glasgow on ice

sleeping beauty

a slightly belated merry christmas to everyone. i hope a lovely time was had by all. christmas eve was spent at the ballet wathing the scottish ballet performing sleeping beauty. pure magic.

snow and lights

snow, storms and twinkly lights come to glasgow. only a few days until father christmas visits the lucky ones.

scott fife

i have just discovered the amazing scott fife and i am so IN LOVE with his work! fife uses archival cardboard, screws and glue to construct his work. delightfully rugged yet astonishingly refined. exhibiting sine 1976 these photos were from his exhibition called 'bear season' that was held this summer at platform gallery, seattle. oh boy do i wish i had been there! previous works include bridget bardot, john wayne and a t-rex and elvis presley!

My Friend the Bear

Down in the bone myth of the cellarof this farmhouse, behind the empty fruit jars the whole wall swings open to the room where I keep the bear. There's a tunnel to the outside of the far wall that emerges in the lilac grove in the backyard but she rarely uses it, knowing there's no room around here for a freewheeling bear. She's not a dainty eater so once a dayI shovel shit while she lopes in playful circles. Privately she likes religion—from the bedroom I hear her incantatory moans and howls below me—and April 23rd, when I open the car trunk and whistle at midnight and she shoots up the tunnel, almost airborne when she meets the night. We head north and her growls are less friendly as she scents the forest-above-the-road smell. I release her where I found her as an orphan three years ago, bawling against the dead carcass of her mother. I let her go at the head of the gully leading down to the swamp, jumping free of her snarls and roars. But each October 9th, one day before bear season she reappears at the cabin frightening the bird dogs. We embrace ear to ear, her huge head on my shoulder, her breathing like a god's.

–Jim Harrison
from Shape of the Journey

back again

after a very long blogging break, mostly due to being poorly and too exhausted to turn on my computer let alone write a post. Its nice to be back. Yesterday was spent eating kippers and scones with jam (not together!) at the tearooms at the butterfly and the pig with emily. Yum. Highly recomended if you are in glasgow.

happy bonfire night!

breakfast

a nice strong cuppa of peppermint tea and berry soya milk porridge. yum

sound of silence

9/11. ten years on, remembering with sadness. i wish the world would just give peace a chance.

i want to ride my bicycle

as a keen cyclist i am sad that my beloved bike has been gathering dust over the last few years due to my chronic illness. so i enjoyed watching the glasgow sky ride outside my window today and so did orla and cissy. (excuse the dirty windows due to building site across the street)

the bicycle travel journal is illustrated by the amazing mr nigel peake, available here.

on my wishlist

kaleidoscope quilt from here.

filling in the gaps

i have came across two great sources of people who want to brighten up the gaps and cracks in their roads and pavements. here is some cool work from van vormann and his many helpers all around the world. i am very inspired and planning to join in this project here in glasgow, scotland. so watch this space......................

and here juliana santacruz herrara has filled the cracks in roads with wonderful bright fabric colours. watch this wee video here showing how it's done. it's fab. so don't be surprised if one day you see me out and about adorning the many potholes, cracks in pavements and walls of glasgow city centre soon, armed with a bag of chunky wool and bits of lego!

swoon

i cant put into words how much i LOVE LOVE LOVE mina perhonen. (i have already mentioned a few times!) i love the colours, prints, designs and ideas.maybe one day i will be lucky enough to own something by them. until then i will just swoon at the images from there new shop called metsa (sadly they don't ship outside japan) and enjoy watching their weird but wonderful video.