mr wolf i tried to be all 21stc and drew a tour diary straight onto an ipad but d you know what it looked totally hideous i am too much in love with the tools of my trade pencils charcoal chalk watercolours to find that their digital substitute can come even close to touching the same deep pleasure centres as say the glorious happenstance of a stipply puddled wash in watercolour or a grainy swipe of coal black charcoal shading to sea fog that perfectly captures the mood so here s what i packed for next week s drawing i only hope my phone is up for taking photos and that the 3g signal will relay it all to you more to come x posted by unknown at 3 07 pm no comments tuesday february 26 2013 a pebble dropped in a pool an envelope came in the post last week inside it was another envelope with german stamps and an airmail sticker inside that envelope was another envelope and finally inside oh you know what i m going to say don t you yes you re right here it is but i bet you didn t guess about the star did you anyhoo inside this fourth envelope were two very special things the first very special thing was this i wish our computers could do glitter but they can t you ll have to put the sparkly glittery stuff on with your imagination i think this princess is beautiful with her aquamarine eyes and fuschia blushes on her cheeks i love her dog too with its golden muzzle and matching tummy i sincerely hope i ve got this right emma if the princess is actually holding the reins of a horse please accept my sincere apologies i don t really think it matters i love this picture for lots of reasons and the dog horse question isn t one of them anyhoo the other thing in the blue envelope was a letter i m not going to post a photograph of the letter because it is private and emma who wrote it is entitled to think that her beautifully written letter was only going to debi gliori not to the worldwideweb emma wanted to let me know she s really enjoyed one of my stories she may have said to her mummy or daddy i really liked that story and they might have said why don t you write to debi gliori and tell her so emma did emma being small might have assumed that her mummy or daddy would know where debi gliori lived well they didn t but they knew who would know somebody in emma s family was paying attention because they read on the flyleaf of emma s book that debi gliori lived outside edinburgh and they knew exactly who in the huge city of edinburgh would know where to find that ex directory not listed in the listings rather hard to find ms gliori yes a librarian at the rather grandly titled central library in edinburgh with total confidence in the vast knowledge pool housed in the central library emma s parents posted their daughter s letter with its precious contents all the way across to scotland and a few days later i had an email from a librarian explaining that a package had arrived from germany and would i be willing to furnish the library with my address all of this against a backdrop of terry deary s pronouncements that the service is rooted in an outdated victorian sentimentality and the death from a thousand cuts which are felling libraries in some of our poorest regions and the desperate campaigns to save libraries the petitions marches speeches the feeling that we are plugging a colanderish dyke with nothing like enough fingers and a growing sense of the deaf deaf ears our pleas are falling upon if we lose our libraries we lose something infinitely precious open unrestricted access to the written word in a library you do not have to pay to read to download to fill your head with the wisdom of centuries of human thought anyone can use a library and sometimes it is just one book one chapter one encounter with the written word that a life turns upon a pebble dropped in a pool with ripples spreading outwards all through the years beyond the initial moment where stone met water for children raised in homes where books are not a library may be that child s only chance nope that didn t take i ll say it again a library may be that child s only chance and breathe back to central library in edinburgh the generosity of the librarian s gesture was humbling emma s parent s faith in the library system was deeply encouraging the whole episode was hugely cheering a lovely example of the goodness of people the kindness of strangers and the way a book a story can make a difference however slight to people s lives it would not have had anything like the same impact if the entire correspondence had taken place by e mail i held emma s drawing in my hands and glitter fell off onto my kitchen floor that s a real connection i will treasure her home made star and i will hang it on my christmas tree for years to come and when i do i ll remember who sent it but i won t forget who made sure that it reached me posted by unknown at 9 21 pm 6 comments monday december 31 2012 love love love and kittens before the year ends i want to thank everyone who helped me get through the dark days of what my youngest son laughingly refers to as catgate i m glad he can laugh i haven t got to that point yet so i won t dwell catgate the saga of the tobermory cat still rumbles on like a war in a far off place with distant gunfire shells falling on burnt out buildings and munitions dropping onto a territory to which like the past i cannot return it was horrible truly i had not realised that there was such a lot of hatred out there but i had also not realised that there was so much love and the love by far outshone everything the love came pouring in like sunshine like light so in the darkness of winter at the ending of a year i ll be grateful to leave behind i want to say thankyou i asked for help from my friends and you came you helped you gave me the gifts of love and time and i love and thank you for them i haven t said thankyou until now because hard on the heels of the above i lost three great and good friends lost is such an inadequate word it implies i laid my friends down and cannot find them which in a way is sort of true but i would never have chosen to lay them down never and in a strange way i can find them safe in my heart beloved but as you can imagine when the bells ring in the new year along with looking towards the future whatever it may bring a large part of me is looking backwards to people i have loved dearly who will not be travelling alongside so a new year wouldn t be the same without some resolutions for these i commend you to the tobermory kitten and her fluff brained ideas for her new improved 2013 i resolve to check what s in the kitty waaaay before i set so much as one paw out of the door i resolve to spend some of my spare time winding up rats so predictable but such fun 2013 is going to be the year i get a handle on voodoo tonton miawcoute c est miaow posted by unknown at 9 37 pm 3 comments older posts home subscribe to posts atom blog archive 15 3 mar 1 in praise of old school jan 2 13 3 oct 2 feb 1 12 9 dec 1 oct 1 sep 1 aug 1 jul 1 may 1 feb 1 jan 2 11 13 dec 2 oct 4 sep 3 aug 1 jul 3 09 19 jun 2 may 7 apr 4 mar 3 jan 3 08 41 dec 2 nov 4 oct 6 sep 4 jul 1 jun 6 may 4 apr 6 mar 2 feb 1 jan 5 07 48 d...