fourth edition

This is my favourite photo of 2008.
I shot it in early August when we went to Sweden for a day. The weather was incredibly hot (although not particularly sunny) and all these tanned, long-limbed Swedish teenagers were hurling themselves into the Øresund from various cliffs and balconies. I don’t know who this boy was, [...]

Sometimes I just feel overwhelmingly foreign or Other.
I was heading home from a knitting meet-up, when my bus was invaded by half-cut neds. They started hurling bits of food at people and a tall black guy stood up to tell them to show other people respect. Ah. That led to other people proclaiming “Eh [...]

I hate admitting this, but I did not read that many books in 2008. One memorable year I easily made it through 100 books. This year I think I struggled to read more than twenty-five books. I have my reasons for this sudden shift in reading habits – an irritating inability to concentrate (thanks to [...]

Merry Christmas! Glædelig jul!

That’s me, Christmas 1980. I got a little bike for my doll and also an ace jigsaw, if I remember correctly.
This year I hope to find some wool and a few books under the tree. Mostly I hope to have a very peaceful and relaxing Yuletide with my loved ones. [...]

The last Christmas present has been wrapped (Misty Garden by Jo Sharp in Rowan Damask), I have had a lovely pre-Christmas get-together with friends and I ‘just’ need to pack my bag now.
Yes, that was a slightly hysterical ‘just’ there. Christmas stress has finally set in and I’m getting slightly frayed at the edges. [...]

Adrian Mitchell has died. His The Oxford Hysteria of English Poetry is seriously funny:
Then suddenly — WOOMF —
It was the Ro-man-tic Re-viv-al
And it didn’t matter how you wrote,
All the public wanted was a hairy great image.
Before they’d even print you
You had to smoke opium, die of consumption,
Fall in love with your sister
Or drown in the [...]

The other day our Xbox 360 started flashing red lights at us. So now I’m waiting for a UPS carrier to come and pick up the Xbox, ship it across to Germany and hopefully fix the faulty components. Other Half has been petting his new acquired copy of Fable 2 in a very forlorn way [...]

I smell like a smoked sausage. Sunday afternoon was spent outside in our garden carolling, eating mince-pies, drinking mulled wine and huddling in front of little wood burners. It was very, very enjoyable and I hope it will turn into a tradition as it was a good way to celebrate Winter solstice begin the Christmas [...]

I’m sitting here being a touch introspective and thinking back upon the year that is almost over and done with. 2008 wasn’t really the best year I’ve ever had.
Yes, I met some lovely people this year. I found myself a new creative outlet. I had a very, very enjoyable summer holiday in Scandinavia. But [...]

In my handwritten note I alluded briefly to the idea of handwriting possessing “presence” and printing having only “absence”. In its infancy printing was known as “artificial writing” – the implication being that handwriting = natural, printing = artifice, obviously. I once messed about with ideas concerning printing and how English as a literary language [...]