fourth edition

At times our Domestic Bliss feels a lot like this cartoon:

Knitting is in my blood. My great-great-grandmother knitted socks, my great-grandmother taught me to knit, my grandmother has never been without a project in her knitting basket and my mother loves knitting socks although she prefers to crochet.
According to my grandmother, my great-great-grandmother, Ingeborg,  “threw” her knitting and it was not until I moved to [...]

My third (and arguably last) Ishbel shawl. This time I am keeping it for myself. I have previously waxed poetically about the yarn and the start of the project, so I’m not going to repeat myself. It suffices to say that a) the yarn drapes beeeeeautifully and b) I shouldn’t ever bring lace knitting to [...]

Hawksley Workman. One of my favourite male singers. And the video is so beautiful.

Genre writers complain about chosen genre being ignored by the mainstream literary establishment.
Mainstream literary establishment responds by saying that genre fiction is never submitted to major literary awards by its publishers.
Genre writers sulk and go “at least we have plenty of readers unlike mainstream literary fiction”
Mainstream literary establishment snarls: “[genre fiction] is in a special [...]

“This is going to alter our perceptions of Anglo-Saxon England… as radically, if not more so, as the Sutton Hoo discoveries. Absolutely the equivalent of finding a new Lindisfarne Gospels or Book of Kells.” – Leslie Webster, Former Keeper, Department of Prehistory and Europe, British Museum
The UK’s largest haul of Anglo-Saxon treasure has been discovered [...]

I’ve dug out two skeins of Drops Alpaca in order to make a third Ishbel shawl. I have given the other two versions away and thought a third one would a) be an easy knit which is perfect for knitting group and b) I’d like one to keep my neck warm this autumn. I’m still [...]

Alexander Trocchi’s novel, Young Adam, is an interesting little piece of Scottish beat literature, if rather uneven. It tells the story of Joe, a young disaffected man working and living on a barge boat travelling between Edinburgh and Glasgow. The film adaptation, which stars Ewan McGregor, Tilda Swinton and Peter Mullan, is excellent and well-worth [...]

We went on a mini-break to the North-East coast of Scotland. I love visiting this particular part of Scotland – it reminds me of the landscape where I grew up (agricultural, close to the sea, small villages, cows) and yet this place is so startlingly different and dramatic (dangerous cliffs! fishing huts! waterfalls! lobsters!). We [...]

This is another week where I’m going “How can it only be Tuesday? It must be Friday! Thursday, late Thursday, then!” and then my Filofax pulls me aside and gently points out it is only Tuesday.
Oh my. Send me energy, adrenaline shots, copious amounts of coffee and a great deal of fortitude.
PS. Students are back. [...]