This is the cutest thing I have EVER seen. Makes me want to die of cute. Cute death fo sho.

Stunning - do watch.

Ach, I have been crap at updating lately - life is tooo busy. No time for skiving at work. So a round-up. On Bonfire night we headed out to the stunning Hopetoun House, braved ridiculous traffic jams and raced through pitch darkness through the woods that surround the House, but eventually made it just in time for fireworks.



We then met up with Mark and Suzanne for hotdogs, baked potatoes, damson gin and the bonfire!



The following night I had a most delightful evening with Jackie and Mr Duncan round at Kerstin's lovely flat where we listened to accoridian music, ate delicious goulash, and had debates about the BNP interspersed with hystercial laughing fits. Just what a needed to cure the scrunchy head I'd had for a week. Woke up on Saturday feeling great and really enjoyed my body combat class. I've missed exercise - another causalty of me being too busy. Sunday Dave and I went mountain biking at Glentress and I did the Blue Run! Go me!. So apart from the HORROR of climbing hills on a bike, which I am just never going to be able to do without intense pain, swearing and crying like a girl, the downhilling was loads of fun! I squeeeeeed all the way down.

Wednesday was EDDIE IZZARD, oh my stars. He is da bestest. We encountered speeding veloceraptors, jazz chickens and coughing giraffes. Much love. Dave went to see Alice in Chains on Thursday night. I missed out on tickets which made me very sad. They were I think the first band that I really felt were 'me'. I'd loved plenty of bands up til then but with AIC I'd found my niche - for the first time was part of a 'scene' that I could feel comfortable with. Although without Layne, they're one of the only bands that defined my teenage years that I haven't managed to see live yet. Never mind. Friday night, was jackie's leaving do where I for some reason decided to get unbelievabley and irretrievably pished. After restaurant and pub, people ended back at ours where I proceeded to raid our drinks cabinet and foist folk music on everyone. Silly. Sure enough, Saturday was a vomit fest till about 9.30 that night thus rendering myself unable to attend the festival I've been working on ALL YEAR. I am a fool. Anyways, made it along on Sunday where I saw the wonderful Christ Stout, Lauren McColl, Angus and Angus Grant, Jani Lang Band and Mike Vass.

I'm hanging out with a real live Duke on Thursday night but nothing else out of the ordinary for a while, except rehearsing for my tap show which I'm loving. A weekend of scrubbing and painting the palace of filth and mess this weekend me thinks!

Don't you just love alliteration.

In the midst of all the work crap that's going on at the moment, a visit from my Mum was a little oasis of loveliness. She arrived on Friday night bringing gifts of chocolate flowers - seriously - these things smell just like chocloate...



...and her beautiful singer sewing machine.



Friday night we headed off to South Queensferry with the girls for a wonderful evening at Maureen's - fantastic tapas, rosado wine and holiday pics viewing. Saturday was a stunning day so we headed off to Tyninghame, winding through the golden leaves down to the beach.



We ate baked potatoes, pumpkin soup and bread & cheese, washed down with Damson gin.



We stayed till the sun went down and the moon came up.



Back at home we warmed up with Steak and Ale casserole, cinnamon and apple parkin and mulled cider then headed out to watch the Samhain celebrations on the Royal Mile.





Finished the night off surrounded by beautifully costumed people at the Roxy Art House. Watched the amazing Joe Acheson Quartet followed by the fabulous 10-piece Balkan band Black Cat.





Sunday braved the awful weather to buy delectables from the little market opposite my house then spent the rest of the day making sloe and blackberry gin to give as Christmas presents.




Can't wait to try it!

This is so frickin inspired!



From Manning Krull

I was so thrilled to receive this fabulous little Baba Yaga screenprint in the post yesterday by stellarbaby which I have been coveting for months. I adore it!



I want to live in Baba Yaga's chicken-legged shack! I need a witch house, deep in the woods. And it must have these steps which are just wonderful,


via sweethomestyle

and have a wood burning stove to make it as cozy as The Hermitage.



A few months ago, I visited a very sweet little witchy building - Preston Mill on the Phantassie Estate - isn't that a wonderful name for an estate. I wonder if it is owned by Lord and Lady Phantassie.



I love Lady Lavona's posts about Kitchen Witchery. She has some wonderful kitchen chattel - I always feel cooking is a kind of magic and am constantly amazed when I bake that what was essentially a bowl of slop comes out of the oven as a cake - magic indeed!

I truly wish I was throwing a Halloween banquet this year. This table spread by Eddie Ross makes me green with envy. Next year I will have one for sure.



And these bat napkin rings - inspired. He even gives a tutorial on how to make them.



That it's strange, so strange.
You've got to pick up every stitch,
You've got to pick up every stitch,
You've got to pick up every stitch,
Mm, must be the season of the witch,
Must be the season of the witch, yeah,
Must be the season of the witch.

Best wishes for the season of the witch!


by Viona Art

Autumn is here! Cosiness abounds!

Homemade apple crumble; snuggling up in our little loft and watching films and voraciously reading books; making hearty soup; having the swimming pool all to myself; hot chocolate; running along the riverbank chatting about God; cocktails in a cave; being totally confused but still appreciative of the wonderful aesthetics of The Imaginarium of Dr Parnassus; studying in the study; a night of sparkles and magic at the Bat For Lashes concert last night.

Oooh, I've been busy lately. It's been good though.

* Tuesday night we went to see Nick Cave (swoon) read excerpts from his new book, play some tunes with the awesome Warren Ellis, answer questions and generally just be an amazing sex-god type creature. It was a really great gig. The informality of the event really brought out Cave's humour and playfulness and I loved it! I plan to get the audiobook which has a soundtrack by warren ellis.



* A couple of weeks ago we had a wee stay in Whitby and saw family. We borrowed Dave's parents' caravan and it was just lovely being cosied up against the cold in our little cocoon. Met up with Mum and Ray and also my brother and his girlfriend who I haven't seen since Christmas. We went to Sherlock's cafe, visited the abbey and had fish & chips on the seafront. Cosy time! This guy was ace.



* I've been cooking. Plum and apple chutney, shallot, fennell, bacon and chestnut stuffing, nut roast and herby mushroom stuffing. Getting to quite like this cooking lark. We had Barry and Emma and their beautiful kids round for Sunday lunch which was fun. The kids terrorized my cat Seth by chasing him round the flat and calling him 'Pippa' for some reason.

* I started my God As Nothing course at the uni a couple of weeks ago. Wow, it is so refreshing to be using my brain again! It makes it feel nice, like doing yoga or something. We've been doing up our study a bit and it is now in a fit state to enable me to do just that. Last night was spent at my little desk reading about atheism with a cup of rose petal green tea. Bliss to have some time to study a bit again! I have just read 'The Library at Night' by Alfredo Manguel and it has sparked an intesnse desire in me for a personal library. A cosy leatherbound library to retreat to during the long winter nights with a glass of port. I'm feeling rather antisocial lately and just want to hibernate with my books.

* We have tickets to see the lovely gilded Natasha of Bat For Lashes next week (I've been listening to Fur and Gold incessantly lately) and Lau in December. Hurray for gigs - my gig going has waned recently and I'm so glad that I have a few gems lined up.

* Glasgow are having a Zombie walk for Halloween!

* Pretty! A balloon of balloons.


* A project that I had fundraised for for several years finally opened last week and the whole ex-team got together and went along to the official reception. It was so nice to be able to celebrate it together. I really miss having such great working relationships.

* Visits from Mum and Marie coming up soon - huzzah!

* Check out this 18th centruy silver swan automaton - beautiful.

We did it. We actually did it. We escaped on an enchanted holiday - and to a beautiful art nouveau tower in the Spanish hills no less! And bliss it was too.



Our place of residence was a stunning tower designed by a disciple of Guadi's, sat amidst olive groves and green rolling hills not far from Girona.



It was wonderful to be enveloped by warmth, spending some quality time with my ladies and unwinding from all the hurry and bustle of late.



My magical memories are many, but amongst them are the food - fabulous cheeses, meats and salads (fig, cambozola, walnut and honey!), amazing cod paella and green dragon chicken...



...waking up to sunshine, opening the french doors by my bed and walking out onto the terrace smelling the morning...



...standing up in the tower during a storm and listening to the thunder echo round the hills...



...reading, reading, reading - in the tower, on the terrace or snuggled up in our opulent sitting room...



...gallons of very good local wine; our picnic on way there; 'dressing' for dinner; dancing like crazy people to the Dirty Dancing Soundtrack; trying to pronounce cerveza; eating outside at night with candles; drinking bucks fizz on sun loungers; our little kitten friend who adopted us, drank our milk and ate our cheese...



...exploring Girona with a friend who loves it, eating Catalunyan creme caramel icecream, visiting cholcolate shops, cooling down in the huge cathedral, listening to jazz under plane trees; higgeldy piggeldy bookshops, marvelling at all the stunning art nouveau architecture and shop fronts...






Enchanted indeed.

More pics on flickr

The Giantess little girl once again has taken to the streets, this time in Berlin, to commemorate the falling of the Berlin Wall.





The little(!) girl wandered the streets searching for her uncle, the deep sea diver.



They are finally reunited.





Pictures from Boston.com

I wish I had known this was happening - I would have been over to Berlin in a shot!

It's been a while since I updated and that's cos I've had SOOOOO much going on and It's taken me all me time to get photos sorted through. Updates soon!

I hosted my annual tea party at the weekend for the lovely ladies and it was a joy.



The girls were most gracious and brought me gifts of fancy tea, damson gin, french soap, posh chocolates, perfume bottles and other frivolities.



I have to say, I was rather chuffed with myself as everything apart from the jam and the wine was homemade. We partook of the madatory crustless cucumber sandwiches (as well as some smoked salmon and cheese & chutney ones), goats cheese and red onion chutney puff pastry thingies, scones with clotted cream and rasberry jam, rose creams, victoria sponge, summer fruit pavolva, almond shortcake biscuits, rose, lemon and coconut cupcakes and elderflower cordial (ahem, and rather a lot of pink wine!)



I even made tiny canapes and served a rose cocktail on arrival!



Needless to say, I kind of killed them with calories, but nevertheless, it was a much-needed girly get together after a rather frantic few months for many of us and an excellent opportunity to discuss and squee about our forthcoming holiday to the tower. Marshia, bless her, only got back in the country at 7.30 that evening but was whisked by obliging husband to the party post haste



Oh I do love those girls!



Full Flickr set

On our recent trip to London we made it to Highate Cemetery - the Western cemetery. Beautiful atmospheric place, which has been left in a state of "managed neglect" as the tour guide put it. The Egyptian Avenue was spectacular.



It truly is a necropolis - exceedingly grand mausoleums and epic streets of tombs.







Although there are lots of famous people buried there (Douglas Adams, the Dickens family, Michael Faraday, George Eliot, Christine Rossetti and Elizabeth Siddal with the famously preserved mane of hair) it was almost more interesting to hear the stories of lesser known Londoners living equally fascinating lives. Such as Mr Wombwell who was a famous menagerist.



Starting off with two boa constrictors which he used to take round pubs in baskets charging a penny for a peek, he ended up with a lion and an elephant! Unfortunately the elephant died on its way down to London so a rival menagerist advertised "Come see the LIVE elephant". Not to be outdone, Wombwell advertised "Come see the DEAD elephant" with much more success!



And the bare-knuckle boxer, Tom Sayers, who fought the giant American boxer John Heenan in what was considered the best bare-knuckle fight ever - it lasted 2 hours 20 mins and resulted in this wonderful write up in The Telegraph:

"Tom countered him heavily on the right cheek, drawing the claret and raising a considerable bump and later napped another slashing crack, on the right cheek which had the effect of at once closing his dexter goggle" Dexter Goggle - I love it!!

This was his loyal dog.



Highly recommended for a visit. It's a pity that you can no longer visit it without a tour guide as it would be wonderful to wander through the gloaming amongst the ivy and broken stones. Full flickr set here

For my 29th birthday I was gifted a wonderful treasure trove. My sweet has organised a hot air balloon ride for me! I've long wanted to take to the skies in one of these contraptions and I'm so excited. Hoping to go as the sun sets, with a glass of champagne in my hand. My mother gave me a hat box filled with beautiful silver treats (including a tiny silver hip flask!), a hand-shadow book, the most elegant pair of leather gloves, jewells, fairy dust, a book of little known tales and a gorgeous old wooden box.



My friends were terribly generous and I have received recipe books, a handbag, equisite chocolates and a very pretty ring. And my brother painted a gorgeous picture for me. How lucky I am.

28 has been a pretty good age - lots of changes and all positive. Moved back in with Dave to my favourite part of town, stayed in a tipi, joined a gym, took up tap classes, canoed on a loch, lost weight, explored more of Scotland, cut my hair short and changed jobs. As a 29 year old I want to get fit and become happier with my body, get on top of my debt, get in touch with my family more often, be more courageous, be healthy, challenge myself intellectually and grealty improve my knowledge base, devise a plan for working less whilst earning enough to live the life I want.

On my birthday morning I managed to sneak a few minutes in the National Gallery in London. Felt sacreligious just racing round there and I must spend a day there soon but I did have time to see the following gems that I've been wanting to see for years.


The Ambassadors - Hans Holbein the Younger
The skull really does undistort itself when you stand on the far right.


The Alfonsi Wedding - Jan Van Eyck
This painting has "Jan Van Eyck was here" painted just above the mirror in the background. The detail of the reflection is incredible.


This beautiful Duccio tryptich.


The Duchess - Massys
I love this so much - it's horrid!

I find it ridiculous that it's taken me this long to visit the National Gallery especially when I've made a point of making pilgrages to the Uffizi and Academia in the past. So many incredible paintings in my own country.

I was in London last week and it was tremendous! The main reason we went down was because Dave had been selected to go on The Fourth Plinth in Trafalgar Square as part of Antony Gormley's One and Other Project. It was great to be involved vicariously through Dave - quite a historic event to be taking part in and something that not many people will ever get to do. He chose to demonstrate Iaido. I was so proud!





More pics on flickr and you can see a vid of him here.

After Dave's stint in the sweltering heat of central London we met up with Mike and as it was my birthday, I got to set the programme for the rest of the day - woohoo! So for lunch we headed off to Gordon's Wine Bar which is the oldest bar in London. What an unbelievably wonderful place that is.



Dark and cavernous, lit only by candles, it couldn't have changed since it opened in the 1860s. The landlady there was amazing! She was 89 years old and had been working there 69 years. She was totally glamourous and flirting with Mike - I hope I'm like that at her age.



They serve fab food there too. I had a plate of bread, cheese and pickles washed down with a nice glass of red. Perfect birthday lunch! With a nice full bellies we set off for the Grant Museum which was tiny but superb.

Bones and things in jars.




An elephant's heart and exploded skull


Baby Bambi and Daddy




And how gross is this - a jar of moles!



More pics on Flickr

After napping in Russell Square (the only way to deal with being dressed for Scottish weather when it's 30 degrees in London) we headed to Fortnum & Mason for (tiny weeny) Afternoon Tea. How elegant!





Our evening was spent in the beautiful Globe Theatre. We were in the peasants' pit (standing room only) for a production of Romeo & Juliet. Really great space.





Rounded off our day with a lovely nighttime walk along the Southbank lit by twinkling lights!



Wonderful birthday.

Tommy Huynh from wired.com

If the night is clear tonight, go outside and look up.


Gustav Klimt

The Perseid Shower is named after the constellation Perseus as that's the area of the night sky where the meteor shower can be seen. According to star lore, the Perseid Meteor Shower commemorates the time when Zeus, the king of the gods, visited the mortal Danae in the form of a Shower of Gold. As a result of their union, Perseus was conceived.


Leon-Francois Comerre

Some lore about meteors...

* In Siberian legends, the sky was a dome of sewn hides through which the gods would occasionally peer, exposing a flash of the radiance beyond.

* Several Native American tribes thought meteors were fragments of lunar material and called them "children of the moon."

* In legends of central Asia, meteors were fire serpents coursing traveling across the sky. Sometimes these serpents brought problem and sometimes they brought hordes of treasure and riches. To the folks from the Andaman Islands, meteors were torches carried by evil spirits of the forest as they hunted for men.

* The Swabians believed a shooting star foretold a year of good luck. But a person seeing 3 shooting stars in one night was doomed to die.

* Some people of Hawaiian or Japanese descent believe if you see a shooting star coming in your direction, you must open the collars/breast of your kimono to admit the good luck.

* In Lithuanian folklore, it's believed that a spinner spins a thread for each new life and attaches it to a star. At the moment of a person's death, the thread breaks and the star falls to Earth.

* The Seneca indians believed that pointing to a shooting star would reveal one's location to the star, with ill effect.

* In some parts of the Catholic deep south US, it is believed that shooting stars are souls leaving purgatory for heaven.

* In Catholic Germany, it was believed that a shooting star was a suffering soul seeking prayers from those who observed it. If one recited "rest in peace" three times before the light extinguished, then the soul would be delivered from purgatory.

* In some Phillipine cultures, it is believed that shooting stars are the souls of drunkards which return to Earth at night to sing "do not drink, do not drink". Each day they attempt to climb back up to heaven, but fall down each time.

* Some Muslims believe shooting stars are fireballs thrown down on devils by vengeful angels.

* Some old Russian cultures believe shooting stars are demons who were transformed and chased out of heaven.

* It was thought in some Germanic cultures, that shooting stars were fire-breathing dragons, if you insulted or cursed one of them, they would rain stinking cheese and rubbish down upon Earth. Some believed in influencing the dragon with an offering, whereupon the passing dragon would leave a gift of ham or bacon. The fire dragon also carried money which it would sometimes drop, making people rich.

* In Polish folklore, it's thought that a falling star would drop one of three things - a treasure, a gelatinous mass, or cow dung!

From glassthrower.com and starryskies.com


Engraving of 1833 meteor shower

I absolutely love this! It's a genuine vintage circus poster from the 60s (via Gala Darling via lots of other people). I am so going to print this out and get it framed.

So anyway, I am super excited about going to London next week - Highgate Cemetery, the National Gallery, Fortnum and Mason, Camden Town and The Globe. Woohoo. Rest of this week is belly dancing, cake baking, drinks with Jax and Duncan and this weeekend we're going to be doing some festival shows - not that we have anything booked yet - life is just too busy at the moment. Although I did take some time out on Sunday to potter about listening to the radio and cleaning the flat. It is AMAZING the difference a tidy clean flat makes to my general well-being. I feel so much happier, more organised, calmer. Does this make me a sad anally-retentive house-wifey type person?



The Dalai Lama is the bestest. Read his 18 rules for living.

I am also excited about night classes starting in September. Going to take a negative theology course with a lecturer I've had before who is brilliant. And it doesn't clash with tap class or Body Combat so I can be intellectual and fit.

On the whole I'm feeling much better after a couple of weeks of real lows and various ailments - hurray for antibiotics. I still have a manky eye though which means I can't get my passport photos done and therefore can't get passport renewed in time to take up an invitation to Stockholm at the end of the month with lovely Keith and Cecilia. Pah. Hoping they'll invite me back another time - would love to go to Sweden.

Another thing I have been afflicted with lately is massive greed. Oh my god - I have huge covetousness for leather jackets, lace dresses, handbags and feathery jewells.



Frivolity aside, I have been listening to seminars from the Long Now Foundation and they are just mind-blowing. I've mentioned them before but I just love the idea of long-term thinking - it's so refreshing. Anyway, in a bid to fulfill one of my new year's resolutions which was to become cleverer, more informed and to generally use my brain more, I'm thinking about hosting an evening once a month or so where a bunch of us would watch an online seminar over some wine and nibblybits and then have a good old debate about it afterwards. Want to come?

Me, Dave, Bex, and a whole bunch of others visited the beautiful sculpture park, Jupiter Artland on Sunday.

Cheesy


Strange Charles Jencks telly tubby land...


We found giant webs in the woods.



and ancient greek lyrical ladies,



Creepy little girls were glimpsed through branches...





Cute little residence of the doves and ducks.



We stocked up on calories half way round with delicious treats from this amazing Airstream trailer.





We met some four-legged friends on the way out. Some more deadly than others. This cracked me up! Poor little deliquent donkey.



Go there - it's magical.

Eating strawberries at my desk; writing letters to old friends; belly dancing; listening to Radio 4 all day; cinema-going; hanging out in the same place as Dylan Moran; drinking wine in my hammock; sending Tia Maria to my grandmother and great-Aunt so that they can get tipsy together; dreaming of owning a vineyard; listening to my old philosophy lecturer on In Our Time; munching on delicious veggie food; looking after my body with loads of exercise, lots of water and healthy food; vintage cowboy boots for a tenner.


Rocky Schenck

+ OMFG this is possibly the coolest thing ever - Lego biblical figures!!!. A highlight is the 'God Tortures a Whore' bit in Revelations. Genius. Seriously.

+ Having a weekend to ourselves for the first time in forever - nothing planned. Wonderful.

+ Dave built a magical bookshelf!


+ Starting belly dance classes next week.

+ Eating the most amazing falafal wraps and drinking cider that tastes of toffee apples with a beautiful polish girl and guy that shoots lasers into space for a living.

+ The concept pics for Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland are amazing! Can't wait to see it.




+ Watching our friend Nora on the Fourth Plinth in Trafalgar square.

+ Playing on Polyvore

+ Eating homemade falafal, masala daal, spicy bean pate and lots of other treats made by Dave.

+ Working with an amazing volunteer who is is a doctor, jazz musician, kick-boxing teacher, former BBC foreign correspondent, owner of 27 dogs, 33 cats, 150 ex-battery hens and a dairy herd, sleeps 3 hours a night and mostly survives on chocolate. Incredible. (Possibly a super-hero).

+ Getting my shit together. Well, starting to. Slowly piecing together the kind of life I might want to lead partly inspired by this Steve Pavlina article.


Kai-hung Fung