Landscape Painter, Life Writer, occasional Nomad in perpetual pursuit of a dream
As I shiver under my plug-in, heated, faux-fur throw and write the last update of 2022, I am very glad to report that I will soon be shedding a layer or two and giving the storage heaters a well-earned break. Anyone who knows me will realise I don’t winter well, and the view from my …
At the most hectic time of the entire year – being so busy at the pottery as we strive to get everyone’s orders out in time for Christmas; organising watercolour card-making workshops for local learners; commissions to be executed and posted, and the inevitable social calendar in which I fail miserably to participate – I …
Last night the clocks went back, and while I’m always glad of the extra hour that gives me, it’s a depressing time of year; I’ll be coming home from work in the dark with no chance of a quick swim in the river or paddle in the kayak which I’d often look forward to during …
It seems like summer has finally arrived in the Highlands, and it’s certainly better late than never. Some of us had begun to sink into a closed-in, resigned kind of depression as if already curled up for a long winter hibernation, believing we had been bypassed this year in favour of just about everyone else …
A ‘memory’ popped up on my Facebook page last month. It was, apparently, six years to the day that two of the first pots I decorated emerged from the kiln. I had been, quite rightly, excited. One was a painstaking rendition of harebells in various shades of blue, which would have been chosen with more …
I thought I was going mad. I was in the small, walk-in storage area which houses my hot water tank and freezer, where I keep excess food supplies: big bags of rice; tins of tomatoes; cartons of oat milk; tea bags – and treats, away from everyday temptation. I reached into the large carrier bag …
I have just submitted my final assignment for year 1 of my Creative Writing Masters after a rather intensive few weeks redrafting and editing. The task was made somewhat easier by an enforced ten days incarceration having finally succumbed to Covid, just days before the rules changed and I would not be obliged to stay …
Looking out of the window at the freezing rain you could be forgiven for thinking you’d dropped off to sleep in March and woken up in November; it’s difficult to believe that just two weeks ago it was like summer. On Saturday, it was spring; now I’m not sure what it is but that’s the …
At the end of a dark tunnel, just like that, the sun appears and makes everything feel alright. Just after New Year I remember thinking to myself: We haven’t had any hoolies yet this winter! Rain, oh yes, so much of that; more than in (my) living memory. Yet the wind was largely absent – …
