Belated beach pics as promised! Because I haven't posted enough pictures of Hebridean beaches before :} All these pictures were taken on Traigh na Berie or Reef Beach which is without question my favourite place in the world. I seem to have a deep seated need to get to Reef once a year to blow the cobwebs away and they certainly got blown away ( Read more... )

Look! I am a proper fangirl! :D This beautiful fan is a gift from the lovely katriona_s and it was waiting for me when I got back from holiday last week. I love fans but I have never seen one like this! It's currently sitting on my book shelves where it looks very fine indeed, but next time I go out dancing I will be taking it with me. Perhaps I need to get ( Read more... )

I got back from a lovely break in the Western Isles last weekend and promptly came down with the cold from hell. It's ages since I've had a bad cold and I'd forgotten just how much they can flatten you. I had hoped to post some pics and other bits and pieces but my head is full of cotton wool, so in the meantime here's one picture of a nice view ( Read more... )

I am on holiday - huzzah! Two whole weeks off :) Work has been as mad as usual over the last couple of months. I've been writing non-stop - business plans, proposals, reports, governance documents, none of it hugely exciting :} We'll probably head off up to the Hebrides towards the end of the week but first I'm very much looking forward to taking ( Read more... )

Thank you all so much for your wonderful birthday greetings, cards, gifts, e-cards, LJ posts, writing and art. You are all fabulously creative and immensely kind. My birthday was very low key as partner was working and I had to get up at horrible o'clock the following morning as I was working through in Edinburgh. However like all good birthdays I' ( Read more... )

Earlier this week esmerelda_t and I had a rare cultural outing when we went to see Patti Smith performing Horses at the Royal Concert Hall in Glasgow. esmerelda_t is a regular culture vulture of course, but I am a terrible philistine these days ( Read more... )

Apologies, as usual, for being rather absent of late. The last few weeks have been a little challenging. The centre I've worked with for the last fourteen years, and which has been housed by various universities in that time, was finally closed by the institution hosting it and all staff were made redundant. The casualisation of UK higher ( Read more... )

One of my colleagues shared this beautiful song earlier today as it perfectly captures the nonsense we're putting up with at work. I'm familiar with many of Stan Rogers' songs but this one is new to me and it would bring a tear to a glass eye so it would! The final verse is particularly apt.

Click to view

Over the last week I've travelled the length of the UK - from the Outer Hebrides, to Glasgow, to Cardiff, to Greenwich, and back to Glasgow. I got back home late on Thursday night and seem to have spent most of the weekend doing laundry. My visit to Greenwich was fleeting and sadly I didn't get to see anything of the National Maritime Museum, but ( Read more... )

I'm just back from a flying visit to the Hebrides. We were only able to stay for three days but it was worth the trip, and thankfully the crossing wasn't quite as boisterous as this time last year! We've had *all* the weather over the last week; rain, hail, sleet, snow, sunshine. Typical Scottish spring really ;) It didn't stop us from going to ( Read more... )