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July 11 2010
orkney redux
we went back to orkney (again) last week. this time, with j’s mother, sister, sister’s boyfriend, and three dogs. we kept our visits to the main tourist attractions (skara brae, maeshowe, broch of gurness, tomb of the eagles) down and instead spent a lot of time on the dramatic coastlines watching for puffins, and mostly spotting fulmars and razorbills!
yesnaby:
•the yesnaby coastline looking to marwick head•
•the orkney coastline is peppered with all these amazing flowers that grow out of scree•
birsay:
•a view of the tidal causeway to mainland orkney from the brough of birsay•
•jumbled-up norse & pictish settlements on the brough of birsay•
•seabird cliffs on the brough of birsay•
•the barony mills in operation•
•vintage flour sacks•
•the drying floor (there’s a beautiful old kiln directly below that smells of woodsmoke)•
•outside the barony mills•
deerness:
•the covenanter’s memorial near mull head•
•bog cotton – not as spinnable as it looks on account of the fragility of its fibres•
•the gloup, a collapsed sea-cave that looks better the rougher the sea is, but looks amazing anyway•
marwick head:
•me wearing dutch world cup orange (hey, it’s worked so far – we’re in tonight’s final) in front of the kitchener [stitch] memorial•
•abandoned boat winches by the fisherman’s huts along the west coast•
stenness:
•the bewitching ring of brodgar, one of those incredible stone circles we’re so lucky to have in abundance•
south ronaldsay:
•photo of the holiday: j’s boardshorts have “here comes the sun” printed on the waistband and he was trying to put them on in the car while the rain pelted down outside… welcome to scotland!•
bay of firth:
•this was the view east as i was eating breakfast at 5am yesterday morning before catching the 6:30 ferry back to the scottish mainland for an 8-hour drive back to edinburgh, from where i caught a train to glasgow and arrived home in time to see the first uruguayan goal of an eventful third-place play-off that germany eventually won – phew!•
i’m working on some orkney-themed socks at the moment, which i fully intend to post something more about by the end of this week. however, there is the more pressing issue of a Very Important football match tonight that i now owe my heritage to spend a significant part of the day working towards. if you have access to a screen, you may want to watch history being made tonight (no, i’m not being over-confident. even if we lose, spain will still win the world cup for the first time ever, so it’s history no matter the outcome!)… let’s hope it’s a beautiful game.
June 22 2010
visit crieff, buy dress
so, j had a conference in crieff yesterday and my manager gave me the day off to go with him. i’d never been to crieff before! we hired a car for the trip because crieff takes about 4 hours to get to by public transport, and it was a nasty little budget-line peugeot 107 with tacky trims that are styled to look like more than cheap plastic. apparently it’s 95% recyclable. whether it Gets recycled or not is a different matter!
crieff itself was a bit of a let-down. the conference was at the hydro, which is one of those beautiful old hotels that you can imagine the crème of scottish society retreating to in the good old days. now, it’s one of those overly-fancy places with a big lobby, luxe modern fittings, a cloakroom, hand cream in the bathrooms, and valets. i had a wee chat with one of the housekeeping staff and they let me look around a bit – the rooms were tiny and bland. in fact, if it wasn’t for the spa, gym, tennis courts etc, you may as well be staying in a travelodge!
the town centre almost exclusively consists of a high street. but it’s not a wide and free-flowing high street like the ones you find in the scottish borders or west country of england. instead it’s narrow and pokey. however, if you ever find yourself in crieff, may i recommend king street? it’s home to green days, damson and delivino. three thoroughly modern establishments that evoke a sense of what crieff was like in its heyday.
there’s also a brand-new gem on the high street. called ‘an cnoc’ after the hill that towers over the town and offers splendid views, mandy moore has turned a somewhat neglected unit into a beautiful shop showcasing handcrafted items from craft fairs and makers’ markets in perth & kinross, and beyond. a knitter and felter herself, she either buys items or arranges a commission agreement with the maker. nothing in her shop is unsympathetically displayed and she shows a genuine interest in and knowledge of her stock.
there are also charity shops/op shops/thrift stores, whatever you call them. yes there are. they’re not great, but there is always a sneaky wee gem to be found:
namely, a lined grey-navy cotton dress with 4 architectural pockets for the measly sum of £4. and all four pounds go to a cambodian orphanage. awesome and virtuous!
oh, and did you notice that i’ve not blogged a single word about the world cup? it’s a concerted effort. sometimes, there’s just so much to say. frequently, though, in this particular tournament, i’ve been caught speechless.
January 29 2010
honest scrap awards
it would seem that they're rolling peer-to-peer blog awards, and they have rules. now, i'm not really a stickler for rules - i'm not very good at sticking to them, anyway - but i'll try to do what i can with this...the rules
1. Thank the person who nominated you and link back to that blog post.
2. Tell ten honest things about yourself and make them interesting, even if you have to dig deep!
3. Pass the award on to ten bloggers you feel embody the spirit of Honest Scrap, and whose blog you find brilliant in design and/or concept.
the scrap
1. my dad's dutch and my mum's malaysian-chinese, but i was born in england and have lived in australia and scotland. i have dutch and british nationality, but only use my dutch passport to travel.
2. new acquaintances frequently check me when i say i'm married. they usually think i'm some exploited child bride, and i have to insist my culpability.
3. i've eaten a vegan diet since mid-2008, mostly due to the devastation wreaked by meat and dairy industries. i don't know many other socio-environmental vegans, so fellow herbivores are usually surprised when i say i stopped eating dairy before fish.
4. i've been knitting for almost a year and my friends still hope i'm pregnant when they see me knitting a pair of socks from the toe up for the first time. strangers on the train ask if they're baby socks.
5. i haven't had a 'proper' job since i left a major NGO 4 years ago. it's getting increasingly hard to explain to my mother-in-law what i do: "activist" and "artist" are not occupations in her book.
6. i love rain. people like to express concern that it rains a lot in glasgow. water off a duck's back, i tell you.
7. my husband and i live in a victorian flat in govan, glasgow. it's the kind of neighbourhood that makes our families concerned, but there's a lot to love here. we have big sash windows and high ceilings, a real wooden floor, open fireplaces and a coal bunker. we can see the river and the old town square from our windows. we can also see the alcoholics and the homeless people who ask for 10p as you're running to catch a bus.
8. my manager was caught off-guard last week when he discovered how much i love sport. i've taken monday off to watch the australian open final. i also devote my life to cricket, cycling, surfing, motor-racing (even though i don't like cars), athletics/olympics, rugby and darts, but my real love is football: scottish league, premier league, spanish league, lower league, champions league, non-league. i even know the offside rule, as much as anyone does these days.
9. i yearn for a garden with a compost heap. every time i throw away a banana peel, i feel bad for it. it will likely never have the opportunity to return to the food chain.
10. my all-time top-five favourite foods are peanut butter, bananas, broccoli, tomatoes, chickpeas and cardamom. oh wait, that's six.
the blogs
• vegancraftastic
• herbivore knits
• sticks and string
• affectioknit
• a girls' cycling compendium
• that crafty fish
• the adventures of captain teabot and me
• slippedstitch
• urban vegan
• herbivore dinosaur
hey, i made it! thanks again, vegan fox. this wasn't as tortuous as i thought it would be!
listening: the smittens
reading: blogs, it would seem!
Maybe Soup is currently being updated? I'll try again automatically in a few seconds...
