fourth edition

I blame Bells.
I was sitting here enjoying a cup of coffee, having a spot of lunch and then I began reading Bells’ love letter to Ishbel (a shawl pattern by everybody’s favourite Scottish knitting pixie, Ysolda Teague). Bells’ paen to Ishbel wore away at me and before I knew it I too had purchased the [...]

We have found more clay pipes by the Forth and Clyde Canal – here is one of the nicest pipes, if not exactly the most intact..
Notice also the rather interesting shards of china in the background. We’ve identified one piece with the Willow Pattern but the rest remain elusive. Interestingly we’ve found tiny bits with [...]

If you subscribe to my Twitter feed you will already have been privy to a major relationship crisis. Last night I was not talking to and was close to breaking up with knitting. It was bad. Seriously.
Looking back it was inevitable: it was late, I had been snappy most of the day and then I [...]

There was a marvellous inteview with AS Byatt in yesterday’s Guardian Review. I particularly loved the following quote, but you should really read the entire interview. So enlightning and so clever.
What distinguishes her is a sort of grounded curiosity. She has been a visible admirer and encourager of younger writers including Hensher, Lawrence Norfolk, David [...]

Glasgow does visual arts so very, very well and every year we get the added bonus of a four-day art fair. Guess what? It’s that time of year again.. Today we went to the Glasgow Art Fair and enjoyed ourselves tremendously.
Last time we went, we nearly ended up buying a Lucy Campbell painting (specifically one [...]

Let the Right One In was a much better film than book. Everything which was overegging the book-pudding had been removed in the film: neverending subplots, irrelevant and distracting characters, and immense wordiness. The film was sparse, beautifully shot, and intense. While not the masterpiece it has been made out to be, the film was [...]

The US has some very strange place names.
Bad Axe, Michigan: “While surveying the first state road through the Huron County wilderness in 1861, Rudolph Papst and George Willis Pack made camp at the future site of the city and found a much-used and badly damaged axe.”
Climax, Minnesota: “The town briefly made national news in 2004 [...]

This is the week of receiving gifts, it seems.
When Kirsten Marie visited, she offered to make me some bling out of materials we bought at The Bead Company. I don’t wear much jewellery, but I do appreciate handmade things. And so a few weeks later these earrings arrived by post and I think they are [...]

The author J.G. Ballard has passed away. More at BBC.
While JG Ballard’s seeming obsession with technology, disaster, sex and violence was not to everyone’s taste, there is no doubting the huge impact of his work. He was an original, a man who spent most of his life charting hopes and terrors, and trying to make [...]

They have suspected it for a long time and now our neighbours are sure: Casa Bookish is a really weird household. Taking photos of brickwork? Yes, weird but it could be for an art project. Taking photos of rusty iron gates? Quite weird, but could just be interested in getting stuff fixed. Photographing a bit [...]